Category Archives: Launches

Cleone

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CLEONE
photos & details ex Ken Ricketts. edited by Alan H
Cleone is thought to have been built in the 1950’s by Jim Young to a Couldrey design & her current owner Bruce Orborn believes she was the first launch that Jim Young built. Her specs are 30′ long by 10′ 6″ beam. She presently has a 4 cyl 72 hp Ford Diesel, which may be original. Orborn has owned her for approx 15 years & bought her off a Mr Stubbs who had her he believes for about 8 years & who had bought her off people called Armitage, who apparently bought her off the original owner Bert Follas.

Orbon commented that she spent some of her early life in Whakatakataka Bay & was using one of the sheds in the bay in her earlier years. She later moved to Devonport, during this period the present owner, first went out on her aged 10 yrs, with his family, who were friends of the Follas’s.
Cleone later moved to Milford Marina where she has been moored for all her life under the Stubbs & Orborn stewardship.

Anyone able to confirm the design/build details & add to the history of Cleone?

Harold Kidd Update

Arnold (Bill) Couldrey designed CLEONE for Bert Follas in 1948 and had her built by Jim Young a little later, probably launched in 1950. She originally had a petrol engine, later replaced with a Ford diesel. Follas owned her until about 1963 when M. Alison of Waitangi Rd, Onehunga bought her. John Grainger owned her from 1975 to 1987. I have a bunch of pics during his ownership. John Stubbs bought her in 1989. His story was that CLEONE was the first boat Jim Young built when he came out of his apprenticeship because she was the size of his shed.

New photos added 14-06-2015. Alan H

Little Tasman

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LITTLE TASMAN
details from Russell Ward

Russell was the bearer of some great news last week – the Colin Wild built Little Tasman, has found a new owner. Over the last few years numerious woodys have sent me photos of Little Tasman hauled out at Point Wells. I’m told a while ago a 4sale sign appeared, now I wish I had know – there are a few woodys out there that would have snapped up a Colin Wild built launch with the provenance that LT has. Wild built her for Albert Spencer & she was called Tasman & was a trial for his next (larger) boat also called Tasman so #1 then became Little Tasman. In the sepia photo above she looks to have a good turn of speed – I don’t imagine Albert Spencer would not have been chugging around the harbour at 7 knots 🙂

I’ll let Russell time his tale about Little Tasman.

“My memories of her go back to the mid ‘60s when all was Radio Hauraki, psychedelia, Beach Boys, Strolling Bones and Beatles. Oh and sheilas. Boats were somewhere in there and Bon Accord harbour was the stage. Mansion House was still privately run and the authorities didn’t know about the “Snake Pit”. There were usually several mullet boats nosed into the beach and crews in varying stages of recovery/rehydration. You couldn’t get your anchor to hold reliably in the bay because of all the bottles on the bottom!

The Kawau Yacht Club was pretty moribund, although the AMYC were making preliminaries to taking it on (my old man was on the committee of AMYC) so we had great hopes.
Mrs Lidgard was in residence, Skip Lawler had the Fairmile Ngaroma alongside the wharf for a while, and the Comettis had a fantastic garden. My potted history of the Christmas holidays.

The Ward family (no relation) had Little Tasman at that time and it was party time. If I said that one of the mullet  boats that had rafted alongside one memorable noisy night, was pushing off at just before sunrise because “they didn’t want to get us mulletties a bad name”, you get the picture.

But enough of that (it was just to get the old salts of Cobweb Corner reminiscing about their misspent youths). I have always been keen on machinery and when Harold Kidd mentioned that Little Tasman had a Stearns, I wondered what sort of engine they made. No pictures in my books. It was pretty obvious that there must have been classy because they were going into classy boats. American of course. And Stearns Knight made sleeve valve engines for their cars, the assumption that there was a connection was there. But no, no relation.

I contacted an old colleague in the US to see what he could find. And Richard Durgee sent me a raft of pics and adverts (refer below). They are 1924 and 26 so just right timing. I am fascinated that they have an amazingly modern head. Prod rod of course and the combustion chamber apparently in the piston.  You remember –what the Chrysler invented in the ‘70s for the Chrysler Hemi! Nuthin’ new out there, son. ’S all been dun before apart from nukes. Most marine engines were side valve –slower flame propagation and plenty of low down torque”.

Remember click image to enlarge

Tamure

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TAMURE Now the question is – whats going on here? a wee spot of ‘Impact Hydrography’ or some roadside maintenance? There was lots of work going on down aft. One of the woodys snapped the photo yesterday from his house in Mahurangi (west). Anyone able to supply some more info on her, enlarging the photo tells me its not the Tamure built (supposedly) by Dick Lang in the 1920’s. You can view this one by searching Tamure in the ww search box.

