LADY GILLIAN
Last year I was in dialog with Andrew Beatson, the owner of the Nelson based launch – Lady Gillian, in regard to a a replacement bow rail. Andrew had made the decision to replace the existing rail (as seen the the top photo) with a something similar.
The middle photo shows the mocked up replacement, which AB had little say in the ‘design’. Andrew contacted me asking for advice, I won’t bore you with the details, unless you are contemplating something similar, in which case PM me.
Yesterday Andrew sent me the bottom photo, with lots of smiley faces – the new rail looks ace and will only get better after the timber has aged a little.
Small things can make a big difference to how a woody looks, sadly more often than not, people get it wrong. If you ever want advice / 2nd opinion, just drop WW an email – there are some very talent woodys who we can tap into 😉
There has been discussion on WW before regarding the provenance of Lady Gillian – back in 2014 Harold Kidd commented that she had most likely had a name change and could be from any builder in the 1910 >1930 period. Probably started life as a flush decker and with her row of even sized ports is characteristic of a southern build and could pass for an early Jukes of Balaena Bay.
Six years have passed since then and WW has a lot more readers – can anyone help ID the vessel?
10-03-2022 Photo below ‘uncovered’ in the WW archives
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Patrick, I have just read your post. Fascinating. Please look up my posts. I am “Gillian”. I was born in 1942 about when my grandfather bought her, and he renamed the launch Gillian after his first born granddaughter…ME. He died 1948, an Auckland businessman and onetime GrandMaster of Auckland Masonic Lodge. The boat was sold c.1950s/60s and went to Wellington. I had imagined her long now as scrap. Would love to see her again. Great memories from childhood on the Waitemata and Hauraki Gulf.
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Hi,
I would like to revive this thread. Lady Gillian has been in our family for a bit over 30 years. Luckily my brother has brought the boat from other family members and put her through a series of refit and upgrades so she is now quite spectacular, living in Picton Marina.
As a Christmas present to my brother, Andrew I would like to dig around in the memories of the classic boat enthusiasts up north to see if we can find out the yard in which she was built.
My guess at the moment without any confirmation is Lanes.
While the boat has been in the family the boat has mainly been based in on a private jetty in Picton town marina – she has also spent some time in Mana (north of Wellington near Paramata) and also some time looking a bit tired in Nelson.
Our family brought the boat off a family near Picton who owned it and cruised in the sounds for maybe 20 years???
I have a word document with a series of historic photos – can anyone help me work out how to post photos or in particular a word document?
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the railing looks great,
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https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/10/19/unknown-launch-1910/
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