Category Archives: 1910’s

An Evill Boat

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An Evill Boat

I posted a few weeks ago about a 14′ clinker motorboat, built in 1914 by Miller & Tunnage that was heading north, in fact to Waiheke Island, Auckland.
You can read all about the history behind the boat here  https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/06/23/classic-clinker-motorboat/

Today post documents its journey to Waiheke Island.

It all started when Tim Evill called me & told me he had bought the clinker off trademe & he was having the boat & her trailer trucked up to Auckland. A few days later Tim & I have borrowed my wife’s ute, she’s a landscape gardener 😉  & Tim & I are driving around Penrose looking for a freight depot. We hook her up & head off to Bayswater to launch her, the plan being to put her on a berth at the marina for a week to take up (been out of the water for 2>3 yrs). You know what they say about plans – ‘if it can go wrong, it will’ – we backed her down the ramp & straight away the water starts p_ssing in – big time, a bucket & a big manual bilge pump could not keep up. So before she sank we started the single banger motor & did a few circles in her & popped back on the trailer.

Time for a team talk, I suggest to Tim if she was mine I would be taking her up to Pam & George at the Whangateau Traditional Boat yard & letting her sit in the back tidal estuary for a few weeks. So Tim heads back to Waiheke & the boats parked on my front lawn.

Next we borrow the ute again & head off on a road trip to Whangateau. We safely deposited her into Pam & George’s experienced hands, then I had a mission dragging Tim away from the shed & Laughing Lady (the boat not Pam). Over the next few weeks Pam sent us photos & trip reports (laps of the bay).
Tim collected her this week on a totally foul day & caught the car ferry to Waiheke Island. Home is now Sandy Bay so keep an eye out her.

Now I’m sick of calling her ‘the boat’, ‘she’ etc – so how about we suggest a few names for her – with Tim’s surname (Evill) it could be amusing – the best one wins a ww t-shirt.
And b4 you say anything Jason P, I have yours on board Raindance & will give it to you at Patio Bay. Just finalizing the logo & will be printing more – details soon.

Bayswater Launching

Love the CYA bucket
Still smiling

Back In Devonport

Dropping Off At Whangateau

Got to love those front towballs
Old Salts

On Holiday at WTB

Collection Day

At Home At Last

Post an application of the magic Houghton bronze polish

 

Classic Day Boat Heading North

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Classic Day Boat Heading North

Ran into a friend of a friend on Waiheke Island on Saturday, talked boats, talked again on Sunday via the phone & we scrolled ww & trademe to review whats currently available. The above clinker ticked most of the boxes & was not allloy :-). 24hrs later he bought her. This immaculately presented 1914, 14′ clinker tender is powered by an single banger Yanmar diesel that gives her a comfortable 6knts. Shortly she will be coming north from Palmerston North & will call Waiheke Island home for the summer months.

More details here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/06/23/classic-clinker-motorboat/

Moana & the Point Erin Causeway

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MOANA & THE PT. ERIN CAUSEWAY
photo ex Mac Taylor Collection

Today’s post shows a collection of launches hauled out at the foot of Curran Street in Herne Bay, Auckland. The launch Moana can be clearly seen, not sure of the other 3.
The construction work in the background was the building of a road from the foot of Curran St. around the base of the Point Erin cliff towards what is now the road to Westhaven & the Harbour bridge on-ramp.

Moana was a popular boat name -can anyone help ID this Moana & possibly the 3 others hauled out alongside her?

27-09-2015 Took the below photo on the family walk this morning

28-09-2015 Harold Kidd Input

This MOANA was built by Joe Slattery in December 1912 for the Collie Bros of Devonport. She was 30′ x 7’10” and had an 8hp Union originally. Sacha de Graaf owned her quite recently in Auckland. The others are a bit difficult. The left hand launch looks like a “settler’s launch” of which several hundred were built in Auckland.

Jeunesse

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JEUNESSE
photos ex John Wicks, ex John Wright, details ex Harold Kidd

The 37 footer Jeunesse was built for W J Harper and launched in March 1919 as Rambler. Harper changed his mind and renamed her Jeunesse by the start of the summer of 1919-20. None of the magazines or newspapers say who built her but Dick Lang seems a fair bet as she was built-in St. Mary’s Bay. Reportage on such things was pretty scant at that time because of the Spanish ‘Flu outbreak. She was fitted with a 40 hp Reutenberg 4 cylinder engine. Harper sold the launch Kotiro when Jeunesse was built. He kept her until 1923 when he sold her to H Hewson. N C McLean & R Kirkwood owned her in 1926. She spent a lot of time in Whangarei after that. In 1951 she was owned by S H R Smith of Onehunga, Richard Leary in 1990, John Wright in 2003 – who still owns her today.
The b&w photo above was apparently first published in the Weekly News in about 1923. There’s no info on it about the photographer, but in John Wicks eyes it’s good enough to be a Winkelmann. The colour photo is relatively recent, and shows her pretty much as she is now – great to see she has remained so true to original design. Also amazing that she has retained the name Jeunesse” for the last 95 years – quite an achievement considering how many changes most of the launches of her era went through.

