WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LIDGARD MOTORSAILER – SEA ROVER
Recently WW was connected by Herbert Crumb-Gartner in regards to his 32’ Lidgard built motorsailer – SEA ROVER.
Herbert and his wife have recently purchased the vessel do not know much about her past aside from the she was built in 1967.
Herbert has tracked down a previous owner who bought her in 2012 from a chap in Whangaparaoa, Auckland. But that woodys is as far back that she can be traced.
Today we see a mix of current photos and some more original ones, hopefully these will jog a few memories. Sad to see she lost that classic woody look – still nothing a little time with a scraper and a pot of varnish cant fix 😉
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH MARISTELLA – A Peek Down Below
At the recent Classic Woodys Boat Show at the OBC Marina one of the stand out craft was the 40’ classic wooden launch MARISTELLA, built in 1936 by Sam Ford. The WW camera got to have a gander down below and today we get a peek at the rolling restoration that is underway.
We have commented many times on WW about lucky boats and lucky owners – well MARISTELLA is a double winner. She has in past lives – sunk, caught fire and been on the rocks, and not all at the same time. A succession of good people have put their hand up to bail the vessel out and what we see today is a reflection of everyones vision and commitment.
In particular her current owner gets the big ups from WW having undertaken significant work to the cabin to get her closer to what Sam Ford sent down the slipway in 1936.
Todays woody photo comes to us from Ross Dawson and is dated c.1957 and the location is Coromandel. The image is from a postcard and that woodys is all we know – so we throw this open for input – can we ID the wooden craft – L>R.
I’m not too sure about the aqua section on the workboat looking vessel, an unusual colour for 1957 and also doesn’t quite look kosher eg added to the photo at a later date.
INPUT ex MURRAY McGEHAN – The boat in the right hand side of the postcard picture is LADY WYN LADY WINN designed built and owned by the strongman family, moored outside their workshop. I last saw Lady Wyn in the Havelock marina about 1974.
INPUT ex JACKIE CAREY – The vessel is named the Lady Winn was built by my Uncle Sam Strongman and my father Harold Carey in the Strongman boat building sheds in Coromandel owned by Sam Strongman, my father’s brother in law. She was built as a family launch and we had many lovely adventures on her going to great barrier, Port Charles and around the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. Including coming out of Port Charles straight into some huge waves that were crashing over the bow and my father kept going until we got back to coromandel harbour. My grandmother was praying in the cabin while us kids were enjoying the ride in the stern not having any idea of the seriousness of the situation. She did have a mast.
INPUT ex Dave Giddens – In the mod 1960’s she was the support vessel on one of the Auckland to Suva yacht races.
INPUT ex LEW REDWOOD – Could the front launch outside Strongman’s in the Coromandel be TWYLIGHT built by Strongmans – photos below.
WOODEN LAUNCH ROYALTY – ROYAL SAXON & LUANA AFLOAT
Last week WW was contacted by Tom Rowling in regard to a story we had run on the yacht BEACONLIGHT. Tom reminded me that he was the owner / custodian of the 33’ classic wooden launch – ROYAL SAXON, built in 1930 by one of New Zealand’s best boatbuilders – Colin Wild.
Now I didn’t need to use the WW search box because ROYAL SAXON is one of the most beautiful woodys afloat and has been on my radar for a long time. ROYAL SAXON is just perfect to the eye, which is a challenge in a sub 35’ craft. She is also probably one of the most photographed classic woodys in NZ, due to being moored off Kaiteriteri Beach, Nelson, most summers. Kaiteriteri is the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park and all commercial tourist craft go past her as they head to the national park.
Tom sent in several photos and commented that the bow-on photo was taken by reporters in 2003 when he retired as Master of the Golden Bay after 30 years in their employ.
The photo of the two ‘gents’ shows the previous ROYAL SAXON owner – Rick McCay (on the left), handing over the register of the ROYAL SAXON in Tom’s cabin aboard the GOLDEN BAY in Auckland on the 5th August 1995. Copies of the register at the bottom of todays story.
Now Rick McCay esq. is a charmed man having owned and owning two of the most elegant classic wooden launches in New Zealand- ROYAL SAXON and LUANA, I would have questioned his sanity selling ROYAL SAXON if it wasn’t to buy LUANA, built in 1920 by M T Lane and seen below in the two Bay of Islands photos.
Back to Tom, he has owned ROYAL SAXON for 30+ years and commented that she is 95 years old and still continues to give pleasure to family, friends and visitors to the bay.
