Category Archives: Boat Sheds

Ronaki

Posted on by
14

RONAKI
photos ex Pam Cundy at the Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard

I know nothing about todays launch other than that Pam & George saw Ronaki in Ruakaka a couple of years ago. She went onto trade me and was sold. The lifebuoy has 1912 on it so maybe that’s some indication of her age. A serious case of the ugly sister going on in the last photo.
Anyone know what became of her?, fingers crossed someone took on the challenge & restored her.

Harold Kidd Input

RONAKI has a picture in our “N.Z. Vintage Launches” at page 63.
She was built as a fast harbour launch by Collings & Bell for the Auckland Harbour Board in January 1913, a 38 footer powered by a big 55-75 hp H.C. Doman marine engine with a max of 14 knots. Photo below. After many years of service with AHB she was sold to G Hyauiason who had her bridgedeckerised. The RNZN took her over in 1942 for control service (at the boom, I think) but sold her in 1944 to J.A. Collins. My uncle Lou Wilson, MD of Morris Black & Matheson bought her soon after that. Lou certainly wasn’t the one who rowed over and asked for points for a V8. I really don’t know about that story, particularly where the V8 came from.
The AHB bought her back subsequently and fitted a Leyland. A group of us looked at her around 1986 but bought FERRO instead, principally because we were warned off the Leyland and favoured the Caterpillar in FERRO, plus she was much more original.
The other RONAKI was built as MANUKAU by Chas. Bailey & Son in 1914 for the AHB to use on the Manukau.

The photo below is from Ron Wattam & was taken during her sea trials.

Tamahine & her catch

Posted on by
4

Tamahine – supplied the lunch

Tamahine

And the Raglan Fish – cooked the best F&C’s I have had in a long time – 3x Dory + chips $10 @ Raglan Wharf

Even when its a weekend away in the car, still managed to slip some salty activity in. If you are in Raglan, check out the Wharf area, great coffee (Raglan Roast), funky shops that had enough appeal to lighten the wallet/purses of the blokes & blokets + one of the best fish shops / cafes I have been to in a long time.

And a plug for a great beer we discovered, its not often Mrs H enjoys a cold ale but the “Good George – Sparkling Ale’ (ex Hamilton) was spot on.

Saturday saw a walk to the inland ‘Bridal Veil Falls’, 55m drop – very impressive.

A Woodys Trip Report from France

Posted on by
6
Russell in the red stripes

A Woodys Trip Report from France
photos & story ex Russell Ward

Getting the other-half to go on holiday in France – thats easy, but how Russell manages to sneak in visits to wooden boat yards, beats me. I need some tips 🙂
I’ll let Russell tell the story. Remember to click on the photos above to enlarge 😉

I visited a fellow steam boater in Arcachon and the conversation on steamboats lulled a trifle and we went on to local work boats the Pinasse! Yep, when the French say Pinasse it is rather akin to the technical term for one’s diddle!
They are a breed of double ender peculiar to Arcachon on the coast out from Bordeaux. Arcachon is a rather larger harbour than Whangateau. Golden sands and sandbars abound. Oyster farms are everywhere and the origin of the Pinasse in the area dates from 1900 or so.

The local work boats abound and many have been retired to pleasure duties and some look real posh.
They have a broad beam, some have elongated bow and stem posts to give a Venetian look; bold sheer (as befits a work boat intended for fishing), self draining cockpit fwd, low deck house and aft cockpit.
The engines were marinised automotive engines and many early ones were made by local engineers.
The older traditional boats have a disappearing prop arrangement akin to the American Dispro boats (check out Wooden Boat). The Dispro has a cast tunnel that the prop shaft and prop pivot up into. The Pinasse has a slot about six inches wide from a third of the way fwd from the stern post. The prop shaft emerges at the fwd end of the slot and there is a bronze universal to allow the prop shaft to pivot up when a lever is raised in the aft cockpit or automatically if the skeg scrapes on a sandbar.
The hull form is interesting. They appear round bilge but in fact have a chine on the middle third of the hull.

One boatyard built most of the boats and above  are several photos of the sheds. Makes my eyes go all misty and George and Pam’s will too. They have so much space in there but only a couple of major rebuilds in progress. One smallish burdensome sailing boat of about 16’ and one elderly Pinasse who has a new stem, chines, set of floors and most of the bottom having new planks.
 Six generations of one family worked the yard and it was recently sold to a man and his sister who continue the work.
Lovely place!

