Category Archives: Working Boats

Lady Shirley

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LADY SHIRLEY (Catherine S)

The above b/w photos show the then police launch Lady Shirley, the ’ship’ in the background is the Rangitata. The photo is dated 1940-49 and most likely taken by D. Marsh. The 36’ bridge-decker, Lady Shirley was built by C. Bailey & Son in 1938.
The first photo below I took at the 2020 CYA Classic Yacht Regatta. In the second photo she is her moored  in Opito Bay, BOI – summer 2019/20.
You can read / view more at the WW links below
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Lady Shirley BOI Jan2019
02-04-2020 Update ex Greg Lees – Greg recently acquired this very cool ‘ship-in-a-bottle’ model of Rangitira
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Nigel Drake sent me the funny below – pretty well sums things up in our house.
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ISOLATION – Such stunning weather and no boating 😦
For a long time I have been ‘collecting’ old boat hooks, you can pick one up for $20>30. Normally the hook end is bronze and in good condition, a good polish and they look like new – to buy the head at Fosters would cost around $150. So today I started to give a few a make-cover. I have to say, what ever the old boys used to ‘varnish’ them with, is bloody hard to get off, lots of 80 grit did the trick.
I suspect this will be the last project before I get transferred to domestic duties e.g. working on the house 🙂

Moata

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MOATA
The above photo of Moata crossing the Grey River bar on Sunday (28-03-2020) was sent in by Dave Stanaways, Dave commented that they were luckily that both Grey and Westport are a lot shorter crossings than the likes of the Manukau or Kaipara bars.
The photo below ex Lew Redwoods fb is dated c.1940-1959 and shows Moata alongside the wharf in Auckland – Moata was built in 1937 by WG Lowe.
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For a work boat she has stunning lines 😉
See / read more on Moata at the WW links below
https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/04/04/moata/
https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/07/25/workboat-wednesday-moata/
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Choptank

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CHOPTANK

Todays WW story falls into the eye candy category and will spin the wheels of the workboat group.
The 62’ Choptank was brought to my attention by Australian woody – Andrew Christie, who spotted her on the WoodenBoat Forum.
Built in 1938 in Virginia, USA by O.W. Payne Palmer and named – Julian.
Later name changes were – Callis Brothers, then – Crow Bros II.
She has just had a complete rebuild at the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where her name was changed to – Choptank.
Choptank is what they call a ‘Chesapeake Bay Buy-Boat’.
Make sure you check in tomorrow (Sunday) – great story coming u 😉
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Wooden Boats @ Whangarei Town Basin

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Wooden Boats @ Whangarei Town Basin

Two weeks ago David Cooke and myself pointed the car north and did a day trip to Whangarei to view a few candidates for listing with the Wooden Boat Bureau. We were blessed with a stunning day, which made the quay side area at the Town Basin very pleasing to the eye. As we mooched around I snapped the above photos. With the boats shed owners taste in decorating you cant miss them 😉
A nice mix of sail and power, with a lot of live aboards.
I was pleased to see James Mobberley’s old classic – Falcon on a pile mooring, one day she will come back to her home – the Waitemata 🙂
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Marlin

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MARLIN
Woody Baden Pascoe recently sent in the above photos of Marlin seen here in the top photo at Whitianga c.1968 after being re-powered with a Caterpillar 320. 
At this time she was owned by Alf Clow (photos are courtesy of the Clow family). Alf bought Marlin off Rolly Smith who used her for game fishing. It is believed that prior to Rolly Smith she was owned by the Thames Harbour Board (who went bust).
 
The thinking is Marlin was build by Sam Ford, but there is know knowledge as to the launching date.
The second photo shows the new Cat 320 being lowered into Marlin, seems a rather large donk for the size of the boat. Thence the last photo of her flying along with Clow family on board.
The dinghy on the stern is from the hands of Howard Pascoe 🙂
Any woodys able to shed more light on the history of Marlin?
Input from Barbara Cooke – Rolly Smith was my uncle. He purchased Marlin during the early years of WW11 for the purpose of deep sea fishing but due to government fuel restrictions this wasn’t permitted. He and his young family farmed at Fletchers Bay, top of Coromandel. After the war they returned to Whitianga where Rolly operated Marlin for chartering and game fishing. In later years his son Bruce skippered Tuatea, another game fishing vessel in Whitianga.

 
Input from Ross Dawson – Papers Past, Thames Star 11.3.1926 tells us…”the Harbour Board’s new launch Marlin, was brought down from Auckland on Tuesday by the Dredgemaster,..Mr Roche” and in the same newspaper 31 March 1926 says…”…the launch passed government inspection on 10.3.1926….fit to ply with 8 passengers within extended river limits when not towing and with suitable canvas over the cockpit, or with 16 passengers within river limits proper….length 31.75 feet, breadth 8.25 feet, depth 2.87 feet, horsepower 30-35, crew 2. Registered as “Marlin” …” So, no builder but it shouldn’t be too hard to find a reference to the launching about Jan – Feb 1926, in the Auckland newspapers.

