Category Archives: Non Waitemata

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.

Mystery Launches – Onerahi, Whangarei

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Mystery Launches – Onerahi, Whangarei
photo ex Nathan Herbert, most likely ex National Library

Time for a ‘who can put a date on the above photo & ID some of the launches in the bay. You will need to enlarge the photo.
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WW – Tip of the Day – Now I assume that ww readers know how to ‘blow-up a photo ? If not see below.
1. Click on the image
2. Scroll down on the black panel that appears & click on the tab that says ‘View Full Size’ (on the right side of the panel).

3. You can focus in on a selected area by scrolling the magnifying glass icon across the area & clicking, note only allows one ‘enlargement. If you click again it returns to the original (enlarged) image.
4. To exit the photo, click on the ‘X’ in the top left hand corner.
This works most of the times, unless the photo was a very small image to start with.

NOTE: Do not write in the ‘Write A Comment’ panel as copy here just gets tagged to the photo & does not appear on the main ww comments section e.g. unless people click on the photo, your comment is not visible (seen).

The Future of Classic Wooden Boating

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I Think I’ve Just Seen Future of Classic Wooden Boating?

A pretty bold headline but what I saw on Saturday at Whangateau was special – have a good look at the photos & you’ll see –

1. A collection of very cool small boats (sail, oar,motor) some restored to concours condition, so just managing to stay afloat.

2. A group of boating enthusiasts of all ages & gender that just wanted to have some fun in classic wooden boats.

3. Everyone helping each other unload & rig up.

4. No macho, bump bump racing, just folks mucking about in boats.

5. Crusty old salts showing grand-kids how to sail.

6. BBQ’ed sausages in white bread.

7. Yachties that had become launchies that were now having to use their iPhone to Google “How to rig a Frostbite”

8. A classic dinghy that had been gifted to the next generation of yachtie that was now sitting on a state-of-the-art carbon-fiber beach trailer.

A lot of people help make the above happen but none of it happens without Pam Cundy & George Emtage, these two are the guardians of today’s venue – The Whangateau Traditional Boat yard.

They might not know it, but they are at the leading edge of the next stage of the classic wooden boating movement.

It was a great day, we need more of these 🙂 in the mean time – enjoy the photos. Remember click on any photo to enlarge it & on forward the link to today’s post to all your friends & tell them to cut that boat down from the garage rafters 🙂

Wee Tawera

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WEE TAWERA
photos ex Baden Pascoe

A group of kiwis (& CYA members) led by Mike Mahoney recently attended the 2015 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Tasmania, Australia, whilst the show is one of the worlds leading classic wooden boat events – their main objective was to partake (compete & win) in the events for the very popular St Ayles rowing skiffs. To this end Mike had commissioned one of the skiffs to be built in Auckland at the NZ Traditional Boat Building School & shipped to Hobart for the event. The skiff was christened ‘Wee Tawera’, Mike owns the magnificant 1935 Arch Logan yacht Tawera.
Little Tawera carried a little extra weight as the boys set her up to carry a little canvas, which she did very well in the events that this was permitted.
Baden or Steve Cranch I’m sure will chip in with their results from the regatta’s – lots of wins.

To see more photos of Wee Tawera & read about these craft, check out     http://nzcoastalrowing.org/about-2/

Hinewai

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HINEWAI
details & photos from Dean Wright ex John Gander.

Hinewai a 40′ motorsailer was designed by Roger Carey (taken off Carey’s Taonui, a 1950s design) & built by John and Bev Gander in 1968. 39′ LOA, 11′ Beam, 4′ 6″ Draft. 17 tonne displacement.
Built with miro planking, tallowwood keel and stem & red birch frames. Sporting an oregan mast.
Powered by a 3 cylinder  371 Series GM, she has been re-powered with a John Deere.
Her teak decks were built from timber recovered from the wreck of the Amokura.
John Gander sold her many years ago. The current owner is Martin Farrand, who also owns the beautiful 1900’s classic 6m yacht, Scout.

