Category Archives: 1920’s

Swanee

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SWANEE
photos & details ex Ralph Weber

While the exact details of who designed & built today’s launch Swanee are unclear, she is rather unique in that she has remained in that same family for over 50 years. Built from kauri she is 33′ long with 8’9″ beam & 2’8″ draft, currently powered by a 60hp Ford diesel.
You can see from the photos that she is very well appointed with everything one needs for comfortable cruising – electric flush toilet, freezer/frig, electric capstan & all the safety gear.
Over their period of ownership the Weber have ensured Swanee remained in great condition with a major 2 year out-of-water refit in 1970 that saw her re-ribbed with pohutukawa (you could back then 🙂 ) & new topsides. In 2004/5 her topsides were glassed & 2 pot painted & she was rewired.

Owner Ralph understands, from his mother, that she was built c.1920 in Auckland for Sanfords. Then later sold to the McLeod family of Helensville. Then she went to Dargaville and then owned by Matich Bros and later by Dr Maurice Matich. The Weber family, Ken & June, bought Swanee in 1961 and now ownership is with their son Ralph Weber of Matakohe. Currently moored at Pahi.
Ralph commented that Harold Kidd had previously mentioned that she may possibly have been the – ‘Sister Lola’ & built by Bailey & Lowe, if so she ‘raced’ with the Ponsonby Cruising Club.

Ralph sent ww photos of Swanee over a year ago & contacted me recently to say that unfortunately life has moved on & the family have had to make the difficult decision to sell Swanee after 50+ years of ownership, so today’s post has a degree of sadness but could offer a lot of happiness to someone looking to buy a classic launch. For a 33′ launch, Swanee is a lot of boat, you can see in the photos that there is no shortage of living area & she comfortably sleeps 5. After 50 years you end up nothing what works best & where on a boat 😉
Boat aesthetics is a very personal thing & with some people practicality is #1, but if I was buying her I would be off to see a good sympathetic wooden boat builder like Geoff Bagnall & returning her cabin windows to a style a little more in keeping with a 1920’s classic. People forget that these old girls are wood & the cost of a wee bit of restoration like this would not be great. After all there is little else that needs doing to her.
She sports rather a racy (flat aft) bottom so with a bigger motor I would imagine she would perform very well.

So woodys – can we find a buyer for Swanee or know something that is looking for a classic wooden launch? Being based currently at Pahi she does present some interesting scenarios e.g. you could keep her there for a few seasons & have a floating family bach. A group of guys could get together & buy a good fishing / man bach on the Kaipara. Or simple put her on a truck & return her to the Waitemata.

Now I do not normally like to talk money in ww posts but the overall 2nd hand boating market is just so soft that when I think something is great value, I will – well woodys someone could own Swanee for less than $30K. , that is real value, you could not build a garage for that.
If you or anyone you know could be interested – contact Ralph, initially via email on weber.bros@xtra.co.nz

Also interested in any info /photos on her past.

Harold Kidd Input

SWANEE was certainly built as SISTER LOLA pre-October 1920, possibly by Harvey or DIck Lang. I don’t know where the Bailey & Lowe reference came in, although Bailey & Tyer did build a 33 footer (unusual dimension) just pre WW1. Lang too had built a 33 footer in 1916 and just could have used those moulds.
I can’t find a direct report of her owner as SISTER LOLA but am pretty sure she’s the boat reported in the Auckland Star of 28th August 1920. If so, her hull was built professionally and she was finished off by her first owners Pavitt brothers and Verran at Bayswater. There again the Verrans were Northcote people and Bailey & Tyer were at Hall’s Beach, Northcote Point.
She was sold to Arthur Sandford of Vine St., Ponsonby in late 1922, early 1923. He changed her name to SWANEE probably after the Al Jolson song “Swanee”. Sandford was, for a time, a professional Vaudeville artist and no doubt sang that song on stage. She had a 6 cylinder Studebaker car engine in 1925.
Sandford sold her to Alfred McLeod some time between 1934 and 1939. McLeod joined the Squadron with her in 1939. She then had a 30hp Hercules engine which he replaced with a 100hp Meadows ohv 6 in 1947/8 (probably a war-surplus engine). The rest of her history on the Kaipara is well-known.
There’s a big dose of conjecture in the above. I’ll check with the Verran family.

