Category Archives: Non Waitemata

Paikea

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PAIKEA

Helped take Trinidad last Sunday to the Sandspit boat shed of Greg Lee Boatbuilder’s last Sunday, spied this classic – Paikea – moored just off the wharf at Sandspit. Can anyone shed some  light on her? Poor photos, facing into the sun.

On the trip north passed 4 different large pods of dolphins, the biggest pod was mooching around the moored boats at Sandspit. Photo (iphone) is of one of the smaller dolphins that kept us company for a while off Tiritir.

Harold Kidd Update

PAIKEA was built by Collings & Bell for A.H. Court and launched on 26th January 1921. She was fitted with a 120-150hp Model M Van Blerck 6 cylinder petrol engine (not a straight-eight Packard as is often said). PAIKEA had Chas. Collings’ “concave-convex” type of hard chine design which he made famous with his various FLEETWINGS and whale-chasers. Indeed she was a refinement of the FLEETWING whose image appears in the Collings & Bell section of WW.

PAIKEA was good for 20 knots and can still do it with her present big Iveco/Fiat, as I experienced not long ago at Sandspit. She goes like hell and stable with it.

Alf Court sold her to Hec Marler in 1925 and he sold her to R B & S S Wilson  just pre-WW2. She was in NAPS during WW2 as Z17. .

 

Bill’s Boat

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Bill’s Boat – this story needs a happy ending

Over fifty years ago I regularly helped a friend in Gisborne who was building a Tahiti ketch.

He was a most fastidious person and stories associated with his obtaining a
kauri tree in Coromandel, shipping the trunk to Gisborne where he milled it
into ten metre long planks, and then going about construction are legendary.

When it was fully planked, bulkheaded, decks and cabin tops fitted, along
with lead keel, Bill had to vacate the premises he was working in. He bought
an industrial property, built a workshop and accommodation on it, and
shifted the boat there as well.

At that stage Bill had other distractions and covered the boat hull under a
corrugated iron roof at the back of the property, and never did any
more work on it.

He recently passed away at a ripe old age and his Executors have asked me to
assist with its disposal in view of my knowledge of its history and
background.

I have recently inspected the boat closely and can confirm it is in the same
perfect condition it was in when I helped Bill  move it fifty years ago
(albeit suffering from a thick layer of dust and cobwebs which have accumulated
over that time)

It was primed with a coat of red lead primer, inside and out , prior to
moving. The boat was well caulked and there appears to have been absolutely
no movement in any of the planks since, and I suspect if dropped in the
water today, the hull would barely leak a drop.

In its current storage situation it is impossible to photograph it properly
but I have done what I can to illustrate aspects of its construction. The photo on                   the trailer was taken during its removal about fifty years ago.

Many of these boats were built worldwide, and Googling “Tahiti ketch” 
accesses a huge amount of information on them. They are not every
yachtsman’s cup of tea, but for someone with a taste for classic
yachts, and the ability to complete the fit out, acquiring this boat could be
a dream come true.

Ian Miller

09 4250952

Building a sawn frame boat

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Building a sawn frame boat

This mini movie of a stunning timber boat being built in Scotland, it is a fishing boat but the craftsmanship & finish is amazing to see & a real insight into the trade. Sawn frame boats were built in New Zealand as most of our early shipwrights were from England, Ireland or Scotland. Most of the ships built by the likes of Lane & Brown, Henry & George Nicoll and many more use this method. In small boat building it died out by about the late 1930’s. For example W.G. Lowe built most of their 40-50 fishing boats with sawn frame, Kia Ora, Moata. Percy Vos only ever built two, Waipawa and Waimana. Plank on steam bent frames (ribs) and three skin suited this size boat better and they were far more economical to build like this. The boat in the video was built in 1963 right at the tail end of the wooden boat era.

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Launches & Yacht at Tauranga Regatta

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Launches & Yacht at Tauranga Regatta

Would be interested to hear if anyone has another view but pretty sure these photos are from the Tauranga Regatta that used to follow the Auckland to Tauranga race in the late 1920’s – 1930’s.

The Guthrie family launch Alcestis (now Raiona) can be seen heading towards the bridge between the white hulled yacht & the bigger dark hulled steamer??. What made the ID easy was that Roger & Graham Guthrie’s grandfather (Hugh Douglas Guthrie) always wore either a captains hat or as in the case here – a white Panama hat.

 photos ex Roger Guthrie

Maritza II

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Maritea II

MARITZA II

The launch Maritza II on her journey to Lake Waikaremoana.

In the days before we had the boys from ‘Boat Haulage’ on the scene 🙂

photo ex classicboatnz

Harold Kidd Update:

The penny has dropped. It’s not MARITEA II but MARITZA. She was built by Peter A Smith, the Alpha marine engine agent in St. Mary’s Bay for himself in 1923. Like W R Twigg, Smith contracted to build launches, his input being the engine which usually cost over half the total price. He contracted out hulls to local builders, usually those handy to his premises in St. Mary’s Bay. This hull was built by Dick Lang before he left for Sydney during the transition of his business to Sam Ford so Sam Ford took some credit in advertising. She was 37ft x 9ft and was fitted with a 25hp Alpha (Danish) engine. Smith named her CYRENA. She was launched around Christmas 1923.

Smith sold her to the Manukau in September 1924. F G “Boy” Bellve of Herne Bay bought her and brought her back to the Waitemata in January 1926 and had her until he commissioned the keel yacht CYRENA from Collings & Bell in late 1938. 