The Birth Place of Many Woodys

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Freemans Bay c1961
Baileys Yard c1961

The Birth Place of Many Woodys
photos ex Chris McMullen ex Gilbert Littler

The two stunning aerial photos above of the Beaumont Street boatyards, taken in the early 1960’s by Whites Aviation, were sent in by Chris McMullen via his friend Gilbert Littler. These days Gilbert lives in Boston, USA but in the 1960’s worked at the Baileys yard (2nd photo above) as a boatbuilder. Gilbert was back in NZ recently to sail on Chris Bouzaid’s Rainbow II during the ‘One Ton Revisited Regatta’, which they won.

Chris commented that back in the 1960’s when the photos were taken, any interested young boy could go into a boatyard and watch what was going on. No health and safety regulations. An older guy told Chris one day “Don’t be a —— boatbuilder sonny ‘’  “Better to be a builder.” He told him the boatbuilding industry was too unreliable, hard dirty work and way under paid. Well Chris says he was right, but he ignored the old boys advice and some how survived, with no no regrets.

There are a lot of woody’s in the photos. Lots of history too. Lowes old yard is just south of the Atlantic oil depot. Chris’s old firm, McMullen & Wing Ltd, set up a travelift operation there to replace the St Marys Bay haul out, taken by the Harbour Bridge approach.
Chris commented that they filled the site with brick and concrete from the Union Steam Ship building. The date about 1980.  The site was leased from the old Auckland Harbour Board and had some very restrictive conditions over activity and building on the site.  It was too tough and Chris got out and left it with his business partner the late Eric Wing. He sub leased it to Kip Kempthorn who eventually bought the lease and managed to change the terms through negotiations with the new land lord  “Ports of Auckland “. Chris isn’t quite sure how he managed that but it happened. What is on the site now would never have been allowed under the original lease.  The McMullen & Wing site was next to the old Harbour Board slip and is now called Orams number two yard. As an aside Chris recently bought back their original travelift that has been worked flat out for over 33 years.

(remember to enlarge a photo, simply click on it)

Lady Jade

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LADY JADE
photos & details ex John Sankey & John Pryor

A ‘new’ classic was launched last weekend at Hamilton’s Landing on the Mahurangi River.

Lady Jade at 39′ is a Dave Jackson design and there are a further 3 sister ships currently under construction locally.
Her hull was started by local boating identity Col Bell and purchased by Andrew Hamilton when Col struck health problems.
She was worked on by both Andrew and his son Grant over the last year or so. The Hamilton Family have been boat builders and farmers on the Mahurangi for at least 5 generations, starting as scow builders and there are currently 3 generations still living on the property. They have been launching boats at this very un-marina launch site for 150+ years.

The mast on Lady Jade came from the wrecked (rescued & restored) Logan yacht Gypsy. Her bow roller is from the ex Logan lifeboat Tuna. She is powered by a 6lxb. Gardener, an ex show engine from Gardner UK. Supposedly, the last Gardener ever built.

Koala (Amaryllis)

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Koala (Amaryllis) NOTE- HAVE SINCE LEARNED THAT THE BOAT FEATURED IN THE BOAT IS PROBABLY NOT KOALA  photo ex Sandy Richards (wife of the late John Richards, refer below) details ex Ken Rickets, edited by Alan H She was built by “Mac” McGeady at 1A Summer St. Ponsonby c.1955 for H T Morton a prominent businessman on Auckland’s North Shore. As an aside, a number of streets are named after him & his family on the North Shore e.g Dianna Drive (after Dr. Dianna Morton), Rosalind Ave., (after Dr. Rosalind Morton), his daughters, Morton Ave., & Varlene Tce. He was also a pioneer private aviator, who owned his own aircraft right back in the 1920s. She started life named Amaryllis (later changed to Koala) & followed on from Morton’s last boat, the McGeady built c.1938 bridgedecker Varlene, which was originally named  Lady Sunshine (bought off Com Hardley c.1949) which in turn had followed her predecessor, Spindrift. Dam launches & names changes – makes life hard 🙂 Originally powered by 2 x 4 cyl. Lees converted 80 HP Ford Diesels, installed by Tracey Nelson & was used by Morton for extensive coastal cruising right up to North Cape, one of his favorite spots was Mangonui & he spent much time there through many summer months. Ken recalls that in her earlier days Morton had a habit on running her on 1 engine at a time, at slow speeds, for longish periods, as a slightly embarrassing result of this, he completely wore out 2 gearboxes, as the shaft would spin on the engine not in use (he never locked the gearbox in forward gear, or fitted shaft clutches) & in due course this was the result. She was sold in the 1960s by Morton to a friend of Kens, John Richards, who was the owner that changed the name to Koala. Can anyone update ww on what became of her post John Richards ownership?

