Category Archives: 1960’s

Lady Ethel

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LADY ETHEL

Built in 1963 by Brin Wilson.Designed by Billy Rodgers and is what the owner calls a classic ‘Sounds’ launch.
At 34ft and built of triple diagonal kauri planked.
Powered by a 72 hp Mercedes 4 cylinder diesel engine, she will cruise at a comfortable 7-8 knots.
Currently residing in Motueka and for sale on trademe.

Anyone know how she ended up in the South Island & what of her life in between?

06-11-2015 Chris McMullen Input edited by Alan H

Morrie Palmer of Devonport built the hull and Mr Neil Wilson finished her off. Not Brin Wilson.
Mr Neil Wilson (I believe an ex Joiner) was the owner and manager of the Auckland University Maintenance Department. He wanted no Butt blocks in his new boat and scarfed the planks himself while we built the boat.   She may have been 34 Feet but was not triple diagonal planked. (That was later corrected.)
I started my apprenticeship with Morrie 16th of January 1961 and transferred to M C Carter Ltd  30th of August 1963. I worked for Morrie two years seven months.
When I started he was working in his backyard at Point Chevalier. He was finishing Basl Kelly’s raised deck Stewart 34 Pania. I recall a huge launch hull on his section painted with red lead. I am not sure but it may have become the “Lady Argyle”. I never worked on her.
Soon after, Morrie moved to #15 Clarence St Devonport. (see the Cara Mia site for more https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/01/17/caramia/ )  Cal Crooks joined us. Morrie and Cal had both worked for Colling’s and Bell and were very competent workers. I was only the apprentice boy. It was high productivity and had to be as boatbuilding was a competitive cut throat business. At Devonport at least five major builds took place Cara Mia, Lady Ethel, Venture, Oranoa and the Stewart 34 Phoenician. All that, along with repair and insurance work all done, by three people (average) in just over two and a half years. Sure they were hull only or hull, decks and super structure. Mostly the owners finished the job. “Oranoa” was the exception and largely complete and later launched from Devonport wharf
Morrie had very little machinery. It was measure and cut once boatbuilding, nothing fancy just get the job out.  His call at the end of lunch break was. “This won’t Grace the Harbour”  Lets get on with it.
Morrie owned and cruised with his Family the twenty Six Foot Mullet Boat “Omatere” previously owned by Basil Kelly. It may have been a trade in on the Pania.
Morrie was very keen on Mullet boats and encouraged me to build one. She was the last planked Mullet Boat. The 22 Foot “Tamatea”. I built her while I worked for him. I bet he later regretted his action. I was building the boat after hours in my parents back yard and it must have affected my work.

Valmarie

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VALMARIE

details & photos ex Ken Ricketts, Martin Bertold & trademe

Built by Francis Wells of Wakatahuru in the South Island, for himself & was built of double diagonal planking in kahikatea, started in July 1951 & launched in 1960.
Whilst originally built by Wells as a work boat for himself, as you can now see, she is a beautiful, very comfortable, heavy displacement pleasure craft that could go almost anywhere.

Wells owned her until 1981 & after he died in August of that year she was sold by his estate to Murray Harris of Nelson circ. August 1981. She passed to Eric Jacobson between 1985 & 1987, who renamed her Evangeline & brought her to Auckland. In May 1993 she was sold to Brent Haslet & Carol Rush of Auckland who sold her in 2003 to Craig Burrow of Taupaki, West Auckland.

She is presently owned by David Brown of Auckland who advised that the large chrome throttle controls came off the previously destroyed Fairmile Mana.

She is driven by a matched handed pair of Gardner 8L3 eight cylinder in line diesel engines. The motors were originally from the island trader Rana which Brown traveled to Rarotonga to remove, at the end of her life & then bring them to NZ for installation in Valmarie. She had a cruising speed when new of 9.5 knots & top speed of 11 knots.

She has been returned to her original name, somewhere along the way & is currently for sale on trademe.

Lolene

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LOLENE

A classic displacement sedan launch, designed and built by Billy Rogers & launched in 1963. She was named after one of his daughters, as were a lot of Billy’s boats.

Kauri carvel construction, powered by 6 cylinder 120hp Ford diesel.

34’Length, 10’ 9” beam & 3’ 3” draft. 5’ 10” headroom, she sleeps 5 in single berths.

Currently for sale on trademe.

