Todays photos come to us from John Dawson. We learnt more from an online search that popped up an old fb comment by Ray Morey where Ray told us OWAKA was built in 1927 by Collings & Bell in Auckland for service at Lyttelton.
Ray also said that in the mid 1930’s she was re-powered with a Kelvin K9 engine. Then in the mid 1960’s she was re-powered agin with a D-Series Ford.
In another fb post Lew Redwood tagged the top photo above as being c.1950>69 and the location being Honeymoon Bay, Moturua, Bay of Islands (photographer – Ron Clark).
CLASSIC 1923 DOUBLE END LAUNCH BONITA – GETS A BIRTHDAY
Over the last few weeks the 1923 Ernie Lane (Picton) built launch – BONITA has been getting some TLC at the Slipway Milford yard.
WW first spotted BONITA in Waikawa Bay, Marlborough Sounds in May 2022, at the time she was for sale, top photo below.
Fast forward to July 2024 and the launch was moored off the old Salthouse yard in the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour. Her new owner Chris Salthouse had transported her from the South Island to Auckland and given her a makeover which included a change of hull colour (blue) – as seen in the second photo below.
As part of the 2025 TLC the hull colour has changed again – this time a green sea mist colour. I like it but of the 3 ‘recent’ colours, the royal blue was my pick. I understand the dark blue was too harsh with the sun re seams opening up. TELL US YOUR PICK ON THE HULL COLOUR – VOTE BELOW
I understand that the next project is a new larger cabin.
There has been lots of chat on the correct spelling of her name – but it was BONITA when built and originally was working a Sounds passenger vessel.
Recently on one of the many boating channels I follow the launch VEDETTE popped up , a gent named Tony Howse was considering buying the boat and needed a builders name to obtain insurance to haul-out for an inspection.
Tony commented that the boat was built from double diagonal kauri planks.
Its believed that she was originally on the Kaipara Harbour and then in the late 1960’s moved to Raglan as the harbour masters boat for a period of approx. 20 years.
Can we learn more about the launch.
01-06-2025 UPDATES
TONY HOWSE – I’ve owned her for 20 plus years.The best cray and fishing boat I’ve ever owned. My 4 kids have grown up learning to fish off her. I have just sold her and she’s hopefully back to the Bay of Islands.
REUBEN PARR – Our family used to own Vedette on the Kawhia Harbour in the late 1960s. She was powered by a Morris Vedette petrol engine. My memory is that my father said she was a Logan and had been a pilot boat, but not sure how correct that was.
The above painting of todays woody comes to us from Barb Hudson via the NZ cars, boats, motorcycles fb page and is captioned ‘Hone Houseboat Whangarei’.
The question for woodys is “did the boat actual exist or someones creative freehand”. If it is or was an actual boat do we know anything about the vessel.
UPDATES
Greg Philpott sent in the b/w press clipping below , taken form the ’Northland Holiday – 20 March 1978. The HONE was built in WW1 as a freight carrier servicing war ships. She was retired c.1948.
Paul Shaw sent in the colour photo that he found posted by David/Janet Matthews on “Whangarei Way Back When” fb of the same houseboats near Kissing Point, Whangarei. And commented that you couldn’t miss them anytime you drove between the city centre & Onerahi.
As previously promised, last week Alan sent in the gallery of photos above starting with MOOSE in her Lake Rotoiti boathouse at Moose Lodge and finishing up in Alan’s yard with the restoration already underway.
Alan commented that the process went very smoothly, a few of the crew were a little apprehensive that a planked wooden boat will still float after an extended period out of the water. Alan said that MOOSE was all good, with a bit of help from the modern technology of temporary urethane sealant 😉
As with all wooden boat projects things start with unveiling the surprises that lie beneath the layers of paint, but for the experienced team at Craig Marine there are no real surprises these days.
We look forward to following this restoration. (photo below dated 1954)
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – DONALD SUTHERLAND (MV USSCO / SEA HAWK) – On The Move
The 46’ classic wooden launch – DONALD SUTHERLAND, once named MV USSCO and also SEA HAWK, was spotted by Angus Rogers at Half Moon Bay Marina, Auckland on Tuesday on the back of a Boat Haulage rig.
We last saw her back in May 2023 when she had had an oops in a storm and ended up on the Tamaki Drive breakwater, as shown in the second group of photos. She has made several appearance on WW, links below.
In the previous WW stories we learnt she was built by Collings & Bell in 1936 and commissioned by the NZ Government as a tourist / passenger vessel, also worked as a light house tender.
