Mothers Day
ALCESTIS
Today is all about mums, past & present + families. What better photo to remind us about family life than the one above taken during the Guthrie family 1931/2 Xmas / NY Northland cruise on their launch Alcestis.
Over the next few days I will post some stunning photos of Alcestis (now Raiona), Lady Margaret & Shenandoah cruising around the far north.
Enjoy today.
special thanks to Graham Guthrie for sharing his grandparents photos
MOVARIE
story & photos ex Russell Ward
Bridgedecker “Movarie” was built for W Macpherson by W & G Lowe St. Marys Bay and launched in 1938. I was told that she was largely the work of Cyril Tercel (Lew’s brother) who was not long out of his time. The Motor Boat and Yachting 17 June 1938 article records that she was built as a “game fishing vessel and was very successful”. It seems that WW2 got in the way of Macpherson’s plans and HDK elicited that he apparently died in 1953 back in England.
We are not sure of the origin of her name –Macpherson’s house in the UK was called “Movarie”. I had always assumed the name was a contraction of the daughters’ names -as were many boats names– but not so. Doubtless Harold will find out in time.
Macpherson sold “Movarie” to Vic and Robbie Sanders not long after launching and they had the wheelhouse lowered and a dodger put aft. It gave her a purposeful, striking and handsome appearance, but IMHO she is not pretty. Her hull is gorgeous though.
“Movarie” was chartered to the navy and served on offshore patrol duties for the duration of the war. The second picture shows her in this role. .
After the war, the Sanders kept her until 1956 and later bought “Lady Crossley”. “Mpvarie” kept her original 40hp Russell Newberry engines until 1960 when they were replaced with Fords. One of them still survives albeit rather rusty. You can still buy them in the UK though very expensively. Lovely engines and easy to live with, popular with the barge people. Despite what you might expect, her shafts were inward turning –outward turning gives maneuverability, inward gives power. Anyway she would handle as a twin-screw boat but just more ponderously. Our RNZN minesweepers “Inverell”, “Kiama”, “Echuca” and “Stawell” had the same arrangement and were a handful too as many captains found.
We owned “Movarie” for five years from 1996 –you will recall that, in another Woodies entry, I blamed my buying a fizz boat on Andrew Johns and “Ruamano”. I was sad that the last surviving Sanders brother had died not long before. His son John said he would have been delighted to talk about her and gave me a lot of information and a few family photos.
Frustrated by her run down state and machinery, I took her out of the water for a couple of months early ’97. I replaced the flogged out Fords with newer ones and took the opportunity to replace the fuel tanks, the tops of which were rusted through. I put new steering gear in, attended to some interior woodwork and generally tidied her up. I also put her back to the original type masts.
She is a magnificent sea boat we enjoyed her company.
09-04-2016 – photo added – Movarie & unknown game fishing boat. Photo ex Hylton Edmonds via Ken R.
Trout Fishing, Lake Taupo
Percy Vos 16′ lake fishing boat with the launch Whizzbang (middle)
ROMANCE
Romance is the older and smaller sister of Romance II. She was built August 1914 by Bailey & Lowe for W.C. Mils of Devonport who replaced her with Romance II in 1919. Romance was 26ft oa and fitted with an ohv 4 cyl petrol engine. W.E. Utting owned her for many years after Mills.
She then went to Napier and was bought by Sydney Hole and was the Holes family boat for many years on Lake Taupo. Pictured is Ken Hole(Sydney’s son) and Belle Hole standing beside Romance)
In 2006 she was in charter on the lake.
photo ex Alan Good, words Harold Kidd & Alan Good.
MAHANUI
Mahanui was built by Keith Atkinson in 1977 for Trevor Lindsay who owned Linbide Precision Tools. She was originally launched as Jacinta II. Keith had built a 44 ft boat to a “Bertram” design (Raymond C Hunt) launched as ‘Shango’ which Trevor admired but it was too big for his marina at Half Moon Bay so he said if Keith could build a scaled down Shango he would buy it. That was Jacinta II Photo attached as originally launched. She’s hard chine Kauri Plywood glassed over hull and topsides. Trevor owned her for 25 years and sold her to someone in Doves Bay Kerikeri who used her for game fishing then became ill and sold her about 8 years ago to Brett Haeger who changed the name to Mahanui, and converted the portofino stern topsides to conventional topsides and added a new duckboard. There was no extension of the hull. He also shortened the flying bridge coamings.
