CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – KOALA (Amaryllis)

WW was contacted over the weekend by Mark Wakefield regarding his grandfathers launch – KOALA, previously named AMARYLLIS.

Mark sent in the above photos, the photo of the baby is in fact Mark in a high chair on the freezer of KOALA in about 1978. Mark commented that one thing he remembers is the freezer had a Hauraki Gulf navigational map on the top with epoxy over it. In a previous WW KOALA story in April 2015 we had a photo of a launch that Mark is confident was wrongly labelled as being KOALA,  Mark pointed out that the featured boats roof line was different and KOALA also never had a davit attached.  ( I have made a note on the previous story)

In another WW story in Oct 2021 a comment was made about the fenders being out while underway – Mark said that was probably because his dad and his mates were on board – all rough dairy farmers from the Waikato at the time. The grandfather, the skipper, would have had his hands full dealing with them.

KOALA cruised at around 6kts, and was terrible in a following sea. Mark’s dad reckons he saw the speedo dial max out once at over 20kts, stuck riding a wave and was fearful for his life as it was not overly controllable.

Mark is keen to learn if anyone might know what happened to KOALA.

LINKS TO PREVIOUS STORIES BELOW

WW April 2015 https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/04/15/koala-amaryllus/

WW Oct 2012. https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/10/01/mystery-launch-01-10-2021-win-a-ww-t-shirt/