Mercury Bell / Belle

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Mercury Bell / Belle

MERCURY BELL / BELLE

Todays post was sent to me by John Pryor, who was handed the framed photo of Mercury Bell, taken at Sandspit in 1960. John commented that she appears to be a bridgedeckerised tram top of about 32 ft.

It had been hanging in the Kawau Island Yacht Club for a number of years.

On the back of the photo is written – “Owner E Mizen 120 Vivian Engine”. Now there appears to be some confusion here, as Harold Kidd has advised that Mercury Belle was built for E.E. Mizen of Mercury Island by Lidgard Bros in February 1938. She was a substantial 52 footer with a Canadian-built 120hp 6 cylinder Vivian engine at a cost of £4000 pounds, an astronomical sum at the time. Viewing the above photo Harold confirmed that its not the Lidgard boat, so somehow the photo & the script on the rear have been mismatched.

Anyone add anything more about the launch in the photo?

Also John has advised that if anybody knows the current owner, please let them know the picture is available if they want it.

A Mystery Boat 20/05/14 – RIO RITA > RESOLUTION

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A new photo & a question from Chris Manning – is the above photo taken at ‘Curious Cove’ Marlborough Sounds (possibly c1950’s) of the boat with the tyre fender possibly  Rio Rita? The sheer line looks about right, as do the vintage stanchions and the after windows . Can anyone comment on this ?
Screen Shot 2014-05-20 at 9.06.52 AM

A Mystery Boat 20/05/14 – RIO RITA > RESOLUTION

Ok woody boaters – todays post is an enigma to me. The boat is unknown to me, but she is flying a CYA burgee, a check of the CYA database shows no match so the vessel is either belong to a very distant lapsed member or someone has ‘borrowed’ the burgee.

The photo is ex the very talented pro photographer Dean Wright & most likely shot in the BOI.

Anyone able to shed some light on the vessel?

It also appears she is currently in Tauranga & listed on trademe (thanks Andrew Pollard for the tip). Photo added above.

Update
Lots of chat about todays mystery boat in the comments section – check it out. I can confirm it is ‘Rio Rita’ > ‘Resolution’ . I have also added a great photo sent to me by Harold Kidd of her on launch day, 1929, at St. Marys Bay, she was built by Collings & Bell & launched as a tourist passenger boat, note the open cockpit forward. Looked rather grand, quite different now days.

Updated photo– 13/06/14 – ex Harold Kidd of Rio Rita in the Sounds, still with ‘Rio Rota Auckland’ on her transom.

Updated photo – 23/07/2014 – ex Liam Daly on or close to her launch day

Rio Rita lauching 1929

2014 photo below ex Dave Jones ex Baden Pascoe

Kayla Rose – RIP

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KAYLA ROSE – RIP

Kayla Rose, a SeaCraft,  is one of those boats that we look at & think – ‘ bugger these launches, I could handle the maintenance on one of those, no marina fees etc’. Truth is I’m sure the upkeep is similar.

I spotted KR at the recent Whangateau regatta & like several others there were instantly smitten.

Keen to learn more about her – possibly Pam at the WTB can enlighten us.

Update from John Sankey
Thank you for putting up the pics on your wonderful website!
A big thanks also to Pam and George for the fantastic weekend Regatta! The weather, wind and company was perfect!
This was the first time back in the tide for Kayla Rose after 2 years hibernating and getting some ‘beauty sleep’. As you can see, the bilge pump was working hard waiting for those planks to start to ‘take up’. She is 16′ and is circa 1962 in Kauri planked clinker with a double diagonal bottom. The engine is the original Ford Consul 4 cylinder by S.A.M. Marine, with a forward and reverse box. I bought her 3 years ago off a friend in Beach Haven who will know more of her history….

A Boaties Paradise

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Now you can relax I’m not turning ww into a real estate site – I have done this blog to help a ww follower out. If you are looking for a piece of waterfront land with the ability to haul the boat out at the bottom of the garden – this might be of interest.

