WAKATOA
photos ex Heather & Keith (Paea)
Heather & Keith spotted Wakatoa while on a road trip to Thames. Anyone able to supply some more on her background?
ps – you have to love the berth 🙂
02-05-2016 photo ex Phillip Forsyth added.
Wakatoa
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Category Archives: Working Boats
Bondi Belle
BONDI BELLE
story & photos by Baden Pascoe
Bondi Bell was built as S.S.Whakapara, at Whakapara (North of Whangarei) by Charles Bailey Jr. for the Foote family who were saw millers at several Northland locations . Launched in 1901, initially she was a steamer and converted to diesel in the 1920’s. This vessel is steeped in history and her owner ,Ted Carter needs to find a new owner for her. He is asking $85,000 and is open to negotiations. For details call Ted on 0274-485976.
(b/w photo c.1901-02. Whangarei, Hatea River, were the town basin is now)
Link the (blue) link below to read the brilliant story of the history of Bondi Belle & her 80 year circumnavigation of New Zealand.
BONDI BELLE – Around NZ in 80 Years
The press clipping from the Hokianga Newspaper c1929, was saved by Arch Fell & given to Baden Pascoe. Arch is most likely in the photo. Click to enlarge
Money Can’t Buy Moments
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Money Can’t Buy Moments
The CYA is full of moments that money can’t buy e.g. hooking an old owner up with the present day owner, facilitating the transfer of a boats artifacts (a name plate, wheel or log book) from someone with an obscure connection to the boat to the current owner etc.
Well todays ww posting is one of those tales.
Push rewind & Dick Fisher has Akarana berthed at the 2011 boat show as part of the CYA’s on-the-water display, Chris Miller is cruising the the docks with his friend Geoff Diggle (Master Mariner) who is the NZ operations manager for Swire Shipping, as they pass Akarana Geoff comments that his father (John Diggle, Master Mariner) was the Auckland Harbour Board senior pilot for over 30 years & spent a large chunk of that time aboard Akarana. Geoff himself as a child spent many an hour aboard as well.
Chris & Geoff hop aboard Akarana for a chat with Dick, which includes the compulsory tour of the engine room 🙂 Geoff casually mentions that some where at home he has a crystal whisky decanter & glasses, that are sand blasted with a line drawing of Akarana. These were presented to the late John Diggle when he retired in 1993. Turns out Geoff’s wife Bev has been threatening to put them out in the next inorganic collection so plans are made to hand them over asap. Well Dick lives up North & Geoff travels a lot.
Now fast forward to Jan. 2014 & the occasion eventually happens at Westhaven. In addition to the decanter set, Geoff had also discovered a wonderful framed photograph of Akarana which will now most likely hang in Dicks engine room (which is the #1 spot on the boat, in Dicks eyes).
It would have been rude to not use the gift for what it was intended so the moment was celebrated accordingly. Now CYA deputy chairman Bruce Tantrum has a good nose for a fine drink & was cruising the docks & either caught a whiff or heard the cork being extracted & joined the gathering.
In the next few days I will do a pictorial posting on the restoration (rebuild) of Akarana from when she was retired by the harbour board into the magnificent ship she is today.
click photo below to enlarge
Glyn Bird
Mahurangi Regatta 2006
Off Devonport Wharf
Mahurangi Regatta 2007 – Glyn Bird (L) & Romo (Traveler,Jean Gordon) built by Joe Fell 1904
Oct 2005 – thru wreck of Rewa
GLYN BIRD
photos from Russell Ward, Dean Wright,Baden Pascoe,trademe
details from Russell Ward,Baden Pascoe,Ken Ricketts
Built 1909 by Ernie Lane, 54ft long.
Was owned by Parry Bros the tug & scoria people for many years, from the 1930s through till at least the 1972-73.
She is most likely still powered by a 1956, 150h.p., 8 cyl in line, 8L3 Gardner diesel.
She was originally used for a good number of years as the “rubbish boat” by Parrys, collecting & disposing at sea of rubbish from visiting overseas & coastal ships to the Port of Auckland. She was later converted to a tug in the 1950s & used extensively for towing shingle barges from Kaiawa to Auckland, ferrying shingle from the quarry there.
She was converted to a tug by R Lidgard, who also replaced the original little wheelhouse with a larger replacement in the 1950s, now missing (refer below).
She was eventually laid up at Herald Island for quite a period & eventually sold by Parrys, & was sold either by them, or by others in-between, to Russell Ward, who used her for pleasure use.
