TANGMERE
I was recently contacted by John Wicks who told me that Tangmere had been purchased by serial boat-restorer Dave Browne, who along with John Wright will be restoring the launch. With those twos credentials we can expect good things. ww will follow the project with great interest.
The guys we asking for any information on her origins and history – well gents thanks to ww & Harold Kidd we can help you, see below.
The photos of her moored off Te Atatu BC below are ex Nathan Herbert, the marina ones above are from John Wicks.
Input below from Harold Kidd ex Bill Endean, W.J. (Bill) Endean’s son & Tony Mason.
1. She was named after the RAF station in Sussex from which W.J. flew Lancasters in WW2.
2. The hull was built by Shipbuiilders Ltd. in 1949.
3. She had a 100hp Osco Mercury V8 conversion originally.
4. W.J. designed and built the cabin. Aeronautical influences are clear.
5. W.J. and Tony Mason were contemporary RNZAF officers and shared a common passion for planing hulls.
6. When W.J. sold TANGMERE to Ken Prangnell,most likely c.1958, he bought a Marlin 19 from Tony Mason and fitted a Ford V8. She was called HUBBLY BUBBLY after the exhaust noise at idle.
7. K. A. Prangnell still owned her in 1973. HDK photographed her hauled out at Te Atatu BC in 2009.
Any woodys able to expand on her ownership details?
02-02-2018 – Update From JohnSankey via Ken Ricketts
She has been sold by Dave Brown, to his nephew, John Sankey, who has moved her to the Wade River, where he has big plans for a major T.L.C. programme
30-03-2018 Update – photos below of her hauled out & ready for some serious TLC 🙂
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Wooops! Sorry! My Dates are wrong re when we owned Tangmere.. (They were our Caravan dates, after we sold her) So we purchased her 1982 from the Rogers family and sold her 1996 to Jim Cardow. Sorry for my mistake.
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Hi Margaret, if you have any photos, could you email them to us at the address below and we will share them with everyone. Kind regards Alan H
Waitematawoodys@gmail.com
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How wonderful to find this info re Tangmere. We owned and loved her from about 1996 and sold her March 2003. Happy times out on the Harbour.
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Pingback: Tangmere Finds Her Way Home | waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news – updated daily
No. John The owner had a change of heart. ❤️
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Sold?
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Hauled out photos added. And no longer for sale. Alan H
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I can advise that John Sankey has told me that the boat is now for sale @ $6,000. Needs some serious TLC but she is a very one-off good looking craft.
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TANGEMERE UPDATE;
She has been sold by Dave Brown, to his nephew, John Sankey, who has moved her to the Wade River, where he has big plans for a major T.L.C. programme ASAP.
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Still love this boat! She’s a pure expression of the joy of flying.
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Looks a lot better without the rear dodger/spoiler from the mooring! Good thing it wasn’t listed by a broker, it might just have been listed as a ‘Chris Craft’ like everything else with those coamings 😛
Can’t wait to see the result.
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Get Stuck in boys!
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I knew her in her very early dayis.
She is still more or less exactly as she was built have a photo or somewhere of her in the 50s — will try & dig it out. — KEN R
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there’s alot of challenges to the eye in that hull, hard to imagine it planed with that narrow stern….
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