SALT AIR
This 36’ bridge decker , named Salt Air, recently popped up om tme. We do not know a lot about her, other than she is powered by a 120hp Nissan LD28 6 cylinder diesel.
Keen to uncover more on her past – who built her and where she has been for the last 90 odd years – the build year is given as c.1930’s
Harold Kidd Input – I have a record of a LORRAINE at Okahu Bay in 1947 in a Lee Rail article with the comment “red cedar”(!). The first LORRAINE was lost on the bar at Tairua in 1923 with big loss of life. I also have a SALT AIR (or perhaps SALTAIRE) owned by Jack Phillips in 1955-7 bought from the Whau Creek.
Real Yacht Racing – check out the J-Class Shamrock V in amongst the whole J fleet.
I am going to have a serious look at Salt Air on Friday. Can anyone give me a guess about her heritage? Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks Steve
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I am pretty sure I recall being a young boy on a trip from Tauranga to Mayor Island on the launch Royal Saxon. It must have been the mid 1950’s, and I had thought the launch belonged to Arthur Honeyfield, a well known farmer and businessman who had a lovely farm at Kauri Point(?) near Katikati. Honeyfield was a member of the Tauranga Harbor Board and had somehow managed to get a substantial wharf built near the farm for easy access to the inner Tauranga Harbor. We embarked on our journey from this wharf. I recall a lodge on the island at SE Bay, not sure if we stayed there or on board. I still have some obsidian that I found on the island.
It is entirely possible that Royal Saxon was owned by a friend of Arthur’s, or was on charter.
Sadly, the son John Honeyfield, died last week, so that avenue of follow up has gone.
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I have a record of a LORRAINE at Okahu Bay in 1947 in a Lee Rail article with the comment “red cedar”(!). The first LORRAINE was lost on the bar at Tairua in 1923 with big loss of life. I also have a SALT AIR (or perhaps SALTAIRE) owned by Jack Phillips in 1955-7 bought from the Whau Creek.
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I remember her back in the late 1940s/early50s when she used to be hauled out at Okahu Bay for winter maintenance.
At that time, she was called LORRAINE initially, with the name in large (about 4 or 5 inches high) cast chromed bronze letters on the bow, however the “L” fell off after a year or 2 and she then became the “ORRAINE” by default, as it were. — KEN R (edited)
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