Ngapuhi – Help Wanted

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Ngapuhi – Help Wanted

Today’s post features a launch that is most likely named Ngapuhi. In fact Harold Kidd is 95% sure of that & we are pretty confident she was owned by S.B. (Hoki) Williams the manager of Shipbuilders post WW2.

But the big questions are – who built her?, when? and what happened to her at Shipbuilders?. One thing for sure, she is a fine looking ship. So woodys can anyone help out on her provenance?

UPDATE 18-08-2022 photo below of Ngapuhi in Schoolhouse Bay, Kwau Island xmas 1949 ex Ken Rickets.

11 thoughts on “Ngapuhi – Help Wanted”

  1. I believe that this may be the launch by a wharf in the mud, raised out of the water at Whenuapai. Viewed from a distance as you head up towards Riverhead. Looks to ‘have been’ in the process of hull extension and some sort of cabin raising?

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  2. She bears striking similarity to the Barra Dee. All glass areas are slightly different in shape, but very close, as is the hull and so on. As an aside, was Barra Dee’s coachroof raised in that middle sedan area?

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  3. Well, there are two mysteries I see about this boat.
    1. Who built her?; My current theory is that either a. she was the NGAPUHI built by Lidgards as a fishing boat with a 3 cylinder Kelvin in late 1939 and sold to the Air Force at the price of 2750 pounds for towing at Hobsonville and later at Lauthala Bay in Fiji. Hoki Williams bought her at the RNZAF disposal sale and had Tim Windsor redesign her as an up to date sedan with a 90hp Kermath. The work was done at Shipbuilders of course.
    or b. She was another launch (not the Lidgard NGAPUHI) that Hoki Williams bought and had the work done as above. That’s got some legs because Hoki came from the Hokianga and NGAPUHI is a natural name for anyone from there, being the dominant tribe.

    2. What happened to her after Hoki sold her which was some time after 1953? Here is the relevance of the “Steadman” Wellington boat.

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  4. Sorry I got the wrong Williams — of course it was “Hoki,” & they cruised with the Steadmans in the late 40s

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  5. Alan Williams was not the Manager of Shipbuilders Ltd.
    That was S.B. “Hoki” Williams and he didn’t build NGAPUHI but owned her for some years.
    NAUTY GIRL was owned by Roy Steadman.
    The point of this post is to see if anyone can confirm what I think to be NGAPUHI’s true provenance and tell us what was her subsequent fate.
    That’s why I’m so interested in the Wellington launch!
    A bit of a tangled web, but she was a fine looking craft.

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  6. Roy Steadman had no part of this boat’s conversion at Shipbuilders but I’m interested in this Wellington boat.

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  9. She is the NGAPUHI, & she was owned & built by Alan Williams when he was manager of Shipbuilders Ltd. He cruised a lot with 28foot NAUTY GIRL, at that time, owned & built by Shipbuilders foreman, who’s name is on the tip of my tongue. — I was aboard her c1948-49.
    I to have wondered what has happened to her as I haven’t see her since around 1950 — KEN R

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  10. The stylised ports along the hull are exactly the same as on a semi derelict Ray Steadman launch in Wellington. That of course doesnt make it a Steadman but there maybe a link.
    I have never seen those ports on any other boat in 59 yrs.

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