We are told (trademe) the above boat was launched in approximately 1950. Her specs are 42’ x 12’1” beam with a 2’11”draft. She is powered by twin 110hp Hino’s. She is well set up for recreational diving with a compressor in the cockpit bilge for dive bottle refilling & customized multi dive bottle storage in the cockpit. As with most broker listings they have omitted to include the vessel’s name…… so I omit to include theirs 🙂
Any one able to put a name to the launch & provide more details on her?
Lots of details in the comments section + some history at the link below. A little sad that she has ended up looking like the above 😦
The photos of the above Lidgard run-about were emailed to me by John Pryor, a friend of whose is hoping to uncover some details on the boat. She measures 14’3″, with a 5′ beam. All her new owner knows is that she came up to Mt Albert from the Coromandel in the condition you see her in above & the trailer was built back from army surplus and the coil springs are apparently from an Indian motorcycle.
She’s in need of quite a restore but given her Lidgard pedigree is worth saving. The bonus is she’s small enough to be tucked in the garage & worked on i.e. no expensive yard fees
So woodys what do we know about these small Lidgard run-abouts – the year(1940’s?) model, possible owners, copies of the plans etc. Anything would help / encourage her owner to commence the project 🙂
25-08-2016 Input from Roger Guthrie
You posted a picture of an old boat on a trailer the other day. It was in severe need of restoration. Above is a very similar one we had at Silver Bay Waiheke. It was about 1951. It had a steering wheel and seat at the front. We had the popular 4H.P. Seagull outboard and had to steer from the back. There was a steering wheel but dad never connected it.
We called it the speedboat but there was no speed about it. It did however serve us well for family picnics to Man’o’War Bay and Ponui Island. Neither I or my brother Graham can remember the make. We had the usual collection of clinker dinghy’s which we rowed and two of them had centre board provision and sails. The largest one was 12ft. long and good for going to Connells Bay for the milk and supplies but this to us was the start of something new. This boat was varnished marine ply.
Shown in the boat photo – Ivan Guthrie (my father), myself and sister Prue. The boat was very near to the beach hence dad sitting on deck ready to pull up the motor. Them was the days………and they were wonderful days too.
VACUNA – a woody project?
Vacuna is a 36′ Owen Woolley launch, designed and built in 1958. Unfortunately she has had a wee oops, to quote the insurers she was flooded to the top of her twin Perkins diesel engines, not sure how that happened but we are told the engines were immediately flushed & inhibited.
At the moment Vucuna is hauled out at Half Moon Bay & available for inspection. Bidding starts at $5,000 & closes 23 August.
Now if it stays low, someone will get a nice woody that appears to not need too much to bring her back.
Do we know anything about her past ?
Input from Paul Drake My understanding is that she was built for a Mr Bull (Jack?)by Owen Woolley. She was built of totara, since she was destined for Taupo, and her owner was wary of rot which, in some quarters, is associated with fresh water boats. She was at Taupo for many years under the same name. Mr Bull had previously owned KATOA, well covered in WW. This information is as I have always understood it, and was recently confirmed by the original owner’s son, who I chanced to meet down at the boat harbour here in Taupo. It is interesting to note the beamy, hard chine VACUNA compared with the narrow gutted, round bilge KATOA. No doubt the Bull family had had enough of rolling around. A VACUNA story was related to my brother Michael only two days ago. VACUNA was on a temporary mooring off the beach at Kinloch. She came free in a sou’westerly and was about to wash up on the beach. The call went out to the local holiday population and dozens of them entered the water in an effort to save her, much like a beached whale. One of them, a strong swimmer, took a line back to the mooring buoy, and VACUNA was hauled off the beach. Below is a pic of VACUNA, it shows her on her mooring in the Taupo boat harbour in the early 1960’s. The other launch is EL ALAMEIN, now RANUI, already featured on woodys. The boatsheds in the background are long gone, sadly. SIR FRANCIS occupied the shed seen here over the stern of EL ALAMEIN. The door is open and our car parked on the road outside. The photo I took, of course, from SIR FRANCIS.
Waihora has featured twice before on ww, once when I spotted her at anchor in Oneroa (Oct 2014) & when Jason Prew saw her moored up the Tamaiki River (2015), photos below.