Lady Cynthia

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Lady Cynthia – a bit of a mystery
photo & details ex Harold Kidd

Harold thinks the photo above of Lady Cynthia rafted up alongside the wreck of Rewa is c.1937. He also suspects that she only had the name Lady Cynthia for a brief period around this time, so the big question is what was she named before & after?. There is speculation that she  could have been a big flushdecker pre-1914.

Laughing Lady Catch Up

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Laughing Lady  Catch Up

Most of you would be aware from the posts on ww that LL is undergoing a restoration at the Whangateau Traditional Boat yard, if not details here https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/04/09/laughing-lady/

I was chatting (e-mail) with James last week & he has just sent me a batch of photos of LL both in the 1960s while under the ownership of Robert Lion Gardiner & some photos of the work completed by Doug Jones & Fernando Alva of Traditional Boat Works. As an aside these two have also been working over the years on the restoration of ‘Therapy’, James Rhodes 33 yacht in San Diego. details here (scroll down, Mr Uroxsys had a few photo posting issues at the start 🙂 http://classicyacht.org.nz/cyaforum/topic/natica-beater/

James mentioned a spot of good fortune / luck he had recently when he met with the previous owner, Bob Watkins. Bob is a marriage relation of Gardiner, & was kind enough to tell James a lot of her history & give him a collection of parts from his storage unit – including her original game fighting chairs (freshly re-chromed), some interior fittings, old photos, and the boats flag bag which contained the original skull and crossbones house flag of Gardiners Island and her New York Yacht club burgee.

The skull and cross bones refers to the fact that Captain Kidd buried his treasure on the island in 1699 and swore he would kill Lion Gardiner the 9th if it went missing.  Upon Kidds arrest, Gardiner directed the British Admiralty in its direction but the crowns inventory after digging it up by all accounts, was rather short.  Needless to say the Gardiners were always well off!

You can see the House flag flying in the old photos.

Bob recounted purchasing the boat from Gardiners widow, Eunice for a sum of $10,000 sight unseen and without survey in approximately 1998.

On arrival at the well known Driscolls Boat yard in San Deigo, he received a call to explain that his boat was there, unfortunately not in one piece, and every boat enthusiast and broker in the bay was stopping to view her as rumours spread about the unique vessel.

On inspection, the Volvo Pentas, (which replaced a pair of Chrysler inline eights in about 1987), were installed bolted to old frames and planking rather than new engine beds.  This, combined with four full 36 Gallon fuel tanks had resulted in massive structural bottom damage and the engines almost falling through her bottom during the trip from New York to Calfironia.

She was transferred to Clarke Custom Boats (which became Traditional Boatworks) where she was shored up, station molds fitted to return her to her lines, and the bottom essentially cut off.  Laminated frames were fitted, a large new section of stem glued in, and a double planked glued and screwed bottom of Cedar installed.  Up top there was some local splining and a full re-fastening.

The work done in San Diego was a sound basis for continuing the restoration and was was what justified taking the project on & transporting LL across the world to Whangateau :-).

Whangateau Update

Its not often we see the Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard like this i.e. a working boat yard, normally the photos show it masquerading as a smoko room for the brilliant open days at the yard 🙂 In the photos we see Laughing Lady’s new hand rails.

07-05-2016 updates

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27-05-2016 Update – James words “One month of solid sanding and painting, its time to paint her blue, amped”

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28-05-2016 Update – 3 coats of blue on today, 2 more to go 🙂

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A little bit of a mirror finish happening here – the ‘model’ is Mark Lever, owner of the very smart classic launch Nereides

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29-05-2016

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Mystic

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MYSTIC
photo & details from owners Lorraine & Colin Davis

Mystic was built by Swanson’s in Picton & launched in 1965. Currently moored in Waikawa Bay, Marlborough for the past 3 years.
Her hull is double diagonal kahikatea glassed over to the chines, decks and cabin tops  are all glassed.
She is powered by a Toyota HD turbo diesel 140hp, giving her 7.5 knots at 2000 revs, burning 10 litres an hour  .
Recent improvements have included cutting in a stern door, an unusual feature from new is her a tandem roof which slides back and  opens up for use on sunny days.

Anyone able to throw some light on her past?

Port Ligar

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PORT LIGAR
photos & details ex Peter Mence

Todays post is a wee bit of a hybrid – her previous owner, Paul Hastings, purchased a 1940 hull of approx. 22′ length & commissioned Bruce Askew, the well know Wellington base yacht & launch designer,  to design a new topsides. The work was undertaken by Evans Bay Boatbuilders in Wellington. The combination of Askew’s eye & the craft of the builders have produced a very salty craft.

She is powered by a Isuzu diesel which pushes her along at a comfortable 10 knots. The interior features blue squabs  set of with red piping. Launch day was marked in style with the ‘Duke of Wellington’ doing the honours 🙂

Interested to know more about her & the where-abouts of Port Ligar now, she has the makings of a perfect lake boat & I get the feeling that one day she will join the fleet on Lake Rotoiti.