Category Archives: Launches

Waiheke Island Mooching + Mystery Boat to ID

Posted on by
12
Silens
Rorqual
Raindance
Nereides
Safari
Safari
Raindance

Waiheke Island Mooching

Bumped into a few old girls around Waiheke Island in the weekend – Safari, Nereides, Silens, Rorqual, Raindance & one newbie to me – anyone able to ID the launch below?
The island retailers must have had a blast – sun shining both days & lots of tourists, both international & day trippers. Great to see Nereides looking 110% post her wee dip last season.Oneroa has become a serious foodie spot + the craft beers on tap are rather good 😉

In a previous post Harold Kidd According commented that in the old APYMBA records a launch named Karina was built in Auckland by Brin Wilson and fitted with a Parsons diesel. Her first owners were T.J. & N.B. Price and then J & N Grieve (1970). Maybe the launch below is this one?

??

photo below of Karina from Ken Ricketts

1961

 

Wenna

Posted on by
17

WENNA
photo & details ex Harold Kidd

A new photo of Wenna has surfaced from Bob Wiley of Boat Haulage, whose father did a lot of cruising on Wenna when she was owned by Willie McWhirter during the 1950s and 1960s.
Willie McWhirter (1902-1983) was a long-term Auckland Harbour Board employee, son of Tom McWhirter, brother of Jack, of the well-known yachting family of St. Mary’s Bay.
He lived at 61 St. Mary’s Road. Dave Jackson knew him well.
When McWhirter owned Wenna he carried a food safe on the dodger which was most unusual and characteristic of the launch during his ownership.
Harold commented this is now a  a missing chunk of Wenna’s history accounted for.

Back then the crack was “Wenna you going to buy me a beer?” 🙂

ps excuse the fly poo on the photo – HDK was worried that cleaning it might have damaged the original print 🙂

To view more photos on Wenna old & current – enter Wenna in the ww search box.

11/11/14 – Harold Kidd Update

Jack Taylor has given me the good oil on WENNA. He used to work alongside Alf Bell of Collings & Bell and Alf told him some facts about WENNA.
1. She WAS built by Collings & Bell.
2. They took their time over construction so Eric O’Neill, who lived in Ring Terrace a few yards away, kept nagging them, ” When are you going to get my boat finished”, and the WENNA stuck.
3. Eric was known around the waterfront as “Peggy” O’Neill after the song. He was a cheerful bloke and everyone liked him.
4. He knew nothing about boating at the start. He brought WENNA back from Barrier through the bad February 1936 hurricane and complained to Alex Collings that she leaked. 40 boats were lost in Auckland in that blow.
5. However, he got to be good enough to skipper PAIKEA on occasion during her NAPS service.

 

Banshee

Posted on by
10

BANSHEE

Built by Allan Williams & launched in 1972, this 34 ft launch is built with a mix of kauri and teak. The story goes that Williams built the boat for his personal use and  due to its popularity the design was replicated several times in the following years.
Banshee was re- powered in 1994 with a 210hp Cummins that gives her with a max speed of approx. 14 knts.
A very practical ‘modern’ classic, her varnished coamings get a big tick from me. Currently for sale.

16-07-2021 Update – for sale again – photos ex May 2021 at Sandspit Marina

 

Alma G & Alma G II

Posted on by
24

ALMA G & ALMA G II

photos & detail ex Harold Kidd

Here is the first of a series of game fishing images taken by Tudor Collins at the Bay of Islands, which Harold would guess to be from the period around 1950-55 . The images were bought at a flea-market by Sharon Knight who has made them available via Harold for all of ww followers to relish.
This first one (today) shows ALMA G on the left and ALMA G II on the right.
ALMA G was built by Collings & Bell for E.C. Arlidge in 1922, the first of a series of splendid 35-36ft game-fishing launches built to Charles Collings’ renowned concave-convex planing hull design for the Bay of Islands. Her original configuration was the same as ALMA G II alongside her in this pic. ALMA G II was built as ZANE GREY for Mervyn Arlidge (for use by Zane Grey) in 1927. Other similar launches were MANAAKI and OTEHEI for F. Elliott (1927), LORNA DOONE for A. A. Holmes (1927) and AVALON for Peter Williams (1927). All were fitted with 6 cylinder Redwing 85-100hp marine engines.
Zane Grey’s visits to New Zealand with his mates caused an explosion of interest in game-fishing and added lots of US dollars to the NZ economy, culminating in the Collings & Bell’s commission from Zane Grey to build the 46 footer FRANGIPANI for fishing in Tahiti, launched in 1932.
ALMA G appears to have had a recent modernisation. Does anyone know when this done and who was the builder?

Photo below of ALMA G in her original configuration c1950, before the alterations.

