Category Archives: 1920’s

Kotuku

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KOTUKU

photos ex trademe

Built in Picton in 1923 by Ernie Lane, 28’ long & powered by a Volvo MD3B diesel engine. She has been for sale on trademe at around $17,000; at that price she would make a nice entry-level launch to get in to the classic wooden boating scene.

She is currently set up as a day boat for the Sounds but the forward cabin could easily be converted back to a double berth.

Any woodys able to expand of Kotuku’s past?

Todays bonus viewing ex Baden Pascoe is a link to photos from the recent ‘Thames Traditional Boat Rally’ – clink to view

Chris Perkins photographs the Thames Traditional Boat Festival

Showboat

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1926

SHOWBOAT
photo ex Gillian Williamson

Today’s post is of the launch Showboat & is from 1926 when she was owned by Gillian’s father Tom Hollows who was 18 at the time. Must have been something back then for a teenager to own his own motor boat.

What more details can we uncover on her?

Waitematawoodys Trip Report From Overseas

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SOUTHERN BAY 1994 Replica of a 1904 Truscott Mfg. Co Steam Launch. Compromise hull and 33 sq ft. Propane fired vertical tube boiler.

WAITEMATAWOODYS TRIP REPORT FROM OVERSEAS

Today’s photos & story came in from James Dreyer, who along with the extended family currently have Laughing Lady at the Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard. Jame’s work / travel take him off-shore a lot & in late May he was in the USA & put together a little story on the Southern California wooden boating scene. I’ll let James tell it. Enjoy 🙂

Remember if you click on a photo it will enlarge & you can read the captions. Scrolling over also reveals the captions.

“Back in late May, my father Barry & I headed to San Diego to spend a few weeks working on my Rhodes 33 “Therapy” and to visit the some of the 160 odd small breweries in the County, just to ensure their IPA’s were up to scratch.  San Diego is known as the home of craft brewing, with each brewery having a tasting room and kitchen, or if not, bringing in a different gourmet food truck each night.  Needless to say the hard work sanding and laying Uroxsys/Awlwood in the Southern Californian heat was well balanced with hydrating activities.  And yes, the beer is so good, it was mind bottling (to coin a phrase).

While we were there I got in touch with Ralph Rodheim, the owner of another Rhodes 33 “Madness”.  

I was hoping to head north to his place on Balboa Island / Newport Beach, to take some measurements and hopefully go for a sail.  As luck would have it, the Balboa Yacht Club’s second inaugural Wooden Boat Festival was on during the final weekend of our visit, and Ralph was both an organising Chairman, entrant, and judge.  This was a perfect opportunity to give the worn down finger tips, and high calorie intake a rest, while seeing how economical our rental Prius Hybrid could be heading North on the Pacific Highway to Newport.  We left early, and stopped at a diner on the way for some bad coffee and an overcooked bacon muffin.  This was California after all.

The show was just brilliant. A very Interesting variety of boats, interesting characters and live music.

I bumped into a number of “Rhodes people” and we swapped stories and info about the history of the class and how our restorations were coming along.

Above are some photos of the various boats, some I am lacking much info on, so my apologies in advance.  If anyone wants more info on a certain boat, I am more than happy to respond with what I have, or get some more info from friends.  

I thoroughly recommend viewing the following collection of photos from the event:  http://bycwoodenboatfestival.com/schedule-of-events/  They are beautifully shot and feature a whole lot of boats I didnt photograph, and many of their interiors.”