There are a lot of references but few specific to our interests. Go trawling!
http://www.dubourdieu.fr/en/history.html

C & B Junior

Posted on by
15

C & B JUNIOR
photo & details ex Barry Davis

The above stunning photo of C & B Junior was one of two photos that Barry Davis ‘found’ when poking around the Collings & Bell boat sheds after the yard closed down as a result of the reclaiming of the area for the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Barry ‘found’ this photo on the floor in the then very derelict older of the two C & B boat sheds just shortly before it was finally pulled down in 1961, a good two years after the business had closed. Barry has had the photo & one other (Dorothy – a previous ww post) filed away for decades & how thanks to  ww they can be viewed. Junior was built by C & B in 1913. And while a wee thing at 20′ x 5’6″ x 3′ she is in my eye perfectly proportioned, not an easy task in a boat this size.
Given the inscription on the photo, she may have been built for W.H.M. Davis, or perhaps that was the photographer?

So woodys what became of C & B Junior?

ps photo below (ex Harold Kidd) of the Collings & Bell yard, with the 36′ Carrie-Fin on the slip. Carrie-Fin was later shipped (on Makura) to Tahiti for a wealthy American sport fisherman, Eastham Guild.

Update from Harold Kidd

She was built by Collings & Bell for themselves as an advertisement for their skills, one of several such launches they built as demonstrators. Her actual name was C & B JUNIOR. Davis was the photographer. She was launched in April 1913, a few days before this image was taken. Her dimensions were as stated . She had a 10hp 2 stroke Eagle engine. Alf Bell had most of the running of her, entering quite a few launch races with her.
She was a trend-setter with her dodger, something quite new at the time, and obviously immensely practical.
Collings & Bell sold her to J Harris of Grey St., Onehunga in early 1914. He renamed her CYNTHIA. In late 1914 he fitted a 9-12hp 4 cylinder 4 stroke Aristocrat engine. In 1917 he sold her to D. Herd and she “disappears” shortly after, probably a name change.

Collings rarely published his lines because he thought of himself as an innovator, especially with his hard chine “concave-convex” planing hulls.
It seems that when the St. Mary’s Bay yard closed a lot of material was left lying around. Barry liberated the two lovely images of C & B JUNIOR and DOROTHY, but hundreds of Charles Collings’ own glass plate negatives were either shied into the bay by apprentices or left lying around, mostly cracked or broken. I have a number of these, all much the worse for wear but hugely interesting.
An earlier launch of the same dimensions was exhibited at the Auckland Winter Show in 1910 with a smaller dodger. That one was was really the trailblazer and was one of several of their launches called just C & B.

Terribly minor point; for whatever reason, when C & B JUNIOR was sold to Harris, Collings & Bell fitted a 6hp 2 stroke Perfection engine in place of the Eagle. They were agents for Perfections and I suspect that the Eagle may not have proved satisfactory. The Perfection was built in Detroit by Caille and one of the better American marine two-strokes (of which there were a great number).

 

Dorothy

Posted on by
13

DOROTHY
photo & details ex Barry Davis

How today’s photo ended up on ww is a little amusing, but first some details that were printed on the back of the photo. Dorothy was built by Collings & Bell 1911 for W.J.Quelch Newton. She was 35′ x 8’6″ & powered by a 12hp Doman Block 5 1/4.
Obviously the photo has been retouched e.g. the helmsman is hand drawn & out of proportion to the size of the launch but the retouching was done a very long time ago & at the Collings & Bell yard. How do we know this ? Well Collings & Bell closed down with the reclaiming of the area for the Auckland Harbour Bridge. As an adventurous school boy Barry ‘found’ this photo on the floor in the now very derelict older of the two Collings & Bell boat sheds just shortly before it was finally pulled in 1961, a good two years after the business had closed. Barry has had the photo & one other (a later ww post) filed away for decades & how thanks to ww they can be viewed.

So the question is what became of Dorothy & where is she today?

Harold Kidd Update

I wrote an article about W.J. Quelch and his many yachts and launches in Boating NZ a few months ago. He owned some great boats; launches WAIHIRI (C&B 1910), MARORO (1920) and yachts ETHEL (1913), ALEXA (1915), GRYPHON (1917), VIDA (Colin Wild 1931).
DOROTHY was indeed built for him by Collings & Bell and launched in November 1911. He sold her to R E Fry by 1916. She went through the hands of Len Cunningham (1917) went to Takatu Point and (I think) was sold to Tauranga in 1920 owned by M Sinclair of Matakana Is. Unfortunately there were several DOROTHYS, on the Waikato, the Manukau and at Whangarei, as well as on the Waitemata, so they are easy to mix up.
I suspect a name change in Tauranga.
Quelch had Collings & Bell build him DOROTHY Q in 1923, a Van Blerck-powered flush-decked 38 footer, later 100hp Stearns. She became DORIS (one of many of that name!) when Quelch exchanged her for JEAN with Sam Leyland in 1930. Quelch then exchanged JEAN for WANDEROO with L Schischka.

