Category Archives: Non Waitemata

Lady Ellison

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LADY ELLISON
photos & info ex Mark Jarvis for Steve Simms

Lady Ellison was built in 1950 & given her shape & those trademark windows in the side of the centre cabin coamings she is most likely of Sam Ford pedigree. Length is 36′ , beam 11′ 4″ , draught 2′ 9″.

Her present owner Steve Simms of Motueka lives aboard & has had her for 8 years. Steve sails her regularly in the Abel Tasman Park & across to the Marlborough Sounds. He believes she has always been called Lady Ellison.
Previous owners were Bruce & Betty McNab & they owned for 37 years & kept her in Havelock. They replaced the BMC commodore for the current Ford 120hp.

It is believed that she went to Paremata after leaving Auckland but no dates. As a kid in the 1950’s Mark Jarvis lived in Paremata & remembers a similar looking Sam Ford moored in Browns Bay, Paremata with a yellow painted cabin, he suspects it was this boat. Adding to this is when Steve purchased her she was yellow and green (see photos below) & Steve then raised the centre cabin by 9″ & gave the windscreen a visor & added side moldings to the cabin edges.

Anyone able to confirm the Sam Ford link & supply more info on her ?

Photos Below As Purchased

Harold Kidd Update (edited by AH)
The hull was built by Sam Ford c1952-3 for Albert Ritchie Hammer of 22 Dommett Ave Epsom. Hammer worked on her for 6 months at Sam’s yard and she was launched at Okahu Bay. Somewhere I have a pic of her on her way to be launched. The treatment of the coamings and Ford trademark windows is a bit clumsy compared with Sam’s usual treatment of them, but probably a combination of the current owner raising the center cabin by 9″ & Hammer’s handy work rather than Sam. She was first registered with APYMBA in 1953 with the call-sign ZMZL and was still in Auckland in 1957.

PS Hammer died in 2001 aged 84 but his descendants may be able to fill in LADY ELLISON’s early history.

06-072015 Harold Kidd Update

John Blundell has emailed me to say that he knew Bert Hammer well. He ran a second hand furniture shop (and was an auctioneer) on Broadway Newmarket. John got to know him when he started work at the family firm, Fisher & Blundell around 1953-4 and sailed with him on Hammer’s keeler VECTIS (Bert Woollacott, 1929, originally B15, then C15, then F15). They broke the mast on one night race to Kawau.
John’s later memories of Hammer were when he owned BOUNTY which was famous for its escapades in the South Pacific when owned by Errol Flynn (?)…..any comments on BOUNTY.?She’s outside my timescale. She was part of the fleet that went to Mururoa to protest against the French nuclear tests. She was about 40ft oa and a heavy double-ended ketch.
Finally John makes the point that Bert Hammer never married so he doubts if we will hear from any descendants!

Silver Spray

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SILVER SPRAY

Today’s post has links back to yesterdays post that involved the Ravenhall family.
It starts back in 1926 when Silver Spray was built by Joe Slattery for Charles Ravenhall of Remuera. Silver Spray is 26′ LOA, 7′ beam with a 2’6″ draft, These days she is powered by a 4108 Perkins & has been beautifully restored & maintained by her owner & craftsman Mark Stapleton. Mark also maintains several other immaculate classic launches – Lady Margaret & Kailua for there owners.
The Ravenhall connection goes deeper in that Silver Spray is today housed in one of the Ngapipip Road boat sheds & back in 1930 Mr Charles Ravenhall was responsible for the shed sites in Ngapipi Rd being surveyed off for the construction of the sheds, with Silver Spray being the first vessel to be housed there. The Ravenhall shed was a small building , with a small window on the streetscape. The sheds were built as a result of the construction of the railway bridge across Hobson Bay.

Mark Stapleton had the pleasure of taking Charles Ravenhall’s son, Leslie & his family for a day trip on Silver Spray to celebrate Leslie’s 81st birthday.

The history of Silver Spray includes lives on Lake Rotoiti , Lake Taupo & homed twice in its 90 Years in Ngapipi Rd.

History is a wonderful thing but its now 2015 & Mark is retiring from boating due to health reasons & he has asked ww to help find a new minder for the old girl. To quote Mark “I would like to find another carer for her as I am confident in the right hands this boat has decades more life left in her. She is a delightful little boat & I have had many fantastic adventures with her “. Given the skills of Mark & the attention he has lavished on her, that is an understatement.

Silver Spray comes with a crated complete spare engine &  extensive new parts inventory.
She is in running order with full inventory of kit including – radio, fire extinguishers, life jackets, flares, Epirb, lines, anchors , dinghy, mooring .
Silver Spray is presently housed in her own shed and can be viewed on the hard by appointment. Mark can be initially contacted on email at   stapleton.restoration@gmail.com

The boat shed is also for sale separately. That should excite a few people, these things are like hens teeth & very rarely change hands.