Bellve sold the launch CYRENA to A M White of Ngatapa, Gisborne who renamed her MARITZA (II) and had her trucked over to Lake Waikaremoana on 6-7 October 1938.

PS I’m pretty sure the truck is a Diamond T with a locally-built cab.

Nga Toa & Queenie

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Nga Toa & Queenie

Nga Toa & Queenie

Two old classic’s – only one of which has survived.
Queenie C1 – Logan Bros 1904. Currently moored at Whangaroa, Northland.
Nga Toa A17 – wrecked in Wellington in the 1980’s.

Location – Tauranga?

Harold Kidd Update: 

Probably during the Tauranga Regatta that followed the Auckland-Tauranga race during the 30s.

photo ex Roger Guthier

Rangitihi & Patiti

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Rangitihi & Patiti Hauled Out

Photo from Roger Guthrie’s grandfathers collection & shows Roger’s father aged approx. 14 so the date of the photo must be c.1925/6. The location could be Tauranga area??

Harold Kidd Update:

Lake Tarawera; PATITI was built by Bailey & Lowe in July 1904 for the Government Tourist Dept. RANGITIHI was built for Tarawera but transferred later to Rotomahana. I’m pretty sure she was built by Bailey Lowe too.

PS PATITI was built by Bailey & Lowe for the Government Tourist Dept and completed in July 1904 alongside her twin IRINI which was intended for the Lake Rotomahana tourist trade. Both were railed to Rotorua in mid July and taken to their respective lakes, by bullock wagons, I assume.

PPS She was called PATITI after Guide Joe Warbrick (Patiti is maoriisation of Warbrick),one of the Warbrick brothers, heroes of the 1884 NZ Rugby team who played Australia in 1884 and the New Zealand Native Team that toured the UK in 1888-9. He had been killed in the eruption of the Waimangu Geyser in 1903.

Russell , Bay of Island Jan 2 , 1927

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6 Jan 1927 Russell, Bay of Islands 

Seems a large % of the Auckland classic launch fleet had head north in Jan 1927, the above photo shows an impressive collection of classics anchored off Russell for the regatta.

photo ex ‘Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

A serious boat shed

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A serious boat shed

Greg Lee’s shed (Lees Boatbuilders) at Sandspit is the real deal, no concrete floor here, the tide comes & goes twice a day. You have to wonder how many tools have been dropped into the tide over the years.

The launch in the shed is CYA member Angus Roger’s ‘Mahanui’, built by Keith Atkinson & originally launched as Jacinta II – photo taken in Jan 2013 while she was getting a 9 month major makeover that included two new Perkins Sabre M135′s with Newage PRM gearboxes. That deep shine on the coamings is ex a tin of Uroxsys.

Their tug boat ‘Karewa’ (a CYA register boat) was built in 1951 by Lidgards for the Department of Works to push barges on the Piako river for the construction of bridges. From there she went to the Tauranga Harbour Board as pilot/survey vessel, finally coming to Warkworth in the early 1980s, where she has been working tirelessly since. In the photos above she along side Steve Horsley’s yacht Ngatira.

In the photos the number 8 on her side I assume is her ‘race’ number from when she won the Parry Trophy (tugboat award) as the Best Presented Survey Commercial Tugboat in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta in January 2008.

When I was there in 2011 I spied the very cool ‘Auck Motor Yacht Club’ sign, that should be in a museum – hang on, it is – The Lee’s Museum 🙂

Elsie Evans

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ELSIE EVANS

details & photos from Bob McDougall & the Timaru Herald

Timaru’s first pilot boat, the ELSIE EVANS, a 1901 Bailey (13m x 2.4m) has been relaunched into the Otago Harbour after a very long $500,000+ rebuilding / restoration project that saw her spend 59 years on land.

The ELSIE EVANS was built by Auckland firm Charles Bailey Jr, as the first pilot boat for the Timaru Harbour Board and as a replacement for its paddle-tug MANA.

It was launched on December 31, 1901, and named after the wife of the harbour board chairman at the time, William Evans.

The boat’s main tasks were to tow small craft, tend the big steamers, take the health officer out to deep-sea sailing vessels and carry the pilots.

Those were roles it continued until 1927, when it was sold to Captain Percy Moss, of the Portobello Railway and Ferry Co.

From 1928, it was used as a launch to tow barges, carry freight, and ferry passengers when the company’s other ferries TAREWAI and WAIREKA were out of service.

In 1944, it took over from the TAREWAI and regularly sailed the 2.4 kilometers between Portobello and Port Chalmers, carrying up to 37 passengers.

It was a role it continued in until 1954.

Life for the old launch took a turn for the worse after that. While several owners had big plans for the boat, nothing happened and it was sitting in a paddock when the South Canterbury Historical Society bought it for $1200 in 1997.

B/W photo above (ex Bob McDougall ) show ELSIE EVANS being brought to Dunedin’s Birch Street wharf from its long-time mooring at Ravensbourne, on 1 September 1962, and taken by road to Waihola, where it languished there and later with other owners/other places, for decades.

It is planed that passengers (exact number subject to a stability test) would be allowed on ELSIE EVANS by January after she has passed her survey

View TV news article on the launching here

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/century-old-boat-back-water-video-5527794

Check out in the posting below this post, of the 2011 mini movie by Simon East backgrounding the history & restoration, stunning footage of the Otago Harbour.