REVELRY 1951 Stephens Bros. Cruiser 42’
REVELRY
HUMBLE 1902 Thames River Launch 52′
HUMBLE 1902 Thames River Launch 52′
GRACIE 1950 Ed Monk Bridge Deck Cruiser 36’ Monk was a master of streamlining and this little cruiser was just gorgeous, especially with its two wooden kayaks and dinghy. Built for exploring the Pacific Northwest.
GRACIE
MADNESS 1948 Rhodes 33 One Design Philip Rhodes / South Coast Boat Building Co.
MADNESS 1948 Rhodes 33 One Design Philip Rhodes / South Coast Boat Building Co.
LAST CALL 1948 Chris Craft Holiday 24′
CHIEF 1947 Chris Craft “Red & White” Express Cruiser 25′
CHIEF 1947 Chris Craft “Red & White” Express Cruiser 25′
FIRECRACKER 38’ Grand Craft 2003 Replica of a 1928 Chris Craft
SPARKLE A super cute Philip Rhodes designed 17’ Electric Skiff Originally tender to the 77’ Rhodes Motor Sailer SEA DIAMOND Built at Abeking & Rasmussen in 1956.
SPARKLE
HUNGRY BLONDE 1949 20’ Chris Craft Owned by the owner of Hungry Blonde winery. This was my pick of the show.
HUNGRY BLONDE
S WONDERFUL 1939 Chris Craft 19’
FOUR BELLS 1955 36’ Rybovich Sportfish #16 Rybovich boats are the Rolls royce of sport fishers. The first being built for Earnest Hemingway and featuring the first fly bridge and outriggers.
Four Bells
FOUR BELLS aft cockpit steering station. Whoar…
BLAIR BARRY 1926 Fay & Bowen Saint Lawrence River Launch 26′
BLAIR BARRY
JOYFUL Bill Dunlaps beautifully home build, yet to see the water. 16ft Whitehall
A lovely clinker / lapstrake dinghy
AWESOME. Oldsmobile V8, turning an original, custom built 1 into 2 Vee drive gearbox and twin screws.
Awesome
Barry Dreyer posing on the aft deck of the Schooner America Replica.
SOUTHERN BAY 1994 Replica of a 1904 Truscott Mfg. Co Steam Launch.
ONO Dawn Boat Co. 1929 New York Commuter Yacht & Florida Sport fisher Twin Detroit 6/71s
ROSE WILDER 1968 Sparman & Stephens / Canteri Sangermani Sloop Carvel construction, fin keel, skeg hung rudder
A little taste of Southern California: Big trucks offset by Hybrids and Solar panels.
A sweet old So Cal Kustom:

Silver Spray

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SILVER SPRAY

Today’s post has links back to yesterdays post that involved the Ravenhall family.
It starts back in 1926 when Silver Spray was built by Joe Slattery for Charles Ravenhall of Remuera. Silver Spray is 26′ LOA, 7′ beam with a 2’6″ draft, These days she is powered by a 4108 Perkins & has been beautifully restored & maintained by her owner & craftsman Mark Stapleton. Mark also maintains several other immaculate classic launches – Lady Margaret & Kailua for there owners.
The Ravenhall connection goes deeper in that Silver Spray is today housed in one of the Ngapipip Road boat sheds & back in 1930 Mr Charles Ravenhall was responsible for the shed sites in Ngapipi Rd being surveyed off for the construction of the sheds, with Silver Spray being the first vessel to be housed there. The Ravenhall shed was a small building , with a small window on the streetscape. The sheds were built as a result of the construction of the railway bridge across Hobson Bay.

Mark Stapleton had the pleasure of taking Charles Ravenhall’s son, Leslie & his family for a day trip on Silver Spray to celebrate Leslie’s 81st birthday.

The history of Silver Spray includes lives on Lake Rotoiti , Lake Taupo & homed twice in its 90 Years in Ngapipi Rd.

History is a wonderful thing but its now 2015 & Mark is retiring from boating due to health reasons & he has asked ww to help find a new minder for the old girl. To quote Mark “I would like to find another carer for her as I am confident in the right hands this boat has decades more life left in her. She is a delightful little boat & I have had many fantastic adventures with her “. Given the skills of Mark & the attention he has lavished on her, that is an understatement.

Silver Spray comes with a crated complete spare engine &  extensive new parts inventory.
She is in running order with full inventory of kit including – radio, fire extinguishers, life jackets, flares, Epirb, lines, anchors , dinghy, mooring .
Silver Spray is presently housed in her own shed and can be viewed on the hard by appointment. Mark can be initially contacted on email at   stapleton.restoration@gmail.com

The boat shed is also for sale separately. That should excite a few people, these things are like hens teeth & very rarely change hands.

So woodys, who is looking for or knows someone who is, a smaller classic wooden launch with wonderful provenance & maintenance history? This is the perfect boat, size wise in terms of easy maintenance & while I would hate to see her leave the Waitemata, she does have lake boat written all over her.

As an aside – Silver Spray is fast, she has blown the socks off my Raindance & other classics launches twice her size, in numerous CYA Patio Bay Rudder Cup classic launch races. Mark is always trying to squeeze an extra knot out of her – hence the sails in several photos, which he always told the race handicapper were there for safety (steadying) reasons – yeah right 🙂

02-08-2015 Photos ex Lynette Hatrick (nee Ravenhall)

The photos below of the Silver Spray during restoration were taken in the August 2003 before my Dad – Ronald and my mum – Bev Ravenhall went for the birthday cruise on the Silver Spray.

