SURPRISE – EX WOODY WHALE CHASER NEEDS RESCUING 

Posted on by

SURPRISE – EX WOODY WHALE CHASER NEEDS RESCUING 

WW has recently been contacted by Jeff Giddens concerning the Picton built 36′ ex whale chaser – SURPRISE. 

Jeff owns a boat shed at Mana, Paremata, in Wellington and a fellow resident owns the whale chaser. Jeff commented that the craft has been out of the water for some years and is now for sale. These craft hold a special place in NZ’s Maritime history and any example needs to be saved. See old Sea Spray magazine artice on the history of these craft.
Jeff mentioned that she probably needs some work in the hull, and the project is best suited a retired boatbuilder or the like. There is an engine sitting in place, could possibly be a TS3 Commer, condition unknown.

Any woodys interested in taking on the project can contact Jeff at j.giddens@xtra.co.nz

SUNDAYS CLASSIC WOODY BOAT QUIZ- WINNER/S

This got a little complicated – the plaque on the front – see below, incorrectly ID’ed one of the boats. But this was my base and one woody – Noel Baker, entered with the answer that matched the plaque. Then Ken Ricketts entered with a massive (as he does) entry where he supplied intel that differed from the plaque. Consulted Nathan Herbert re the boat names and the boat names matched KR entry.

So decided that in fairness to both – I’d split the prize – NB gets the OCH cap and KR the WW T-shirt. In regard the split it was based on the physical size of these two gents 🙂

I have added an edited version of KR’s entry to the WW story for those interested. Link here https://waitematawoodys.com/2025/08/10/a-classic-wooden-boat-quiz-win-an-off-center-harbor-cap/

Discover more from waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 14+ million views

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

2 thoughts on “SURPRISE – EX WOODY WHALE CHASER NEEDS RESCUING ”

  1. I don’t know whether anyone knows this, but Roy Lidgard also built 2 whale chasers in the 1950s with stepped hard chine hulls, as used in hydroplane design, also painted them a similar light green to that as shown in the images in the post, & also fitted a Scripps V12 engine to each of them, with an exhaust out either side for each bank of cylinders, in both of them, which sounded strange, as V12 engines fire alternately from one bank to the other, & when one is on one side of the boat, it sounded as if the boat had a very slow running or idling engine, & with the engine seemingly turning over, at very low revs, the boat was flying along, at high speed. — It looked & sounded very funny. — KEN R

    Like

  2. Glory be, lads. Here she is: The blue ribband of the Waitemata is here for the taking, Upperworks dead easy to re-create -one week’s work at the Shipyard of our Dreams. Hullwork -yeah well maybe there is more than we think or she’d have been done by now. Might be more difficult to source a big rorty Yank engine to provide the “necessary urge”.

    Maybe someone just couldn’t find a use for her. We can!

    On a side note, on one of the Ward family early trips to Kawau in the good ship “Milli ll” (qv) -might have been early ’60s but please feel free to correct me- we anchored up in Lidgards and they had one of the whale chasers on a mooring in there near Fred’ Lidgard’s shed. Original colours -green

    Suddenly I was all ears: There were all sorts of noises and lots of blue smoke as they fired the engine up. Glorious noises for a 12 year old fledgling petrolhead such as I.

    She didn’t run so well that time and was shut down. They made several other attempts but obviously flagged it pending further adjustments.

    She was subsequently taken up north and was sadly lost en route to the islands with the loss of her crew.

    Like

Leave a comment