Category Archives: 50’+

Karere III

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KARERE III GULF HARBOUR 4.2.16 - 1

KARERE III
details ex Bob Salthouse via Ken Ricketts. photos ex KR

Karere III was designed & built by Bob Salthouse in 1974 of 3 skins of Kauri (one full length & 2 on opposite diagonals) for Logan Colemore-Williams of the very well known  marine products manufacturer of that era, Sonata Laboratories.
Karere III was 53′ long originally & powered by 2 x model 3208  Caterpillar V8 naturally aspirated 210 hp diesels. The same engine was used in single engine installations in many of the Mark One 36′ Corsairs designed by Bob S. & built by Bobs company. Her hull was used as a ‘plug’ for several more boats of the same spec.

She was later lengthened by approximately 6′ to extend her at the stern to around 60′ long. This was done in Picton by Jim Cary, to design work done by & under the direct supervision of Bob Salthouse, whom they flew down to Picton to supervise the project. This is evidenced by the position of the propellers & rudders in photos above of her on the hardstand at Gulf Harbour on 4.2.16.

Bob reports that her speed was increased quite markedly by several knots with the addition of the extra length. Bob also commented that she spent quite a period of time in the Wellington region, but is  now back in Auckland. Kept at Bayswater marina I pass her every time I come & go, in the water she looks even more impressive.

Link to down load the Sea Spray article on her launch Karere III

2016 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade – just back, hundreds of photos to sort thru – be sure to check in Tuesday – a very cool big post coming up.
I particularly like the photo below – two woodys having a chat in the rain. On the left Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Association Commodore Grant Cossey in his 1908  Collings & Bell launch ‘Elva’ & Russell Ward in the 1994 steam boat ‘Romany’.

P1210693

Kuri

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KURI
photos & details ex Raymond Morey

Previously on ww there was some chat about the an old tug and barge that used to lay in Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island. Ray advises the tug ‘Kuri’ & the barge was ‘Waiti’, which was built as the 78′ schooner rigged scow ‘May’ by Davy Darroch in 1898. They both lay at Frank Hooks place, the little brown cottage virtually on the beach, around from the Mansion House & were ultimately sold to Bert Subritzky.
Ray does not know the history of Kuri but in regard the above photo’s, the coloured one Ray took when she first went back in the water after a long rebuild and was running day fishing parties out of Whangaroa some 12 years ago. The white ones are of her in the Marlborough Sounds and in trade-a-boat.
Ray does know that Kuri was in Fiji during the war, her skipper then was Roy Taylor, and she had a direct reversing Fairbanks-Morse engine that was still in her when Frank owned her. She later had an L3 series Gardner.
In Rays eyes the flat white all over paint job does nothing for her looks 😉
What do we know about Kuri & what became of her?

Input from Barry Davis

“I can give some details of this vessel, but there are some gaps.

Kuri was built in 1929 by W. G. Lowe & Sons for Richardson & Co. as a tug towing lighters at the port of Napier. She was requisitioned in 1942 for use by the RNZAF. I don’t know much of her history after W.W.II, I first came across her in 1963 at Kawau when she was then renamed Altona. Sometime in the 1960’s she was acquired by Mc Callum Bros and renamed Kuri, and used as a tug towing their shingles barges from McCallum’s Island to their shingle depot in St Marys Bay. Her dimensions were 38.66’ x 11.4’ x 4.08’.

The b/w photo was taken at Kawau on 27 January 1963, the colour photo of her in McCallum’s ownership has her on Shipbuilders Ltd. slipway and was taken 13 June 1971.”

01–1-2016 Input from Baden Pascoe

Kuri was built by WG Lowe in 1929 for Richardsons of Napier as a lighter tug
(There are two books written about this small shipping company). She was
designed by Herbert Levi.  Her next owner was Frank Hook who used her for
barge work around the Hauraki Gulf. Frank ran the operation by himself and
had a ghost crew member to keep the Marine Dept off his back. He re powered
her with the 6L3 Gardner that she still has. She was sold to McCallum Bros
in 1961 and the photo below is of her with the barge Ann ex scow Havoc.
Havoc was a big scow, not far off 90′ O.L. Alec Pascoe often skippered her
and this photo may have been taken by him. If any Woodies followers have any
photos of her during her working days, Baden would like be keen to view them.