Not sure from the photos she is coming or going, I suspect leaving HMB as you dont need a transporter to launch + the ‘Kaiapoi’ name on the stern suggests she’s heading to the Christchurch region.
The seven part series is viewable by the individual links below. The series was collated by Ken Ricketts and edited by Corinne Pettersen. As always we have endeavoured to be as factual as possible but there will always by matters others will either know more about or be able to correct errors – so woodys are encouraged to contribute via the WW comments section. ENJOY
Todays photo popped up recently on one of the social media fb streams and shows the launch MALIBU II coming to the rescue of a submerged run-about just visible in the bottom right corner of the photo.
A gent named Graham Hill commented that MALIBU II was assisting the chopper (owned at the time by Alexander Helicopters) to attach strops from the chopper to the run-about, to left it out of the water. Would have been an ‘interesting’ lift, one would assume they allowed for the dead weight of the water.
There was chat that the photo would have been from the early 1968 > Nov 1971 period, but based on HDK’s comment below it must have been in early 1968.
Back in Sept 2019 we learnt in a previous WW story from Harold Kidd that she was built by Shipbuilders in 1952 for Graham West and shipped down via Dunedin by WAIPIATA in 1955. She operated on Wanaka until December 1968 when she was relocated to Stewart Island. Her dims were 40′ x 12′ x 3′ and she had a Perkins 6 cylinder diesel. 2nd photo above from this story.
Do we know what became of MALIBU II – given the lift rafts visible in both photos, safe to assume she was in charter / tourism use.
AN INSIGHT INTO NZ’S UNIQUE MARINE ENGINES – Part Seven Todays WW story follows on from earlier stories – link below to Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six As per pervious stories in the series the content has been pulled together by Ken Ricketts and ‘polished’ byPatrica and Ken’s daughter Corinne Pettersen. As always we have endeavoured to be as factual as possible but there will always by matters others will either know more about or be able to correct errors – so woodys do not hold back in commenting.
THETIS with her twin Graymarine 4 stroke 6cyl diesel engines
These are a very rare model of the Graymarine range, that was originally produced in WWII for the US military. All Graymarine diesel engines for general and normal marine use worldwide, including NZ, are based on the GM Detroit two-stroke engine, marinized by Graymarine. I believe the THETIS engines were the only two that ever came to NZ and were specially imported by Jack Butland for his 1955 Lane Motorboat built launch, THETIS. Here is a copy of previous comments I made regarding these engines, on Woodys.
“Ken Ricketts reports that having recently spoken with Thetis’s owner that the 2 in line, 6 cyl, 4-cycle, 120hp Gray Marine engines, installed in 1960 (still there today) are a very rare model & type. They were manufactured during WWII for the American forces & could possibly be the only 2 in NZ. The owner believes her original owner Jack Butland in the later 1950’s probably reconditioned, & war surplus imported them.”
BELOW IS A REPRINT OF THE HERCULES SETION IN PART 2 WITH ADDED TEXT I HAVE TAKEN THE LIBERTY OF REPRINTING IN THE CIRCS.
HERCULES 6 CYL c100HP DIESEL ENGINE AS FITTED TO THE FAYE
HERCULES 275 HP DIESEL ENGINE, SIMIALAR TO THAT PREVIOUSLY IN THE RAKANOA
FAYE WITH HER 6 CYL HERCULES HOME MARINISED DIESEL ENGIINE
RAKANOA WITH HER 275 HP 6 CYL. MARINE/HOME MARINISED DIESEL ENGINE
Hercules was a manufacturer and supplier of a large number of basic engines to many marine engine companies for marinization by each company to its own specifications. This included names such as Kermath, Chrysler, Graymarine, Scripps, Chris Craft, and many more. However, engines sold under the Hercules name, based on my research, are comparatively very small compared to their total manufactured units.
There are two boats I know of in New Zealand that have engines both labelled under the Hercules name and are diesel engines. One is the FAYE, which is equipped with a home-marinized C100P 6-cylinder Hercules diesel engine. This engine replaced her original Willys Jeep petrol engine when she was about 4 or 5 years old. FAYE’s details are noted in her Willys Jeep listing in part 2 of this post.
The other is the beautiful 56-foot RAKANOA, built in 1946–47, which had a 6-cylinder 250HP Hercules diesel fitted after she had been in the water for one year. This engine replaced her original GM Detroit 165HP 6-71 diesel.
Her original owner, Stan Parker, was a brilliant engineer and owned a very large precision engineering business.