In Russell’s words “I salvaged her from Herald Island on a stormy night and got her to Westpark where she was slipped and major hull repairs done. I then did a walking refurbishment over about 8 years but it was not a restoration”. Russell had a long love affair with her that ended about three years ago (2010) when he sold her to a Nelson fisherman. During this period she caught fire (wheelhouse) on the hard at Tarakohe.
Glyn Bird has now ended up in the B.O.I. & is for sale on trademe.
Deodar
DEODAR
photos ex Keith Munro
Ex Auck Police launch. 52ft x 15ft, Millar & Tunnage, 1960, kauri, twin 210hp Cat dsl s (9 – 16 knts). The older photos show her being restored in 1996 by John Wright & Dave Brown. The ‘older’ photo of her post re-launch in the water has the launch Alwyn alongside.
Deodar has recently had an extensive refit is back to her former glory & now for sale & quote the trademe listing ‘owners will trade & priced reduced to sell.
There have been books written on Deodar’s life in the ‘force’
18/06/2104 A selection of ‘random’ photos added from ex Deodar crew member – John Elingham’s collection. Posted to ensure they are recorded / stored for the future.
click images to enlarge
Also below – a few from John of the ill-fated Wellington police boat – Lady Elizabeth
Cristina
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CRISTINA
When you are out & about over the Xmas/NY period keep & eye out for Cristina an Athol Burns design, built by Frank Dellabarca of Island Bay. Currently owned by Martyn Barlow (Nelson) & doing an extended cruise (mostly solo) of the NZ coastline. As of today she is in the BOI & will be heading back down to Kawau & Great Barrier over the next week or so.
Cristina started life as a commercial fishing boat until the late 1990’s when converted to current configuration in Picton and went back in the water in 2000. Powered by a Isuzu 6BD1 120hp – Length: 11m / Beam: 3.3m / Draft: 1m
Martyn has owned her for 6 years & keeps her in Nelson but had her in Mapua for the first couple of years
She has been to the Chathams and tuna fished off the West Coast.
A very pretty, salty looking craft.
Martyn has done a youtube clip of Cristina underway
John Dory
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JOHN DORY
photo & details ex Baden Pascoe
How it used to be done in the old days – want to bet the trailer was not registered 🙂
This is a classic kiwi shot taken c.1998 after Baden & his father had done a big refit on John Dory. The tractor is a early 1940’s CASE. John Dory was launched down this same road in 1970, the only difference is that it took 3 hours with greased ways & a local tow truck to get her to a spot where she would float for the first time.
(Baden looking very ‘trim’ in his triathlon days)
A Brief history of the Kawau ferry transport 1946 -1990
KAWAU ISLE NORTH HARBOUR KAWAU ISLAND 1970s
MAIRIE 1954 MANSION HOUSE FERRY Builder Roy Lidgard
KAWAU ISLE MANSION HOUSE BAY WHARF 1962
KAWAU ISLE SANDSPIT 19.9.90
Ken Ricketts sculling towards Kororo
FRED LADD MANSION HOUSE BAY 1950’s
Kawau Isle berthed at Maritime Museum
Kawau Isle 60th Anniversary Skippers
Kawau Isle 60th Anniversary at Bon Accord
Kawau Isle
Kawau Isle at Riverhead Hotel
A Brief history of the Kawau ferry transport 1946 -1990
photos & details ex Ken Ricketts
MAIRIE
Purpose built in the early 1950’s by Roy Lidgard, in his boatbuilding shed in Smelting House Bay Kawau Island, for Alan Horsfall owner of the Mansion House, in Mansion House Bay, Kawau, for the carriage of passengers & freight, to & from the Mansion House, to the Sandspit at Warkworth, which was the embarkation point, for the vast majority of the guests, & virtually all freight, food, & most importantly, for boaties, grog, during Mansion House’s time as a hotel /guest house, which was up until about September 1967, at which time it was bought by the Government of the day & turned in to a historic place, under the Historic Places Trust.
A few lucky commuters travelled in style, by amphibious aircraft from the 1950’s onwards, — a Grumman Widgeon, piloted by a the famous, Freddie Ladd, a delightful, colourful, extroverted, & very learned, & tremendously skilled, pilot, see pic on the beach of Mansion House Bay, c.1954, (this photo along with the one of Mairie was scanned by Ken from 8 mm movie footage shot from his families launch, Juliana, c.1953-55, thence the poor quality). Ladd usually had Christmas dinner on Juliana, & later Gay Dawn, an entertained the Ricketts family with his seemingly endless supply, of real life anecdotes.