Lots more photos here from her earlier days https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/11/30/jeunesse-2/

The Wellington Scene

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Phyllis
Phyllis
Doris
Wai-iti

THE WELLINGTON SCENE

photos & details ex Harold Kidd & Gavin Pascoe

Some Wellington launches for a change.

Harold recently bought a postcard of a “launch on Auckland Harbour” which was clearly Wellington. Harold keeps in touch with Gavin Pascoe of the Wellington Classic Yacht Trust on anything Wellington so sent him off a copy. Between the two of them they identified her as Phyllis but in passing discussed images of two other similar craft, Doris and Wai-iti.

You can see that they all have a modest  ketch rig and similar configurations.

Phyllis was a 21 footer built at Kilbirnie to a Rudder Mag design by G. Dennis, starting in December 1910 and launching in August 1912. She was still around in early 1916.

Doris was built in Auckland as the 28ft mullet boat Dorothy but was sold to Charlie Moore in Wellington in 1912. He converted her to a deadwood keeler with an auxiliary but she became solely a power boat pretty soon. She was still around in 1929.

Wai-iti was built by Simmonds and Hutson of Wellington in late 1924 and they also built her semi-diesel engine. She was 28ft x 9ft. She lasted until at least WW2.

Harold Kidd Update

PHYLLIS certainly is very pretty, but you’d expect that of a Rudder design.
DOROTHY/DORIS’s cabintop is a bit lumpy, but it was put on in Wellington after she had been converted to a Cook Strait-capable launch from a very basic Auckland-built 28ft fishing mullet boat and form follows function most adequately.
WAI-ITI’s hull form is very sweet but I still can’t get my head around the way her cabin ports are placed, equidistant from the top of the coaming rather than in the middle between the top of the coaming and its bottom (sheer) as is the case in most boats of the time. To me, that’s a little awkward and unsympathetic. This has been commented on before in WW in relation to a possibly amateur-built Wellington launch.

Selma

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SELMA
photos & details ex Dick Fisher

Today’s post features the Collings & Bell launch Selma which Dick’s grandfather, (H.B.Fisher), had built c1913. Interesting that the ‘photograph’ has had the same enhancement that we saw on the 1911 C & B launch – Dorothy. Refer ww post dated 01-05-2015. C&B must have had the services of a photo re-toucher. All in the days before photoshop 🙂
Dick viewed Selma at Gulf Harbour a while back & reports that she was still in good order.

Now a lot of you will know Dick & his wonderful restored ex Auckland Harbour Board pilot boat – Akarana (photos below ex Dean Wright & yours truly)). Dick is a very clever & talented man & one of his many passions is Gardner engines, he has a collection of 15 Gardner engines ranging in age from 1894 to mid 1980’s. Pictured below is a photo of a Gardner heavy oil marine engine complete with marine gearbox, that Dick is presently restoring. This engine was built by Gardners circa 1913. It is a hot bulb air start 2 stroke developing 24HP at 450 RPM .
FYI – the restoration of Akarana with be featured on ww shortly.

Harold Kidd Input

Sadly, SELMA came ashore at Stanmore Bay on 24th January 2006 and was a total loss. She was 32ft x 8ft and originally had a 3 cylinder 15hp H C Doman marine engine when launched in late 1912 for H.B. Fisher. She was in Mahurangi for several years in the 90’s and early 2000’s with an owner who maintained she was a “Logan”.
Weren’t the WW1 British pocket submarines equipped with Gardners like this?
My Barton rellies in Nottingham had a lot to do with the fortunes of Gardners by fitting the new “high speed” Gardner diesels to their red Bartons’ buses in the Midlands during the Depression. And of course the North Shore Transport Co (owned by the North Shore Ferry Co) fitted 5LX Gardners to their fleet soon afterwards.

Tauraka

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TAURAKA

Now I’m not sure if Tauraka is her current name, but according to trademe she was built in 1912 by Fred Man for F.W. Chalmers.  She started life as a gaff rigged sailboat with a 10 hp Frisco engine. About 1925 she went to Tauranga where she had 4 owners before moving to Lake Rotoiti about 2005.  Currently powered by a Ford 4 cyl. 60hp diesel engine. The trademe listing says she sold for $4,020,  at 32′ that is a huge amount of boat for the price. Someone got a real bargain.

Harold Kidd (brilliant) Input

It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Fred Mann of John St., Ponsonby built a 24ft launch for Frank W. Chalmers in 1910 called GWEN. Chalmers worked for J.J. Craig. In December 1912 Mann launched another launch for Chalmers, the 32 footer, GWEN C. She had a 10hp 2 cylinder ‘Frisco Standard. Chalmers kept GWEN C until September 1921 when he sold her to Percy Carter of Tauranga. Carter changed her name to HELEN C.
Now Carter was a leading light in the Tauranga Yacht & Motor Boat Club and a yachtsman through and through. Although the launch had used an auxiliary rig beforehand, Carter rigged her right up as a schooner and took part in yacht races in Tauranga with her. There had been a number of such launch/yacht hybrids before that in Auckland but they were neither fish nor fowl and generally defaulted to their launch role. HELEN C didn’t and carried her rig for many years. She was allocated the sail number E79 by the APYMBA and raced in the 1932 Auckland Anniversary Regatta on 20m handicap and came 6th on line.
Carter sold her when he bought the Woollacott ketch MAY in 1953 and renamed MAY RAUMATI after a small yacht he had owned and raced in Tauranga pre-WW1. HELEN C’s new owner renamed her TAURAKA.

