Sunday At Kawau Island + Win A WW T-shirt

Hopefully today I’ll be mooching around the same spot as where the above photo was taken – Kawau Island, Mansion House Bay – then later on in Smelting House Bay (KBC).

I’ll put up a WW t-shirt for the woody that can ID correctly the most launches in the photo. I’ll give you starter – the launch on the right at the back (#7) is Nathan Herbert’s Pacific – I only know that because he told me 🙂  Click on the image to enlarge. Entries by email only to the address below – closes 6pm Monday 31 Jan 2022

waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Below Is Ken Ricketts Crack At ID’ing The Launches Featured Above – All Based On Memory. Better Than Some Of The Attempts Sent In 🙂 

“Starting with boat #1, we see the Lane Motor Boat Lady Sandra owned by Len Peckham, with Len visible at the flying bridge.At the time of launching she had a seek coamings profile, but Len discovered shortly after her launching, that that sleek low profile made it very difficult to see from the downstairs helm, so he had the Perspex dome, as seen in the image fitted soon after launching, to overcome this  shortcoming.Power at that time, came from 2 x 90 HP Scripps flat head 6 cyl petrol engines, in right at the stern under large hatches, in the built in aft deck, — (she had no cockpit), which faced forward & drove through intermediate shafts to detached Vee drive gear boxes that doubled a 2 to 1 reductions gears to the prop shafts. Lane Motor Boat was one of the very early boatbuilders to fit silencers to petrol engines, & along with the Wanda II, Connie V, Sou East and Nor West, she had almost silent exhausts well above the waterline, out the stern, & in her case, along with the 2 sister ships Nor West and Sou East, built around that era as well, she had side facing cowls over the exhaust outlets directing the exhaust gasses in to the slipstream along each side of  the hull, which seemed to work very well. Peckman sold her after only a very few years. 

Right alongside her, is Arnold Baldwin’s Lidgard built 46’ Valsan, (Boat #2) which started life, in the later 1930s at 38 feet, with a built in aft deck, which had an additional 8’ added to give her, her cockpit, done just before WWII, for original owner Alex Harvey, who named her after his children, Valerie & Sandy. He sold her around the end of the war to a Mr Annan who renamed her Lady Edith. Arnold B bought her c1948 renamed her back to Valsan, which as far as I know she still is today, & his old boat the Menai passed to Horry Whimp. She had 2 x 90 hp Graymarine flat head petrol engines from new, for the majority of her period of the Arnold B stewardship, but he eventually replaced them with 2 marinised 4 ltr Ford Falcon petrol engines in his later years of ownership.I believe Arnold kept Valsan until around the time of his death, many years later. 

Boat #3 is the Reremoana which was built in the mid/late 1930s by Bill Couldry as a 28’ sedan topper but was added to, take her to 36’ by one of the Lanes I recall, but not sure which one, with entirely new coamings with a bridgedeck style around 1939  & that is how she is looking in this image. She was seized by the Police in the 2000s during a criminal investigation & pulled apart inside & out & what was left was bought by a recent post 2000  owner who has rebuilt her along the lines of the image in the pic to a degree. Never knew any owners or engine details.

 Next we go to #4, the Ford V8 powered Lady Joan & at the time this was taken it would have been shortly after Stan Headland sold her, when he had just bought #6 the Lady Clare, off Jim Faire, & Stan H can be seen on the bow of Lady Clare talking to Lady Joan’ new owners, I would presume. Lady Joan was also eventually seized by the police as part of another criminal investigation & demolished by them sometime around 2000 or a bit later. 

#5 is the 28′ Fred Lidgard built, sedan topper  for Frank Pigeon. Frank can be seen with his head out the hatch as if he is looking to tie up.Frank owned Sunny Bay, Kawau Island & Fred built the boat which had no visible name on her exterior that I can recall, for Frank, as transport to & from his  property, & general use for collecting stores & visiting friends around the island.  

#6 is as above, Lady Claire, she had a large Lycoming petrol engine, which Stan H. later changed to a Kermath a couple of years after he bought her. She is a stunning mid1930s, Colin Wild design & build  & while she has a different builder, to me, she has many similarities, to Ted Clarke’s 1939 Dick Lang built Lady Margaret.  

Finally we come to #7, Pacific built by Joe Slattery over 100 years ago for the Hobbs Family, who were farmers at the outer end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula, & in the very early days she would have been used for all farm associated work, & other business associated matters, as transport to Auckland, family picnics, & to catch up with the neighbours. She is still unbelievably in the original family & still looking more or less absolutely original as far as I know. When I first went aboard her Christmas in Mansion House Bay she had  a 3 or 4 cyl Twigg petrol engine right in the very bow forward of her little bridgedeck in its own little white painted engine room. (She must have had a propeller shaft almost as long as the boat,)  & it had 3 or 4 individual cylinder blocks bolted to a separate crankcase with no cylinder heads & the spark plug sitting in the centre of the top of each cylinder block. The engine was painted bottle green. She will have had several engine transplants since then, the latest a new modern diesel fitted recently.”  (edited by Alan H)