Update ex Bruce Overhill
Bruce spent many hours on the refurbished Alma G in 2004 chasing Marlin. He commented that she can still catch them and was holding her own against all the big boats in the Bayleys fishing competition out of Whangaroa Harbor.

Below are a couple of photo to show the changes that she has had done.

28-04-2016 photo below of Alma G ex Hylton Edmonds via Ken Ricketts

ALMA G II - H Edmonds

Matahui

Posted on by
17

MATAHUI

Lindsay Aitcheson, the new owner of the motor-sailor Matahui would like some input from the collective brains of ww followers.

It is Lindsay’s understanding that Matahui was designed by Athol Burns & launched into the Waiwartu  Stream in Wellington in 1955 (refer above photo ex Turnbull Library). Lindsay understands she was built as a fishing boat to long-line in Cook Strait. The builder is unknown but ‘could’ be Frank Dellabarca as he built several Athol Burns designed fishing boats e.g. MV Cristina (featured previously on ww).

Anyone able to shed some light on Matahui & her past??

06/11/14 -Updated with more photos from Lindsay Aitcheson (click to enlarge)

14/11/2014 Two photos of Matahui below ex Pam Cundy when owned by Tim Hall , he used her as a commercial fishing boat. He sold her to build another commercial fishing boat, ‘Skip Jack’ a 38′ Aztec. These days Skip Jack operates as a charter boat out of Gulf Harbour.

Arohanui

Posted on by
16

AROHANUI

Designed by Andrew Donovan & built by the Lane Motor Boat Company in 1966, as launched she was LOA 45′. Beam 13’8″, Draft 3’5″. In 1991 the Salthouse yard lengthened her to 48′.
When launched in the mid 1960’s Arohanui was leading edge in terms of hull design, you can see the influence of the USA Hacker marque in her hull. As a comparison – the Salthouse yard were turning out the likes of Trinidad at the same time.
Her interior fit out & styling was the best money could buy & amazingly she has survived almost ‘as-original’, refer to the photo of the bulkhead storage layout. Her original condition was one of the key factors the helped Fiona & Rod Marler make the final purchase decision.

As launched she had twin 120hp Perkins installed, in 1993 these were replace with twin 300hp turbo Iveco’s – thats 600hp of zoom = 20+knots. A big step up from 7.5 knots Rod’s 1934 Arch Logan yacht, Little Jim will run out at 🙂 Now if you or a group of classic friendly buddies are looking for a classic yacht – Little Jim is on the market & to quote one of the saltiest yachties I know –  “is arguably NZ’s best classic yacht afloat in terms of pedigree, condition & sail-ability” view here http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/boats-marine/yachts/keeler/auction-795988279.htm

Now I have a few kooky interests in my life, one of them is marine instruments / gauges – the collection on Arohanui caught my eye, I tried to convince Rod to “pull those old things out & fit new digital instruments” but he saw through me on that 🙂

Arohanui was the cover / feature vessel on the April 1966 issue of Sea Spray magazine

Andy Donovan’s Original Drawings

22-10-2015 Update

Arohanui is currently hauled at Sandspit & in the shed at Lees Boat Builders where Greg Lees & his team of artisans are giving her a makeover. The standard of work is A+ & the yard have belong the go to location for classic vessel’s. The next project is outside on a swing mooring waiting patiently for Arohanui to slide out.

The story of the Round NZ Cruise of Karros II

Posted on by
1

The Round NZ Cruise of Karros II
told by Jillian Inglis & sent in to ww by Jamie Hudson ex Peter Berrett

Click the blue link below to view the story 😉

Ernie’s gone fishin

The above folks is an exceptional read – 3 blokes – Ernie Seagar, Bill Boulton & Dave Jackson (owner skipper of Karros) in Feb 1985 undertook a 7 week circumnavigation of NZ that they loosely describe as ‘Gone Fishin’.
Its 18 pages long so grab a coffee / tea & find a comfy spot – I guarantee you wont be able to stop reading. Make sure you view the photos on pages 15>18. Teaser below

Screen Shot 2014-10-31 at 12.57.33 PM
I understand the story surfaced for the 80th birthday celebration for Ernie Seagar. In the photo below, Ernie is pictured in July 2014,  on-board Margo & Jamie Hudson’s classic launch, Lady Crossley, holding a photo of LC on her launch day, Ernie’s father had LC built by Colin Wild. Ernie’s grandmother launched LC.

Ernie Seagar onboard Lady Crossley

 

Queen Mary

Posted on by
4

QUEEN MARY

photos & details ex Alan Craig. edited by Alan H.

Alan owns this Sea Craft 19′ in Rotorua named ‘Queen Mary’. The Queen Mary is a very lucky boat because Alan is a boat builder at Tony Mitchell’s yard in Otaramarae at Lake Rotoiti.
When Alan caught the ‘wooden boat bug’ he started looking for a project and found the Queen Mary on trademe in Rotorua.