Mark Stapleton was passionate about restoring this boat and we all had a great time looking over it in the shed. That is my Dad in the photos.

 

Early Speedboats On The Waitemata with Nyria

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Early Speedboats On The Waitemata with Nyria. photo ex Robert Brooke. Details ex Robert and Harold Kidd The other day Robert Brooke was going through his father’s, Jack Brooke, photo collection & sent me a collection stunning photos. The one above shows a group of speedboats, which appear to be watching another race. Jack Brooke designed, built and raced these boats in his youth & he can be seen in the cockpit of  his 1928 C Class (20cu in) outboard racer ‘OP-IT’. The location & event could be the Whau River, for the 1929 NZPBA championship races (tbc) If you blow the photo up – you can see a very cool starting / signal cannon on the foredeck, by the mast. Who can ID the launch?

Harold Kidd Update

That’s a Winchester starting cannon. I have one and make my own 10 gauge blanks if you need any.
The craze of outboard racing started in Auckland from the 1927 Anniversary Regatta which put on a race for them. R.J. Sheppard of Devonport had built BACTERIA in late 1926. She was a 16 footer with a 3 1/2 (later a 4 1/2hp) Elto twin. Not to be outdone, Jack Brooke built the minimalist ‘OP-IT for the 1928 Regatta. She had a 20 cu in outboard which I think was a Caille. There was a series of HUMBUGs built by Collings & Bell for Les Stericker. I’m not sure which one this was, but probably it was the first, built in April 1928, and raced with either a 20 cu in or a 39.2 cu in Elto, depending on the class, and registered as number 15.
So this places the image at some time during or after April 1928. There is one race that fits the dramatis personae, the Akarana YC outboard race held on the 28th of April 1928 when these three outboards plus KURLY KALE, which retired with prop trouble, were the only contestants and HUMBUG had its first race. The course was off the Akarana Clubhouse in Mechanics Bay and F. W. Jeffer’s launch NYRIA was the start mark. So that’s pretty conclusively the launch in the photo above, I reckon.
NYRIA has been discussed in WW before I think, but briefly she was built by Dick Lang in 1922 for C.H. Dryland with an Ailsa Craig 20/24hp 4 cylinder. She was sold to Whakatane in 1936.

Little Tasman

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LITTLE TASMAN
details from Russell Ward

Russell was the bearer of some great news last week – the Colin Wild built Little Tasman, has found a new owner. Over the last few years numerious woodys have sent me photos of Little Tasman hauled out at Point Wells. I’m told a while ago a 4sale sign appeared, now I wish I had know – there are a few woodys out there that would have snapped up a Colin Wild built launch with the provenance that LT has. Wild built her for Albert Spencer & she was called Tasman & was a trial for his next (larger) boat also called Tasman so #1 then became Little Tasman. In the sepia photo above she looks to have a good turn of speed – I don’t imagine Albert Spencer would not have been chugging around the harbour at 7 knots 🙂

I’ll let Russell time his tale about Little Tasman.

“My memories of her go back to the mid ‘60s when all was Radio Hauraki, psychedelia, Beach Boys, Strolling Bones and Beatles. Oh and sheilas. Boats were somewhere in there and Bon Accord harbour was the stage. Mansion House was still privately run and the authorities didn’t know about the “Snake Pit”. There were usually several mullet boats nosed into the beach and crews in varying stages of recovery/rehydration. You couldn’t get your anchor to hold reliably in the bay because of all the bottles on the bottom!

The Kawau Yacht Club was pretty moribund, although the AMYC were making preliminaries to taking it on (my old man was on the committee of AMYC) so we had great hopes.
Mrs Lidgard was in residence, Skip Lawler had the Fairmile Ngaroma alongside the wharf for a while, and the Comettis had a fantastic garden. My potted history of the Christmas holidays.

The Ward family (no relation) had Little Tasman at that time and it was party time. If I said that one of the mullet  boats that had rafted alongside one memorable noisy night, was pushing off at just before sunrise because “they didn’t want to get us mulletties a bad name”, you get the picture.

But enough of that (it was just to get the old salts of Cobweb Corner reminiscing about their misspent youths). I have always been keen on machinery and when Harold Kidd mentioned that Little Tasman had a Stearns, I wondered what sort of engine they made. No pictures in my books. It was pretty obvious that there must have been classy because they were going into classy boats. American of course. And Stearns Knight made sleeve valve engines for their cars, the assumption that there was a connection was there. But no, no relation.