I am not sure if the Hercules engine was factory or home-marinized, as he would certainly have had the ability and equipment to do this. Stan, the original owner of RAKANOA, owned a large heavy engineering factory in Auckland. This business passed to Ross when his father passed away in 1961. RAKANOA retained this engine until 1981. Ross told me, after he inherited her many years ago, that they had always had trouble starting the Hercules engine, especially when hot. Many years after he inherited her, he eventually replaced the Hercules with a Gardner 6L3 diesel engine, which she still has to this day.
The Hercules engine was fitted because original owner Stan P., could not tolerate the very loud high pitched geartrain noise of the Rootes blower, combined with a loudish exhaust noise, she had with the G.M. Detroit
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find on research to date, any images of the 250 HP marinised version of the Hercules engine, however I have found what may be an unmarinised version, of RAKANOA’s engine.
RUSTON HORSNBY DIESEL ENGINES.
HAIMONA ex MANGA, WITH HER ORIGINAL TWIN 6 cyl, FODEN DIESEL ENGINES
RUSTON HORNSBY TWIN CYLINDER MARINE DIESEL ENGINE AS USED IN THE MANOWAI
HMNZS MANGA AS ORIGINAL.
HAIMONA IN HER PLEASSURE CRAFT GARB WITH HER 2 RUSTON HORNSBY DIESEL 200HP ENGINES, ON THE KAIPARA HARBOUR
MANOWAI IN HER RUSTON HORNSBY DIESEL ERA, AT HERALD ISLAND
There are only two of these I know of in New Zealand in pleasure boats. One was in the 32 ft MANOWAI, during the second part of Claude Atherton’s era, from 1949 until at least the 1960s; it was a twin-cylinder version of the engines.
The other boat was HAIMONA, formerly HDML MANGA, which was based in the Kaipara Harbour. Eventually, after a few years there, the only slip she was able to use for maintenance became unavailable, and she deteriorated badly before being destroyed by her last owners.
When they bought her, a massive coaming structure was added, and they also replaced her original Foden engines with twin 200 HP 6-cylinder Ruston Hornsby diesels, which they removed prior to dismantling her.
FORD FALCON 4.1 LTRE 6 CYL. PETROL ENGINES
FORD FALCON 4.1 LTRE 6 CYL. PETROL MARINE ENGINE
VALSAN CHRISTMAS 1948 IN HER PRE-FORD-FALCON, PETROL ENGINE ERA
The 1938 Roy Lidgard-built VALSAN was bought by Arnold Baldwin around 1947, complete with her original engines, which were 2 x 100 hp flathead Graymarine petrol engines. He owned her for many years, and the time eventually came, after many of those years, when they had to be replaced, around 1970.
I was amazed that he chose 2 x Ford Falcon 4.1 L petrol engines as replacements, as these were engines usually associated with small day boats or runabouts, often equipped with stern drives or jet units. There were a total number of such engines unknown to me, and she is still the only launch I have ever heard of with these engines.
Things have, of course, moved on since then, and the last I heard, she had 2 x 4-cylinder Mitsubishi diesel engines post 2000.
CHRYSLER-MITSUBISHI CN-55TI 200HP 6CYL. IN LINE MARINE DIESEL ENGINES
THE CHRYSLER-MITSUBISHI CN-55TI 6 CYL. DIESEL ENGINES PRODUCING 200hp @ 3150 RPM INSTALLED IN ALIBI
ALIBI’s 2 “STERN POWER” STERN DRIVE UNITS, & NOTE BOTH ENGINES EXHAUST OUT THE SAME SIDE AT THE TUCK
As readers of this series may recall, ALIBI made a cameo appearance in part 2 when I was seeking information related to her sistership, which I now know is or was called CRESCENDO, seen below on launching day, as I have seen the two V8 Chrysler-branded diesels CRESCENDO had when new.
Thanks to the input of others, I have now also discovered that these engines were manufactured by another company, and simply sold under the Chrysler label, which seems to me to be a continuation of Tony Mason’s apparent tendency to use engines with the Chrysler label, as in ALIBI.
However, since the previous cameo appearance of ALIBI, I now have full details of her engines, thanks to a lady named Juliet Hindman, who is very knowledgeable about the Mason Clipper range of boats.
Her family has owned one of the two only 33-foot versions of the Mason Clipper, and she has now contacted me.
As a result, and with the information she has provided, ALIBI now definitely falls into the “Unique” class of engines category, as specified above, as far as I’m concerned, and she now has her place in the group in her own right.
