Category Archives: Launches

Mansion House Bay On A Bad Day

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Mansion House Bay On A Bad Day
photo ex Juliana Cooke (nee Turnwald)

Not sure of the date on the above photos but the presence of all the plastic fizz boats & the navy vessels in Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island, must make dating the photo easier.
If you look at the top photo & out into the bay, it must have been the start of ‘the end’ 🙂 i.e. the arrival of plastic fizz boats & plywood Vindexs .There is a cluster of classics in the right hand corner.
In the 2nd photo, who can ID the launch at the wharf – given the origin of the photos, the Turnwald family, I would suspect its ‘Robyn Gae’ but it does not look right to my eye.

Tuarangi

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TUARANGI  
photo & details ex Robert Brooke

The above photo is one from the Jack Brooke collection & shows Tuarangi  out at the Barrier in the early 1950’s. The Brooke family in ‘Judith’ was cruising in company with Tuarangi which was owned by Bruce Winstone who was with his wife and three children. Robert Brooke remembers Bruce rowing across one evening to tell Jack that as the weather forecast was good, they would be off to Whitianga first thing in the morning. The next thing they heard was that Tuarangi had blown up while refueling at Whitianga. Luckily the family had gone shopping for provisions, and Bruce was the only person on board. He was quite badly injured and was not well for a long time.

So folks todays questions are:
1. Does anyone know what happened to Tuarangi & where she is today?
2. Who designed & built her?

Update
I had an early morning txt from Nathan Herbert, saying that he thought there had been a oops in the boat name. I placed all the blame on Robert 🙂 ,  who supplied the photo tagged as Wairangi. Given the comments today we can safely assume it is Tuarangi. Post headline has been changed. See details below from Harold Kidd.
TUARANGI was built by Lidgard Bros for H.S. White and launched on 25 November 1950. She was 42’x40’x12’x4’3″ and originally had twin 90hp 6 cylinder Redwing petrol engines. White sold her to Bruce Winstone in 1951.
By 1959 she was renamed SILVER FIN and owned by Dr. R.L. Kennedy at Tauranga. George N. Hale owned her in Auckland in 1964 by when she had been re-engined with twin Ford Lees Marine 4 cylinder 64.8 bhp diesels.
Barbara Cooke had this to add –  Bruce Winstone had a Frostbite which was carried on the cabin top, the name being Wairangi. Both Bruce and his son Jeff were injured in the blast. After re fueling someone lit the stove to boil the kettle causing the explosion. Judy Salthouse (nee Brooke) recalls the event well.

Mystery Launch 12-06-2015

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Mystery Launch 12-06-2015
photo ex Dean Wright

The photo of the above launch was taken by Bay of Islands based professional photographer Dean Wright,  so again I assume the location is up ‘North’.

Can anyone ID the vessel & supply any details on her?

Eva

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EVA
photo & details ex Baden Pascoe

Following along from last Sundays post, the photo above shows the 1904 Logan built Eva paying a visit to Charlie Hansen in 1936 on Moturekareka Island, the wrecked hull of Rewa can be viewed in the background.  Robert Patterson is standing at the end of the wharf and his crew Keith Penny in the white pants standing on the sailing vessel. On their return trip from Auckland they delivered supplies to Hansen and he gave them the wheel and other items off the Rewa. Baden understands it is now/was in the Onerahi Cruising club.
Eva was steamed to Auckland as Robert had installed a new K3 Kelvin diesel of 66hp. The agents were Vivian and Leo Walsh who had their business above Fosters in the AET building (Fosters). The brothers insisted that they inspect the installation so the warranty would be honoured.
Shame the government did not back them when they requested funding so they could set up an aircraft manufacturing business. The Government thought they were just silly young men mucking around with a vision that had absolutely no future 😉

Todays ww task is – what happened to Eva & anyone able to ID the yacht alongside?

Update below from ww follower ‘Ben’ ex last Sundays Rewa post

“I’ve been told by the owner of the 28ft Mullety (Logan Circa 1910) Cora, that she was once owned by the owner of the Island Moturekareka at the time of the scuttling, and that the principal reason for the ‘seawall’ was to provide him with an anchorage for Cora.
Cora’s now in the Bay of Islands, in good shape with a close-to-original gaff rig on her.
Whether this is her in the photos, I’m not entirely sure, but when the present owner bought her, she had a similar profile to the vessel in your photo.”

11/06/2015 Photo ex Geoff Brebner

Weatherly and Transit

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WEATHERLY & TRANSIT
photos & details ex Juliana Cooke (nee Turnwald) Note –  in the above photo, despite the tags , Transit is the boat on the left & Weatherly on the right 😉

ww knows very little about the above photo other than both boats, Weatherly & Transit,  were once owned by a Patrick Lovett. Obviously from the caption the photo was taken in 1982 & show a very different view of Westhaven from today.
Seeing those two poles bought back memories of standing cold, in the mud, anti-fouling a yacht with the skipper sitting (dry) on the bank issuing instructions, as the tide was coming in 🙂

What do we know about these launches & where are they today?

Salacia and Salacia Too (Le Anne)

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SALACIA & SALACIA TOO (Le Anne)

photos ex Mike Blank, Brian Worthington, Ken Rickets
info ex Mike Blank & KR – edited by Alan H

Today’s post features the boats of Roy & Helen Blank (Mikes parents) – being Salacia & Salacia Too. Both were moored at Sandspit just off the main wharf, during their stewardship. The Blanks were staunch long standing members of Coastguard & effected many rescues with Salacia Too.