So woodys, who is looking for or knows someone who is, a smaller classic wooden launch with wonderful provenance & maintenance history? This is the perfect boat, size wise in terms of easy maintenance & while I would hate to see her leave the Waitemata, she does have lake boat written all over her.

As an aside – Silver Spray is fast, she has blown the socks off my Raindance & other classics launches twice her size, in numerous CYA Patio Bay Rudder Cup classic launch races. Mark is always trying to squeeze an extra knot out of her – hence the sails in several photos, which he always told the race handicapper were there for safety (steadying) reasons – yeah right 🙂

02-08-2015 Photos ex Lynette Hatrick (nee Ravenhall)

The photos below of the Silver Spray during restoration were taken in the August 2003 before my Dad – Ronald and my mum – Bev Ravenhall went for the birthday cruise on the Silver Spray.

Mark Stapleton was passionate about restoring this boat and we all had a great time looking over it in the shed. That is my Dad in the photos.

 

Classic Clinker Motorboat

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Classic Clinker Motorboat

Now this little classic appeared briefly on trademe ($5,000) & then the listing was pulled, so hopefully the owner changed their mind or a buyer was found off-line.

This clinker built tender / lifeboat was built by Miller & Tunnage of Port Chalmers, Dunedin.

She started life as one of two lifeboat / tenders on the back of the tug ’Dunedin’ which was launched on Jan 6th 1914.

Built by Miller & Tunnage of Port Chalmers she is 14’ with a 6’ beam & powered by single cylinder diesel motor. The current Yanmar diesel was installed by Miller & Tunnage in 1961 & propels the craft at 6 knots. She has had only 2 owners in the last 40 years & as the photos show has amazing attention to detail & has been well loved.

If anyone was interested in her, a call to the seller agent might be a good idea – Shauna Brady 06 356 1084.

24-06-2015 Input from Russell Ward

Aha! Rivet counters of the NZ coast unite!
Below is a deck plan of the good tug Dunedin as built 1914 showing a transom-sterned motor dinghy mounted to starboard on the boat deck. Measuring off the scale on the plan, she might be 15’ -similar to our little darling under discussion.
A conventional dublenda BOT lifeboat is seen to port.

Now, sorry fellers, but the natural response of a sorta kinda apprentice historian to claims made in adverts for boats as well as cars is “No it ain’t!” because more often than not, vendors embellish the provenance a tad from time to time to stimulate the market. So be it with our little incumbent.

Lets face the facts, Dunedin would have been supplied ex builders (Stevenson and Cook Port Chalmers) with ships boats and equipment as per specifications a part of which I have scanned. This plan shows a smaller motorboat to stb and it was likely built along with the other in the Port by Millers or Tunnages. M & T used to bead the edges of the stringers –Iona is the same. However, the photographs I have attached show some real heavy boats on board.

I hate to rain on the party, but that boat doesn’t look all that robust and a workboat doing pulleyhauly stuff on a tug in Dunedin would be a very strong heavy boat and would have a plum stem so that the inevitable collisions would be better dealt with. The raked stem as our little darling has wouldn’t take a collision so well. Also a motorboat of that era would have a big thumpy single banger engine or maybe a two stroke made in the US that would shake a light boat to pieces right quick. The two strokes didn’t usually have a reverse box so might be a handful in tight corners.

Maybe it is a later addition –the Dunedin may have had a progression of boats on board as the old ones were dropped, smashed or squashed in their duties. William the Conqueror’s axe and all that.

She’s a lovely boat, however,  and I am tickled by the nicely polished rotary bllge pump which she doubtless needs. BTW I have a nice little Stuart Turner P5 single with reduction gear that would fit in real nicely…… Fitted with the usual Critical Need factor –if you need it urgently, it ain’t gonna start so there. Any other time starts easily with a flick of the flywheel One titled owner, only used on weekends.

Tairaroa / Tairoa

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TAIRAROA / TAIROA
details from Russell Ward- photos RW & NZ Herald (screen grabs)

Russell reports that sadly Fridays big blow in Wellington put his old cutter, the Athol Burns Tairaroa onto the rocks. From the NZ Herald news footage you can see that she has nibbled through her mooring pendant. Russell’s Maroro chomped through hers at Devonport and ended up going walkabouts for the previous owner. she was a third of the way through her new one when Russell saved her. He has put a chain on Maroro’s Mahurangi mooring in case it became a habit- gets windy out there.

