Category Archives: 1930’s

Isa Lei (original name was Taiparu)

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ISA LEI (original name was Taiparu)

Details & photos from Ann Hood (owner of Avanti) & Ken Rickitts
Isa Lei was Ann’s parents boat & she was built in 1946/47 by Lidgards & was one of 2 identical boats — the other is ‘Wakatere’. The only visible difference is, that the Wakatere  had a dodger from new &  Isa Lei didn’t . They both had that unique shaped tuck, the streamlined bow porthole frames.
When she was built, she had the name on gold leaf in script, slanting up at an angle on the combings — (from the side deck line towards the cabin top if you like),  after of the last window between the window & where the combings curved down to the cockpit.
Isa Lei was owned for a period in the 80s  by a couple who lived in Wheturangi Rd Green Lane, called Jack & Isobel Lucas (the battery people, lived in Panmure) & Ken Rickitts first meet Jack in the early 1980’s, when he pulled in to Mansion House Bay, one day on his way to Auckland with the boat from Whangarei, where he has just bought & taken delivery of her, from the previous owners, Helen & Jim Somner, who had had her for a number of years.
Ann says the small photo has a date on the back of 09.01.64 and believes this is when the Somner family owned her.  The photos of her in blue were as her parents found her in Bowentown.  She was hauled out quickly at Opua on arrival and then at the BOI Yacht Club for the work. The man doing the recaulking is Keith Edwards

Ann thinks that her Mum and Dad “filled in” the flying bridge and remembers spending hours stripping and sanding the pilot light mast and vhf mast and also sanding the Kauri for her nameplate.

Photos are a montage over the last 70 years. Some pretty, some not…. 🙂

Harold Kidd Update

ISA LEI was built as TAIPARU (not TAUPARU) by Lidgard Bros at the Western Reclamation, Auckland for J. Carlton of Sunny Bay, Kawau and launched on 7th December 1939 with a 6 cylinder 90hp Graymarine petrol engine. In 1946 she was owned by C. Pryce Jones. I H McRae owned her in 1953 and it was he who changed her name to ISA LEI. Roughly 1954 to 1975 she was owned by Lloyd and Jim Somner etc etc.

I think her sistership was WAKATERE which spent a lot of her life in Tauranga.

Royal Saxon

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ROYAL SAXTON

photos & story ex Harold Kidd

ROYAL SAXON was built by Colin Wild for Whangarei surveyor Harold Frederick Saxon Charlesworth and launched in October 1930.

She was 33ft loa, 9ft 6in beam and drew just under 4ft. Her original engine was a 35hp Kermath.

In late 1936 Charlesworth sold her to Mrs. G Kendall of Hamilton who kept her on the Waitemata. The Sanders brothers bought both ROYAL SAXON and MOVARIE in 1940. They kept MOVARIE until they bought LADY CROSSLEY in 1956 but sold ROYAL SAXON in 1943 to Gordon Hunter. ROYAL SAXON was a patrol vessel with NAPS from around 1942-1943, under skipper J G Brook as Z21.

Gordon Hunter sold her to R & J F Phillips-Turner in 1945, they sold her to W G Gottwaltz of Thames in 1947; he sold her to J G Browne of Katikati in 1948; he sold her and she was owned in 1973 by Dr. W R Trotter of Epsom. She was owned in Motueka  when I saw her and photographed her about 11 years ago nosing her way into the Sandfly (Falls) River on the Tasman Bay coast, still in lovely condition.

The photo of her on the slip at Whakatakataka Bay is probably during the latter stages of the war when she had reverted to civilian control. She’s wearing her wartime reporting number on her bows without which she could have been sunk by the batteries on North Head.

Update from Rick McCay (current owner of Luana)

We owned Royal Saxon from 1989 to 1994. She was a superb first classic launch for us. We bought her from Don Watson who lived on Waiheke Island and to his credit she was in perfect condition. We restored the bridge varnish as she was all white when we got her. In 1994 we sold her as we had fallen under the spell of Luana, and as we all know while owning one old boat is a catastrophe, two is an absolute disaster. We sold her to a lovely man Captain Tom Rowling [brother of PM Bill Rowling] who was skipper of the Golden Bay cement ship. We had a great afternoon on board his ship one time it was in Auckland. He trucked Royal Saxon to Mana and motored her across Cook Strait to her future home, Motueka. Dr Trotter was a keen amateur cabinet maker and Saxon had a lovely interior courtesy of his expertise.