Rumour has it that it was built as one of three to take the Queen Mother trout fishing on Lake Taupo for her visit in 1966.  Alan has been told her visit was proposed in 1964 as she fell ill. She came in 1966 but there was no time for fishing apparently.

The build date of the boat is unknown but the below Sea Spray article from April 1964 talks about the 17 footer and smaller ones built, but no mention of the 19′. It may have been the ‘privately owned’ boat mentioned? Alan guessed that there would have been a certain amount of secrecy around them. Alan has dated the engines (1500 Ford Cortina) at 1963 via the serial numbers.

The Queen Mary was a deviation by Sea Craft from the production boats at the time and was right up there with style also. Her hull is beautifully built double skin kauri, being diagonal inside and longitudinal outside (varnished)
It was owned by Internal Affairs and it was only put up for sale in the 1980’s. To who, we don’t know?

Alan is slowly bringing her back to life after having been left outside to rot away for the last few (10?) years. The photos are as found and progress through the rebuilding of side decks to recently painted deck and a bit of varnish inside. The side and aft deck were worst affected and parts of the cabin sides, but the hull remains in very good nick. She sits on the original trailer.

Alan’s not sure about ‘Queen Mary’ being her original name and is very interested to know about the yellow registration sticker for the Port of Tauranga that is in the window?

Someone else must have seen her around somewhere, perhaps Taupo? Of particular interest would be clarification of the royal link.

Included below are photos of two boats, Arohanui (x2 being launched) which was once owned by Nathen Herbet’s father and the one with the three blokes that was sent to Alan by Lionel Sands from when they had one at Waihaha Lake Taupo in the early 1960’s. None of these can be Alan’s as they both have painted hulls.

More photos of Arohanui (ex Nathan Herbert)

Florence

Posted on by
7

FLORENCE
photos ex Clare Jordan

Todays photos of Florence (1910, HN Burgess) are from Clare Jordan. Clare found them in an old album of her  great-grandparents (Jim Turner), they show one at sea, two with the life preserver ring and one that looks like on a creek somewhere, dated early 1920s. Clare’s not sure where the Creek area is,  but commented that it looked like her family spent a bit of time there camping.  They had a batch in Titirangi, but Clare felt it didn’t make sense for Florence to be on the Manukau Harbour area?
Jim Turner spent a lot of time with his best mate (Alexander Lewis) at Jenkins Bay, Titirangi.  Alexander (Sandy) had something to do with the VCC.
Claire’s not sure who the people are, the man in the photos looks like the same person with the captains hat on.

I have forwarded these photos to Florence’s current owner Adam Wild & as expected Adam was rapt to get them, he is currently looking at some subtle rework to the painting scheme of Florence’s superstructure and commented that these photos will assist greatly.

Enter Florence in the ww search box to see more

Harold Kidd Update

FLORENCE spent her years from 1922 in Whangarei owned by J.C. Reynolds but, if the companion pic of JEAN GRAY is anything to go by, the album contains pics of the period before that and associated closely with people in Victoria Cruising Club. FLORENCE was owned in 1919 by F. Price, like JEAN GRAY’s owner, A. Lewis and later A. Hazleman, a VCC stalwart, and was Vice-Commodore from 1920. In fact, the life ring in the lowest pic has “VCC” on the bottom. So the pics pre-date her Whangarei period. Quite where the creek pic was taken is anyone’s guess but I don’t think it could have been on the Manukau unless they fitted FLORENCE with wheels. Just to confuse things a bit, there was a FLORENCE on the Manukau, owned by Pardington, but it was only a 20 footer.
So, these are companion pics to the JEAN GRAY pic, featuring VCC notables of the time.

A Woody Labour Weekend

Posted on by
10

Lucille & Ngaio – 2 Logans

A Woody Labour Weekend

The weather split the CYA classic fleet in two this Labour weekend with some heading to Kawau for the opening of the ‘new’ Kawau Boating Club. From all reports it was a blast & well done to those that made the trip. The photos below of Kawau are from the camera of Margo & Jamie Hudson (Lady Crossley).
A selection of classic launches mooched around Waiheke Island & with the weather forecast –  Onetangi Bay was the most popular spot. We had to share it with a rather large number of plastic boats, I think every Rivia in Auckland was there, but for once they behaved & the hum of the gen-sets  was almost bearable 🙂
Waiheke photos ex me (I took a few more ,but they will be ‘Mystery Boat’ posts)

PS If you were away on the boat or at the bach, you may have missed the last 4 ww posts, which featured the boats of Norm Fairlie. Stroll down to enjoy 😉

WAIHEKE ISLAND

Raindance

Sea Fever

Lucille

Ngaio

Happy Dog + a Rivia owner

KAWAU ISLAND

Trinidad – Lady Crossley

Ferro

Somethings wrong here – why is the oldest rowing?

Dick Coughlan