Category Archives: 1910’s

Sierra

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SIERRA

words & photos from Dennis Christopher

‘Sierra’ is a general purpose workboat, designed and built by Joseph Fell of Kohukohu (Hokianga Harbour) & launched 3 May 1917. She is planked with two skins of Kauri over steam bent frames. Powered by a 120hp Ford Lees with a 2:1 twin disc gearbox. L – 42’6”, B – 11’2”, D – 3’6”.

Like most workboats, she has a very interesting history. She was built for Hokianga traders A. S. Andrews & Sons who had six stores dotted around the harbor. She carried passengers, general freight and was the official mail boat. Later on in her life she worked on the Auckland Harbour doing light towing duties and transporting men to and from the Bridge construction project. She also did general work and towing duties on the Manukau at the Glenbrook Steel Mill gas pilings.

“Sierra’s” days of hard work are over and she is now owned and cared for by Dennis Christopher of Panmure. “Sierra” is a regular competitor in the annual Tug boat race and parade on Auckland Anniversary Day and she won the Parry Trophy for the best presented retired vessel in 2009. A fitting tribute of how a piece of maritime history can be preserved and enjoyed.

 

Getting Hooked

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Getting Hooked

WAINUI

Below is a tale by Phil Parks that I’m sure a lot of us can relate to, sounds very familiar. AH

I have been a lover all things to do with the ocean and boats since being pushed off Howick Beach as a 5 year old in my first P class.

As my life has evolved boats have always figured but my love of surfing was foremost until recently.

Living on the west coast is not that conducive to owning boats although I do have a purpose built tinny to go fishing out here when the swell is small enough.

About 15 years ago I bought a place at Ti Point near Leigh and have had a nice fizz boat up there. This has rekindled my love of boating and as age is now making surfing harder all the time I am spending more time boating.

I have dreamed about owning a classic launch for years and always troll the for sale columns looking at everything for sale. Funny how that gives you a good sense of values of various vessels.

The only thing that has stopped me “going for it” has been the lack of some where to keep a launch.

I had applied for a mooring 12 years ago with the Rodney council but it soon became apparent the whole process was an absolute wrought as I never proceeded to get any where near the top the list although new boats seemed to be appearing all the time.

I had always called the mooring administrators annually to whine about the process and to keep my name on the books.

When I did that in 2011 I was now dealing with the new Auckland Council and I was flabbergasted when a very helpful lady heard my cause and replied “well there are a couple of sites available do you want one?”

Did I what!!!! I paid the money and secured a mooring site that could be viewed from my bach lounge. Fan bloody tastic! Now every time I looked at boats a wave of excitement came over me!

Xmas 2011 and looking at trade me I spied a nice looking old launch that seemed to be at a good price. Problem it was at Hohorua. Made a few calls to the owner but never got around to getting up there to have a look.

I could not get her out of my mind and when another boat that was at Kohukohu came on the market I thought I would do a road trip. Arranged to look at 8 boats, jumped in the car and took off.

There were only 2 boats that interested me mainly because I was fussy about the “look”. It just had to look right. Most did not.

Anyway one thing led to another, time passed but I eventually became the owner of the 28′ Wainui.

It was the originally boat that I saw on trade me 5 months before and was smitten with. As it was a deceased estate and the family were finding it a real hassel to keep I ended up getting her for a very good price and the whole deal had a good feeling to it. Very co-operative vendors.

It now meant there was pressure on to get the mooring established and that is another whole story in itself.

My best friend and I sailed her down from Hohorua to Ti Point and that was a fantastic trip and again another good story.

She now sits in Ti Point Harbour with a few other classics. I will soon move her up to the bach for a full restoration.

Probably have to sell the fizzer to afford it but worth it.

Its all about the journey………….Phil Parks

27-02-2017 Photo below by (ex Colin Brown) of Wainui at a Mangawhai property. Most likely the bach mentioned in the story above.

wainui-at-mangawhai-27-2-17-ex-c-b

Mapu

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MAPU

photos & details ex Mark Lane
I recently received some more images from the past of the Lane Motor Boat, Mapu. AH
The b/w photo is pre WW2 & when she was ‘in her hey day’
The shed photo was ‘as purchased’ by Mark Lane prior to commencing the restoration,late 1990’s.
The ‘restored’ photo was taken during an Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta, work boat race, c.2003

Rongo II

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Rongo (II ?)b Rongo (II ?)a

RONGO II
photo ex Simon Manning
Pictured here around 1970-71 at what was then Simons family’s place at Curious Cove near Picton
Harold Kidd Update:
Great images! That’s the 1919 Bailey & Lowe RONGO II (ex-GLADYS II) during her period in the Sounds all right.

St Marys Bay Auckland

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A view of St Marys Bay with the wharf (left), several boats and boatsheds, premises of Collings and Bell, boatbuilders in St Marys Bay Road (left) and residences in Ponsonby overlooking the bay. An interesting collection of photos, same area but taken at different times. The ‘aerial’ one of all the boats stowed in the valley is fun – last boat out is the first one in for the summer.