Thanks to Murray Morrissey & Angela Te Wiata we now have a wonderful insight into her past, Murray supplied the details & Angela the photos from her late mother, Pamela Gilbert (nee Nicks) collection.
Firstly Murray’s background – Waihora was built by Brin Wilson and owned by the Nicks family of the Nicks Timber Company of Takapuna. They had a big yard in Huron Street. The Nicks family was well known identities in Takapuna.
Logan Nicks & wife retired to their beach house in Bland Bay – Whangaruru – Northland in the late 1960`s or thereabouts. Son, ‘Rud’ continued to run Waihora and the timber business.
Interesting to see Borrie Beachman & his launch ‘Endeavour’ in several of the photos, Borrie is the late uncle of CYA woody Paul Beachman. Borrie Beachman sold Endeavour & at one stage she was owned by Jack Matich & used for commercial fishing on the Kaipara Harbour. She was configured back then as a motor-sailer. Endeavour is now back in the Beachman family ownership & looked after by Paul & son Brin.
07-02-2021 UPDATE – ex Angus Rogers – photographed Feb 2021. She was sold approx. 2 years ago and her new owners have undertaken a lot of work on her.
While there are few of us with the courage to even consider a project of this scope, there are even fewer with the skill set to do it. That makes Jason Prew a tad special in the classic woody boating community. A lot of us would be worried that a restoration (re-build) project like this would grind to a halt 1/2 way thru – well folks I can tell you this one won’t & as proof check out at the bottom of this story, Jason’s last project – Wairiki, his 34′ 1904 Arch Logan designed gaff rigged classic yacht.
Mr Prew is a member of the fastest growing group in the CYA – woody’s that own a classic yacht & classic motor-boat. There are a lot of photos today but I really wanted to get across the magnitude of the job Jason has bitten off:-)
Whilst I did not pickup a hammer or a piece of sandpaper during my visit to Jason’s workshop, I have contributed – a while ago I was gifted a pair of very cool bronze nav lights & as I’m a big believer in the ‘pay-it-forward’ concept, these will be gracing My Girl on launch day 🙂
My Girl was built in 1925 by Dick Lang for C.B. “Tui” Waldron of the Wade River who commuted with her. Her square bilge design was based on one by W.H.Hand. Waldron later took her to Whangarei & she was in NAPS as Z32 out of Whangarei in WW2.
Jason purchased My Girl from the Davies family of Te Atatu, West Auckland in December 2014, Derek & his Father Trevor were long term caretakers of My Girl, keeping her in the Whau River for many years. After a spell on the hard where she fell into dis-repair, Jason finally persuaded Derek to part with her.
When launched she was powered by a 6 cylinder 90hp Scripps engine & was capable of over 18 knots. When purchased by Jason she had a BMC Commander engine of dubious health. When re-launched she will be powered by a 100hp Volvo Penta, so she should be a bit of a zoom zoomer 😉
The work to date has seen 76 ribs in, 3600 copper rivets riveted, 5 new floors and 2 engine beds. As you will see in the photos there is still lots of hole filling, sanding & painting in the near future.
Thanks for the injection of smoke up the posterior Alan but I can’t claim too much credit for Wairiki, Marco Scuderi did the bulk of the work. I was mostly the destruction/wrecking department. My Girl is also a collaboration, especially the ribs stage. Nathan, Steve, Andrew, Tom, mostly my brother Daniel, either holding dolly or doing the peening. Robert Brook and Paul Tingey for always being encouraging on the end of the phone when i was having an OMG I can’t work this out day, (which is quite often) I don’t have a moaning chair perse, but i have a squab that gets utilized a lot to do the same job.
Trinidad > Raindance > Wairiki
Dec 2016 Staring to look like a launch again versus a canoe 🙂 Bit worried about the headroom.
Ian McDonald sent me the above photos of the Daisy Belle, the b/w photo was taken by Ian c.1980 at Arid Island. The colour photo is her today (May2016) hauled out at Putaruru, uncovered & rotting away. Her owner is supposedly going to restore her – he better start soon or she will be lost.
Can any of the woodys supply more details on the vessel? I’m thinking the ww followers that belong to the ‘The Workboat Study Group’ must know of her & her past.
