Category Archives: 1930’s

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

Polaris

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POLARIS

Story & photos supplied by Russell Ward

Here is a very interesting little boat that has been out of circulation for a while. I have been looking after her since 2005 and she is a shadow of her former self, but in a stable state.

Polaris, a 25’ pilchard trawler was built for a local fisherman by the name of Pearce by H Pearn & Sons Looe Cornwall 1935. The main engine 2 cyl Kelvin with similar engine as port wing engine. Construction is larch and pitch pine on oak frames. As an economy, the planking was not caulked –just fitted well. Pearce employed crews for both his boats and Polaris fished out of Polperro Cornwall until 1947 when she moved to Penarth Wales –I have one of her life rings with homeport Penrath still visible painted on it. She suffered a bilge fire from wing engine exhaust which was dealt with by sinking the vessel.

She was taken over by a boat builder who converted her into a pleasure boat with a strange cabin. In 1950 she was bought by the coroner  Col Kenneth Treasure of Tenby Wales. We think the good Colonel had her rebuilt with a rather more aesthetic cabin and I have a copy of a post card of her in Brixham

1954 found her in the ownership of one Griff Board with a Lister diesel installed. Board took the ship to Brixham where, in 1956-7 she was spotted by Wally Sharples who had seen her when he went to Brixham to see the Mayflower replica. The vessel had an extensive overhaul.

1958 Sharples, his family and apprentice John Penney emigrated to Adelaide and Polaris was shipped as deck cargo on “Queensland Star” 1960  found Sharples and family with Penney in Auckland along with Polaris which was rigged with a gaff mainsail and moored at Bucklands beach. Sharples cruised extensively in the Hauraki Gulf, Bay of Islands and Whangaraoa. I can remember seeing her round the bottom end in the ‘60s looking as pretty as a picture.

In 1970 Sharples and his wife moved to Opua, Bay of Islands and Polaris was moored there. Sharples died onboard after a fishing trip and the boat passed to his apprentice Penney.  1993 Jack Barber and Faye Christian bought Polaris from Penney. They used her extensively but the years were catching up with the ship and she was brought ashore for extensive hull work. This was well under weigh with the hull timbers almost all replaced when Jack Barber died 30 September 2002.

The son of the first owner was in touch and emailed a picture of her in her original form. Some part of me says she should be finished off like that.

Not often a boat travels so many miles on other boats’ keels. Even more fun is the knowledge of a boat’s travels halfway round the world leaving a lot of people who fell in love with her.

Te Rauparaha

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For Sale in Noumea May 2013
TE RAUPARAHA
Te Rauparaha was built by Chas. Bailey and Sons Ltd in 1938 for Harry Mills and was requisitioned in WWII as coastal patrol on the Northland Coast bearing the insignia of Q07. Te Rauparaha represented a departure to a more ‘contemporary look’ for the Bailey yard, featured in her beam and obvious elegance. She was 55 feet overall (53’4” on the waterline) and her bow was 14ft off the water and sported a magnificent flair, that can be seen on the later, albeit in reduced proportions, vessels that followed Te Rauparaha out of the yard.
Harry Mills turned over the ownership and running of Te Rauparaha to his fourth son Graeme (my father) in about 1962/3 and she was, until the late 1970’s our much-loved family vessel. I was practically bought up on her and still hold a half model of her crafted for my grandfather by Charles Bailey jnr.
Te Rauparaha was, for some years in New Caledonia where they ran tourist excursions with her. Her name was changed to M V ‘Tamara’. I do not believe that she is in New Zealand waters, but stand corrected on that. However, should anyone have any information as to her current whereabouts, and any other information, the Mills-Hillyer family would be very pleased.
The images above of our much loved family vessel are:
a) Sea trials off Brown Bay post launching.
b) As Q07 during wartime.
c) A more contemporary version (from my childhood) moored in Smokehouse Bay, sporting a flying bridge that my father had built in the 1960s.
Story & photos ex Pamela Hillyer, Harry Mills’ granddaughter
Harold Kidd Update
A true “Express Cruiser”, TE RAUPARAHA was the product of the late flowering of Chas. Bailey Jr’s genius, exemplified too by his design of the 94ft ketch NEW GOLDEN HIND for his old customer H.R. Jenkins (SHENANDOAH, 1929),which was built by Deeming Bros of Opua in 1939 and several outstanding sweet-lined contemporary fishing boats like KATOA, JOAN and MARGARET.
TE RAUPARAHA was fitted with twin 110hp Buda diesels which were becoming very popular at the time, supplied by Seabrook Fowlds and fitted by Allely Bros. They were replaced with Graymarines after her extensive wartime patrol work in WW1, often well off the Northland coast.
A motor launch to make the pulses race if ever there was one!
Update 22/05/13 – this is scary, just posted the above & CYA member Andrew Pollard (Aumoe) spots her for sale on trademe, appears to be in Noumea, listed yesterday click link to view http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=595731758
Update from John Senior
Mark williams and myself delivered her from Auckland to Noumea in 1979 to a kiwi owner who lived there and ran a buisnes of taking tourists out to Amede Light. She had extra seating installed and carried 80 pasengers, i think from memory she had two Grey Marine 6 cylinder diesels. It was a good trip taking 4 days to the hour.
 

Aumoe & Viveen

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AUMOE & VIVEEN

Thankful some of our classics have survived almost un touched. Two good examples are Aumoe (L) & Viveen (R). I have included recent photos to demonstrate their wonderful condition. The main photo is dated c.1930’s. Type Viveen in the search box to read more on her.

Aumoe in the 1930’s & ’40’s

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Aumoe in the 1930’s & ’40’s

Seems in the ‘old’ days the opening of a jetty was an event to celebrate. Here we see Aumoe anchored off the new Waldron jetty in Parua Bay on the northern side of Whangarei Harbour in 1948. Other boats – RONGOTAI along side the jetty MOERANGI in the middle, and i think BLUE FIN. Probably RANONI outside AUMOE (info ex Ian Mason)

The other photo of Aumoe is I suspect taken from Devonport c.1936
Harold Kidd Update:
RONGOTAI was built by Cox & Filmer in 1940 for Les Waldron but went straight into NAPS with Les as skipper. The Waldron family owned her well into recent times. I went up to view her in her shed at Whangarei c1980 with John Gladden but didn’t buy her. She was originally fitted with twin kerosene-burning engines. MOERANGI was built by Logan Bros in 1906 and was owned in 1948 by Hughie Cox-Smith. She is still on Lake Taupo I think. BLUE FIN was owned by S J Guest in 1948 and was probably brand new and built by Lanes(?).