MYSTERY WOODEN LAUNCH ON THE MOVE
Todays classic wooden launch looks vaguely familiar but the WW brain draws a blank.
The photo comes to us from Bryan McMurtrie via Maurice Sharp. The photo was tagged – Burnside Bros, Papatoetoe – International truck traveling from Papatoetoe to Tamaki River. In the photo the rig is rounding the bend on Mt Wellington highway on the outskirts of Mt Richmond Domain in Auckland.
Can we ID the boat – please tell me its not a Vindex………..
INPUT ex ALAN SEXTON – She is a 32′ Vindex, originally named Pai Rawa Atu, very skillfully home built by boiler maker Des Gray (he was a foreman at Steel Tanks and Structures) over a 5 yr period at their Papatoetoe home, double diagonal kauri hull powered by an upright T6.354 145 Perkins. Launched early 1972. I know all this because she was berthed beside us at HMB when my father owned Tarata. She is still around, has been re-engined and renamed, I believe lives at Gulf Harbour these days
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Colin Burnside – a real gentle man and owner of the yacht Maharatia
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She is a 32′ Vindex, originally named Pai Rawa Atu, very skillfully home built by boiler maker Des Gray (he was a foreman at Steel Tanks and Structures) over a 5 yr period at their Papatoetoe home, double diagonal kauri hull powered by an upright T6.354 145 Perkins. Launched early 1972. I know all this because she was berthed beside us at HMB when my father owned Tarata.
She is still around, has been re-engined and renamed, I believe lives at Gulf Harbour these days
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Not sure I understand the frequent derision for the Vindex – maybe I’ve missed something and it’s tongue in cheek.
I grew up thinking a 32′ with a 180hp Ford was the bees knees and their popularity & longevity would be hard to match – hundreds of families would have made magic memories on them.
True they’re perhaps not a true “Woody” as such with resin rather than caulking but if I’m missing anything else, feel free to educate me..
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Certainly a nice early timber Vindex -with that efficient hull
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It’s definitely a smallish little early Videx c30/32ft c 1960s — but which one?????– KEN R
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