Input from Harold Kidd (to photo A)

At the end of the wharf is the Ponsonby Cruising Club’s premises before the second storey and balcony was added. Collings & Bell’s original shed is directly behind. To the left of the PCC is the small building in which various things happened like Collings had his test tank, George Murphy lived when he was fishing with ETHEL which tied up alongside the jetty, and Des Donovan did some clinker work post WW2 with Fred Steele as “20th Century Boats”. I may have conflated some of these functions.
To the right of C&B’s slipway is the shed of Peter A. Smith, the engineer who was agent for Alpha marine engines (Danish-made I think) and who commissioned many launches from people like Dick Lang and Tom Le Huquet for customers fitting Alphas. He also traded in boats. Next right is the yard of Peter Barton who did repairs and hired out small boats, later joined by his son Phil, a true gentleman. Dick Lang and later Sam Ford were here and I think used Smith’s premises. I was born in London Street, just out of frame to the left (not terribly much after this image!) by which time the PCC was fully built up and C&B had built a large half-round shed at the back.
It really was the centre of the known universe.

Curlew

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Curlew 1916

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CURLEW

Built by Rope brothers 1913
Lots of history on the Waitemata and Kaipara Harbours…

She was W68 when used By RNZAF at Hobsonville.

Photo & details from Andrew Pollard

Update & older photos from Zach Matich
A few Curlew pic’s first is her before the war, next is when she was sold to Cal Crooks
she is on the Kaipara Water Transport slip, last one is a newspaper shot so her towing sand barge ‘Wakarere’ for Kaipara Water Transport LTD, my dad Ron Matich is skipper and Ken Beattie is bargeman.
She was the back up tug for the ‘Lady-Kay’. Always had a obsession with her when I was young, she was sold well before I started as deckhand for the company.
Update 29-07-2019 – 1953 photo below
Curlew

Mapu

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MAPU

Story & photos by Mark Lane

Built in 1914 by Lane Motor Boat Company for TM Lane and Sons who were timber millers in Totara North, 30′ x 7′.6″  She was taken north to Whangaroa.  She was a classic flat decker and I am not sure with what she was origonally powered with other than it was an air cooled motor.

My grandfather Clarence Lane (son of Thomas Major Lane) who was instrumental in setting up the Lane Motor Boat Company) went away on his honeymoon on Mapu in 1916   She was originaly built as a pleasure and workboat where her role primarily towing logs out of the local rivers and towing barges a role she filled over the next 30-40 year.

In 1939 she came back to Auckland to be repowered with a Scrips marine conversion of a Hercules truck motor producing 110hp.  This made her the fastest boat on the whangaroa harbour pulling around 22-24 knots

During the war she acted as the supply boat for the local gun emplacement at the heads of the Whangaroa Harbour and also towed for them targets between the heads and Stephenson Island.  My father Trevor Lane (son of Clarence) used her for crayfishing around this time as well. She was re-fastened in 1950.

By the 1960,s she was primarly a pleasure boat used by my father and his brother and their families for fishing picnicing etc.   In the 1970 she was repowered with a Fordson deisel  but by the mid 1980s she was largely unused and stored intially in a boatshed on the Lane and Sons property and subsequently in the tide in the “barge shed” where her seams having opened so much the tide came in and out of her.

In the late 1990,s Lane and Sons was being wound up and I brought her in an as is where is state.  Thus I am the 4th generation of my family to own her….

Trevor Ford (son of Sam Ford and a retired boatbuilder from the Lane Motor Boat Company) assessed her and undertook to rebuild her.  He showed me a hand-drawn picture of Mapu with a cabin and dodger and then proceeded to rebuild and repower her.  The project took him over three years in a barn on his property in the Bombay hills.

She was repowered with a Nanni convesion of a Kubota deisel (50 hp)

She was relaunched in 2003.  She heads north  in summer to Whangaroa her “home” for then retrns to Auckland at the beginning of winter and is berthd in Pine Harbour Marina.  She competed in the 2008 Rudder Cup race around sail rock and came second in her division.

Cruising speed  is 8.2 knots and full speed about 9.7-10.4knots depending on the cleanliness of her hull!!!.

I suspect the owner of Raindance will acknowledge she is pretty quick for her size and power.. (edited – the owner of Raindance hopes the CYA launch handicapper reads waitematawoodys 🙂  )

Rongo

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RONGO (II)

The above images of this rather grand & large launch have me stumped as to its identity, I’m sure its easy but today my mind is a blank. Photo says c.1930

30/05 – appears the collective brains trust agree on Rongo – thanks team 🙂

Harold Kidd Update

I’m certain it’s RONGO (II) when owned by W. Cecil Leys in 1930. She was built as GLADYS II by Bailey & Lowe in 1919 for Chas. Court of Stanley Bay and fitted with a 150hp Sterling Model FM 6 cylinder engine. Court sold her in 1930 to Leys who had her lengthened 10 feet and renamed her RONGO. Leys owned her until 1942 when she went into NAPS as Z20. Subsequent owners included R W Butcher (1942-44), Joe Moodabe (of the Civic Theatre) (1944-47), W J Henry (1947-49), W A (Wilkie) Wilkinson (1949) W A Kenny of Picton (1964) by which time she had a 1955 Gardner 5cylinder diesel. She came back north but went to pieces at Algies Bay in July 2007.