Blitzen

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BLITZEN
photos ex Ken Ricketts. details anonymous (not KR)

The above photos of Blitzen were taken while hauled out at Gulf Harbour recently. There is a lot of dockside ‘stories’ about Blitzen’s past & ww would love to find of more about this vessel.
Said to be a Salthouse design.
Many moon’s ago a new owner was heading away on a xmas cruise & an engine blow off Northhead so they aborted the trip & returned to the marina. Vessel hauled out & then spent the next 5+ years in a shed during which time she underwent the most amazing restoration, its said that her interior is like a piano. The craftsman working on her would send one day on one floorboard.

Fast forward to relaunch day & someone commented to the owner that with that new cabin superstructure that had been added she would trip over. So Blitzen was parked on a marina at Orakai & never left the marina. Dates are lazy, but the fact that she is now at Gulf Harbour provens the merchant of gloom was wrong.

So woodys – what do we know about Blitzen & is the above true?

Summary of info from the comments section

John Salthouse’s much used note book states that 53ft Blitzen was launched Dec ’73 and was Salthouse Bros 89th build. She was built right way up, two diagonals and a fore and aft, red lead and rivots, no glue for Rex & Ian Heavens, of Heavens Farms Maramarua.

Blitzen was owned for years by the Velas, and Brian McCurrah did the big refurb, on their property, situated where Westgate is now.. He was/is very good. A kauri boardroom table he did for Lion Nathan head office, is now in the Kauri museum, next to Robert Brookes sailing dinghy.
She spent much time in Westhaven, then Westpark.
Blitzen is presently owned by Ian Midgley who lives at the Hibiscus Coast

Photo below Whangaroa 1977, ex Nathan Herbert

Lidgard 52′ Launch

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LIDGARD LAUNCH

Built c.1965 by Lidgards, three skin heart kauri & solid teak. Powered by twin 130hp Ford Dovers. Her specs are length – 52’5”, beam – 15’5”, draft – 5’2”.

Underway photo ex Ken Rickets, interior photos ex web. Her name is unknown to me.

The Restoration of Akarana

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THE RESTORATION OF AKARANA
Details & photos below ex Dick & Colleen Fisher. Edited by Alan Houghton. Above photo ex Dean Wright

Akarana was designed by A.J. Collings & built by W.G. Lowe in 1960 for the Port of Auckland. They sold her 34 years later in December 1994 to Peter McDonald of Whangarei, Peter (deceased) was a long time friend of Dick Fisher & Dick purchased Akarana off Peter in April 2000.
Akarana is built using single skin 1 ¾ inch thick Kauri planking on spotted gum ribs with a hardwood keel & her displacement is 42 ton. W.G. Lowe had the contract to build her & allowed 23,000 man hours for her construction. When Port of Auckland sold her in 1994 she was on engine #6,  having worn out 5 engines while working for the Auckland Harbour Board. From a couple of her log books that Dick has he would estimate that she has traveled somewhere between 600,000 + 700,000 miles during her working life as a pilot boat on Auckland harbour.
The 8L3B Gardner engine which Dick re-built  was originally installed in an oyster dredger based in Bluff. This engine was built by Gardners in 1960. The same year as Akarana. She cruises comfortably at 10 knots.
After purchasing her, Dick took Akarana to his workshop at Kamo & then constructed a shed over her. You will see from the photos that shed is a little bit of an understatement 🙂

The photos below will give you an insight into the scale of the project & the stamina, patience & dedication of Dick Fisher in undertaking this restoration. Akarana is a magnificent vessel & a visit to her engine room normally sees most males gob-smacked at the attention to detail & cleanliness that would equal the finest medical operating theaters.

