Sanson was built in 1951 by Shipbuilders & is a carvel planked semi-displacement classic launch, approx. 25′ in length. Zoom zoom comes from a 2 cylinder 25hp Shibaru Ford diesel engine.
That is about all I know about her, can any woodys (Northland based – she lives near Dove Cove) help out with more details?
MEM SAHIB
Mem Sahib is a 1965 16’ Seacraft Runabout that thanks to owner Dan Kamphuis has been restored to better than new condition, so good in fact that she was an exhibition at the 2011 Auckland Boat Show. The restoration started in 2009 and took 16 months, post the work – Lionel Sands from ‘Seacraft-Hanes Hunter’ viewed the boat and said it is one of the best restorations he has seen in a long time.
In addition to the physical (wood) side of the project, she received new electrics and bilge pump. The zoom, zoom comes from a Mercury 2006 60hp motor that must really push the 16’ hull along.
Dan knows a little about her past and was able to track down the owners before him and these people (EJ & KV Ralph) restored the boat in 1988. They said that they purchased the boat from a Canadian chap in Takapuna and the boat had been sunk on the ramp at Takapuna beach as they had left the bungs out. The wife was holding the rope to the boat while her husband was getting the car and did not realise the boat was sinking! It sat at their place for 18 months before Keith Ralph and his dad bought it. They restored it and sold it to their uncle Frank Mudrovich who left it standing covered outside for years. It was given to his nephew Ivan and Dan in 2008 and put under cover for a restoration project. However Ivan left it to Dan due to other commitments and Dan started the restoration in 2009 and as mentioned above, put it into the Auckland Boat show in 2011.
Talking to Dan, he is a one of those people that always has a project on the go and has the skills to undertake restoration projects like Mem Sahib. I fact post completing the project she has been used very little, but regularly serviced & run.
Now Dan has a problem, the next project is about to arrive & he needs shed space so Mem Sahib must go. So if any woodys out there are looking for a small classic that due to its size & presentation (small amount of varnish) is very easily maintained, Mem Sahib is a great buy at $20k ono. Comes with a trailer that is all registered and WOF and the motor was serviced recently by a Mercury dealer.
Would be a very smart, practical lake boat………….
I don’t normally publish owner details but I like this boat & she deserves a woody owner so if your interested or know someone who might be, contact Dan at mkamphuis@vodafone.co.nz
TAREE – A PEEK DOWN BELOW
Taree, the 1966 Owen Woolley designed / built 36′ launch changed ownership in Dec 2015 & new owner Don Bruce undertook an impressive refurbishment that started in June 2016, at the Brin Wilson Shed, Gulf Harbour.
Between June 1 & December22, 2016, approx. 1500 hrs went into boat building, engineering, replacing glass, painting, varnishing, plumbing, re-wiring & re-chroming. Don himself spent 12 hours every day, Monday > Sunday working on the boat.
The results are impressive & Don speaks very highly of the Brin Wilson team & associated contractors that worked on Taree.
I saw Taree just after her re-launch, in late January 2017 at the Mahurangi Regatta weekend, the first photo above, I took there, the refurbishment ones are ex the owner, emailed to me by Ken Ricketts.
Previously on ww we had a peek at the work-in-progress & when she first left the shed, you can view / read that story here https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/11/29/taree/
ALDEN KETCH – Sailing Sunday
We do not see a lot of John Alden designed classic’s in NZ which given they are almost always very pretty vessels, isn’t good.
This one was design #550 & was built in 1939 by Arnold France in Lyttleton & has been lovingly restored by her current owner.
She is 39.35′ & built with full length 1 1/4″ oregon on hardwood frames. Her when the sails aren’t up a 2012 Nissan TD27 88hp diesel pushes her along.
She was re-rigged in Her refurbishment included being rewired, new switches / breaker panels, batteries, instruments, electric toilet and holding tank, new plumbing throughout. Plus new squabs and many other extras, complete hull paint before Christmas.
She is for sale on trademe – a very smart classic & a lot of boat for the asking price of $65k ono
02-04-2017 Updates from Robin Elliott
She is Windswift and was registered as A-8 with Banks Peninsular Cruising Club, She was a 3 year building project by Arnold France.
France probably started building her in 1939 but she wasn’t launched until October 1941. He and his wife and son lived aboard for 3 years during the War.