Harold Kidd Update

As I understand it, Billy Rogers built LOLENE for himself around 1963. Certainly she was first registered in his name with APYMBA at his then Wiilliamson Ave., Grey Lynn address. Billy had owned the 28ft keel yacht LOLOMA as a young man and was deeply fond of her. As a result some of his boats and children had the letters LO and LOMA in their names eg LADY LOMA in 1949.
Close sister ships were IOWANA (I1966) built for Dr. Kreichbaum and still in the hands of the Shorty Sefton/Pollard family and LADY FLORENCE (1966) built for Hedley Kendall. Andrew Pollard is a mine of information on these lovely sedans.
Subsequent owners of LOLENE have included K.D. Orell, Takapuna (1973), John Cossar 1989-95), Gary Hogg (1995) and Ken and Rhonda Blakie (2001).

Southern Seas (South Seas)

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SOUTHERN SEAS (South Seas)

photos & details ex Ken Ricketts
The present owner was told SS was a ‘Shipbuilders kit set’ (was there such a thing?) & possibly built at the Wade River c.1964. She is a 34 footer built of 3 skins of Kauri on opposite diagonals & is powered by a Lees converted 6 cyl. Ford diesel, with an underwater exhaust, & by the size of the propeller, possibly has a 1 to 1 gearbox.

When purchased 14 years ago she was called South Seas but the owner has extended the name to Southern Seas.

She is presently kept at Gulf Harbour & was previously moored at Westpark Marina.

She was out of the water for several years for a fairly extensive refit & including substantially rebuilding the cabin top, which had been in bad shape.

SS is for sale at around $85k & the owners can be contacted on 027 696 2700

A little too modern for my taste but a nice little ship that appears to be well presented.AH

 

Percy Vos Dory

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Percy Vos Dory

Waitematawoodys follower Sam Leijen, has asked for some help, In 1964 Vos built an 18ft dory at a cost of 300 pound, that was used in the Waitomo Caves for many years, it was retired in 1990 and now sits at the Waitomo Museum under the lean of the roof. Photos above, including the plans.

Sam is keen to get a better understanding of the plans so that one day he can build a replica. He is looking for a better understanding of some of the plan details & asks for any comments to clarify the meanings in the plans.

Hopefully a ww follower can help Sam. I can email the plans if anyone wants a better ‘view’.

C’est La Vie

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C’EST LA VIE

details & photos from Ken Ricketts & Mason Clipper facebook page

In 1964 Tony Mason designed and built C’est La Vie, a 33 ft Clipper, for Tony Betts, from Masterton, to be based on Lake Taupo, the second of only two 33′ Clippers. In 1966 she was moved back to Auckland so the Betts family could cruise the Hauraki Gulf.

Powered by twin Interceptor 427 BBL Ford petrol V8s, at 300hp each, through Borg Warner velvet-drive gear boxes, to Henleys 19×18 props., on SS Shafts, she had an impressive top speed of 35 mph. Fuel capacity was 600 litres. She needed those tanks 🙂

 

Update – this may possibly be the above boat – ????

http://www.tradeaboat.co.nz/detail/marine/boats/mason/clipper-10.5m/73578

Arona (Martini)

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Launching Day 1961, Westhaven

ARONA (Martini)

details & photos from Ken Ricketts & the Clipper facebook page

A Mason Clipper that was the end result of Tony Mason’s good friend Chris Shields asking Tony in 1961 to design and build a 33ft Sports Fisherman for him. It was the first of only two 33s ever built, power was Detroit Diesel 6V-71 giving her a top speed of just over 30mph. She had a huge cockpit and large saloon and all the Clipper creature comforts, a great launch that still lives today and still as good as the day she was launched. (comments ex Tony Masons nephew on the Clipper facebook page)

Chris Shields sold Arona which was her original name, to an old, now deceased friend of Ken Ricketts,  the late Rick Brown. Rick bought her in the early 1970s & owned her for about 2 or 3 years.

He sold her still with her original name, but somewhere along the way, someone changed it to Martini. The name of Arona can be seen clearly by the tuck on the side of some of the photos if enlarged.

Rick had quite a number of boats, in his very full & busy but short life.

She was sold with the 6V-71 going beautifully & in well very loved condition, as far as Ken knows she still has the 6V-71, but this may have been replaced later with a 8V-92. According to Tony’s son, she is, or was, when he saw her last, in Tauranga, which is where the painted combings pics were taken. It is always so sad to see the beautiful varnished mahogany finish has disappeared off so many of Tony’s masterpieces these days.

The 1961 launching day photo was taken at the main ramp at Westhaven Marina & shows Tony Mason sitting on the foredeck, Richard Hart, Tony’s factory foreman, also aboard, and Tony’s wife Red, bottom left.

