Lake Taupo c.1950’s.
photo ex Paul Drake
This photo appeared on a postcard & shows two boats that have recently featured on ww – Lady Pat & Moana.
Also in the picture, on moorings, in line astern are – Kotare (steel), Arcadia and Kahurangi.
Arcadia is still on Lake Taupo – with new cabin. Kahurangi was last seen at Mana, Paremata, also with new cabin. KOTARE is still at Lake Taupo.
The vessel poking out of the boat shed is Water Nymph now restored and at Lake Rotioti.
Woody Report From A Far
At great expense to the ww budget I have one of my cub reporters currently swanning around the USA at present. Todays report is from the Sausalito Marina in San Francisco.
The shed photos are from the Spaulding Wooden Boat Centre, feed back from Colin Pawson is that like NZ there are very few wooden boatbuilders and not a lot of new work, mainly maintenance.
The sign on the bow of the yacht is interesting – click the photo to enlarge.
ps sorry for the late post- in a bay with no cell coverge 🙂
Mystery Launch 15/07
photo ex Nathan Herbert
Another old lady from the Whau River that appears to have dodged the hand of the wood butcher.
Any input on who she is & her past?
LADY THELMA
photo ex Nathan Herbert
I probably should know something about this launches past – but I do not, but thats probably due to the fact she is tucked away up the Whau River.
So woodys – who can shred some light on this old girl?.
OWAKA
This ones a bit of a shot in the dark.
Stuart Lewis has contacted ww on behalf of his father who is looking for information on the launch Owaka, built by Collings and Bell c.1927.
Stuart’s fathers uncle, Jack Burdett of Whangarei, owned and carried out extensive work on her (in the 1970’s, he thinks) Jack used her as a work / pleasure boat servicing his farms on the Cavalli Islands and Limestone Island in Whangarei. Jack died in the 1980’s (unsure of exact date).
Any information any of you may have, or details on the later life of the Owaka would be appreciated.
Update from Harold Kidd
OWAKA was launched by Collings & Bell in November 1927 for Lyttelton Ferries Ltd. W E (Edmund) Lane of Russell had her in 1953, Lane”s Sea Services 1961, Bay Sea Services 1963. Fullers had her after (?) that time using her with the barge LORNA. She was advertised on TradeMe last year, moored at Great Barrier, asking price $49,500 ono with heaps of images which I have at home (now in South Island touring).
Update & photos below from Baden Pascoe
Baden tells us that Myra Larcombe, who is now in her late 80’s, father Edmund Lane owned Owaka in the l950’s. She was then powered by a Kelvin K 4, 88hp.
Baden also advised that Owaka is still based at Gt Barrier Island.
Stuart – I have emailed you Myra’s contact details, in case you want to follow up with her.
Baden Pascoe Update 16/07/2014
The photo of Owaka being craned was when she was returned to Auckland from Otago in 1953. For her new owner, Mr. Edmund Lane
16-07-2015 Update from Ray Morey ex Harold Kidd, edited by Alan H
I joined Fullers late 1962 and drove Owaka mostly but also Miss Doris and Miss Ida and quite a few of the others.
I don’t know when she got the extended wheelhouse and standing top but it must have been in Lanes time.
“Bay Sea Services” was a shelf company set up by Fullers to finance a third person to purchase Owaka and the barge Lorna as there were bad feelings between Fullers and Edmund. Owaka got the Ford engine shortly after I left in late 1963 when the Marine Dept. started to frown on the petrol start engines in passenger vessels. Fullers also had several spare engines in storage. I think Jack Burdett may have put the accommodation and after cabin over the old cargo space in the former aft cockpit because he lived on it when mustering on the Cavalli islands. She was getting a bit nail-sick from the pounding of the Kelvin when I drove her.
A partner and I looked at the Lidgard built “Mairie” then lying at a jetty in the Tamaki River but the K4 put us off. She is a beautiful and well built workboat, would be nice with a Gardner down below. We wanted a workboat that could tow a barge, be hire-able to the W.H.B. for general work, carry a reasonable size party for fishing and have a fair turn of speed as its a long way out of Whangarei. We finally settled on a Picton built launch “Rata”, 4-71 GM powered. I think she went to Fiji as a village boat.
20-03-2017 Input ex Linda Wright
Owaka, was owned by my father, Colin Wright, from approx 1989 to some time in the 1990s after he purchased her from Jack Burdett.
He has given me some stories and info from his time aboard the Owaka, and I have some photos from our visits stored away.