The Thames newspaper notes Marlin being in Whitianga in 1933.

 
Input from Harold Kidd – Can’t say I was confident about my last posting. Did some more digging and found that the Thames Harbour Board commissioned this launch from Sam Ford as a towboat, largely used for their dredge. She was unnamed but was completed in early 1926. Her dimensions were 31’6″ loa, 8’3″ beam and 2’6″ draft and 2.87tons displ. Things can’t have worked out as she was up for tender in August 1928 (again unnamed). The Secretary of the Harbour Board was later charged with embezzling a large sum from the Board and it folded shortly afterwards.
So the memories of all concerned were absolutely spot on!
Now we have to sort out what her name was before it was changed to MARLIN. Lovely boat! How nice it’s Sam Ford. 
I’m just in the process of preparing a series of Boating NZ articles on him. This boat just shows the breadth of his skills at much the same time as WHAKAARI and before his Art Deco cruisers.
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See Bee – Part 1

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SEA BEE – Part 1

On my trip up North this week I spotted Sea Bee berthed in the Whangarei Basin. Looks to be a very recent recipient of a conversion from work boat to cruiser.

Lovely lines and great use of colour.
Anyone able to tell us about her past?
Update ex Linda Holdaway – this is the same Sea Bee owned for many years by Ian Boyce.  She was designed and built by Harold Saunders, we’ve been told. Brett Stanaway bought her in 2014 from Steve Greasley up in the Kerikeri inlet and we worked solidly on her every spare hour we could find, and launched her unfinished in 2016. I went and talked with Ian Boyce while he was still alive. He said she was originally built in 1965 for a partnership between Dave Baker and George Cornwall and was called CB when launched. They bought 4 kauri trees in the Coromandel and had them railed to Saunders’ boatyard in Mana Harbour. 
09-04-2020 Input from Brett Stanaway
Below are a few photos of Seabee the day she was launched, a couple of her when she was still working and a couple of her the day we bought her. 
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I know I’m A Nutter
Anyone else got all 8 editions of the CYA Classic Register? fyi – there is actually 9,
one was reprinted due to an embarrassing oops – and yes I have that one as well 🙂
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Timeless

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TIMELESS
The above photos of the 44’ Timeless were sent in by John Burland and show her berthed at Nelson Marina.
Back in March 2014 she appeared on WW and we established that she was potentially launched in 1998 as Daphne Dee, later (2002) renamed Timeless. Link to the 2014 WW story below.
I’m liking the new paint job 🙂
Any of the newer (since 2014) woodys able to shed more light on this woody?
Off to Whangarei today to check-out a few woodys, more details soon 😉
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Lady Ellison

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Lady Ellison

The photos above of the 36’ c.1952/53 possibly Sam Ford built – Lady Ellison were sent in by John Burland and show her at Nelson Marina.

The lady has made two appearances (July 2015 and May 2019) on WW, links below, from the photos above its obvious that she is now a well used, semi commercial vessel. Read the links and comments sections –  lots of chat on her past.

Two photos below – b/w = as launched. Colour = 2015 (click to enlarge)

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Kotare – 4sale

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KOTARE
 
Over the Xmas / NY (2020) period Barbara and David Cooke were cruising aboard their launch – Trinidad and anchored near the ex work boat Kotare and as you do, introduced themselves to her owner, Laurence Ryan.
The photo gallery is a mix of photos from Barbara Cooke and her owners.  
The story below was sent to Barbara by Laurence and is reproduced unedited.
 
“Kotare was designed and built by John Miller who was a boat builder who worked for Miller and Tunnage in Dunedin. However, I am told he is not one of the Millers, as such. She was built in 1940. Solid oregon plank construction, hull and decks. 15 m OA, 13.8 m on the waterline, 2 m draft, 31 tonnes fully laden. Beam 3.66 m. She was built as a trawler and fished out of Dunedin and possibly Lyttleton. She fished at the Chathams and features in the book “Shipwrecks of New Zealand”. She was in a convoy of some six fishing boats making the trip to the Chathams in extremely bad weather. Two of the vessels were lost with all hands – Kotare made it!
 
She was first converted into a pleasure boat in 1987 by the owner, John Liddell, from whom I bought her. The conversion was undertaken by Careys in Picton. A further variation was completed in 2000 where the final configuration occured.  John Liddell had her in SSM and she spent most of her new life in the Marlborough Sounds doing some fishing charters. John took her to the Chathams, Stewart Island, Fiordland and she circumnavigated NZ twice.
 
She is powered by a Detroit GM 6/71 2 stroke diesel, 225 hp de-rated to 195 hp, Alison 3:1 gearbox.  The whole engine was rebuilt in 2006.
 
I purchased her in September 2016 and we sailed her up the east coast from Mana that Labour weekend, 72 hours non-stop!”
 
Below is a photo of Kotare, before the alterations – trolling off the Otago coast.
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