View NZ Herald footage here   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=151530

Can any one post an update in the comments section as to whether they were able to crane her off?

Russell’s comments on owning Tairaraoa

I bought her in a rather decrepit condition 25 years ago. She had not long gone walkabouts from her Okahu Bay mooring and ended up on the bund rocks at Tamaki Drive. Happily she was floated off and served as a mussel and kelp farm for a long time until I read the riot act to her owner. He responded by offering her to me as is where is.
I put a diver down and he verified that there were deep gouges and as far as he could see, she was in reasonable nick.
I got him to clean off as much as he could –including three bags of mussels for which he thanked me warmly.
Buck Rodgers and I towed her to Bayswater –where there was a welcoming slipway.
Merv Sefonte put in a lot of dutchmen and graving pieces, repaired the edges of several planks so there could be recaulked and she was a lovely member of the Ward family until I bought Gloaming.
She was an amazing yacht. Buck reckoned she’d be a rocking horse with her hull shape but no so, she’d just put her shoulder down and rip into it. She’d keep her weigh in a slight breeze because of her weight. We could sneak up on and overtake much bigger boats to their horror. The cutter rig made her very easy to sail on and off the mooring –yes Alan I had a swing mooring there in those days. The engine was an Arona single and had to be started on a pull cord -it was kind of hard in a confined space to manipulate the decompressor and pull. Easier to sail everywhere.
No electrics –a real boat.
I took her out in a snorter of an Easterly gale to see what she could do. Got her on her beam ends several times and she never developed any nasty helm traits. Could have/should have taken a few rolls down but she was a real Cook Straiter with a very heavy rig and I wanted to try her out.

21-06-2015 An Update from Russell Ward

Thanks be to Ward Minor (Caroline) for these pix. High tide at 8.30 am 9 pm. The pix below were taken 1500 Saturday amid feverish activity to get patches in place.
She has been floated off. Russell’s spy will take more photos later in the week. Russell’s guess she is at Evans Bay haul out.
Cranes????!!!! This is a proper ship and a proper salvage job! She is well repairable by the looks. Those planks are thick!
BTW the name can be taken to mean “spending ones time in a pleasant way” but Russell will leave it to HDK for the definitive translation.

22-06-2015 – Russell Ward Update

To quote Russell “Solid planking pays off eh what? Taiaroa lives!”

13-10-2018 UPDATE – She is being restored.

Her new owner Otto Schutte has advised that the name of the boat in the photos above is actually Tairoa not Tairaroa. Otto found this carved into the transom while stripping the paint off. All the planks and corking have been done on the hull below the water line But still a work in progress – photos below.

DSC_0117 (1)

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13-10-2018 Input from Robin Elliott

Tairoa was registered in Auckland in 1965 as E-194 as designed by Athol Burns and built by her owner Mr. A. Bland. Her launch date is unknown. She was still registered to him as late as 1978.
Other Owners: R. Shipman (Mt Roskill) 1987?/93+?; S. Hall (Waiouru) 1999+?

Dimensions 25’10in x 20’10in x 8’10in x 4’6in; 240sqft sail; ballast 300lb inside, 2ton outside. She was allocated NZYF number 594 in 1969.

Mystery Boat 20-06-2015

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Mystery Boat 20-06-2015
photos & details ex Jason Prew

Now the remains of the small double-skinned boat pictured above will test the Lake woodys – to quote Jason’s uncle, Kevin O’Hara, “she was pulled up from Lake Taupo last year & is now sitting at Will Shirer`s place at Kuratau”, near Turangi. Photos from Will’s camera.

Now if we get a proven ID on her – I’ll give the winner a ww t-shirt, as below. Note: the raspberry pavlova is not include 😦

Sterling Girl

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STERLING GIRL
photos & details ex Wendy Muir

A question for the woodys today – are the 2 boats above the same?
Both are named Sterling Girl, but as we know with classic launches that can mine nothing.
The top photo is of Sterling Girl c.1915. She was built by Bailey & Lowe in 1913 & belonged to Robert Taylor of Birkenhead. Named Sterling girl because she had a Sterling engine.
After the Great War, he had Lady Sterling built. (She is now on Lake Wakatipu )
The second photo is of a boat on the hard in Nelson at Easter this year. Also called Sterling Girl.

So folks what say you?

As always keen to find out more at the Nelson boat.

Mystery Launch 16-06-2015

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Mystery Launch & Location 18-06-2015
photo ex Juliana Cooke (nee Turnwald)

All I can tell you about the above photo is that it was taken in 1940.
I can count 21 on board & it looks like more are about to board AND not a lifejacket in sight, no rules in those days 😉

Given the reeds & the bow ladder – suspect its on a lake – Taupo ?

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.

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?