Pre – repaint below
ELSIE MAY II
Back in early January Paul Drake sent in the above photos of Elsie May II. She had ‘appeared’ at a berth near Paul’s ROMANCE a few months before, having been on a mooring on the Lake Taupo for several years.
She is very original, and Paul commented that whoever owns her did a great paint job on her in December.
Paul believes she came from Napier, but knows nothing else. Possibly a 1950’s Chris Craft design NZ built ? & 28>30′ in length
Can any woody supply any details on Elsie May II?
Harold Kidd Input – ELSE MAY (I) was owned by L.G. & W.E. Mair of Connells Bay in 1973 (my pennyworth).
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I don’t think its a Fairey marine as such, we own an Alan Burnard/Fairey Marine designed launch,strangely of kauri carvel construction from the lanes stable and even though she(EM2) appears to be hard chine at the bow.that, from memory doesn’t carry on to the transom and quite a different hull shape to ours. we ve been moored next to EM2 in Te moeanga bay Taupo for the past 16yrs and have always pondered on her origins and design, if i was to guess I would ve said Chis Craft from the 40s 50s from the limited pictures ive seen, but that would ve only been a guess and i agree the Carl Augustin theory is a very strong contender, so im very interested to see if anyone can come up with a definitive answer! shes a lovely launch, quite sad to see her slow decline courtesy of all those shags and seagulls that frequent the bay, all our boats get hammered as you can guess and i m sure the current owner must have looked on in disbelief the first time he came back go cruising, then had to spend 4 to 5 hours cleaning her! so great to see her looking all shipshape again. cheers.
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Doesn’t really look like an Augustin to me. Way back then there were a fair number of magazine – Popular Mechanix being one – which published boat plans for amateur builders. An awful lot of the motor bots looked somewhat like “EM2”; ususally high wooded, not exactly pretty, and often by obscure designers. By the same token, some well known designers also featured; Sam Crocker, Al Mason, William Garden, Howard Chapelle and even, at least once “LFH”
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Those Fairey books look ok in the UK, but rrecently someone tried to flog a dismantled one here and it just looked horrible. If Elsie is an Augustin, then indeed he was known to use American inspiration
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Agreed. One might go so far as “loosely based on Chris Crafts of the era” for some of the launches, not this one though. Theres some English styling cues if anything (Fairey).
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Hi all, I am the present owner of Elsie May 2 and have had her for the last 16 years, she is built of Kauri and was sailed across the cook straight in the 70’s… she is completly original and is powered by a 4 cylinder fordson marine engine… I have finally got a berth in Taupo Marina, so the work now begins… I have no other info on her so any would be gratefully received
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ELSE MAY (I) was owned by L.G. & W.E. Mair of Connells Bay in 1973 (my pennyworth).
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Elsie May Too but then again Elsie May not.
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yup, doesn’t look like any CC i’ve ever seen. I recon Augustin (my default eye challenging designer)
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Im not sure if theres a single CC design property built in NZ so ill eliminate that one, but otherwise my guesses are Shipbuulders>amatuer/local>Ford>Augustin>Hartley
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