Category Archives: 1950’s

Jolly Roger

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JOLLY ROGER
photos ex Jason Prew

Back in August 2015 Jason was in Whangarei & snapped a collection of photos at the town basin. Today’s launch is the Jolly Rogers & she shows all the hallmarks of being a Roy Parris boat. I seem to recall she was berthed at Auckland’s Milford Marina for many years, not that long ago.
Can anyone supply more details on her?

21-10-2015 Update from Bruce & Margaret Hunt

We have been the proud owners of Jolly Roger for nearly 30 years. Very much a family boat cruising extensively in the Hauraki Gulf with our son & daughter from carry cot stage!
Launched in September 1956  Jolly Roger was built for Mr Brown of the Smith & Brown furniture store in Auckland. We visited Roy Parris soon after purchase & discovered that he had also owned her for a few years, Jolly Roger being one of his favourites.
We had her berthed at Westhaven until our shift to Whangarei  in 2014.

Mason Bay

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MASON BAY
photos & details ex Gary Underwood

Mason Bay (originally named San Guisepp) was built by Curnow & Wilson c.1956/57, while she has spent most of her life as a work boat she is now a very comfortable pleasure craft.
Details: LOA 14m, BOA 4m,.DR 1.5m 22Tonnes, 1500l diesel,800l water. Engine is a 6BD1 ISUZU 3 with a  Capitol box, prop = 29in X 17in. The hull is 3 bl. 32mm Kauri copper fastened on 3 stringers/side. Below is a summary in chronological order of her life – her present owner Gary Underwood would like any input to confirm or add to these details.
To view more details on her & the restoration visit gazzabomasonbay.blogspot

HISTORY OF MASON BAY

1956/7   Built Curnow and Wilton, Nelson for Tony Bonica, Island Bay Wellington as a day fisher. Launched as “SAN GUISEPPE”. Powered by a Lister JP3 (tbc)
1974      Ian Boyce went to Napier as she was for sale as “MARY LW”. Owned by Willy Watson. Had a Fordson (6?) and the Capital 3:1
1974      Late 80’s in Port Chalmers.
1978      Big NE blow (see newspapers) and 8 boats caught off the Nuggets, Otago bar closed “SEAWITCH” (sistership to DORADE) lost with 2 crew, Warren Wilson skipper & Les Walker (leadboots) MASON BAY all ok. ( Not sure if those 2 guys were on Mason Bay or Seawitch)
1985     Big refit at Miller and Tunnage. new bulwarks, and the 6BD1 Isuzu was installed with the 3:1 Capitol box. Then sold to a Mr. Hall in Nelson/Motueka. He also had “PEARLY SHELL” I believe
1993     Bought by Ian Boyce (from whom a lot of this info comes). Based in Tauranga with the “SEA BEE” and fished tuna off the west coast of the South IS.
1995     Sold to “Blondie”who had her for 2 years and ended up in Bluff
2001     Seen and photographed fishing in Lyttleton Hbr.
2007     Bought by Russell Keen from a finance company.
2009     Sold to Gary Underwood
2010     Motored north to Whangarei in Jan.
2010     May – hauled at Norsand boatyard for refit/rebuild and conversion to pleasure.  Shipwright was Marcus Raimon
2012     Re-launched and now home port is Whangarei Town Basin.

 

Stella

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STELLA
details & photos ex Judith Wallath

Stella was built by Lanes of Totara North in the mid 1950s.  Benjamin (Ben) Le Clerc, farmer of Otara, Helena Bay, bought her from Lanes.  Stella was 32 ft, built of kauri, with a petrol motor and set up as a game boat.  Later, while moored at Helena Bay, a petrol explosion occurred which blew out the forward hatch.  She sat on the beach for three months while having a 40 h,p, diesel motor installed.
Disaster struck again on the 21st April 1963 when Ben was returning from a fishing trip with eight men on board, and a catch of 13 hapuka.  The boat hit a rock off the Wide Berth (Limerick, Rimiriki) Islands.  A mayday signal was sent which was picked up at Russell and Port Charles.  In the meantime the boat broke up and the men clambered onto a rock.  The first to answer the mayday call were Jack Foote of Footes Bay and Mr J.D Prestney, manager of Mimiwhangata.  A runabout was sent out, which laboured to the mainland with 11 people on board.  Mr Prestney was off-loaded at Mimiwhangata.  He raced to his Landrover and flashed his headlights to attract the attention of the Kitty Vane which was approaching from Tutukaka.
Meanwhile the other ten proceeded towards Helena Bay where disaster struck again. The runabout struck a submerged reef and began to sink.  All had to abandon ship once again and cling to a small dinghy which was being towed.  It was 3 a.m. before they reached the mainland again.  21 year old Glenys Foote was the heroine of the event.  She rowed the dinghy that transferred the men from the rocks to the runabout, and then later rowed the 8 men to shore while Ben swam.