Update 30-08-2015

B/W photo added above ex Ian Miller whose wife Rosalind’s late father, Doug Hazard, crewed on Swanee in the 1930’s

Update 06-03-2023 – photo below ex Kauri museum, Matakohe via Diane Wilkinson fb

Little Tasman Gets Some Serious TLC

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Little Tasman Gets Some Serious TLC

photos above ex Ken Ricketts

Today’s post is the 26′, 1925 Colin Wild designed / built Little Tasman, who until recently had been hiding under a trap at Point Wells. Now she is tucked away in boat builder Colin Brown’s shed at Omaha & getting a major fright 🙂
I love it when we see an old girl undergoing this degree of restoration – well done the new owner. I know there will be several woodys very happy to see today’s post.
Nathan – that Kawau race fleet is starting to look healthy, you & Jason P need to shake a leg if you want to be on the start line 🙂
Lots more on Little Tasman here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/04/20/little-tasman/

Pt Wells photos below

Quite a wee speedster in her day

Manaaki

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MANAAKI
photos & details ex Crispin Waddell

Crispin has owned the 1926 Collings & Bell launch Manaaki since 2013. Manaaki’s specs are – length: 11m, beam: 2.5m, draft: 1m & her current engine is a  1970’s Lees Marine Ford diesel 75hp. She is carvel planked, with full-length 32mm heart kauri planks over steam bent and laminated ribs, with less than 200mm spacing.
She cruises at 8knts. & tops out at around 12knts. but unlike some other boats of her era, Manaaki has more of planing hull & is flat at the stern & could do up to 16knts. with the right engine.
She is one of 6 boats build for the Zane Grey fleet – Alma G, Otehei & Avalon were the names of some of her sisters. Manaaki was originally fitted with a petrol Redwing engine.

Crispin has been involved with the boat since he was a child, (now 29). He bought her off the Hunt family. Like most of us he is always keen to find out stories and collect any old photo’s and history of the boat. She lived in the Whangaroa for around 30 years & there are a few photo’s of Manaaki on wall of the pub & records of all her catches in the Game Club up there.

Electrochemical Wood Damage
Crispin came across  the ww article about electrochemical damage & the timing was great as he is having problems with it occurring on Manaaki. It’s mainly happening in the area where the prop shaft sleeve comes through the keel under the floor. The kauri fluffs up around this area and he get lots of salt crystals. Thanks to the ww article he is hoping to get on top of this as it’s just started over the last 3 years.

If anyone knows the boat or has any old photo’s send them into ww, Crispin would also be interested in getting in contact with anyone from the boats past.

24-02-2018 Manaaki was anchored alongside me today at Motuihe Island, looking very smart 🙂

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Thank God Diesel Engines Came Along

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Thank God Diesel Engines Came Along

Its a wonder not more of the early motor boats didn’t blow up, Ken Ricketts sent me the photo above (ex Dianne Hopson – Ravenhall era) of Silver Spray with three  4 gallon tins of petrol on deck. And the chances are that the blokes would all have been smokers as well.

The Guthrie family were very inventive with their empty containers – photos below of baby Hugh Guthrie, grandson of Hugh Douglas Guthrie, c.1925 taking a bath aboard Alcestis. You would like to think that the tins were well cleaned before being taken ashore and used as a stove cum bbq…….. Roger Guthrie who sent me the photos said “the scorched bush in the background must have been from a “previous person” – yeah right 🙂
The gent tendering the fire is the grandfather, Hugh Douglas Guthrie born 1883, aged 42 in this photo.

Linda

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LINDA
photo ex Dean Wright

The photo above of the 1927 Colin Wild Linda was sent to me by Dean who  took the shot at his friend, Lenore Bauern’s, place. Lenore is Bill Swales sister-in-law, the son of Roy Swales a past owner of Linda. Lenore says the shot was taken before Roy owned her.
Linda has featured several times on ww & will continue to because she is such a stunning vessel, perfect from every angle. You can view/read more on her by clicking on this link https://waitematawoodys.com/?s=Linda&submit=Search

Anyone game to attempt to ID some of the crew?

Nice also to see ww getting a plug in the August issue of Boating NZ (below) & in a nice segue, Linda above was restored by Robert Brooke & in the magazine article, the b/w photo of Aroha has Robert’s father,Jack (John) in-frame 🙂

Screen Shot 2015-07-31 at 7.56.21 AM

Harold Kidd Input

It’s clear that this photograph was taken when she was new and in the hands of her first owner, E.J. (“Manny”) Kelly, who was a Squadron member as well as being Commodore of Ponsonby Cruising Club. I think he’s flying the Squadron flag above hie PCC flag officer’s burgee as a matter of correct protocol as the Squadron is the senior club (a well as being a “Royal”). So that’ll be Kelly in pride of place at the wheel.

Emanuel John Kelly (1876-1960) was a long-term launch owner. He ran a business as a metal founder and engineer and lived in Shelly Beach Road, Herne Bay. He had LINDA built by Colin Wild in October 1927 and kept her until Roy Swales of N Z Leadworks bought her. Before LINDA, though, Manny had the  42ft launch DAISY from mid1916 to February 1927. She had been built built for Arthur Brett as ALLEYNE (V) by Tyler & Harvey in November 1908, a double-ender of the Logan Bros type. She started life with a 20hp 2 cylinder Lozier, then moved up to a 30hp 3 cylinder locally-built Twigg in 1919 (I wonder if Kelly did the castings for W.R. Twigg?) (Twigg was killed and eaten by a lion on safari in Rhodesia in November 1925, which is somewhat topical).

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.