Photos & classified advert ex Russell Ward

16-03-2018 UPDATE

Photo below ex trademe, so yes, she is for sale – a very salty girl that could take you almost anywhere.

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Rangiora

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RANGIORA

photos & details Karen Moren & Harold Kidd

The above b/w photo of Rangiora was sent in by Mac McGeady’s grand daughter Karen Moren ex her mother Lyn McGeady, Mac was her father in law. Karen gathered the story below a couple of years ago from one of McGeady’s apprentices – Ben Hipkins.
“Mac’s condition deteriorated and he was very confused and at this time we received an order from Gordon Collie for a 48ft bridge deck Motor Launch. Mac still had the ability to design the hull. This boat was too big to build in Summer Street, so we built the backbone and frames in the factory and built the boat in a shed supplied by Mr. Collie on a poultry farm at Pakuranga.
Gary Wheeler and I built the hull from the deck level and Gordon and his cousin Ralph laid the decks and built the superstructure and furniture, a truly excellent job. The name of this boat was Rangiora”.
Harold told ww that Rangiora was built in 1964  & she was a breakthrough McGeady design with the substantial beam of 15′ on an overall length of 52′. Her original engines were twin Fords. Tony Vazey bought her in the 1980s and replaced the Fords with twin GM 4/51 supercharged diesels. He kept her at Westhaven, always absolutely immaculate as you can see from Harold colour photo below. In late 2001 Tony sold her to Nick Tansey of Wellington. These days she can readily be seen from the shore on her marina berth in Wellington, a very beautiful hull with totally aesthetically pleasing topsides.

 

02-04-2020 – Input from Brian Hewitt – My company Sea Services had the pleasure of owning Rangiora for 4 or 5 years, my business partner was Fred Keith and we bought Rangiora in Whangamata, she was owned by Stan who ran the local putt putt golf park beside the movie theatre, he was in the middle of a very messy divorce and had to sell her. She was very tired in the exterior but good and sound and we brought her to Auckland to the Shipbuilders slipway and rebuilt the decks, took all the brightwork back to clean timber and applied 8 coats of varnish, recaulked and repainted the hull using Transocean paints. We serviced the Ford engines including replacing the injectors, serviced all the pumps etc…replaced the funnel, beds and squabs, the toilet, radio, steering cables, carpet etc and she was quite a picture and gave us a lot of enjoyment. This included 2 seasons in the BOI with trips to Whangaroa, The Cavalli Islands, Poor Knights and Cape Brett, many trips to Barrier and Coromandel and 2 trips to Mayor Is. We had on-going overheating issues when under max revs as her heat exchangers were barely adequate when the engines were in their full glory, the engines were also slightly out of sync and we tried changing propellers, fine balancing the drive shafts and realigning the motors with new mounts but never really solved the issue. We were originally on ‘A’ marina then moved over to (I think T) when Westhaven expanded the southern side. Fred left Sea Services in the early 80’s and I was also getting divorced so we sold her to fund the business. Rangiora was a Lloyds Registered vessel (I think she was 36 tons). We sold her to Murray from Chanton Apparel who took the engines out and had them balanced, replaced the cable steering with dual hydraulic steering and I think it was Murray who also rebuilt the stern into a walk through transom. In reality Murray bought Rangiora for the marina as 18M marinas were very sought after and he had a new 54′ launch being built by Salthouse. I saw Rangiora some years later at Tutukaka and she looked fabulous, also saw her in Wellington 3 years ago still looking good. I live in France most of the year and have some photos there and will revert with them when I return to France. Brian Hewitt

30-04-2020 Update from Brian Hewitt – “I’m back in France now and found my photo album that had some photos of Rangiora, I think we sold her in 1984. I also had an earlier 34′ launch called “Joel” built by Ship Builders, the new owners renamed her, I had a quick search and couldn’t find anything relating to her, is this a name anyone may have come across ?

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