Category Archives: 1920’s

Dauntless

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Dauntless

DAUNTLESS

Built c.1927, most likely a Lanes (I can hear HDK now 🙂 “aren’t they all” )50′ in length. Owner looking for more details on her past. Dauntless most likely not the original name.
Currently berth at Milford Marina (the creek).

31-01-2019 Update – Hauled out at Milford Cruising Club yard for some TLC. Photo ex Jason Prew

dauntless @ mcc jan2019

Help needed to ID launch

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Help needed to ID launch

A real mixed bag of vessels here. Must have been a regatta or speed boat racing.

Of interest to waitematawoodys is the fine looking launch in the centre with the canoe stern. Can anyone help ID her?

Harold Kidd Update:
There are numerous candidates for the canoe – sterned launch. I will work on ID-ing  her. It’s unusual to have a combination of a raised forward deck, a clerestory, a dodger and a canoe stern on a launch of what…36 feet? In the meantime, some possibilities are RONOMOR, HAZEL, WAHAROA, ROMA and DIXIE.
The little outboard racer is FLEETUN built by Collings & Bell in November 1928. That’s probably Charlie Collings handling her.
 
What I can advice is –
1.       It’s a NZPBA event
2.       It’s on the Whau River
3.       It’s some time after March 1928 and before they moved these races to the Panmure Basin in January 1930.

 

Silver Spray

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Silver Spray

SILVER SPRAY

Story & photo by Lyn Hatrick

The above boat is the Silver Spray which my Dad has noted as being built by Joe Slattery in Judges Bay about 1925 and was 26ft long. It was powered by an Ailsa Craig petrol engine. This boat is still in existence and has been completed done up and is now moored out by the boatsheds at Orakei. My grandfather owned one of the boatsheds there which he housed the Silver Spray in. These sheds were offered to those affected by the buildingof the pipeline and who owned boats which used to be kept up on the foreshore where the Shore Road/Orakei Road intersection is. The family lived in Orakei Road at the time and then moved to Tuahere Street and loved boating

Note the above was ‘borrowed’ from a facebook page & used based on the fact they we borrowing waitmatawoodys material 😉

Centennial Rudder Cup Winner

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CENTENNIAL RUDDER CUP
Raindance the floating head office for waitematawoodys picked up another shiny thing at the CYA prize giving last night. Will sit nicely alongside the Motor Launch Trophy won last year.
This year Raindance collected the Centennial Rudder Cup, the trophy donated by Pauline & Harold Kidd to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Rudder Cup Race, one of the most significant events in our motor launch history.
Special mention should be made to my boat boy Simon Yates.

Shenandoah Cruising in the North

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Shenandoah Cruising in the North
Over the 1931/2 xmas holiday period Shenandoah cruised in company with Alcestis & Lady Margaret. Two of the photos above show Shenandoah off the settlement of Mangonui, one tied up alongside Alcestis (Guthrie family launch) at the Mangonui Store, now the site of the famous (in the Far North) fish & chip shop. The other photos are possibly on-route to Haruru Falls.

Mothers Day

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Mothers Day

Mothers Day

ALCESTIS

Today is all about mums, past & present + families. What better photo to remind us about family life than the one above taken during the Guthrie family 1931/2 Xmas / NY Northland cruise on their launch Alcestis.
Over the next few days I will post some stunning photos of Alcestis (now Raiona), Lady Margaret & Shenandoah cruising around the far north.
Enjoy today.

special thanks to Graham Guthrie for sharing his grandparents photos

Pretty boats

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Pretty boats

Pretty Boats Luana

People often ask me why photos of the same boats keep appearing across all the media. The answer is simple, the more attractive to the eye a boat is, the more photos have been taken. This is particularly true in the days before digital cameras when developing & printing a photo was relatively expensive – so people only took photos of pretty boat or boats in trouble (on the rocks).

If your boat was drop dead gorgeous, people even painted it.
I was sent a photo of the painting above of Luana by Brian Worthington who in his words ‘was going thru a cupboard at the fishing club and found this broken glass print of Luana It used to be on the wall in the bar at Mayor island when the fishing club was based out there’.

Lady Margaret (Colin Wild). Chapter two

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Lady Margaret (Colin Wild) Story 

CHAPTER 2  (story & photos ex Ken Ricketts)
 
In chapter one, I referred to her as possibly a “Shakespearean tragedy on the water”.
 
Even Shakespeare had some happy parts to his great works, & as with Shakespeare, there I’m thrilled to say, is also a happy part to the Lady Margaret #1 Story.
 
Herewith a picture of Colin Wild’s classic 1927 master piece taken 2 weeks ago after having received a few months of hard work.
 
Besides what is visible in the pics., she has been rewired, & had various other internal work upgraded, & has had at the very least, a little refurbishing, I am told.
 
I hope to see her for myself, in the near future, & will report appropriately at that time. The most important thing at the moment however, is that she has certainly been saved, from the maritime graveyard. HALLELUIAH!!!
 
The above before & after pics tell the story to date
 
This most beautiful & classic part of our maritime history is going to live through another day. Long may she live.
Update on Chapter 2 – 14/05/13
I was aboard her last Tuesday, 6.5.13, at a little jetty in a creek at Kaingaroa Northland, & can report & update as follows.
She is looking “tidy” inside, but still needs fairly substantial galley maintenance & replacement of stove, carpets throughout, etc, likewise the shower room, & the full forward section of the boat. The hull has had all paint removed & she has had a reasonable paint job but is still showing seams on the topsides,
.
As one can see in the pics, some of her beautiful teak has been painted, (at least at the moment), which someone will hopefully restore to original in the future, but at least she is “usable,” & one of the owners & crew are, as I write this, away on a “shakedown cruise,” to Whangaroa.
On a short 1 hour run down the tidal estuary, the 150 HP Lees converted Turbo Ford, started & ran particularly smoothly at idle, with zero vibration, on her hard mounted engine beds, however the engine peaked at 2400 RPM, with propeller vibration at the top end of the range, & a top speed of 11 .9 knots governed, in my opinion, to at least a reasonable degree, by the 3 metres of water below the boat, as she buried her bum at the higher end of the range, (she has no trimtabs), & only increased speed by 3/4 of a knot in the last 700 RPM.
In my view there is still much to be done to her.
However, whilst there is much “elbow grease,” & much money, still needed to bring her back to her most wonderful, original, self, nevertheless, most importantly of all, she has been “saved from a watery grave.”
WONDERFUL!!