Dad was living aboard Owaka for extended periods and ferrying material from Whangarei to the Barrier, where he was doing some work at the time. A lot of trips were made at night and alone, as Owaka was so easy to handle. Whenever possible, she was under sail or motorsailing.
He would keep marine band radio on all the time, and was sometimes called to assist others in the area by George Mason, who ran the Whangaparapara marine radio on Great Barrier.
When Dad bought Owaka she was painted white, and he did not make any structural modifications apart from installing an electric toilet, as the toilet was rather cranky.
UPDATE 15-01-2019 Photo of Owaka off Tapeka Point, taken by Nathan Herbert onboard Pacific – got to love the veggie garden 🙂
MOUTERE
There is a kauri planked launch hauled out at what they call ‘House Boat Bay’ on Waiheke Island (Ostend). It has been under cover on the hard for one year and is perfectly dry. It has a 40hp marine-ised Ford diesel that was going the last time it was cranked over about 8 months ago. Hours of use are unknown. The boat was trucked from the Kaipara and then motored from the city to Waiheke about 7 years ago. It apparently belonged formerly to the Stables family on Kaipara. It was bought by the Waldens of Waiheke, who would now like her sold. Mary Christie and Steve Matatahi who live on the house boat Kukurei are helping to find a home for the Moutere and they have done some work on her – most of the ribs are now strengthened and/replaced and much of the inside paint has been removed as has the paint on outside hull.
The owners & Mary are only trying to recovering their costs so Moutere could be a very affordable classic project.
Interested parties – Contact Mary Christie c/o kukurei.crew@gmail.com
Also keen to know more about her – designer / builder. I hope Zach Matich is able to chip in re her Kaipara days.
SIREN
photos & details ex Scott Taylor
In the early 1960’s Mac Taylor of HM Taylor Shipbrokers drew up the lines for Siren & had Snow Waters build her c.1962. The Taylor family used her to cruise the gulf & sold her c.1966.
In the launch day photos above, the tractor driver is Flap Martiningo, Tony Mason provided the trailer and Snow Waters is encouraging Scott’s mother to smash the bottle on the anchor, Scott recalls it took six attempts 🙂 Mac Taylor is on the foredeck.
Scott is curious to find out where she may be now and what state she would be in.
click photos to enlarge
Update from Dave Jackson 13/07/2014
She is now renamed “Nancy Belle” and lives on moorings behind the Whangaparapara wharf, Great Barrier Island. Owned by Max Howard. Topsides have been painted white. He uses her as a cray boat.
The building of a replica 1898 Nathanael Herreshoff triple expansion steam engine – as told by Chris McMullen.
The Herreshoff engine is a triple expansion type with cylinders 3-1/2” x 5”x 8” with a 4-1/2” stroke. It is a smaller version of that depicted in the L Francis Herreshoff book ‘The Wizard Of Bristol’ page 228.
The engine is very different to what the textbooks on the subject show. Everything designed by Nathanael Herreshoff seems to be that way. He certainly never copied traditional thinking but worked it out for him self.
Those interested may notice the two crankshafts gear driven one to one. The right hand one drives the piston valves. Going astern is effected by sliding bush or sleeve within the driven gear activated by a lever, this rotates the valve C/S to a new position. The bush, gear and shaft required machining male and female three start threads, left and right hand 8” pitch! Not easy. The threads have / had to be cut on a planer using a dividing head coupled to the motion. Modern cars use a camshaft driven by a timing belt, similar to Herreshoff but remember this engine was designed in 1898! The engine is very short to allow the crankshaft to be supported by two bearings and also to prevent loss of heat as the exhaust steam travels from one cylinder to the next, thus trying to reduce pressure loss.
If you look at the image of the crankshaft casting (below) you will notice the overhung balance weights. Notice the lack of material in the web between the second and third journal. The crank can’t be ground and there is no easy way to machine the metal designed to be eliminated by casting. Casting this crank was a mission in SG iron. To cast it in steel (with 1/4” to the foot possible contraction) is going to be more difficult to achieve the correct length.
H.M.C.O had an outside foundry cast their steel but I notice in reading a recent article on Herreshoff Anchors they did have problems with their steel castings.
The base of the engine is a bronze casting to hold oil. The engine max revs are about 700 so the engine will have to be enclosed or throw oil everywhere.
There are good drawings available for this engine but no tolerances are given. I guess the fitters knew what was required. The original drawings were coloured to show the different materials, as was normal drafting practice. The prints I got were black and white and difficult to read. No layers as in CAD drawing.