Update 2

1. Rongo went into NAPS with a Chrysler fitted around 1938, so they probably left that in throughout hostilities as ex-USN Chryslers (and GM/Graymarine 71 series) were standard issue, for parts rationalisation.
2. Walter Bailey designed her and Bailey & Lowe built her. I would have thought that she was manifestly Bailey & Lowe, not Lanes (although I do accept that all launches do default to Lanes in the case of doubt [and I won’t repeat my conceit that Garth built them all by himself at the risk of being flamed again by Alan]).
3. Mike Moodabe never owned her. It was his brother Joe, and then only briefly, from when she came out of NAPS in 1944 until 1947.

 
PS [sackcloth and ashes] a bit of misinformation I created myself…..I have now found the reference to Chas. Court selling GLADYS II to Sir W. Cecil Leys .. ….it was in October 1927, a lot earlier than I had thought. It was hard to pick out which of the references were to RONGO (I) and which to RONGO (II) (OMG here we go again!).
 
The 35ft RONGO (I) is very interesting. She was built as MOLLIE for Capt Somerville by T M Lane & Sons (really) in December 1911 equipped with an 18hp 4 cylinder Scripps. Capt. Somerville sold her to Percy Colebrook around late 1913. Colebrook sold her to Leys in August 1919 while he was having the second MOLLIE (later ALCESTIS/RAIONA) built by Joe Slattery. Leys had her extensively modified (cabintop raised, lengthened by 3ft etc) and renamed her RONGO. The work was done by Lanes who fitted a big 100hp Scripps in 1926 for which they were the agents.
When he bought GLADYS II and renamed her RONGO II in 1927 he sold RONGO I to J T Julian of Remuera. Julian retained the name RONGO and sold her to C W H Ronaldson in 1938. I lose track of her after 1940 but will work out what happened to her one day…undoubtedly a postwar re-name.
It’s all a bit convoluted……………
 
Update 3
Sorry to bang on about the RONGO tribe but I have found that it was Chas. Bailey who modified MOLLIE (I) for Cecil Leys in 1919 into RONGO (I). Lanes had their hands full with LUANA. At that time there were 5 big (45ft+) launches being built around the Waitemata; Collings & Bell with MARGUERITE (later LADY UNA), Joe Slattery with MOLLIE (II) (later ALCESTIS/RAIONA), Bailey & Lowe with ATATU and GLADYS II (later RONGO II) and Lanes with LUANA. The huge postwar demand was hard to satisfy but Chas. Bailey didn’t attract any orders for big launches for some reason.

Update from Baden Pascoe:

(refers to colour photo in slide show)

This is how she looked when I saw her. In my files I found she was a NAPS vessel, no Z20, 1/7/42 -27/12/43.

She had a 6L2 installed the same engine Joan had fitted. Conrad Robinson still has this engine at Warkworth. One good thing about NAPS, your boat came back with a very nice engine. At this time she belonged to R.W. Butcher of Auckland. The man in the white hat is dad, he could not get over the length of her and was concerned that she was hogging while they lifted her. He supervised the blocking of her keel once she was slipped. Very nice boat, shame she got wrecked. Very Lanes looking though!!

Aumoe

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Aumoe
The caption says ‘Deep Water Cove’.
Of interest is the special effects applied to b/w photos in the days before colour cameras.

Aumoe

12-07-2019 Input from Deb Green

The photo below is from Tom Wood (Deb’s uncle). Tom owned Aloha.

Picture 008

 

Lady Avis

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LADY AVIS

Built in late 1910 by James Reid Snr. b/w photo is dated 1914

Harold Kidd Update

AVIS was built in the winter of 1910 by JAMES Reid and was built on the same moulds as SEABIRD (and probably) MAVIS B so she was an advanced hull for her time and proven by SEABIRD being first on line in the Rudder Cup race around Sail Rock in December 1908 of which the CYA did a rerun in 2008 of fond memory. Her first owners were W & E Currie and B A Keyes. She had a 14hp Regal originally, the same engine as SEABIRD, for which Reid was Auckland agent, a well-made marine engine of US origin. She was re-engined with a 24hp Brennan by 1919. R Johnson joined in ownership in 1923. She was used extensively for racing with RNZYS, PCC and NSYC. She was kept in a shed at Mechanics Bay in the winters next to Lanes. In 1927 she was fitted with a new 35hp Stearns. By 1928 her owners were E Currie, R Johnson and A M Gilmour. Gilmour dropped out in 1935. Currie and Johnson still owned her in 1943 but I lose track then as they either sold her or resigned from the RNZYS.
David Collett owned her 1972-6 with a 4cyl Ford diesel, replaced with a 6 cylinder Leyland. Later she was moored at Mahurangi.
The LADY AVIS thing is pretty recent.
So her pedigree is brilliant.

PS Of course she was built as a racy raised-foredeck flushdecker in the latest vogue for 1910. The clerestory/tramtop, the funnel and the dodger aft are modern excrescences.

A photo update ex Ken Rickett, who also advises she has been renamed Matahari.