In additional to being a very skilled artisan, Dick is just a seriously good bloke, he once drove down to Auckland from Whangarei so I could show a visiting classic boater from the USA, who was a Gardner nut, over Akarana. You would struggle to find a more hospitable couple afloat than Colleen & Dick Fisher.
One day I’ll post on ‘Hamel’ the Fisher families other wee ship 😉

I have captioned the images – scroll over to view, also remember you can enlarge a photo by clicking on it.

At the bottom of the post (part two), for your interest I have included some papers that Dick acquired from the old Auckland Harbour Board.

A.       Harbour masters comments prior to letting tenders.
B.       Some of the requirements for the construction of Akarana.
C.       AHB reviewing costs.
D.       Breakdown of building costs.
E.        Copy of daily log, note the totals for the month of July 1982 were 278 pilots, 510 hours running, & 2791 miles.

Photos below during her build at W.G. Lowe in 1960

W.G. Lowe 1960
W.G. Lowe 1960
W.G. Lowe 1960

As sold by Auckland Harbour Board – 1994

At Westhaven,as sold, Dec 1994

The restoration

April 2000 as purchased by Dick F
Arrives at Kameo
New shed at Kameo
Blasting paint from hull
Blasting paint from interior
Paint off
Old engine removed
Rebuild of wheelhouse & cabin top
Rebuild of wheelhouse & cabin top
New bulwarks
New laminated beltings
Re caulking
Steering compartment
Steering compartment
Teak deck – 1&3/4″
Hatch
Funnel
Some bling
Almost finished
Business end

Rebuilding the engine

Rebuilding 8L3B Gardner
Rebuilding 8L3B Gardner
Rebuilding 8L3B Gardner
Installing engine
Gearbox
8L3B Gardner Installed

Relaunching

Leaving Kameo shed
Ready for launching
New home at Kissing Point Whangarei boatshed

Back in her happy place – April 2005

At home, 2005

Supporting paperwork

Helm Photos

 

10-04-2018 Update – Photo below of Akarana on launching day. Photo sent in by Paul Drake, taken by his brother Michael.

Unknown

Update 09-01-2021 – Photos below of Akarana in Kent Passage, Bay of Islands – 6th Jan , sent in by Grant Anson

LA MORENA – Sailing Sunday

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LA MORENA – Sailing Sunday

Sometimes you see a boat & just go wow – now everyone has their own taste but today’s yacht rang my bell. Got to love the dinghy & the solar panel 🙂
La Morena is a 95 square metre Skärgårdskryssare. She is a 1922 masterpiece by Gustaf Estlander, the Finnish architect.
The yacht was built in Germany for a Swedish engineer, Frithiof Dahl. He was a building contractor, at that time responsible for the building of Ragnar Östberg’s famous City hall in Stockholm. Under the name Roxane III, the engineer race her during the 1920’s and 30’s, against Kerma and other famous yachts, probably mostly around Sandhamn and Saltsjöbaden. Then the family Graffman own her for almost forty years. They call her La Morena, “the brunette” in Spanish. They sold her to Arne Fyrk and Bengt Helgesson in the late 1970’s, who moved her from Stockholm to Motala and lake Vättern, were she stayed for 20 years. La Morena was almost 60 years old when they bought her. No age for a beauty, but she had worked hard and was in deep need of recondition. Arne and Bengt’s effort saved her for the future. The year 1998 she was back in Stockholm with new owners, who sold her to the present owner in the summer of 2004.

During the winter of 2004-05 an extensive restoration were carried out. It ends with a new keel plank, a new rudder stem and knee, 50 meter new planking, a new stainless steel rudder, a new modern profile of the keel, and high finish of the whole bottom. Damages in the deck and deckhouse were also repaired, as were damages in the mast. The restoration has continued. With the aim to both have a shining and a fast yacht.

The text is Swedish but the photos of the restoration are stunning – link below
http://www.lamorena.se/restoration/

Also as a bonus – click the link to the on-line USA Classic Yacht magazine
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/ClassicYacht/clasicyacht-septoct2015/2015090801/

MONDAYS WW POST IS A MONTY – THE RESTORATION OF DICK FISHER’S EX. PILOT BOAT, ‘AKARANA’, 40+ photos.