OLYMPIA II

 photos & details ex Ken Ricketts

Olympia II was designed jointly by John Lidgard & Noel Sparnon (refer details on Sparnon below). She was built entirely at the Lidgard yard in Glen Eden. John Ldgard built the hull decks & combings completely, with support from Sparnon who also did a fabulous job of crafting the interior. Ken R was involved with her during construction doing all the electrical wiring. She is incredibly spacious & a big volume boat & had the first domestic flush toilet in a launch.

Olympia II was preceded by Olympia a smallish launch, or large runabout that they owned in the mid or later 50s. N.S. never kept his boats very long & sold her within a couple of years of building.

She was launched in 1963 & is 40 ft long, approx 14 ft beam, built of 2 skins of Kauri, with mahogany combings, originally varnished, which looked stunning, now long since painted.

Her original engines were 2 x 100 hp 6 cyl, English Parsons converted Ford diesels, with mechanical Parsons gear boxes, & 3 to 1 reduction gears, driving huge propellers. The engines came out of the Florence Kennedy, a commercial snapper fishing charter boat, working out of the Launch Steps in Auckland, for many years, when they re-engined her with larger Volvos, Sparnon bought them off Len Sowerby. The Parsons Fords  were subsequently replaced by the next owner with 2 brand new 120 hp Lees converted Fords, in the late 1960s, with 2 to 1 reduction gears, & hydraulic gearboxes.

Olympia II lived at the bottom of Sparno’s garden at 42 Alwynn Ave., Te Atatu South, in the Whau River, on a pile mooring. She was visible from the motorway & looked very conspicuous surrounded by much smaller & older craft.

Olympia II presently belongs to a Mr Brian Craies of Northcote Point, who has owned her for 7 years & keeps her at Gulf Harbour. He bought her from an owner who had kept her at Half Moon Bay.

The Birth Pains of Olympia II by Ken Ricketts

Olympia II was taken from John Lidgard’s Boatbuilding premises in Glen Eden, in September 1963 by transporter to be launched at the little ‘jetty’ (a la Warkworth wharf style), into the Henderson Creek, at The Concourse in Henderson, adjacent to where Alloy Yachts are now.

As this is a very shallow tidal estuary, it is essential that all craft are launched right at high tide, as it is just a trickle at low water.

It all started, when the crane that was to lift her off the transporter & lower her in to the water, arrived over half an hour late., by which time Noel Sparnon the owner & John LIdgard the builder (+ Ken Ricketts, as well as a good number of others that were present) started to panic.

After much rushing of lifting preparations, she was eventually gently lifted off the transporter & swung over the river, to be lowered in to the water. As she as swung over the river & was starting to be gently lowered into the water, suddenly the crane began to lift off the ground at the front & threatened to follow her into the  tide, at which point the crane driver did the obvious & dropped her the remaining 3 feet or so into the tide. If he hadn’t done that, there was no doubt, that both boat & crane would have ended up in the water together & quite probably doing serious damage to Olympia II to boot.

It should be noted that unknown to most of us that during this lifting process, that the engineer (Joe), who had done much of the mechanical installation, was still rushing to attend to one or two final adjustments, in the very low cramped confines of under the bridgedeck floor. Can you imagine what it must have felt like or what he thought when the crane driver dropped the boat those last 3 feet.

Eventually she started down the creek, about an hour later that she should have, with Messrs., Sparnon, Lidgard, “Joe”, Gary Sparnon (owners son), a couple more helpers & Ken on-board.

The Henderson Creek had no markers in that era & one navigated by a combination of dead reckoning & previous experience (from J.L. in this case).

After stirring the mud quite a bit on-route she eventually got to the point adjacent to the bottom end of the Te Atatu Peninsula & diagonally opposite what is now Westpark Marina, on the western side of Te Atatu Peninsula when she finally came to a final grinding halt, in the soft mud, that was ever increasingly surrounding us, on all sides. & there the crew remained until circa 11-30am, sitting on the bare floor mostly & making good use of a dozen or so bottles of beer, that had been fortuitously put aboard before launching.At launching she had not had her squabs, carpets or curtains installed, — these were to be done on the moorings after she was settled on her home berth.

By this time it was circa 4 pm & Noel Sparnon’s wife, Thora, who was always a darling lady, had decided to follow the progress, as best she could, by road & watched as she navigated the creek, arrived by road, at the far end of the peninsula, about 5-30pm, with a huge parcel, of hot fish & chips & waded out through to yucky fairly deep mud, to deliver them to the crew. What a lady he was married to.

When she was eventually floated off, about 11pm & slowly crawled & picked her way, in the blackness, of a very dark night, the rest of the way down the Creek & then down the harbour, & back up again, into the Whau River & eventually got safely to her  pile moorings at the bottom of Sparnons garden at 42 Alwynn Ave., Te Atatu South, which overlooked her berth, circa 1-30am.

FOOTNOTE: Needless to say, none of the crew were not early risers, that morning.

Noel Sparnon the man (by Ken Ricketts)

He was first of all a boatie, he was also a perfectionist in all he did, at all times. He was an artisan cabinet maker by apprenticeship, a manufacturer, & part of the family which owned Cresmar Fashions, in Pt Chevalier in the 1950s & 60s, a builder, he personally built a factory in the 1950s , his own home at 42 Alwynn Ave., Te Atatu South, in the mid 50s, a home in Chatswood Estate In Birkenhead, in the 70s/80s for his son, he designed & built the Ala Moana Motel on Marsden Rd Paihia in 1968,  he was also a motelier, running it with his family for several years, he was a developer, designing & building a worthwhile block of units in Curran St Herne Bay. Garry, who inherited his fathers many outstanding attributes, was involved with almost all family business activities from his late teens in the 1960s, onwards. N.S moved to Australia permanently a good number of years ago now & as far as I know, never returned to NZ.

AVENGER; was also built by John Lidgard & N.S. circa 1966 on the same basis, at the same place, Lidgard did the outside, & Sparnon, the inside, . She was slightly smaller, circa 38 ft., with a single Lees 6 cyl Ford & a very sleek low profile, bridgedeck cabin top, with beautiful lines. However this naturally meant a sacrifice of a little headroom & considerably less interior volume,  still however, with the same outstanding craftsmanship, & design aesthetics, as OLYMPIA II. She was sold when he designed, built, & ran the Ala Moana Motel at Paihia in the period circa 1968 -1972 

AVENGER II; was the last of the Sparnon boats I am aware of, & was built circa 1974, with a moulded fibreglass 44 ft Cookson hull & decks, bought off Cookson, & N.S adding his usual perfection with his custom designed & built varnished mahogany combings. She had her cabin tops & interior fitout done at Sparnon’s daughter Cheryl’s house, in Avondale. Her hull was royal blue with a white boot top & red bottom with white & teak forward & side decks & stone coloured cabin top. She had side exhaust out the RH side a little aft of centre & above the waterline. She was powered by a single 250 hp, single Volvo & was  later sold to a Mr. Barry Utting who kept her at Half Moon Bay, for a number of years, in the later 70s.