I contacted an old colleague in the US to see what he could find. And Richard Durgee sent me a raft of pics and adverts (refer below). They are 1924 and 26 so just right timing. I am fascinated that they have an amazingly modern head. Prod rod of course and the combustion chamber apparently in the piston.  You remember –what the Chrysler invented in the ‘70s for the Chrysler Hemi! Nuthin’ new out there, son. ’S all been dun before apart from nukes. Most marine engines were side valve –slower flame propagation and plenty of low down torque”.

Remember click image to enlarge

Tasman

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Tasman

photo ex Peter Loughlin

Peter L sent in this b/w photo of the 1927 Colin Wild Tasman pictured above. Anyone able to ID / date the launches behind her?

And now some eye-candy, a photo I took of Tasman in Sullivans Bay, Mahurangi.

08-02-2021 UPDATE – Photos below ex Nathan Herbert of Tasman at Whakatakataka Bay (OBC) late Jan 2021. Looking very sharp under new ownership.

Iris

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IRIS
photos & details ex Chris Manning & Harold Kidd

Harold has advised that Iris was built by Ernie Lane for E.A. Johnson of Havelock in 1923 and was 40′ x 8’6″ x 3′ 5″ and originally had a 1918 H.C. Doman 2cylinder 15hp, later a Fairbanks Morse then a Kelvin.

Chris added that she was sold to the Orchard family for fishing duties mid 20th century (ish).  Later while at Picton in the 1960’s she suffered a major fire while apparently the gearbox was being cleaned out with petrol.  Some of the fuel spilt into the bilge and caught fire from some dodgy bilge pump wiring.  After the fire Bill Orchard hauled her out and stripped the hull/house so she looked like a big canoe.  She was rebuilt with a couple of extra planks all around, new deck and new house.  Hence the big change in her lines from the oldest images to the newest.

Chris thinks Iris was sold to Athol Sadd of Blenheim in the seventies and was used as a commuter between Picton (later Waikawa) and his property in Ruakaka Bay.  Apparently Athol had a bit of a scare with a rail ferry in in the fog one night/day and within a few days the ‘starship enterprise’ radar scanner arrived.

In 1986 she was re-powered from the 471 GM that Bill Orchard put in her to a 671 Detroit (she has a size able engine box in the aft cabin).  The engine is rated to 180hp at 1800RPM.  Peter Rothwell fabricated the running gear having a 2 inch 316 SS shaft with a 4 bladed 26/24 Nalder and Biddle propeller.  She goes really well such that the propeller holds the engine at a whisker over 1750 RPM (with prop speed). The prop has a bare 3/4 inch between the blade tips and the hull –  a bit of copper sheathing is required there..  Economy wise, she burns about a litre a mile at about 12 knots.  At 1800RPM with flat water, a clean bum and no passengers she can touch 16 knots.

Mark Rogers and Chris bought her in partnership in 2009 and have progressively refitted her.  Chris said she will never be ‘finished’ but she will steadily improve, his quote is ‘Boat Finished > Man Die’ 🙂

Iris also has a sister ship, the Mavis, which is alive and looking very nice in Havelock.

Photos of Mavis below ex Chris Manning

Mavis
Mavis

Restored 1921 Arch Logan Classic Motor Yacht Ngaio For Sale

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Arch Logan Classic Ngaio For Sale

In 1921 at Ngataringa Bay, Devonport, New Zealand’s greatest boat designer/builder Arch Logan launched the motor yacht Ngaio that had been commissioned by owner H. Partridge.
Logan built this magnificent kauri carvel planked vessel using full length kauri planks i.e. each plank was 39′ long.

Fast forward 92 years & Ngaio was acquired by Auckland architect Ian Kohler, who with partner Lancia undertook one of the most extensive professional restorations to a classic wooden boat we have seen in recent years. Ngaio’s hull was taken back to bare timber, kauri splined & glassed. Every item of engineering & fitting on-board was either reconditioned or replaced.

The photos above & below do not do this classic justice. If you are in the market for a classic vessel – inspection of Ngaio won’t disappoint.
This is a once in a lifetime chance to acquire a piece of NZ’s maritime heritage & is presented in turn the key, sail away condition.

Call Greg Stenbeck 021 985 830 or e: gregs@gulfgroup.co.nz

PS – This is actually Saturdays post, posted early 🙂

Ngaio below as featured in the 2014/5 Classic Yacht Association Register