So woodys can anyone add to the history of Stella. Was she salvaged or slipped away to Davey Jones locker? There is some confusion as to her length some say 32′ others 38′, can anyone confirm?

Harold Kidd Input

STELLA apparently WAS a total loss when she went aground on the Limericks, Wide Berth Island, on 21/4/1963, that is according to Madge Malcolm’s book “Where it all began”, but the wreck doesn’t appear in “Shipwrecks of NZ”. She was then owned by B.C. Le Clerc of Helena Bay and was a 38ft bridgedecker. I think she was probably supplied by Lanes at Totara North but was undoubtedly built by Lanes at Auckland, despite the Sam Ford-type waist windows.

Milady

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MILADY
photos ex Ian Mason & B Worthington. details ex Harold Kidd & Geoff Rogers

Milady was designed and built by Billy Rogers and was the last boat out of his Curran Street shed before it was taken under the Public Works Act for the Curran Street Harbour Bridge approach road. This has been confirmed to Harold & myself by Geoff Rogers who had recently left school to join his father and was on the job when MILADY was being built.
She was commissioned by one of the directors of Dorman & Long who were the head contractors for the Harbour Bridge construction. He was an Englishman who didn’t want Billy to use his typical sweet sheerline but insisted on a straight sheer which was what he was accustomed to with the type of power boats used in English sheltered waters like the Norfolk Broads. The owner had two cabinet makers come and do the interior fit-out for him while she was under construction. Milady got her name from the confectionery company (Waller & Hartley’s Milady Toffee Co.) in Blackpool, England that her first owner’s family owned. She was originally powered by a 6 cyl Chrysler Crown petrol engine.

Unconfirmed data (ex Ken Ricketts)- The original engine was later replaced by a Ford diesel c.1957 by her then owner, Charlie Hardman, who sold her about 1959 to Bill Luxton, who had a beach house at Whangamata. She was owned by a G S Bright somewhere along the way & in 1973 by Trevor Titchener. In her early days she also had an owner by the name of J M Kenny who had her call sign registered as ZM2412.
She is presently in Whangarei undergoing extensive repairs after finding some rocks at Kerikeri about 5 years ago & has been undergoing repairs & refit for the past 4 years by local semi retired boat builder, Ian Mason. Ian hopes to have her back in the water for this coming summer (2015/16). She presently has a fairly new naturally aspirated 130hp Ford diesel, which had replaced a 90hp naturally aspirated Ford diesel before that. The previous owners were 2 gentlemen from Auckland, who had, had her for about a year, but Ian Mason can’t recall their names.

 

Star Drift (Lovely Lady)

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STAR DRIFT (Lovely Lady)
photo ex Pam Cundy at Whangateau Traditional Boats

Now today’s post is looking very sad, but still afloat. The photos show Star Drift (if that is her real name) moored in Tryphena Harbour at Gt Barrier Island. The flying bridge (I hear you John 2Dogs) almost passes the test, so I suspect at some stage she has spent time in the hands of a good boat builder.
What do we know about her & given I do not know the date of the photo, is she still there & floating?

Harold Kidd Input

The boat was launched as Lovely Lady & was built by  R.T. Hartley at Whangarei in 1951 to a design by Dick Hartley. She was 33’x11’x3’9″ and had a Scripps V8 originally. She was built for game fishing and is featured in the December 1951 SEA SPRAY mag.

Update 04-08-2019 Photos below sent to me by Tony Simpson, who spotted her on a trailer at Tryphena, Great Barrier Island.