Yesterdays story on Max Carter & his boats, received the viewing numbers the man desired, highest in the last 2 months. Very proud that waitematawoodys could showcase his work & record it for future generations to enjoy. Special thanks must go to Chris McMullen for his efforts in securing the material, all too often our maritime history is lost.
A friend of mine, Ray Oxenham, sent me the video link below, what a great idea, perfect for somewhere like Waiheke Island 😉
Input from Harold Kidd DAISY BELLE was built by W.G. Lowe & Sons in 1940 for Vella and Bronlund and had a new 88hp Kelvin. She hit Spray Rock c1970, was bought as a hulk and rebuilt by Baileys. In 2002 she was owned in the Bay of Islands by Darien Boswell with a Gardner 8L3.
DAISY BELLE was apparently fishing throughout the war owned by Peter Bronlund and S. Vella and was part of the Auckland Seine Boat Association. She was considered for war work on 9th June 1942, examination work at Fiji, which the similar craft ZUYDER ZEE and KAIWAKA later did. I really doubt if she did any war service anywhere. Registered as AK62 she was entitled to pass the Auckland boom defence without examination, but as a fishing boat.
Input from Ian McDonald Daisy was originally a trawler pre-war and Darien Boswell (Boz) found her derelict on piles at Beachaven ? & after purchase, set about restoring her. I think Boz told me that she also did service during the war on the harbour defence booms. She has a Gardner 8L3B he got from either Ernie Seager or Shorty Sefton.
Input from Bruce Pullman The extract below on Daisy Belle is from a book called ‘High Tide’ by Bernard Rhodes (photos by Brian Moorhead). Bernard Rhodes is a boat builder on Waiheke.
Input from Wayne Mason The photos below were taken last week when Wayne spotted the Daisy Belle driving from Taupo . The nearby neighbour in Putaruru says she is owned by a Dutchman who was renting a mooring in Tauranga but thought on the hard would save him some money . He’s planning on restoring or rebuilding .
Input from Stuart Johnson
Stuart sent me the photo below that he believes is of ‘Daisy Bell’ (AK24) which didn’t quite make the wharf in Mansion House on he believes Anniversary Day 1959. From memory ( Stuarts 91) the crew managed to get ashore and find their way to the ‘Snake Pit’ whilst they waited for the returning tide.
03-08-2016 update ex Barry Davis
Below is a very low res photo of Daisy Belle taken in July 1974 before conversion to a pleasure craft. Interesting to note that the forward port holes have been sealed.
09-08-2016 Photo below ex Baden Pascoe
31-08-2016 Input from Ian McDonald – Correction to comment that she is owned by a Dutchman. The owner is not Dutch, is from Tokoroa & known to me personally, and it was me who put him in touch with Darien when he purchased her.
Below is a photo taken from the helm, of Rex McDonald on the foredeck circa 1983
03-09-2016 Update – 3 pic’s below emailed to me by Ian McDonald that Rex McDonald took about a week before she was lifted out in Tauranga & taken to Putaruru.
16-07-2020 Input from Stephen Green – refer below the undated newspaper clipping below regarding the Daisy Belle.
His father, John Green was on the USSCo Katui in the early 1960’s.
17-07-2020 Input from Nathan Herbert – Daisy Belle also went aground on the point at Hobbs Bay very much high and dry in the early days. Photo below.
17-01-2023 UPDATE ex Paul Drake – “I saw her for the first time a few days ago, in Putaruru. She was spotted by my passenger, who was visiting from overseas, as we passed through town heading north from Taupo. Top marks to him. Checking WW the last photo appears to be 2016. I am surprised that she still exists, but clearly there is no hope. Note the anchor, ready for letting go. Also, nice mast.
07-11=2025 UPDATE ex BILL ENDEAN – Bill snapped the photos below passing thru Putaruru recently – not looking too healthy.
Back in approx. 2003 I nearly bought Moana, the 23′ Max Carter designed & built clinker day boat. The reason I didn’t was from memory the then owners were asking silly money, they had spent a disproportionate amount of money on her relative to her size & were looking to recover that + the purchase price.
Above are a collection of photos from back in the early 2000’s & fyi below is a copy of a survey that the owners had obtained to gain insurance cover. Moana is powered by a 50hp Perkins diesel.
