CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – KARINA (ex MERLIN) 

The launch KARINA last appeared on WW back in Dec 2022, link below, where with the help of Harold Kidd and Paul Drake we were able to join the dots and link the launch to MERLIN.  https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/12/06/mystery-lake-okataina-launch-can-we-now-confirm-her-id/

We now know thanks to Greg Philpott & Lew Redwood that KARINA was originally built as MERLIN  by Dick Lang in Auckland in 1939. The commissioning owner is unknown.

MERLIN was apparently based in Auckland in her early years and may have been used to deliver mail to Great Barrier Island during World War Two.

She went to Lake Rotorua in 1945 and then in 1947 to Lake Okataina. MERLIN was sold in May 1957 to Les Tetzlaff who took the boat to Kawhia where she was operated primarily for fishing charters. Jim Storey, a long established Taupo based launch operator, purchased MERLIN in 1961, relocated her to Taupo and on arrival there, renamed her KARINA. Her last survey (to enable commercial use) was in 1965.

Anyone know what became of her beyond 1965.

(Photo of KARINA as MERLIN when on Lake Okataina, courtesy of Beamish-White family archives)