IMG_0349

IMG_0348

Tony Simpson

Okareka

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OKAREKA (Ferg)
photos & details ex Ian Nairn, Harold Kidd & John Blundell

Ian Nairn sent me the above photos of Okareka taken when his family owned her between 1961 & 1975 approx.. At the time Ian’s family owned the Britomart Service Station in Custom Street East, Auckland.
Ian is a member of an exclusive ww club, 3 of his families boats have featured on ww – Silver Spray, Lady Pat & Okareka.

Okareka was built by Colin Wild in 1952 (tbc) & when launched her original name was ‘Fergy’, the significance of the name being that her original owner Ted Copsey & his son Peter had the Massey Ferguson tractor dealership in Pukekohe. Copsey sold her c.1957 to Don Brown of Almorah Rd Epsom. It appears Brown changed her name to Okareka.
During the Nairn ownership period they added, with the help of Roy Parris, the dodger over the open rear cockpit. They also installed the twin Ford diesel engines (on the 25th July 1968).

NOTE: In an early ww post Ken Rickett’s commented that Okareka’s varnished coamings were painted white pre 1953, the photos above are dated 1964 so Ken’s memory bank needs rebooting 🙂 Also Ken states that her first owner was Don Brown, which clashes with the Ferg name / ownership link ex John Blundell – hopefully today’s post clears up these discrepancies.

More details on the vessel, her owners & recent photos here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/04/29/okareka/ – remember to read the COMMENTS section 😉

Orphans Day

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ORPHAN DAY

Hows this for a cool idea, in the old days boaties used to rally around & hold an orphans day, where they took orphans (what a horrible sounding word) out on their boats for a magic day out. Not much chance of that happening now with all the PC rules & do-gooders out there.

In my early 20’s I sailed (on a Davidson 28, I know fiberglass) with one of life’s real characters, his name was Kaye Raymond Thode & someone should have written a book about that man, in my circle of yachting friends he was a legend. This was in the days of no cell phones & the skipper Dennis Ross had a few simple rules:

1. The boat leaves the dock at x.xxam, miss the boat & you had better find another boat to sail on for the next race
2. Anything discussed on the boat, stays on the boat
3. When away, personal hygiene was non negotiable – you weren’t even allowed to fa_t
4. Meals were always very civilized & you had to wear a shirt & sit at the table & no elbows on the table etc
5. Talking with a mouth full of food earned you a clipped ear

Well none of these rules applied to Kaye, he was uncontrollable BUT we all loved him & if his life tales had been published it would have been another Johnny Wray book.

I’m still bound by Rule #2 so my lips are sealed on the tales but you could be sitting on the rail, Kaye didn’t like that but there was no chance of ever getting Ron Lusty out of the cockpit & I don’t think the skipper, Dennis Ross, ever went forward of the mast 🙂  & Kaye would drop a clanger like “I grew up in an orphanage, we were poor & so all the kids were sent to an orphanage”, then later I hear from someone else that from his early 20’s Kaye organized a Xmas boating picnic for the kids at the orphanage he had attended – the picnic was really something with Kaye as Santa handing out amazing presents. I understand it was the biggest thing in the kids year. Kaye could be a total rogue but he had a heart of gold. Saying that when I knew him he was single, having been tossed out by his wife for diving drunk into a childs swimming pool & almost paralyzing himself, & my mother was a widower & I made it very clear to Kaye if I ever saw his car outside mums house I would shoot him 🙂

Today’s photo c1950’s was sent to me by Ken Rickett’s ex Dianne Hopson & is of Orphan Day. Ken Rickett’s reports that some of the boats that were involved every year were Valsan (Arnold Baldwin – Valsan, was a key mover in the events), Rehia (again Bill Ryan – Rehia, was also heavily involved),  Hukarere , Gay Dawn, Tasman, Lady Eileen, Margaret S, Apache, Tiromoana, Lady Joan, Aurora, Moanalua, Faye,Royal Falcon &  a lot of others.not sure if its the same day as Kaye’s but it must have been a blast for the kids. Somewhere in that fleet is the launch Hukarere.

How many other classic’s can we ID?

Juanita

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Juanita

I do not know the name of today’s post but this kauri sedan launch was recently sold on trademe. We do know she was designed and built in 1951 by Allen Williams.

32’ in length & powered by a 100hp Ford 6cyl. Diesel. Asking price was around $35k, so on face value, someone got a bargain.