Seems to have grown a little over the years. Reported as 35-feet when launched, Arnold France gave dims of “33ft 8in x 10ft 6in x 4ft 8in” in 1949, In December 1956 she was advertised for sale as being 34-feet. She was on Trade Me in 2008 as 41-feet, and now as 39.35ft. Tricky things these Alden ketches.
Here’s a little bit more, courtesy of Papers Past
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19411030.2.63?query=arnold%20france
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LWM19460509.2.22?query=arnold%20france
MATAROA (KENYA)
The life story of the 1928 Joe Slattery built launch, Mataroa (formally Kenya) & her restoration has been very well documented on ww. It was however a pleasure to be contacted earlier in the week by Elaine Reynolds, whose parents – Maurice & Pauline Reynolds owned the launch from 1968 to 1994.
Elaine sent in a great collection of unseen photos from their ownership period & shared with me the story of Mataroa’s mishap & near sinking at Great Barrier Island in late Dec 1970 – its a great read, so I have published it as sent. Enjoy 🙂
For photos of the damage, beaching & repairs mentioned in the story – click this ww link https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/10/31/mataroa-kenya-2/
“Hi Alan
You have posted several wonderful articles on M.V. Mataroa and also posted some of the many photos taken by my father, Maurice Reynolds (a mechanical engineer and jack-of-all-trades) who owned Mataroa 1968-1994. The photos include those of when Mataroa was hit amidships at Great Barrier Island, between Christmas and New Year, I think it was 1970, about 29-30th December. It was the first week of our usual 3-week annual Christmas cruise.
I was on board Mataroa when she was hit, standing on the aft platform, looking foreward – I saw it all happen. At the time of the accident we were in 90 ft of water. It was a beautiful sunny day, almost flat calm with barely any wind. We were just idling along with the motor out of gear, the rest of the family were on deck or in the cockpit.
The boat that hit us was owned by my father’s best friend, Jack. His launch was of similar vintage to Mataroa, also with a straight stem. Jack was going to come alongside to pick up his daughter, Jenny, who’d been aboard Mataroa spending time with me. Unfortunately, Jack was on the wrong turn for his boat’s prop, but didn’t remember, and thought he’d just give a burst on the throttle to spin 90 deg to bring her alongside but instead, he slipped, hit the throttle hard and rammed Mataroa amidships at full speed. Horrified, I watched the wood smash and shatter inside the cabin and the “hole” that was created in Mataroa, through which we could now see daylight, went from the deck to 3-4 inches below the waterline
Jenny, my younger brother and I were ordered into the dinghy and cast off. Dad ripped up the floorboards, gave my older brother a bucket to bail with and had Mum stand with her thumb firmly on the electric bilge pump button which was on the instrument panel just inside the engine room. Dad steered for shore with Mataroa’s throttle full open, just heading for shallower water to start with but it was a rocky shore and would have torn Mataroa apart. Then he realised that the water ingress was slowing.
What Dad discovered was that when underway at full speed, the waterline wave fell away from the hull to below the waterline at the place where Mataroa had been hit, so he made a sharp turn to starboard and full throttled Mataroa (remembering that for this graceful lady, cruising speed was 7-7.5 knots, Dad’s orders!) to the other side of the harbour, going through the usual Christmas throng of anchored boats at Smokehouse Bay at a speed that drew many raised voices and eyebrows, and beached Mataroa on the sand, with people scattering out of the way.
Unfortunately, this was also at the peak of the highest tide – full moon, etc – and that caused problems in itself.
From there, the insurance assessor/shipwright was contacted and flew out to us on a sea plane and you can see from the photos Dad took that they stripped Mataroa out, used available materials and lots of willing helpers to patch and shore her up for the journey back to Auckland. They used sheep fat/lanolin to seal the ply to the hull. Due to the extreme high tide when Mataroa was beached, they had a difficult time launching her off the beach. Again, many hands and lots of Kiwi ingenuity.
It was a harrowing night-time journey back to Auckland on 30th-31st December, with my younger brother and I on Jack’s boat. I think Mum was on board with us, but my older brother, Kevin, was on board Mataroa. Jack’s boat couldn’t keep up with Mataroa, being smaller, slower and definitely not as sea-kindly, so Mataroa was an ever smaller and disappearing set of lights in a dark night.