SIDEBAR (ex AH)

Now a woody who shall remain nameless passed this story onto me 🙂
“When Doc Trotter owned “Royal Saxon”, he had an elegant daughter who was draped on the bikini deck  –the part between the houses on a bridgedecker –quite sheltered for sunbathing.. Anyway, I did my hair and rowed slowly past and tried to chat her up. She didn’t want any of it! Shame-  she could have had me too if she had tried.
 Life is paved with rebuffs from Dio and St Cuths chicks…..”
17-02-2016 photo of Royal Saxon at Kaiteriteri ex John Burland
Royal Saxon @ Kaiteriteri

Tuhua

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Tuhua

TUHUA

words & photo ex Baden Pascoe

Tuhua formally Port Whakatane, built by W.G Lowe in 1937. Bruce Donaldson owns her but when they rebuilt her, whoever did it, must have been blind towards her shear line and other atributes. Hard to tell she is the same ship because she looked a honey when launched.

Harold Kidd Update:

She was indeed a neat little vessel. She had a 60hp Gardner diesel when first launched. I lived in Whakatane briefly in 1946-7 and had a trip to Whale Island on her. All I really remember was her very pleasant exhaust note and that the floor of the bay we anchored in was covered with a massive squadron of stingrays that flew in just as we were going to dive in after anchoring. I went on the annual trip taking Maori muttonbirders to the island in the season (November).

Cabin Fever?

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Cabin Fever?

Cabin Fever?

What a great day to get out for a walk, so head down to Auckland’s waterfront & take in the sights, grab a coffee or pinot in one of the many cafes & bars. Then stroll along to the CYA’s Heritage Landing & catch a look at the just re-launched Gypsy. She moved into Heritage Landing on Wednesday & is looking very sharp.

Naumai

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NAUMAI
Photo & words ex Baden Pascoe 
Built by Ernie Lane at Picton in 1937 for Alf Walling of Tauranga. In later years she was purchased by McCallum Bros Ltd and slowly she changed her identity. She was eventual wrecked on Browns Island one foggy morning. Her normal skipper Lance Cross took a day off. Originally Fairbanks Morse powered (E.R. Lane were agents) then another motor and later a 8L3 .

Talua

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TALUA
Built by Colin Wild for J. R. Butland. Yes was almost a sister ship to Rehia. Above are press clippings supplied by Russell Ward (ex Harold Kidd) recording the launchings of both vessels, you can see the similarity. The colour photo was taken a few years back when she was on Orams sales marina. Some how a glasshouse appears to have been dropped on top of her 😦
My good news of the day is that Rehia has been sold & has a new owner who has just joined the CYA, so she is back in the ‘club’  🙂

 

Amakura II

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P1090114P1090116AMAKURA

AMAKURA II
I was heading back up the harbour late afternoon yesterday & Amakura II was sliding down the harbour looking as always stunning. Then I had a flash & thought hell I had not post the two spectacular photos of her taken by Heather Rose, on the CYA Riverhead Hotel cruise.
Update complied with input from Harold Kidd, Russell  Ward & Ken Ricketts
She was 45ft oa when built by Colin Wild for Chas Court in 1936 and had a single 350hp Lycoming petrol engine. Court had Wild lengthen her by 7ft in 1938 when she was fitted with twin Buda diesels of 220hp. C L Urquhart bought her in January 1940 and owned her throughout her NAPS service until bought by W C Wedderspoon in 1947 -49. According to the Squadron’s records and the Register of British Ships she kept her Budas during service with NAPS, Wedderspoon moored her at Hobson Bay, at the Parnell baths end, not far off the rock wall of Tamaki Drive. The next owner was P Mitchell of Wellington 1949-50 and then in 1950-55 by L R H Webber, owner of the Plummer Hat Company, a successful millinery organisation of the day, who had previously owned ‘MARO’, until N T & C C E Mills of Te Puke bought her in 1957 when she was fitted with twin 85hp Graymarines. They were replaced by 86hp Fords in 1961. In later years she went north to Whangarei, where she spent much of her life in a “drive in” shed, on the banks of the Whangarei River.
Now back in Auckland, she received a ‘facelift’ at the Peter Brooke yard & would now be one one of the most used classics on the Waitemata.
The b/w photo above was taken by Ken Ricketts in Mansion House Bay Kawau Island, Christmas 1948.