Silver Spray

Posted on by
8

SILVER SPRAY

Today’s post has links back to yesterdays post that involved the Ravenhall family.
It starts back in 1926 when Silver Spray was built by Joe Slattery for Charles Ravenhall of Remuera. Silver Spray is 26′ LOA, 7′ beam with a 2’6″ draft, These days she is powered by a 4108 Perkins & has been beautifully restored & maintained by her owner & craftsman Mark Stapleton. Mark also maintains several other immaculate classic launches – Lady Margaret & Kailua for there owners.
The Ravenhall connection goes deeper in that Silver Spray is today housed in one of the Ngapipip Road boat sheds & back in 1930 Mr Charles Ravenhall was responsible for the shed sites in Ngapipi Rd being surveyed off for the construction of the sheds, with Silver Spray being the first vessel to be housed there. The Ravenhall shed was a small building , with a small window on the streetscape. The sheds were built as a result of the construction of the railway bridge across Hobson Bay.

Mark Stapleton had the pleasure of taking Charles Ravenhall’s son, Leslie & his family for a day trip on Silver Spray to celebrate Leslie’s 81st birthday.

The history of Silver Spray includes lives on Lake Rotoiti , Lake Taupo & homed twice in its 90 Years in Ngapipi Rd.

History is a wonderful thing but its now 2015 & Mark is retiring from boating due to health reasons & he has asked ww to help find a new minder for the old girl. To quote Mark “I would like to find another carer for her as I am confident in the right hands this boat has decades more life left in her. She is a delightful little boat & I have had many fantastic adventures with her “. Given the skills of Mark & the attention he has lavished on her, that is an understatement.

Silver Spray comes with a crated complete spare engine &  extensive new parts inventory.
She is in running order with full inventory of kit including – radio, fire extinguishers, life jackets, flares, Epirb, lines, anchors , dinghy, mooring .
Silver Spray is presently housed in her own shed and can be viewed on the hard by appointment. Mark can be initially contacted on email at   stapleton.restoration@gmail.com

The boat shed is also for sale separately. That should excite a few people, these things are like hens teeth & very rarely change hands.

So woodys, who is looking for or knows someone who is, a smaller classic wooden launch with wonderful provenance & maintenance history? This is the perfect boat, size wise in terms of easy maintenance & while I would hate to see her leave the Waitemata, she does have lake boat written all over her.

As an aside – Silver Spray is fast, she has blown the socks off my Raindance & other classics launches twice her size, in numerous CYA Patio Bay Rudder Cup classic launch races. Mark is always trying to squeeze an extra knot out of her – hence the sails in several photos, which he always told the race handicapper were there for safety (steadying) reasons – yeah right 🙂

02-08-2015 Photos ex Lynette Hatrick (nee Ravenhall)

The photos below of the Silver Spray during restoration were taken in the August 2003 before my Dad – Ronald and my mum – Bev Ravenhall went for the birthday cruise on the Silver Spray.

Mark Stapleton was passionate about restoring this boat and we all had a great time looking over it in the shed. That is my Dad in the photos.

 

Lynmar

Posted on by
12

LYNMAR The above photos were taken recently while Lynmar was hauled out for some maintenance at Geoff Bagnall’s yard at Milford. ww knows nothing about her so any input would be great. New Photos Below (ex Brian Worthington via Ken Ricketts) ww loves the sedan top 🙂

Late 1960’s
Coromandle 1976
Early 1970’s – Frank Orr,Frank Reynolds, Roley Gillett
Pakatoa 1976
March 1976 – left photo- Roley Gillett,Stuart Orr,Lex Aitman,Frank Orr,Eric Orr

A Visit to Chris McMullen’s Boat Shed

Posted on by
2
Chris McMullen & his 1898 reproduction Herrreshoff steam boat

One of Chris’s experiments

Otira- 1902 Logan Bros
Otira- 1902 Logan Bros

And of a few photos of one of the prettiest boats on the Waitemata – Wirihana, the 1933 Colin Wild launch.

A Visit to Chris McMullen’s Boat Shed

Yesterday was a biggie on the wooden boating front – Barbara Cooke & myself organized for the Classic Yacht Association a visit to Chris McMullen’s workshop & boat shed. I have posted photos of the shed & its contents on ww before & ww has published several of Chris’s posts on the topic of electrochemical damage to wooden boats – but it was special for the members to meet the man himself & hear him speak on his past, his current passions / projects & future plans. The reproduction 1898 Herreshoff steam launch project just has to be one of the best kiwi ‘can-do’ tales around. The day she hits the water will be a very special occasion, I just hope I’m around to see it 😉

Today two things stood out for me:
1. The turn-out of two wooden boating icons – John Salthouse & Max Carter
2. The healthy number of sub 35 year old guys with a new found passion for classic wooden boats in attendance

If your a CYA member & you didn’t make the effort to come to the event – more fool you – as one of your most respected members said to me “today was a privilege, Chris is a one of a kind, his practical knowledge on boat building and engineering is unique”.