Attempt To Steal Classic Launch Florence

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Attempt To Steal Classic Launch Florence

The world is full of idiots & Mathew Dring would be near the top of the list. He appeared in court yesterday for attempting to steal the 1910 H.N. Burgess designed classic launch Florence. As well as being a fool, he has no taste, as Florence was the 3rd vessel he boarded & attempted to steal.
And what did his lawyer say – “his client wanted to change his ways & he wants to plan for his future”, to which the judge said “you present as someone who deeply regrets what happened” – the systems a joke. Mathew Dring (remember that name) was given 6mths. community detention (I think thats what we used to call PD) & $400 reparation. The little thief should serve the 6mths. PD sanding the bottom of boats.

Read details here    http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/71674729/Hapless-thief-tried-to-steal-two-boats-from-Auckland-marina

ps I have tagged the thief’s name in the post so if anyone ever google searches him, his little escapade with come up 🙂

Ronaki

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RONAKI
photos ex Pam Cundy at the Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard

I know nothing about todays launch other than that Pam & George saw Ronaki in Ruakaka a couple of years ago. She went onto trade me and was sold. The lifebuoy has 1912 on it so maybe that’s some indication of her age. A serious case of the ugly sister going on in the last photo.
Anyone know what became of her?, fingers crossed someone took on the challenge & restored her.

Harold Kidd Input

RONAKI has a picture in our “N.Z. Vintage Launches” at page 63.
She was built as a fast harbour launch by Collings & Bell for the Auckland Harbour Board in January 1913, a 38 footer powered by a big 55-75 hp H.C. Doman marine engine with a max of 14 knots. Photo below. After many years of service with AHB she was sold to G Hyauiason who had her bridgedeckerised. The RNZN took her over in 1942 for control service (at the boom, I think) but sold her in 1944 to J.A. Collins. My uncle Lou Wilson, MD of Morris Black & Matheson bought her soon after that. Lou certainly wasn’t the one who rowed over and asked for points for a V8. I really don’t know about that story, particularly where the V8 came from.
The AHB bought her back subsequently and fitted a Leyland. A group of us looked at her around 1986 but bought FERRO instead, principally because we were warned off the Leyland and favoured the Caterpillar in FERRO, plus she was much more original.
The other RONAKI was built as MANUKAU by Chas. Bailey & Son in 1914 for the AHB to use on the Manukau.

The photo below is from Ron Wattam & was taken during her sea trials.

LOST – The MY GIRL Motorboat Racing Trophy + Good News on Margaret S

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LOST – The MY GIRL Trophy + Good News on Margaret S

This ones going to test the collective memory base of the all the woodys out there. We are looking for a trophy that was linked 80+years ago to the NZ Power Boat Association, I’m talking here about the old NZPBA, with races that involved real wooden boats – not the lumps of fiberglass with oversized outboards on the back they race today.

The trophy was the ‘My Girl’ trophy & was donated by a Mr. C. (Tui) Waldron to replace the ‘Burt Cup’. There are numerous press clipping that mention events where the cup was contested, won or presented. I have attached copies below for your reference / interest.
Despite all the searching no photo can be found of the cup.

The present-day owner of the launch ‘My Girl’, who the cup was named after, Jason Prew would like to track down the whereabouts of the cup & any information on what became of it. While the cup itself may not have survived, someone out there must know something about its past. Launches that have won the trophy include – Taura, Tasman & Crusader. Crusader was owned by the Rev Jasper Calder & was steered to victory by Miss Edna Herick. It appears that in several of the events that the trophy was offered up, one of the conditions of racing was the vessel had to be steered by a woman.
Launches that have raced for the trophy include – Taura, Aumoe, Edwina, Tasman, Nautilus, Ramona, Crusader, Wailani, Lady Margaret & Wanderloo.

So folks anyone able to help out in the hunt??

Note: Photo above taken during a Victoria Cruising Club annual regatta, year & boats unknown. Romance II could be the launch on the left. Photo ex ‘Sir George Grey Special Collection (Auckland Libraries)

Good News About Margaret S

SAMSUNG

CYA member Alan Good reports that the Collings & Bell launch Margaret S, built as Marne c.1918/19 that has been moored off Bayswater marina  breakwater for several years has found a new owner – sailmaker Bud Nalder, the photo above shows her being towed from BW to Whakatakataka Bay (OBC) where she will be hauled out & undergo restoration. Knowing Bud’s skills & level of craftsmanship, Margaret S is in very good hands.
For more details / photos on her https://waitematawoodys.com/?s=Margaret+S&submit=Search

Now moored in Whakatakataka Bay (photo Mark Edmonds)

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