Jenny and Angus Rogers purchased Mahanui in February 2012 and set about fixing the defects the survey revealed starting in May 2012 at Lees Boatyard in Sandspit. On the way to Sandspit one of the original motors (BMC 98’s) blew its fuel pump and closer examination of the motors indicated we either had to spend a lot of money on reconditioning very old motors or bite the bullet and replace them. We replaced them with twin Perkins Sabre M135’s with Newage PRM gearrboxes. She was in the shed at Sandspit for almost 9 months and during that time the hull was dried out, treated inside and then white gel coated, new exhausts fitted, new fuel and water hoses and filters, completely rewired, new BEP switchboard, LED lights throughout, faulty instruments replaced, complete overhaul of refrigeration, new batteries,resplining and strengthening coamings, all chromed brass removed and redone, bowsprit and anchoring system upgraded, all deckrails removed and refastened, new controls and cables, new skin fittings, other wood work, most of the internal panellng replaced, flybridge interior completely refurbished,coamings back to bare wood and Uroxis varnished, topsides and flybridge repainted, hull taken back to glass re-epoxied and new antifoul, new electronics and autopilot. Now ready for its next 30 years.
13-01-2017 Update from Angus Rogers
Piecing together an accurate history on Mahanui is interesting. The original owners (Lindsays) have provided ‘as launched’ and ‘run until 1996’ photos (below). Then in 1996 they extended the hull to its present length and Portofino sterned her and upgraded the foredeck hatches, put in solar panels etc. The next owner must have extended the side panels of the flybridge as shown on the photo that appeared in WW as “as launched”. The Lindsays corrected me about that photo showing her “as launched” and then the 3rd owner added the topsides and new duckboard and removed the added sidepanels to its present profile which I have just changed by extending the coaming roof.
Read details & view photos of the work undertaken in 2016 at the Greg Lees yard at this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/10/25/23212/
Lady Gay – as always looking like the lady she is.
Whitianga New Years Day Regatta #2 c.1950/51
Launches along side of Wharf: Fore to back: Marlin (Roley Smith), Eta B (Ted Bronlund), then little launch with rounded cabin top: Peggy, owned by the Morcombs & built by Bill Nobel at Whitianga in the 1920’s, then behind her: Renown (A White), then Spray (W Heald). Boat with skipper on wheel house: Scripps (Albert Bowman), the boat with the man at bow: Te Kuti (Jim Wilkins) and the boat behind her no name but owned by Trevor Brown.
Caption & photo supplied by Baden Pascoe. Photo taken by Simon Bronlund’s aunt Joyce.
LADY RAE
Designed by Chas Bailey Jnr. 1948. Looking for more details on her past, comment on the blog or email to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Whitianga New Years Day Regatta #1 c. 1950/51
Boats steaming
(L > R) – Eta B (Ted Bronlund), Waihaka (Alf Lee), Scripps (Albert Bowman), Ronomor (Bert Chaney) and the little runabout, name unknown but was owned by Harry Hancock. Last launch unknown.
Caption & photo supplied by Baden Pascoe. Photo taken by Simon Bronlund’s aunt Joyce
Pretty Boats Luana
People often ask me why photos of the same boats keep appearing across all the media. The answer is simple, the more attractive to the eye a boat is, the more photos have been taken. This is particularly true in the days before digital cameras when developing & printing a photo was relatively expensive – so people only took photos of pretty boat or boats in trouble (on the rocks).
If your boat was drop dead gorgeous, people even painted it.
I was sent a photo of the painting above of Luana by Brian Worthington who in his words ‘was going thru a cupboard at the fishing club and found this broken glass print of Luana It used to be on the wall in the bar at Mayor island when the fishing club was based out there’.
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