The Boiler is a three-drum type with curved tubes. It is similar to a Yarrow Type boiler. All the circulation is achieved in the tubes, the outer tubes being cooler than the inner. Once the circulation starts it continues. This was proven by Yarrows experiment in the early 1900’s. So Herreshoff and Yarrow, an ocean apart, came to similar conclusions. The upper drum of the boiler is 8“ OD, the lower drums 4-1/2” all with 5/16” wall. The 1/2“ tubes are expanded. Not easy to do up a tube just over 4” ID.
The boiler was built under survey. The working pressure is 250 PSI.
There are no pumps on the engine. The boiler is fed and the cooled exhaust condensate is removed for reuse by an independent steam driven combined feed and air pump. These pumps were the only item on the launch not made in house by H.M.C.O. There were no drawings of these Marsh Pumps made by The American Steam Pump Co., Battle Creek Mitch. I copied mine from ‘Vapo’, an incredibly clever but simple pump with two moving parts but very difficult to manufacture.
I should add there has been no fabrication. Everything has been cast in iron or bronze.
Again this interesting project has been done for no other reason than for my own personal satisfaction. I guess Prof. Evers Burtner’s comments (see copy of magazine article below), I quote “It is too bad that this engine is so complicated that amateurs would not be tempted to build one of their own”, was red rag to a bull.
To view part one i.e. the boat click here https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/07/07/chris-mcmullens-herreshoff-steam-launch/
Click Any Image / Photo Below To Enlarge
AWAROA
photos & details from Geoff Brebner
This old ship has a long history. Unsure of the dates but she was built by Joe Fell on the Hokianga and was owned by Bert ( H. A. ) Subritzky for many years. She is pictured at Rawene in the 1950’s, that is Bert Subritzky you can see at the wheelhouse door. Bert moved to Auckland in 1956 with Awaroa and the barge Maggie and set up Tamaki Water Transport at Pakuranga, later becoming Subritzky Shipping Line.
Awaroa is still alive and well at Thames in a ‘berth’ on the Kauaeranga River just downstream from the road bridge going into town.
Thames has a interesting collection of old launches – Inverness, now firmly hemmed in by the rampant mangroves. She was formerly Awhitu and Geoff recalls her as a passenger launch on the Manukau Harbour. Geoff worked for Subritzky for a number of years mostly on the vehicular ferries and became very familiar with the wooden Romo and Maro.
07-01-2016 photo of Awaroa at Manaia, Coromandel ex Peter Croft. Those windows would have to win the TV1 and TV2 award e.g. widescreen TV’s 🙂
17-10-2018 Input from Geoff Brebner -, who sent in another photo, below, of Awaroa, seen here recently in Thames. She is powered by a 4cyl. Ford diesel.
A.H.B. / KELVIN
A.H.B. is 1907 Chas Bailey Jnr, 3 skin Kauri and 39ft., she was built for the Auckland Harbour Board hence her name A.H.B….Once she was sold out of their ownership she was renamed Kelvin and spent most of her life called that, her current owners, the Pollard brothers, we put her back to her original name.
Paperspast says she’s worked alongside Ferro in the early days, even receiving Ferro’s old engine at one stage. Also that she was leased to the police during night time hours for patrolling the harbour in 1911.
She was transferred to the Manukau and used by their harbour board for quite some time there before being sold off eventually.
The old stern on photo (supplied by Harold Kidd) is thought to be before or after the shot of the other old photo (ex Paperspast ) which caption says she was being returned to the Waitemata to be used in cray fishing industry 1933. Refer b/w photo/caption below.
Some info supplied by CYA member Baden Pascoe even has her fitted with two engines in the late 1940’s. Both shaft logs are still installed but plugged off.
She was also owned for a time by by boat builder Dave Jackson.
For a while she languished amongst the derelict boats down in Waikawa, then she was sold and steamed to Mana where she was forgotten and almost met her end via chainsaw before the Pollards rescued her, got her running / floating and bought her back to Auckland.
She’s powered by a D series Ford with a hydraulic box and is berthed at Panmure. She is mobile but she is a project boat requiring plenty of work and a loving owner to take her to the next step.
The Pollards boys – Andrew & Cameron have rescued more classic motor vessels than anyone I know, I have heard Harold Kidd say on numerous occasions “the their blood is with worth bottling”.
Like all of us, there are only so many toys you can fit in the box so A.H.B. is looking for a new owner / home – initially contact me on waitematawoodys@gmail.com
as always – click on any photo to enlarge 😉
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