SALACIA TOO (Le Anne)

Salacia Too was originally named Le Anne & featured in a small article in Sea Spray of June 1965. She was designed and built by John Lidgard for Bill Roberts of Te Atatu. She was 34ft x 11ft x 3ft 6in & powered by 6cyl. 100hp Fordson diesel, triple skin 3/8 Kauri, covered with Dynel.
The photo of her in white, with bow rail and no hard top is as Helen and Roy purchased her, in 1983, probably early 83 as the 2 photos with the brown cabin sides are also from 1983. The finish was artificial wood grain, brushed on, the mix came from Willie Oliver.
The portofino stern was added in October 1993 & the hardtop to the fly bridge at a later date.
Sometime in the early 1990’s Mike thinks the engine was upgraded to a 120hp Fordson. The main cabin side door was another modification that Mike suspects happened somewhere late 1990’s. Roy sold Salacia Too in 2002
The last photo of her above, in white again, with a name change to Emmzee (?) and no bow rail is in Bostaquet Bay. Mike last saw her about a year ago berthed at West Park Marina, Hobsonville, Auckland.

SALACIA

Mike knows little about Salacai other than that Helen and Roy owned her in c.1982/1983 (Greg Lee & Ken Ricketts believe the Blanks may have owned her from late 1970 > c.1983). Mike thinks that she was purchased from a Bell family who may have been chartering her out of Tutukaka. Mike is not sure he ever went on board Salacia. She was powered by a 6V71 GM Detroit diesel.

Does anyone know of the whereabouts of these boats?

Mystery Girl

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MYSTERY GIRL
photo & details ex John Pryor

Mystery  Girl was recently bought up from Invercargill by Reuben Zylstra of Kawau Cruises, the cabin top was cut off in order to fit her into a container.
Reuben has no hard facts as to her history but has been told that she worked as a fishing boat out of Bluff for a number of years. The number T.B.C.691 on my bow must mean something to the ‘Work Boat’ guys?
Anyone able to shed any light on her history ?

Update 08-06-2015

The photo below was taken in 1999 by Chris Rabey, sent in by Russell Ward, that shows you what she looked like when fishing. She would have been converted to private use sometime ago, as her original BF8188 rego was allocated to another boat, Loyal, and when Chris looked at a photo of that one, it was no resemblance to Mystery Girl.

Islay II

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ISLAY II
photo ex Dean Wright

The photo of the above launch, which from the name board appears to be ‘Islay II’, was taken by Bay of Islands based professional photographer Dean Wright,  so the photo location is up ‘North’.

Can anyone confirm the ID of the vessel & supply more info on her?  I could be wrong but I seem to recall she was based at Bayswater Marina a couple of years ago.

 

Royal Irish

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ROYAL IRISH
photo & details ex Harold Kidd

Royal Irish was built by Bailey & Lowe in August 1913 for H.C. Williamson of Cape Runaway and named after a currently popular racehorse.
She is a 32 footer, originally powered by a 4 cylinder 18-35hp Sterling marine engine. She broke away from her moorings in the winter of 1914 and was shipped by scow back to Bailey & Lowe in Auckland for extensive repairs.
Royal Irish remained on the Bay of Plenty coast for many years. Joe Addison of Waimana owned her during the 1940s when she had a 3 cylinder Ailsa Craig diesel. In 1941 she broke down off the Raurimu Islands. Addison sent off a carrier pigeon with the details. The Whakatane pilot boat ‘Port Whakatane’ went out and towed her in. Addison sold her to Charles Bell of Waimana who replaced the Ailsa Craig with a BMC Commodore.
By 1975 she was owned by Barry Davies of Leigh and she’s been in and around Leigh ever since. In fact still fishing out of Leigh today.
Tough old bird!

Ngarunui

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NGARUNUI
photo ex Dean Wright

The photo of the above motor-sailer (or maybe its more a launch with a steadying sail) was sent to me by Bay of Islands based professional photographer Dean Wright so I’m assuming the location is ‘North’.

Can anyone ID the vessel & supply more info on her?

Details from Robin Elliott

Its Ngarunui. To my mind she is the best looking boat in the Bay. Could do with a more sympathetic colour scheme, the lolly blue doesn’t appeal to me,  but that’s just being picky.

Jim Young built about 1955, so I assume a Young design as well. Registered with the AYMBA by J.A.K. Spicer and C.R. Pollard in 1957 with dims of 48ft x 46ft x 11ft 8 in x 4ft 3 in and a 165hp diesel of undeclared make.

She was based in Whangarei when I moved up here around 2006 but has lately been moored in Te Uenga Bay (Parekura Bay). Haven’t seen her out much recently but we did sight her a couple of times over the summer.

Harold Kidd Update

According to Lloyds Yacht Register she was designed and built by J.H. Young in 1955 for J.A.K. Spicer and C.R. (Russ) Pollard. She is 48’x46’x11’8″x4’3″ and was originally powered with twin GM 165hp diesels of 1942 vintage (obviously ex-USN) + an 11hp Coventry Cub. Beautiful craft!

25-01-2016 Update

As ID’ed by Russell Ward (3 June 2015) Ngarunui has 2 prop shafts, one above the other. See Ken Ricketts photos below.

NGARUNUI 2 prop 4

27-01-2016 Update

Stewart Lodge (current owner) reports that Ngarunui had a single 165 6-71, and this was replaced with a 210hp version of the same. Always had the aux engine mounted behind the main with shaft above. The current engine is a Doosan (Korean) commercially rated engine at 200hp, solid mounted.