In my time as CYA launch captain one of my personal goals was to help deliver up events & access to people & ‘cool stuff’ that people would not normally have access to without being CYA members – from the comments & the smiles as people where departing today, Barb & I got it right today 🙂

To read / view more on Chris, his boats & the topic of electrochemical damage to wooden boats just enter – Chis McMullen – in the ww search box 😉

Lady Eileen

Posted on by
16

LADY EILEEN
photos & report ex Hylton Edmonds via Ken Ricketts. edited by Alan H

Ken reports that Hylton, who bought Lady Eileen the 1947 Shipbuilders/SupaCraft bridge-decker approx. a year ago & relocated her to his property at Tapu Point in the Bay of Islands, is now 8 months into an extensive refit/refurb. You will see from the above photos that Hylton has rather a nice ‘shed’ & has retained the services of some true craftsman to undertake the work.
ww followers may recall that after her previous live-a-board owner passed away, Lady Eileen was listed on trademe for a long time. Lady Eileen is a very lucky boat to now have Hylton as her custodian & based on the standard of the work completed to date, despite being 68 years old, she will be relaunched better than new.
We look forward to more update.

Search Lady Eileen in the ww search box to see early photos.

Update from Russell Ward who you will see is a fan 🙂

Oh sterling effort, Mr Edmonds. Ten points/five stars for your effort! And a most deserving ship to lavish all that effort on. A super SuperCraft job!
Tim Windsor was the in-house designer at Shipbuilders at the time and Lady Eileen and her half sisters Mahara, Rosemary and Rakanoa were all just right. Mahara (just the same cabin arrangement) being a much shorter boat still worked OK (and that was hard to do); but Eileen managed to draw it out much better with the extra length.
Have a squint and admire the details. Humour me…. That graceful sheer, little kick up aft, the rubbing strakes that set it off (get one of those wrong and it would spoil it); the curvaceous tops to the toe rail fwd (Mahara was the same) -almost a turtle deck effect. The cabin tops -just a little curve in them fore and aft. Look at the curved edges to the tops of the fwd wheelhouse screens. A lesser designer would have had them angular and would have put three in. He might have put an eyebrow atop them and again detracted from it. Admire the treatment of the alternate windows/portholes aft -all four had that. It is mimicked up fwd too. Yep, everything just right. The flying bridge -a later add on is not bad -works OK because she is a big boat.
I surmise that Shipbuilders still had the men that were there during WW2 doing Fairmiles and the like -the knowledge capital/ expertise. Tim had trained by correspondence from the USA, I heard once. Anyone got anything else on his history?
Oh, say again. Well done (doing?) Hylton!

Work Report from the owner – 23-05-2015

Sadly the cabin sides are well passed returning to varnish (which in any case would have been the old imitation graining system so popular back in that era through to the 60’s, ex Pilot Boat Waitemata was a classic example).

I feel though, with a combination of refurbished varnished pieces and all her refurbished chrome, she  will still look the (glamourous) Hunter’s  Lady Eileen, as follows;

1.    Hand rails (on refurbished stainless steel stanchions – added at time of flying bridge 20 years ago)
2.    Skylight (original)
3.    Dorade boxes (original complete with refurbished Chrome Bronze cowls)
4.    Mast
5.    New Teak Wheelhouse doors (sadly the old ones were full of gravings, repairs and freshwater rot and have been “retired”)
6.    Entire Flying Bridge . The internal panel is painted out now,  accentuating the shear and considered by all –  a great improvement on this “large” addition.
7.    Oregon Boat hooks (with chrome tips) on new Teak cradles
8.    Cockpit Coamings (attached is a photo with just 3 coats of Uroxsys on to protect in the interim before final 6 more coats)
9.    Foredeck Teak Hatch (original)
10.    Name Boards (with chrome letters)
11.    Ensign Mast
12.    And…..if one can procure the original Clinker Dinghy or suitable replacement……

Lady Clair (L) & Lady Eileen at Gulf Harbour May’14

Lady Clair (L) & Lady Eileen at Gulf Harbour May'14

28-04-2016 Work in progress photos ex Ken Ricketts (17 April)

 

USA Classic Yacht Magazine – On-line May/June 2015 Edition

Posted on by
3

USA CLASSIC YACHT MAGAZINE – Digital Edition

Lots of great looking woodys in the latest edition – click the blue link below to view the whole magazine on-line.

Classic Yacht On-Line Magazine – USA – May/June 2015