Tom also shared with us another in the Rowling fleet, a vessel he had built in 1994 at the ‘The Boat Yard’ which was attached to the Maritime Museum in Auckland at the time. Tom named her after the first commercial tourist launch that started operations at Kaiteriteri in 1955. The vessel is kauri planked, red gum ribs, teak gunnel strip, masts and spare dragon. She’s rigged as a gaff rigged sloop. In Tom’s words – all old looking to fit in with its owner. She sails beautifully and reasonable dry unless you drive her hard. The plan is similar to the sea scout cutter but reduced in length by 2 feet to make it easier to sail single handed. Photo below on the beach at Karterteri.
ROYAL SAXON CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRY – Click photos to enlarge
A QUESTION FOR WOODY BOATERS – Why have a mast on a classic motor boat*
Can You Spot The Difference Between The Two Photos Above Of SKIPJACK ?
*It is something I get asked a lot, mainly when someone is restoring a classic wooden launch and trying to decide if they should reinstate the wooden mast that they have seen in older b/w photos. My answer is always yes and this based on the belief the mast was never about sailing power — it served practical, traditional, and aesthetic purposes. It was used to hoist navigation and signal flags, support lights or an awning, and sometimes rig a small boom for lifting dinghies or stores. A few launches even set a steadying sail to ease rolling in a swell.
But most importantly, to me, reinstalling a mast preserves originality and gives a launch a proper profile and balances her shape — and adds character. So in short: not for sailing power, but for utility, stability, and looks.
Still on the topic and focussing on the area of stability, during the week Greg Billington the owner of the 1918 Chas Bailey built launch – SKIPJACK contacted me following up on the story we did on SKIPJACK. Greg had two things he wanted to share – 1. SKIPJACK was no longer for sale, he had seen the light and decided to keep her ✔️ – we liked that.
And 2. Share a recent experience around masts on old classic launches – I’ll hand over to Greg to tell the story:
“I thought I would share something that may be of interest to readers. Along the lines of ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing…’
I was offshore on one occasion when a beam sea knocked the boat over such that I had this thought – ‘that heavy wooden mast must go.’ I had this thought because it appeared that bringing the mast back up was an issue. It wasn’t, obviously. Nevertheless, I thought I would lower the centre of gravity and improve the righting moment with a shorter, lighter mast. So, I installed an alloy mast, which did make the boat significantly stiffer, but sometimes more than I wanted.
After much thought and further reading, I decided that the original wooden mast must have made the boat more tender i.e. slowing and dampening roll and therefore making for a more comfortable ride. Guess what? It did. So, I am attaching a couple of pics showing the alloy mast, and then the old wooden mast back where it belongs and I can say that the motion in any sea is considerably improved. Which goes to show, and I don’t mind admitting, that the boat builder knew far more than me.”
And woodys for the record the 2nd photo above is the wooden mast 😉
2008 YARD PHOTO OF AN UNNAMED CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – ANY CLUES
Well maybe not too much of a mystery – todays photo was sent in by John Dawson, the location is the hardstand at Westpark (Hobsonville) marina.
Already Chris Leech has commented that whilst he initially thought the vessel was RESOLUTE , after a 2nd look Chris is leaning towards ALOHA , but to me – not enough tram-top windows and a few other bits that don’t quite look right.
Can we confirm get a confirmed ID on the launch.
HAVE YOU RSVP’ed FOR THE WOODYS CLEVEDON CRUISE
We like to get as many boats as possible alongside the (all tide) dock and numbers are building so if you are considering the trip on Sept 21.22, rsvp today to waitematawoodys@gmail.com with your boat name, length and approx. # of crew. AND ITS JUST NOT MOTOR LAUNCHES – WE HAVE 4 YACHTS (so far) JOINING IN 🙂
Earlier this year the 33’ launch – SKIPJACK made an appearance on tme (thanks Ian McDonald) at the time we were told that SKIPJACK was built in 1918 by Chas Bailey. During her life she has twice been ‘modified’ to create more headroom in the wheelhouse and cabin.
Forward motion is via a 80hp Ford Dover diesel engine that gets her along at a comfortable 7.5 knots.
SKIPJACK has had several home ports having spent time in Auckland and now calls Waikawa marina in Picton home.
The launch has made several appearances on WW, the most recent back in July 2019, link below, when she was relocating south (by road). In a previous life was was named SEA DEVIL. https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/07/26/skipjack-sea-devil/
Back in nearly July, Sven Wiig shared with WW some photos from the Ryland family album, that had been shared with him. (FYI – Bill Ryland owned Sven’s boat – ARIANA c.1950’s. He fished her out of Wanganui. Bill owned her until sold in 1974. At the time of Bill’s ownership the boat was named – TE KAWAU)
One of the photos was of the vessel – DALAMORE, seen in the above photo cruising on the Wanganui River. At the time it was owned by Ted Ryland.
From the photo it appears to be a family day out, with two couples visible on deck / at the helm. An unusual view of the boat, no drones back then :- my guess – she is about to pass under a bridge, on which is the photographer.
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