When sold she was based in the Coromandel, so today’s questions are what is her name, who bought her, where is she now & what history do we know about her?.

Update – she is Juanita & has appeared on ww before so to read more about her, view the Comments section &/or search her name in the ww search box 😉

(classic trademe listing i.e. no boat name featured 😦  ……… when will people wise up)

22-10-2015 Update

Juanita is currently sitting on a swing mooring outside Lees Boat Builders at Sandspit awaiting her turn at the hands of Greg Lees & his team of craftsman.

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:

Albacora

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ALBACORA
details & photos ex Hylton Edmonds, Karen Moren & B Worthington

Albacora was built by Mac McGeady in 1954 for Pat Edmonds (Hylton’s father). She was to be a big game fishing boat in the Bay of Islands. She was 36′ & when launched powered by twin 90hp Graymarine engines.
The photo above is from a postcard (image a ‘little’ enhanced) of when she went up to Fiji in 1969 to start another successful game fishing career, operating out of the Fijian Hotel on Yanuca Island near to Sigatoka on the Coral Coast. While in Fiji, kiwi boat builder Ben Hipkins raised her cabin top to increase headroom.

Hylton has a rather nice collection of classic woodys –  with Zane Grey & Lady Eileen both in varying stages of restoration at his Russell, Bay of Islands yard/shed.

Link to Lady Eileen https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/05/22/lady-eileen-3/

Update from Hylton Edmonds

Hi Alan,

Great to see Albacora back in the lime light, and taking yours and a few of your correspondents lead in the quest for accuracy, if I could just correct a few things as follows,
Albacora was 38′ 6″” x 11′ 6″ x 3’6″, mostly full length kauri of 1 1/2 ” thick.
Her cost as-built was 4,500.00 pounds, transported by Hammond and McIntyre from Summer Street, down Franklin Road to Quay Street. She was launched at 7.5 tons by Mrs. Eileen Bronson (a well known fisher-woman of the day) on 13 September 1954 at Admiralty Steps by the floating crane Mahua.
She had twin Petrol Morris Commodore’s of 50 HP each.
Unfortunately these were the only motors readily available for her first season of 1954 /55, and were replaced the next year by twin 4 cylinder Lees Marine Fordson Diesel’s of 75 HP each. The work was done at Deeming’s on Tapu Point (as all the work in NZ was done) including changing her from wet exhausts to dry. A great friendship between Dad and both Roly and Ted Lees ensued. These were later replaced in her last years in New Zealand with twin 6 cylinder Lees Marine Fordson’s of 115 HP each.
Albacora had a successful Game Fishing career and at the time of being sold to Marlin Investments in Fiji in 1968 she had 4 World and 7 New Zealand records to her name.
Albacora was only ever in Auckland twice, firstly when she was launched in 1954, and secondly when she came back down from Russell to go as deck cargo on the USSCo Tofua to Fiji in the May of 1968
In the mid 70’s she was sold to a Mr. Dick Evison who was setting up Turtle Island Resort. Details became sketchy after that until in 1980, family friend and well known yachtsman Dick McIlvride saw her in a derelict state up the Nadi River.
Acting on a tip off that Albacora was still “alive”, and a hoping to fulfill a life long dream of bringing her back home, – a trip to Fiji 5 years ago was made primarily to find out once and for all what happened to her. The late Dick Smith of Musket Cove was most hospitable to me, but confirmed the sad news, that Albacora had indeed been a wreck up the Nadi River, but then purchased by the owner of (adjacent) Plantation Village (a Mr. Reg Raffe) in the November of 1982. She was re-floated, towed over to Malololailai and hauled up onto the hard between the 2 resorts. A rebuild was intended sometime after the Christmas/Summer Holiday season. Tragically on March 1st 1983 Cyclone Oscar decimated not only most of that side of Fiji, but Albacora as well. She (as was most of the buildings on the island) pushed into a heap by bulldozer and burnt.
My Father always said, as all McGeady Boats were, – she was a strongly built boat, and a comfortable sea boat, and to me Albacora was a very good looking well proportioned classic sedan launch, that acquitted herself well in every respect, but as we all know, – wooden boats in the tropics…… a very harsh environment to say the least.