Category Archives: 1910’s

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.

Valencia, Aumoe & Ranoni 1948

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Valencia, Aumoe & Ranoni 1943

Valencia, Aumoe & Ranoni 1948

I really like this image sent to me by Andrew Pollard the current guardian of Aumoe. Its such a great photo & if you look closely you will notice that the crews are a really mixed bag of men, young boys & women, I doubt you would get that in the 2013 event.  The photo is of the opening day of the 1948 Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club. I wonder what the catch was like.
A understand that at the time of the photo Aumoe was owned by the Wilkinson family of Whangarei.

Harold Kidd Update 

VALENCIA was then owned by E S Ralls. I’m not sure who built her and where. There were several Valencias around the coast as it was the name of a very popular song of the time. It would be good to get feedback on her (I suspect a c1928 name change). RANONI is easier, she was built by Charlie Gouk at Beaumont Street in the winter of 1911 for the Rushbrook brothers. In 1948 she was owned by O. Mann. The lovely AUMOE of course was built by Tom Le Huquet for F M P Brookfield of Brookfield Engineering in February 1913 and initially fitted with an Advance 30hp 4 stroke sleeve valve engine built by Brookfield Engineering which was still in use when replaced by A J Wilkinson of Whangarei when he bought her in the late 30s.

Romance

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Romance

ROMANCE

Romance is the older and smaller sister of Romance II. She was built August 1914 by Bailey & Lowe for W.C. Mils of Devonport who replaced her with Romance II in 1919. Romance was 26ft oa and fitted with an ohv 4 cyl petrol engine. W.E. Utting owned her for many years after Mills.

She then went to Napier and was bought by Sydney Hole and was the Holes family boat for many years on Lake Taupo. Pictured is Ken Hole(Sydney’s son) and Belle Hole standing beside Romance)

In 2006 she was in charter on the lake.

photo ex Alan Good, words Harold Kidd & Alan Good.

Huia

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Huia Kaipara Hbr May 2005
Relaunch day 1963 Dargaville
New stem fitting at Helensville
Huia Log towing 1926 Kohukohu Hokianga Hbr. The ship is barquentine Louis Therant
Huia Launch day 1918
Tangowahine river upstream from Dargaville on Nthrn Wairoa
Huia 2012

HUIA

story & photos ex Robin & Lesley Smith

37ft x 9ft 6 x 3ft 6

Named after Harry Kings youngest daughter

Ordered 1918 launched 1919 built by Demmings boatyard at Opua for Harry & George King Bros for use as a tow launch towing logs to their timber mill in BOI

The mill was shifted to Kohukohu on the Hokianga harbour c1920s and Huia was used to tow logs to Kings Mill for making butter boxes for the local dairy company The mill along with Huia were loaded on to the scow Zingara and when they arrived at Hokianga heads Huia was dropped over to help tow the scow over the bar

When the mill was sold c1927 to the Solomon Islands the mill came back to Russell/Opua on Zingara to load on the Burns Phillip steamer Makambo. Huia was sailed  back to BOI in company with Zingara for use as a fishing launch for the King family

Huia was taken over by the NZ air force for WW2 and stationed at Army Bay BOI with the mine coastal defence group BOI

After the war she was returned to Harry King who sold her to an Auckland owner and Huia went south to the Waitemata

After a time in Auckland she was sold to a Mr JJ Enwright, a fishmonger in Whangarei who employed various crews to commercially fish Huia from Whangarei north on the east coast

Ben Bradly found her in a neglected state in Whangarei c 1960 and took her to Dargaville where he refitted her, lifted her foredeck 2 planks and fitted new decks and the cabin tops. She was re engined with a new 60HP lees ford and relaunched 1963. Huia, based at Northern Wairoa Boating Club Dargaville wandered all over the Kaipara with Ben and Wyn Bradly, and up many now un navigable parts of the Kaipara. During one of the Helensville regattas Huia “tee boned” Eric Williams fathers launch  Moa, stoving in her bow. Ben ran her for a mud flat where she sat for a week filling with Kaipara mud until she was put on the Helensville cradle and a telegraph pole fitted in as a new stem

Robin & Lesley Smith bought Huia 2004, ran her for a year on the Kaipara then moved her to the BOI and in 2010 took her out for 1 year for a refit and altered the aft deck cabin area.

Huia lives on a pole mooring at Waitangi BOI

Her engines were: when built 2 cyl 20 HP Union petrol

1924 a 3 cyl 30HP Twigg petrol

WW2 a 2 cyl 22 HP Kelvin diesel fitted by airforce

Later when fishing a 6 cyl Morris commodore petrol

1963 a 4cyl 60HP Lees Ford diesel (6500 hours to date)

Peerless

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Peerless, Panmure Basin
Milford Creek1
Pierless & Maryanna, Tiri, 1930’s
Peerless
Milford Creek2
Peerless, Westhaven
Peerless, North Shore Times 1982
Devonport News
History of Peerless

PEERLESS

Designed & built by Andrew Petersen in 1913, Andrew was assisted Sam Ford, who at the time was a young boatbuilding apprentice. Peerless has a wonderful history that has been well documented, thanks to previous owners, one of whom, Bert Tansley, owned her for 50 years. Today she is berthed in the Milford Creek Marina & has had a for sale sign on her for several years. A very pretty original boat that desires a new custodian.
Update from Russell Ward:
Peerless is a delightful little boat. I used to see her moored at Devonport when I took the ferry to work. 
I was speaking to an elderly lady from Bayswater. She regaled me with tales of how her father (I guess Ber Tansley) used to pull her ashore for the winter at Landsdown Road Bayswater. It was a whole day affair –the old boys used to do it by muscle power alone.
She went to Kawau at some stage and was offered for sale. That is when I took the pix.
The 1982 article was by Paul Tichener.
05-05-2020 Update – photo taken by Ken Ricketts at Kawau Island, 2002
Peerless 2002 Kawau Island

The launch Caprice & Silver Bay, Waiheke Island

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The launch Caprice & Silver Bay, Waiheke Island

In the 1950’s the Guthrie family leased a beach house + 10 acres (the only house in the bay) at Silver Bay, Waiheke Island. According to Roger Guthrie it cost one pound a week on a 20 year lease. The house sat right on the foreshore & still stands there today (& still the only house in the bay). The family would haul their launch Caprice out on the beach, right in front of the house. In the photos above the starboard side is being cleaned in Silver Bay, then a few days later the port side is done in Arran Bay, Wirihana is seen in the background, its a great photo of both boats with Ruth Passage seen in the background.

Thanks to Roger Guthrie for the photos & background info.

Pacific

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Pacific

Pacific

Designed / built by Joe Slattery in 1917. One of the boats on my bucket list, can not visit Gulf Harbour marina without walking past her 🙂
Hopefully the current owner, Grant Burrell, great grandson of her 1st owner will drop in here with some more details.