Mairie was approx 42 feet long & powered by a 4 cyl Kelvin diesel & served the Island & Mansion House for many years. In her later years such was the demand for her services that Lidgards built (1952) another boat for Mr. Horsfall, called Kawau Isle, slightly bigger & powered by a 6LW Gardner diesel, which in later years, took over most of the passenger load & left Mairie to do the donkey work, with the freight side of the logistics. The 6LW I understand, has fairly recently been replaced by a newer 6LX Gardner in Kawau Isle.
KAWAU ISLE
Kawau Isle is a traditional kauri timber motor vessel built in 1952 by Roy Lidgard at Smelt House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour. She is 45 feet in length, powered with a 6LW Gardner diesel engine and cruises at 7.5 knots.
For around 30 years the Kawau Isle operated a ferry service between Sandspit and Kawau Island. More recently she worked from Half Moon Bay as a charter boat and then Whangarei as a school ferry. She currently plys her trade ferrying day trippers to & from the Riverhead Hotel, on the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour.
In the bow on photo with the ‘Riverhead Ferry’ logo, the men on the bow are all past and preasent skippers of Kawau Isle. This photo was taken at Kawau Island, Bon Accord Harbour November 2012 during a cruise to celebrate the 60th anniversary to the launching of the ferry.
Note : Mairie & Kawau Isle replaced the ‘Nancibel’ – (may have been Nancibelle), which was powered with a 4 cyl 4-53 GM Detroit & ‘Kororo’ which was powered with a P6 or 6-354 6 cyl Perkins. Both of these boats were painted bottle green & given there appearance probably built in the later part, of the early 1900s. You can see the Maritana stern on, behind Kawau Isle in the 1962 pic at Mansion House Bay wharf. The back end of Kororo can be seen in the photo of a young Ken Ricketts sculling the dinghy.
A question ex Don Macleod
Refer below article / photos that appeared in DIVE Magazine Vol 11 No3, of 1972.
Is this the same launch, Nancibel, that serviced Kawau Island. (click photo to enlarge)
Update from Don 02/12:
The divers got into real trouble that weekend at the 20 fathom reef, Mayor Island, 3 cases of the bends, one of which died (Henry Liason).
There was another boat that hit a Mayor Island rock that weekend. It was the Edward G which flooded its engine room at the time
that Henry Liason was surfacing from a very deep dive.
Tauranga divers went out and salvaged the Gardner engine from the Nancibel the week after she sank.
Alice
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ALICE
photo ex classic launch nz
Seen here on her trials at Auckland : The new launch, Alice, which was built for the use of the Inspector of Fisheries in the Bay of Islands.
Interested in any more info – designer, builder, year etc + what happened to her.
Harold Kidd Update
Looking at her you can tell
1. she was built as a commercial vessel because of her dee front cabin; no fancy raised foredeck for workboats at this point
2. from the background buildings she was built in Auckland
3. she was built post 1920 because of the dodger
4. she looks like a Chas Bailey Jr workboat and the name ALICE was a favourite of his for yachts and launches he built.
In fact she WAS built by Chas Bailey Jr. and launched on 20th September 1921 for the Inspector of northern fisheries, Flynn. She was 36ft oa and had an Auckland-built 30hp 3 cylinder Twigg engine.
I don’t know what happened to her afterwards, but what a cracker!
Update #2
I had another look at my database. She was superseded in fisheries work by COLLEEN but continued to be used by the Government in the Bay of Islands for servicing Cape Brett lighthouse etc until August 1942 when she came ashore at Russell in an an extremely heavy easterly gale and may have been a total loss then. Not sure of that….wartime news censorship and all that.
SS Romp
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SS ROMP
photo ex classicboatnz
Now I know nothing about this vessel but I’m sure Russell Ward (Mr Steam), our waitematawoody of the month, will chip in with some more info.
Over to you Russell 🙂
Harold Kidd Update
Russell, where art thou?
I don’t want to steal his thunder but she’s too nice a little thing to be left in the lurch.
Percy Ginders, her long-term Ngunguru owner, thinks she was built by Robert Logan Sr around 1885. That’s certainly possible. She was a 25ft launch used on the Tauranga Harbour between 1910 and 1918 by Soljak & Rosenfeldt for bringing in flax gathered by maori workers in the various estuaries. She appears in Whangarei in 1927 as an under 5hp motor launch. Percy secured her around 1969 and did a lovely job of restoring her shapely hull and installing her steam plant which I understand is an A.C. Mumford unit.
Percy ran her on tourist trips up and down the Ngunguru River for many years (and may still do so).
Now, come on Russell, bring us up to date?
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