Back at Auckland, Mataroa was slipped at Baileys in Westhaven and up there for about 6 weeks (I think) in their shed. During this time, Dad had the portholes enlarged, the dodger raised and changed the shape of the dodger windows. Mataroa was stripped back to bare wood. I’m not sure if this was when Dad removed the muntz metal that had been used to shield the hull from toredo worms while Mataroa was seconded by the Air Force up to Fiji during the war (another story there). With the paint stripped, we found the Air Force rings scribed into the bow. We also discovered that Mataroa had been made from single planks of kauri from stem to stern. Dad painted the sides of Mataroa around the new windows to look like varnished wood but was in fact painted-on wood graining, something he’d learnt to do from his father.
As a result of Mataroa being at Baileys for that time, my older brother, Kevin Reynolds, decided to become a shipwright, doing his apprenticeship with Baileys. Kevin was well known in the Auckland boating scene, and passed away in 2010 at the age of 55 from melanoma. Dad passed away in 2012. Both were old salts who’d enjoyed their lifetime on the ocean and mucking about in boats.
I have attached some photos of Mataroa that you won’t have, plus a photo of myself in the cockpit of Mataroa in about 1986. The group of 4 photos-in-1 are #1. Me/Hilda Reynolds (Dad’s mum)/Pauline Reynolds (my Mum). # 2. Mum & Dad waving bye to me from Mataroa in early 1979. #3. Our cat Gidget on board Mataroa.
I’ll ask her the name of Jack’s boat another day – I remember it started with a ‘T’ possibly Tewara but Mum may remember the spelling. Of note, Tewara only lost a palm-sized chip of paint off the stem from the accident.
Thank you so much for posting about Mataroa. She was a very much-loved a part of my life and I was heart-broken when I saw the state of her when for sale the other year.
Huge kudos to Rob and Sue Uivel (current owners) for the work done. It is so wonderful that Mataroa is being loved and looked after again. Mataroa is amazingly comfortable in seas that most other boats would or could not handle. Does Mataroa still have the boom with “gaff” steadying sail set-up that Dad rigged and can be seen in the photo below? It was really worth putting up in a cross sea – Mataroa settled down and didn’t roll much at all.
Btw, the last photo shows Kevin putting the scrubbing brushes in the dinghy, with me at the oars. It was our “pram” dinghy with which we spent many fun-filled hours, and that’s our old Seagull outboard on the back.”
A question for the woodys – can anyone name the other launch involved in the collision ?
HELP WANTED ON VALHALLA
Robert Brooke is trying to track down a copy of the plans for the Gladden built 1964 launch ‘Valhalla’, can anyone help?
RIKI
Morning woodys – the above photos were sent to me by Peter Mence, Chairman of the NZ Classic Yacht Association. Peter spotted the hull ‘resting’ in Pine Valley Road, Dairy Flat, Albany.
Someone must know who she is & how she ended up.
Update 01-05-2017 ex Barry Davis – Bay of Islands 1971
50% Off Sale
Boat below ex Tim Evill on Waiheke Island, I hope she was not headed for the landfill, would make a get firewood shelter.
YVONNE
The 38′ classic launch Yvonne was built in 1954 by Swanson in the Marlborough Sounds. She is a very distinctive design & with a 160hp Isuzu diesel she must left her skirt & really get up & go. Based in the Sounds & after 22 years of ownership, Yvonne is now ready for a new owner. Thx to Ian McDonald for the trademe heads up 🙂
Anyone able to supply more details on her?
Input from John Wicks
“Very “avante garde” styling for the time – and still looking good!!!
Bob Swanson built her at Blackwood Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, for Jack Thompson, a farmer out Ward way, who kept her for many years – could be she’s only had 2 owners? Jack named after his wife, Yvonne, a very gracious lady.
Can’t remember what her original engine was, but I do recall Jack talking about the possibility of putting in a small gas turbine. At the time there were experiments overseas with these, but I don’t know how serious he was.
Jack was a friend of my father’s (Sorry Alan) and when the first Picton marina was built they moved into adjacent berths. IIRC this involved a certain amount of the testing of water purifying fluids.”
05-05-2017 – A Peek Down Below
Thanks to the photos below ex Jo Utting (owners family) via Ken Ricketts we get a glimpse of what must be her original interior.
EQUINOX > LYNGRAE
I spotted Equinox hauled out earlier in the year (Jan2017) at Milford Cruising Club’s slip. No on around so couldn’t gather any info on her. Can anyone enlighten us on her? Those oblong shaped ports could be a give away but I will not jump to conclusions.