Ken would love to fill in some of the gaps in her life, if anyone knows anything of her history, post here on ww or email Ken on kenpat@ihug.co.nz

Lots more Clipper photos & info can be viewed by searching Mason Clipper on facebook.

The History of NIKA-SIA – 1967 >2014

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1984
1984 with varnish tuck
putting on fresh make-up 1980’s
Galley
Jan 2014

The History of NIKA-SIA – 1967 >2014 

photos & details ex Ken Rickets. edited by AlanH

This profile started with Ken spotting Nika-Sia in Brin Wilson’s shed, Ken has known Nika-Sia since new  in 1967.

The first feature that caught Kens eye was the almost original presentation of this classic vessel.

When launched she had beautiful varnished mahogany combings & also a varnished tuck, with a navy blue boot top & the name in gold leaf accross the tuck- back then only a few boats had a varnished tuck e.g Winsome II, Cachalot, & Valhallah I,  were probably just about all of them. Today she no longer sports the beautiful mahogany combings & stern, being sadly now white & thus in Ken & my eyes missing that special classic look. But its only paint & fingers crossed one day the scrapers & varnish brush will come out.

 SPECS:

35ft 3 long, 13 feet beam, 3 ft 9 draft, hard chine, & built of African mahogany.

ENGINEERING:

She is powered by 185 hp  naturally aspirated Cummins V8 truck engine (nz conversion) uprated to 210 hp during a pre-installation rebuild (150 engine hrs ago). This engine replaced an almost identical one, thereby matching her as launched set up. The engine is set fairly well aft, partially under the main cabin aft bunk & partially in the cockpit, driving forward through a vee drive, built in to the gearbox, along with a 2 to 1 reduction gear.

She has 2 rubber exhaust pipes going out to the tuck, (one form each bank of cylinders), which Ken recalls she has had since new, with an external underwater exhaust fitting on each one, of a type introduced in the 1960s which were added a while after she was built.

CONDITION:

She is in outstandingly good condition & by appearance, superbly original inside, still with lots of lovely original looking varnish work — see photos &  even has the original stove, which still has its original instruction book with it.

The photo tagged ‘1980s Putting on some fresh make up’ show the Epithaning of Nika-Sia at the McMullen & Wing yard c.1985. Ice White colour on final  — 7 coats in total.

The present owner Kim Saull, has family connections to Brin Wilson Boatbuilders where she is currently getting loads of TLC from the outstanding group of craftsmen there.

DESIGNER & BUILDERS:

Launched 1967 designed by Ben Hipkin & partly built by him, trading as ‘Supreme Craft Ltd’, a company he bought off Mac McGeady when he was an apprentice to Mc G, when Mc G got too ill to carry on, in the earlier 1960s.

Hipkin built a number of boats after purchasing ‘Supreme Craft’, including about of 2/3rd of Nika-Sia, in the top shed on the road frontage of the Lane Motor Boat Company premises, in Riverview Rd Panmure, which shed later burnt down.

Sadly he had financial difficulties & she was moved by the Furleys to SeaCraft in Ellerslie who finished her off.

She is built of 2 skins of African mahogany, on opposite diagonals according to the origfinal owner’s son Peter.

PEDIGREE:

She was built for Mr J B Furley in 1967 – the order of ownership is as follows – the Furleys sold her to Mr & Mrs G A / M L Armitage’s in August 1980 who later sold to Terry McKeown in 2001, who sold her to Jim Razey, then John Francis in Feb. 2011, then Kim Saull in Sept. 2012 who has her today.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

WW would like to acknowledge input from Peter Furley, Mary Armitage, Tom Morris & Kim Saull, without who’s combined input, it would not have been possible for Ken to make this story so complete.

23/03/2015 More photos ex Ken Ricketts ex Karen Moren’s mother Lyn McGeady

Video footage of the varnishing of Trinidad with Awlwood MA (Uroxsys)

Video

Reply

How did Trinidad get that look?

If you have seen Trinidad in the last few months you would have gone………….. WoW……………… thats amazing. Well now thanks to the wonders of modern technology (a time lapse camera & Gareth Cooke’s photography & editing skills) you can watch how the team at Greg Lees Boatbuilders, working with Awlwood MA (Uroxsys) achieved that amazing finish on her topsides.

The process went like this –
1. Old coatings removed
2. Yellow primer applied
3. Two coats rolled / brushed on
4. Three days of heavy ‘wet on wet’ spray applications, with a good block sanding between coats
5. Final coat applied as a single coat to achieve best leveling

Now this is all stunning but do not think its a pro-only product, the results us amateurs can achieve with 6 > 8 coats using a hand brush is pretty wow.