Wairangi

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WAIRANGI
 
Story by Ken Ricketts
 
Designed by Wren Carey of Christchurch, as a pleasure craft for himself and his family. She was to be 17 meters long x 4.1 meters beam x 1.9 meter draft with 10 berths in 3 cabins. Her weight is estimated at 35 tons and she is perhaps a little different from other classic launches of that era in that she has a cruiser stern which, in a following sea  is very, very comfortable.
 
Well known boat builder, Andy Millar, of Millar & Tunnage, in Dunedin, was selected by Carey to build her, – which they did, from heart kauri, and completed her in 1934.  It is believed Wren Carey based her in Lyttelton, and mainly cruised Banks Peninsula, but there are photos, which show her in Picton, so Carey and his friends used her in the Marlborough Sounds, probably over the summer holidays. In those pre-war days.
 
Photos below show she sported 2 masts, the main mast, just in front of the wheelhouse, and the mizzen mast about over what is now the owners cabin, which is fairly well aft.
 
In those days the super structure stopped at the funnel, so access to the lower areas aft, would have been via an external hatchway, just aft of the funnel casing.
 
Her engine was Thornycroft, which must have been used as an auxiliary, with sail being used, when possible.
 
At the outbreak of WW2 she wascommandeered for use by the Lyttelton Harbour Board  as an inspection vessel..
 
At the end of hostilities, she became surplus to requirements, and was handed back to Carey, who then sold her in 1948, to the Lyttelton Harbour Board, (LHB) (refer Russell Ward’s comment below), as their pilot boat, and small tug. The LHB removed the old petrol motor, and installed a brand new Gardner 6L3 marine diesel, which is still operating perfectly today. They had an engineer in the engine room, who manually shifted the gearbox into forward, neutral & astern, on instruction from the skipper on the helm, but today a Morse system is used at the helm, which goes from mechanical, to electrical, to hydraulic, via an ingenious conversion system. She cruises at about 7.5 knots and uses about 6 – 8 litres of diesel an hour. There are very few 115hp marine engines today, with this low consumption figure, and the 4 new fuel tanks installed recently, will hold around 3,500 litres of diesel, which makes her ideal for expedition work or long passages.
 
LHB also removed her sails and the mizzen mast, and installed a radar above the wheelhouse, where the mainsail on its boom would have swung.
 
So began her transformation from a motor sailer, to 100% launch.
 
It can safely be assumed that Wairangi, during time with the LHB, has rubbed up against virtually every passenger and cargo ship visiting Lyttelton, from 1948, to the late 1980’s, when she was sold to Lionel Jeffries, an Auckland businessman, who used her as a pleasure craft. He also extended the superstructure aft, from the funnel casing, to what is  there today, using teak planking, to match the original wheelhouse upper works.
 
He sold her to Lew Ritchie, who used her as a dive and charter boat, out of Tutukaka, in Northland, for a few years, before putting her on the market, and finally selling it to Andrew Jackson, – a retired Auckland businessman, now living in Picton, who immediately started a large scale refit, and refurbishment of the vessel. Sadly, through years of neglect, it proved not possible to keep the exterior teak planks varnished, as many had split and needed filling, so they were painted over. To replace them would have been very costly..
 
Jackson was looking for an old, NZ built, classic launch, to undertake a couple of adventures abroad. At one stage, it looked like funding might appear, for an expedition, to search for the answer to what happened to Amelia Earhart, when she went missing in her epic 1937 round the world flight. A second plan, one which used her in Europe, in a 13 part television series,  looked like it may eventuate, but the worldwide economic downturn, saw both projects shelved.
 
With her low fuel consumption and huge range she is ideal for expedition work, and long range cruising.
 
The vessel has been fully refurbished, to the point, where the Jacksons now live aboard her, in the new Picton marina.
 
She still has her original call sign of ZMTM.
 
She is now for sale,  contact – Andrew Jackson on 021347988.
WAIRANGI 2013 -- BUILT 1934WAIRANGI - PILOT LAUNCH- CIRCA 1948