Category Archives: Non Waitemata

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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Sailing Sunday – Neil Chalmers

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Sailing Sunday – Neil Chalmers

Now if there was an award at next months CYA Prize Giving ( May 20th @ RNZYS – 7.00pm) for ‘Nicest Bloke’, Neil would win it, in fact every year. You would have to walk a long way to find anyone that did not have a nice thing to say about Neil. He will be embarrassed that I said the above but its true. Always there when you need some advice or encouragement & most of what he does goes un-noticed.
Now Neil attended the 2015 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobert & packed his box brown – below is a selection of ‘stuff’ that caught his eye. I think he included the zoom zoom boat to keep the launches happy 🙂

Check out the price on the dinghy……………….

 

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.

Ngahere

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NGAHERE
photos & details ex owners Jim and Hazel Cameron

Ngahere was built in 1961 by Roy Gibbs & is 37’6″ with a 12’3″ beam. Her flybridge was added at a later date, possibly in mid 70’s but removed (rotten) when the Cameron’s transported her. Hazel & Jim purchased Ngahere off Frank Malcom Davison of Whangamata in 2013 and they have a sales agreement dated 28/10/1978 stating F. Davison purchased the vessel from John Fredric Hamaty. They also have an old 1976 Coastguard book which states Ngahere was owned by N.G. Robertson, the last two names from Auckland.

Her semi-displacement hull was re-powered early in 1973 with a Commer TS3 diesel engine.

Can any woodys throw some light on the design of this launch?

ps sorry about the low quality photos – hopefully we might uncover better photos from her past.

Esperanza II

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ESPERANZA II
details ex ken Ricketts, edited by Alan H. photos ex B Worthington

The story of how Esperanza II, an American Chris Craft arrived in NZ started in about 1948 when the Fuller family of the Bay of Islands had an American couple, fly over here, to go game fishing on one of their charter boats.

They (probably Snooks Fuller) met the couple personally & instantly hit it off & became instant friends. As a result of this, the extremely wealthily Americans invited them back to America, to stay as their guests, at their waterfront mansion. They accepted & in due course fulfilled the invitation & were amazed at everything the saw. Their hosts had numerous cars, mostly Cadillacs & several boats, one of which was a fabulous virtually brand new 36 foot Chris Craft launch, which was tied up at the bottom of their garden.

They went out & about in the hosts cars & one day the hosts asked the Fullers if they liked the car they were in that day & of course they said they did & their hosts said words to the effect, “well you better take it home with you.” The Fullers naturally thought the hosts  were just joking & passed it over.

In the next day or two they went out in the Chris Craft & of course that was out of this world for them, the like of which they probably had never seen in NZ. Once again they were asked if they liked it & of course they said – they loved it, so once again, the hosts said to the effect, “well you better take it home with you.”

Very shortly after they returned home, they got official documents telling them that the car & the boat were on their way to NZ. The Fullers must have been blown away with the Americans generosity.

Esperanza II became the ultimate luxury game boat of her era in “The Bay,” with many dignitaries & prominent guests aboard. She was originally a fairly fast boat, powered by 2 very large Chris Craft V8 petrol engines, when she arrived, these were eventually replaced with Ford diesels.

From the photos above, taken over the years,  it appears that she is still alive & well & Ken understands she was in Whangamata fairly recently for a period & is possibly in Auckland these days.

The details of the above ‘story’ were told to Kens family in the 1950’s by friends of the Fullers. Can any one confirm & add more details from her past?

Manuia

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MANUIA
photos & details ex owner Tony Butcher

Manuia was built by Joe Slattery in 1930, according to Harold Kidd (but Tony has 1928 in his mind). Tony bought her in 2010 off Julian Richards, a retired boat builder of Bayswater, Auckland. Tony is a serious woody with an impressive past of classic ownership – Linda which he brought off John Salthouse & he also had 1/4 share in Lady Gay which was brought off Joe Wilson.
I note from the above photos that since buying buying Manuia Tony has done a lot to her, but thankfully for such a pretty launch, she still looks the same as when purchased. Tony told me he likes his home comforts & a good roast so an upgraded galley in the cockpit, water pressure system, main saloon table where on the list. Tony has also re-powered Manuia with a 100 hp Yanmar diesel and done all the brightwork inside.
Tony has been told Mr Henley senior (of Henley Prop’s) had her at some stage. Apart from this & the Richards ownership period Tony is light on her past & ownership details – so woodys can we peel back the layers?