ALIBI’S two CHRYSLER-MITSUBISHI CN-55TI DIESEL ENGINES, producing 200 HP at 3150 RPM, are driven through Warner gearboxes to “Stern Power” make, cream-painted counter-rotating outdrives. While the engines and gearboxes are both left-handed with a 1-to-1 ratio, outward turning counter-rotation of the propellers has been achieved by the gearing system in the stern drive units, which are also acting as reduction gears with a 1.5-to-1 ratio, driving Volvo 16 x 17-inch propellers.
I feel the engine-to-stern-drive setup with these engines, is superior to many others, in that the engines are obviously primarily produced for conventional drives, having the gearboxes attached to and as part of the engines, but can still be used either way, for stern drive units, or conventional drives, with the stern drives simply providing the drive to the propellers.
Many manufacturers combine the gearbox and stern drive into one unit, which makes them much more complex and quite possibly much more expensive to maintain.
Additionally, the combination drive/gearbox units are often very “clunky” and jerky when selecting forward or reverse, whereas there would not be this clunk with the smoothness of hydraulic engine-attached gearboxes.
I have spent a great deal of time, trying to source a good clear image of these engines, but they seem to have disappeared from historical public databases, and the only image I have been able to source, is of ALIBI’S own engines installed in her.
It is, however, wonderful that she still has these original engines after all these years since she was built in the later 1970s. A great testimony to Mitsubishi. Here are her details as received from Juliet H.:
“Released in 1979, the Clipper 42 was 12.8m x 3.7m with a draft of 900mm and, fully laden, displaced around 9 tonnes. Alibi was the prototype, built with a sandwich construction of strip-planked cedar, fiberglass on both sides. A mould was taken off the prototype so that all future boats could be full GRP with a balsa core. However, Crescendo was the only boat ever pulled from the mould.”
I would recommend that readers revisit ALIBI’S cameo appearance in part 2 of the series to see some wonderful images of her exquisite finishing and interior.
A final note re CRESCENDO. – She has been seen reasonably recently, in the South Island, I have been told, so any further help with information about her in any way, would be much appreciated.
LISTER MARINE DIESEL ENGINES
I had considered including LISTER MARINE DIESEL ENGINES in the group, however, there are quite a good number of these engines that are or have been in use in NZ., in many work boats, fishing boats, tugs, & a few pleasure craft, & in the end I decided they fell just outside the scope of what I was about, so will just make a general mention of them, with a few images of the odd pleasure craft, all of which had these engines installed by Roy L.
Roy Lidgard used quite a number of them in various types of craft, the 1940s & 1950s, mostly 4 cylinder, & also had a 4cyl version of the Lister Diesel driving the Smeltinghouse Bay Kawau island sawmill, he set up & ran on his property, in the later 1940s & 50s, the remains of which are still there today.
As just a brief mention, he installed Lister diesels, in the ROSE, (2 CYL) (later LA ROSA) Clive Power’s WAINUNU, (4 CYL) & TAWHIRI, a lovely sedan topper R Lidgard built in the mid/later 1940s (4 cyl)
THE ROSE (NOW LA ROSA)
TAWHIRI BUILT BY R LIDGARD 1940s WITH 4 CYL LISTER MARINE DIESEL AS ORIGINAL
WAINUNU WITH CLIVE POWER AT THE HELM, WITH HER 4 CYL LISTER DIESEL, WITH THE EXHAUST OUT THE TOP OF THE MAST. c1940s
Screenshot
ROY LIDGARD’S SAWMILL, SMELTINGHOUSE, BAY KAWAU ISLAND c. LATER1940s
LISTER 1940s 3 CYL MARINE DIESEL ENGNE AS AN EXAMPLE OF THAT ERA
EPILOG:
Well, readers, we have come to the end of this seven-part journey, and I can only say that for me, it has been a wonderful ride, to share with all of you who have taken the time to share the ride with me, and to follow the seven parts of what I’ve learned throughout my lifetime.
So often, you know as much, if not more, than I do. While some may have learned a little from me, I have, in turn, learned much from many of you, as we have shared this journey together, & I thank you all, for the opportunity to gain this new knowledge from you.
I especially want to express my humility and gratitude, for the kind words of thanks and appreciation, in some of your comments directed towards me personally.
I have done this most of all, to encourage us all, to share and record publicly, what we know about our New Zealand-based boats, with each other, and most importantly, to provide a public record, for the benefit of the boaties of the future. Those who will come after we old wrinklies have all gone, & will become the stewards of tomorrow. As a result of what we all write now, they will hopefully have the chance to understand what has gone before in all or many aspects of what will become their boats, the majority of which will surely live on long after we are not here.
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