Whangarei Town Basin – Mystery Launch
Keith and Heather Nicholson sent in the above photo of an old post card of the Whangarei Town Basin. The photo first appeared on a Mitchell Hutchings fb post.
In the photo, lower right, we can see a launch hauled out – so todays question is – can we put a name to the boat?
Heather mentioned that their beloved woody – Paea (photo below) was for sale on tme. An amazing classic, the 72’, 1942 ex Harbour Defence Motor Launch (P3552) offers so many boating opportunities.
29-09-2023 UPDATE – photo below of Paea about to be relaunched after some TLC – TLC doesnt really fit a vessel the size of Paea 🙂
05-10-2023 UPDATE – Back in the water. we understand that six months ago the boat was put inside a shed and dried out, the seams were splined and the hull was fiber-glassed. The Fodens were removed and replaced with Cummins. (details & photos ex Ken West)
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It’s as much ALOHA as it is the Queen Mary.
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Barry Nalder has posted on the original post….
The launch on the slipway is Aloha- i owned it in 2002 for a couple of years- She is now in Auckland
In those days she would have been owned by the Wilkinson family….
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https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/spectrum/20130804
Thanks for that. Alan H
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Your mystery launch seems a bit obvious:)
Not to everyone Mr Prew 🙂 Alan H
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I don’t know how to attach the link, but there is a very informative/ entertaining audio on Radio NZ spectrum “Paea at 70” which Keith and Heather did in 2013. For those who didn’t know of it and might be interested in listening….
Link added further up in the comments section. Alan H
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