Harold Kidd Input

MANUIA was indeed launched on 6th February 1930. She was built by Joe Slattery at Judges Bay for Sam Keen of Parnell.
Subsequent owners include Bill Alder c1950 (still with Kelvin), W.R. Croft (1966), Les Vercoe (1973), Jack Nears then Paul Jones of Whangaparaoa 1990. Paul died quite recently.
I make the assumption that Richards bought her from Paul. Paul was a stalwart of the Vintage Car Club with a fine Alvis TC21/100.
Alan might like to print the Auckland Star image? (he has 😉 AH)

 

 

Duetto Sailing Sunday

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DUETTO

I spotted Duetto at the 2015 Mahurangi Regatta & took the above photo on an early morning row. She looks very salty & no doubt has a few blue water miles under her keel.
Possibly lives at Gulf Harbour marina. Interested in more details – I am assuming she is wood……… I’ve been wrong before 🙂

Hopefully as you are reading this the Easter bunny will have found you & they is some chocolate on the diet today. Not sure that bunnies can swim so I might be out of lucky on Raindance.

02-12-2015 Duetto Update
photos & details ex Ken Ricketts. rewritten by Alan H

Firstly all those in the comments section that picked her as a swimming pool (ferro cement) were right. Putting that to the side she is very salty.
Some details – she is 35′ at the waterline with a 12′ beam & was built to a Jay Benford design, a prolific American custom boat designer. She was constructed by William (Bill) Hooker & launched in 1986 at Napier NZ. Shortly after she was brought to Mahurangi by the original owner & spent the next 4 years sitting on her moorings unused. Sadly her owner contracted cancer during this period & died, with Duetto still brand new effectually & unused. Her Isuzu 50 hp diesel had under 100 hours on the clock & her sails were unused.

The present owners Geoff Plimmer & partner Pat bought her in 1992 off the original owner, 2 weeks before he passed away.
Geoff & Pat spent 10 years from 2002, circumnavigating the world in her, as per the map photo below. Duetto’s worldly travels are recorded in the book ‘Around the World in a motorsailer’ penned by Geoff Plimmer, copies are still available for purchase ($28), you can contact Geoff here duetto1@xtra.co.nz

Duetto presently calls Gulf Harbour home.

 

 

Varlene (Lady Sunshine)

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NY Day Kawau YC c.1972

VARLENE - BACK SECTION 1958 H T MORTON Builder Mac geady

VARLENE (Lady Sunshine)
photos & details ex Ken Ricketts

Varlene is approx. 36′ long, was originally called Lady Sunshine & built by Mac McGeady at his Summer St, Ponsonby premises. She was one of the comparatively few bridge-deckers he built. She was built for the Tucker Bros., who were food manufacturers (Sunshine jellies etc), hence the name of the boat.

She was bought by Com Hardley, of Hardleys the Newmarket Plumbing Merchants c.1946 & Ken thinks they may have changed the name to Varlene. They owned her for several years & spent quite a lot of time & money on her enhancing her individuality & styling.

The  Hardley’s sold her to H T Morton of Cliff Ave., Belmont  c.1949.  Morton had previously owned the launch ‘Spindrift’. He was lawyer & private pilot & owned his own aircraft since the 1920s. Morton was also a property developer & Varlene Tce. in Mairangi Bay was named after the boat, Morton Ave Glenfield, after him & Dianna Drive, Glenfield, after one of his daughters, Dr Dianna Morton & Rosalind Ave, after his other daughter. The boat & family were real identities on Auckland’s North Shore.

Ken cruised on Varlene  with Morton a number of times in the early to mid 1950s & cared for the boat for 6 months in 1952 whilst he was overseas.

He sold her in the 1950s & Ken lost track of her until Fred Hildich owned her for a shortish period after he sold the ‘Gulf Star’ in the 1980s.

Ken thinks there has perhaps been some minor changes to the bridgedeck in the photo above from original, as remembers her original bridgedeck was a little “squarer” on the corners, but this may perhaps just be due to some remedial or repair work, it is so minor. Also the aft cabin windows seemed to have 2 longer ones, rather than the 3 she had in the 1950s photo of her rear end.

She had a 4 cyl Ailsa Craig diesel when Ken knew her first, in 1946 (which was probably her original engine) & this was replaced some time later with a 6 cyl Ford which she had in the 1980s.

Got to like the kids dinghy race 🙂 AH

Golandrina

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Golandrina

Golandrina was designed & built by Allan Orams, of Whangarei & launched in 1964. She is 36′ & kauri cavel planked. She was re-powered by a Ivecco 90hp in 2006. From the photos she appears to be a tidy ship. Can anyone supply any more details.