21-05-2017 Input & Photos ex Graeme Sapwell (edited by Alan H)
I knew Equinox as ‘Lyngrae’ (Lynda and Graeme).
She was built as a 32ft, triple skin kauri, my mum was the dolly hand for all the copper nails and rooves. The boat was sold early 1970 to which we lost contact of her until this year when I spotted here on trade me. My mum died last year at 101 and up till then had always asked had we seen Lyngrae. Unfortunately I wasn’t in a situation to buy her back then. It’s quite weird how she has now ended up in the Milford estuary where her journey started back in 1963. A mate and myself took Lyngrae to Mt Maunganui in 1969 where family had moved to. We (the family) did a lot of weekend cruising around the gulf over the years and had been in some pretty rough seas to which she handled perfectly. The portholes were probably done by the same person who modified superstructure and undertook significant alterations.
Shall continue following her journey now we know what it looks like now.
KARERE
Keith Murphy in Dunedin sent me the photo below of the 1/12th scale model he built last year of the Vos designed & built boat, Karere. Very impressive & it appears to be radio controlled 🙂
SEACRAFT WOODYS
I was recently contacted by Chris Laird & his first words were “are you guys interested in small woodys?”. My answer was ‘if its wood, its good’ 🙂
The above photographs show two dinghies that Chris restored a couple of years ago. The 12ft 6in Seacraft Tuna has been stripped back and had new rib sections, one or two splines to cracked planks, seats, foredeck trim and beltings before being painted up to original Seacraft colours with original badging.
The varnished 12’6″ Brin Wilson has been stripped back, seats etc removed, some rib sections scarfed in, several splines to cracked planks and varnished / painted up to original colours.
Chris commented that it is a lovely boat to row.
Also included are photos of a 6hp Norman and original cone clutch that is in a 16′ Seacraft cabin boat that Chris is currently rebuilding. I have asked Chris to send in photos of that project.
OOPS THAT IS EMBARRASSING
Over the Anzac weekend a lot of the classic fleet headed north to Kawau Island. Anchoring room near the Kawau Boating Club is always at a premium on long weekends & no one likes a long row in the dark……….. but even the old salts can get it wrong – the crew on the 1905, Logan Bros, ex pilot boat ‘Ferro’ must have been in a hurry to make the KBC as they anchored rather close in. As it turned out, too close in – the below photo was 1/2hr before low tide & mid Sunday morning – would have been a long / embarrassing day waiting for the tide 😉
VALSAN
Recently on ww one of Valsan’s previous owners, Shirley Colthart reached out to her current owners Ian & Carol Nicholson & made a very generous offer to pass on a collection of blue blazers that had been custom made for Valsan’s crew (refer photo above)c1995/6. During the process Shirley mentioned that she had a collection of old photos from during their ownership, which appear above. Below I have reproduced Shirley’s note (edited) to me that accompanied the photos. The collection is a wonderful snapshot into a period of Valsan’s history. (As always click on any photos to enlarge) Enjoy.
“I have sorted through a few photos of when Valsan was in our care that may be of interest. When we sold to Hans Otto in 1998 we left a full history onboard including a home movie of her 1938 launch and letters between ourselves and the original owner’s daughter Valerie Harvey and it would be nice to know all was still intact for Ian when he took possession.
We added a dining table and elevated the seating area around the dining table so as to have a view out the windows as the original seating was very low, and due to our cooler climate in the south we also added the diesel burner.
We and our family loved Valsan and only sold to acquire a vessel with more accommodation once our daughters became older and wanted their friends to stay.
We purchased her in December 1988 from Jobe Hollander in Auckland and my husband and friends, with a professional skipper onboard, cruised her down to the Marlborough Sounds, quite a mission as they had to carry two 44 gallon drums of additional fuel in the cockpit and along the way encountered a couple of big storms where she well and truly proved herself to be a very seaworthy vessel indeed.
Early 1993, my husband, with a crew, brought her down from the Marlborough Sounds to Lyttelton where she was used as the after-function venue at the Banks Peninsula Cruising Club for our elder daughter Anna’s 21st celebration”.
Below are copies of Valsan’s Certificate of British Registry and the NAPS booklet from a 1943 Smoke Concert. For reference also below is the first page naming the NAPS ships.
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