She has been kept in Milford Marina for a very long time & from my casual observations, well cared for. I was recently made aware that she was back on the market, would make a great lake boat.
Today’s story is on the 33′ launch Pauwai,which was built by Arthur Eli Forrester at Whakapiru in 1908. Its been commented that the boat is similar to a Logan as Arthur worked for Logan Bros and built five boats himself. She served many years on the Kaipara Harbour. D/D kauri plank construction & powered by 60hp BMC Commodore diesel giving 9-12 knots.
From the photos she appears to have a nice timber interior, quite roomy with big forward cabin, dinette.
Puawai sold last week on trademe for $5,620 to a Tauranga buyer, given that the seller (deceased estate on Great Barrier Island) paid $30,000 for her in 2013, someone got a good buy.
Do any of the woodys know more about her past?
Harold Kidd Input
Owners include Wilson of Helensville (1), Logan McLeod, Pouto, H.B. Bradley, Dargaville, W. Hansen, Bruce Carter (1985), then a name change to WAIWERA and transfer to the Waitemata. Louise Brewer 2004 did a revamp.
28-02-2018 ‘New’ photos added + she is for sale – view comments section for details.
Gladys was designed & built by Bailey & Lowe for Mr. Chas. Court, of Auckland. She measured 38′ with a 8’6″ beam & 3′ draft. When launched her engine was a 25/40hp, 4 cylinder medium weight Sterling.
Gladys was featured in an August 1913 publication (or supplement) called ‘Progress’, tear sheets of which are above & describe her fit out & features.
Nathan Herbert emailed me this data from the National Library & commented that Gladys has had two cameo appearances on ww before – once in the story headed ‘Schoolhouse Bay Mystery Launches’ & in the story ‘Winter Haul Out’ – links (blue) to both below.
The questions today are, when was she launched & what happened to her post the 1950’s?
I think Nathan knows the answers, but 1. She was launched on 4th August 1910 for Charles Court with a 16hp Standard. She was his second GLADYS, the first being a “settler’s launch” type of 1903. 2. Bailey & Lowe extensively overhauled her in April-May 1912 and fitted a 25/40hp Sterling. At the same time they fitted the dodger etc.She then was in the configuration shown in the Progress clip. 3. Chas Court sold her to J.W. Court (don’t have my Auckland Network book handy, but think they were brothers) and G.R. Hutchinson in November 1919 and they renamed her GISPA. Chas Court had a new 53ft GLADYS built by Bailey & Lowe, later RONGO (II) under Cecil Leys. 4. Court & Hutchinson sold GISPA to W. Mason Bayly in 1921. He took her to Russell. 5. Bayly sold her to W.R. Ingram of Auckland in 1925. 6. Ingram sold her to the Government Tourist Bureau in November 1937. She was shipped to Milford Sound where the top pic was taken in the mid 1950s. 7. I don’t know her eventual fate, but hope it will be teased out by this post! She has/had such a distinctive hull that someone will know where she is today or where she died.
STRATHALLAN
Strathallan was the name given to this Miller & Tunnage, kauri carvel built, double ender, ex pilot boat by the Timaru Harbour Board. She measures 46’6”” LOA & draws 6’5”. The traditional Scottish boat builder, Doug Robb built Strathallan in 1955 at his Timaru yard.
As you would expect from an ex work-boat the engine room is impressive & dominated by the 190hp, 8L3B Gardner. With a displacement of approx. 20 tons and being driven by the classic Gardner with a 3.1 transmission gives her a cruising speed of 8.5 knots at 810 rpm and max speed of approx. 10 knots at 990 rpm. Her size, design & power unit make her a powerful strong seaworthy vessel.
After being decommissioned as a work-boat in the 1990s she was converted to a cruising vessel. The main saloon, galley & engine room have full headroom & her walk-around decks are perfect for fishing. One of the hangovers from her commercial days is the exterior head with the door facing the stern; I can personally vouch for the view J
Strathallan is currently for sale & would be an ideal vessel for the boat owner who wants a classic, traditional boat that is a part of New Zealand’s maritime history. The asking price I understand is <$80k & at that price would be a good buy & still have the potential for a new owner to add their own touch to the boat in terms of decor.
Photo below was taken at Mahurangi Regatta (2012?) by Chris Miller – slightly different paint ‘job’ back then.
