SANTA MARIA – A Peek Down Below  

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SANTA MARIA – A Peek Down Below  

Todays woody the 42’6” –  Santa Maria ticks a lot of my boxes – built in 1955 by Curnow & Wilton for what’s loosely referred toad ’the Italians’ (Wellington based) for Hapuna and crayfish fishing in the Cook Strait. Post this she worked various roles around much of the rest of the country, and then professionally converted to pleasure use around 20 years ago.

I was aboard her a few years ago and she is a very comfortable woody.The icing on the cake is a 127hp Gardner diesel that has her cruising at a very stately 8 knots.

Keen to learn more about her past. Current home is Kerikeri.

UPDATE ex Brian Kidson – WOW, stunning photo below – 

George Curnow, his partner Maurie Wilton  and their foreman Keith Carnahan all came from Lanes in Picton. Business started in Nelson about 1933 and finished in 1966 after their last fire. They were then absorbed into Nalder and Biddle.

Brian was told that the Santa Maria was involved in a rescue off the east coast of the North Island at some stage. Brian doesn’t know dates and details. Does anybody?

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6 thoughts on “SANTA MARIA – A Peek Down Below  ”

  2. Back in the late 1960’s when Santa Maria was on the Hard at Evans Bay getting a new coat of paint , I was asked by the owner to repaint the name on each side of the bow. Such a brush with fame.

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  3. She’s a very late build for a counter stern but possibly that’s how the Italians liked them and I find it very attractive. My dad, Bill Owen, purchased Ivy about 1963 for fishing and running freight and fuel for his fish processing plant at Great Barrier. She was built about 1896 as a ketch rigged lighter to service ships unloading at either Hokianga or Kaipara and had the very typical counter stern of the time. The rig was gone and she had a Kelvin 66 diesel, with a raised foredeck and forrard wheelhouse by the time Dad purchased her. She was easily driven and cruised at 10 knots but tended to ‘squat’ under power. Dad had renamed her ‘Deborah’ and sold her to Subritski who removed the Kelvin for fitting in one of his scows. She was then fitted with a big GM and was moored at Matiatia for many years. I haven’t seen her since and would be very interested to find out where she went from there though I doubt that she still survives.

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  4. Has she had tinted aluminium side windows put in? The last photo looks quite different to the first few.

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  5. thats one powerful gardner @1257 hp! I guess with that sort of power it would spin the earth to get to your destination.
    Interested that it says built in Wellington, but Curnow and Wilton was Nelson boat builders (I believe ex workers from Lanes of Picton) Is Wellington a typo, or did Curnow and Wilton end up there?

    Corrected. AH

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