Photos below + click the blue link to view full details. A Boaties Paradise

Waterfront
The existing house
The street
The slip
View from deck

Lucinda Hauls Out

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Lucinda Hauls Out

With the money that Nathan received from Sanfords for the mussels he harvested off Lucinda a few months ago, he can now begin the main project, which started yesterday with hauling out at Milford Cruising Club. Unable to make the journey under her own steam (motor out), WildDuck provided the legs to get her up the creek.

Nice to see the CYA yacht captain (Dan Renall) on hand to help with the water blasting.

Beneath all that old paint lies a very pretty launch with good bones, a quick glance at her ‘bottom’ says she should get along very nicely.

ww looks forward to following this project, Nathan has good bones himself so everything should get the tick from the CCC (classic compliance contingent) 🙂

To see more on Luncinda, type her name in the ww search box

An Update 11/07-2015

Now there has been a lot of work going on under the big tarp, but today Nathan was out of town so Jason Prew decided to test his router on the foredeck & fit some bling. A deck prism/ port light.

Update 30-08-2015

Things been happening under that cover, last time I was aboard it was looking very sad. Seems all the talk of working on cold winter nights were true 🙂

Nov 2015 Update

A peek under the covers 😉

03-01-2015 Another peek – I’ll be getting a reputation for lifting up old ladies skirts 😉

That prop is looking rather zoom zoom …….

P1180976

16-04-2016 Update – the shiney paint an not be too far away 😉

A Commodores Salute

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A Commodores Salute

Todays post is a little classic wooden boat eye candy from Seattle, the video shows the annual Lake Union- ‘Open the Gates Commodore Salute Parade’. The event marks the appointment of a new commodore to their CYA, lets hope Rod Mahler isn’t watching this, he will be demanding one of these each season 🙂

Lady Joyce 40yrs On

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Lady Joyce c1973
Lady Joyce 2014

LADY JOYCE  – A 40yr. COMPARISON

I was sent by CYA member Ian Kohler (Ngaio) this c1973 photo of Lady Joyce when see was owned by Sally Cassells Brown. Looking at the photo of her I took earlier this year at Mahurangi, its wonderful to see how she has survived over 40 years & retained her original configuration. Her owner for the last 20 years, John Foreman, needs a medal.

To me what these two photos also show is how the addition of varnish (or possibly wood effect paint in those days) to the coamings can so significantly enhance the look of a classic craft.

For more details on LJ – use the ww search box or click the link below
https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/03/22/lady-joyce/

And to show we are a caring sharing bunch – compilments of HDK via Paperpast is the “Joyce” of LADY JOYCE 🙂

NZH19390518.2.5.5-a1-700w-c32-3464-7377-1639-1820

18/06/2014 – A correction / error to the story- ex Paul Baragwanath

The error relates to the above picture. The Lady Joyce was in fact named after my grandmother, Joyce Winstone, nee Harrowell. Lady Joyce was owned by my great-grandfather, Shirley Harrowell. The photograph above is of her brother Bill Harrowell, Joyce’s brother, and the lady in the photo is Bill’s wife, known as Eddie, but whose name was also Joyce. An easy mistake to make!

I think that my grandmother was born in 1918, If they bought her in 1932 Joyce would have been 25… I am surprised they didn’t buy the Lady Joyce earlier… because Joyce was already married with two children (or so).
They lived at 44 Ranui Road, Remuera and Joyce’s husband Don, my grandfather, bought his first house over the road… and commissioned my little Corsair (Frostbite number 47). Don’s uncle had the big yacht Nga Toa.

13-11-2024 UPDATE ex John Wicks – Hauled out at Chafers marina in Wellington  today.

A left field idea

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How’s this for a left field idea

I saw a posting on the CYA forum yesterday that caught my eye. CYA member Greg Schultz is selling a berth & jetty at Tinopai on the Kaipara. Ok it’s a mud berth but at the price it could be a seriously cool idea for an affordable bolt hole. Check the photos out above, the outlook is impressive. I’ll quote from Greg’s post below –

“Ever thought of keeping a boat on the Kaipara. I have a mud berth and jetty for sale very cheap at Tinopai, all Northern regional Council approved etc.

Could put an old boat in it and have an absolute beach front ‘bach’ property…annual rental is about $160. Come up stay/live on board and maybe go out and catch a load of snapper, fishing is still great up here, I caught a 14 pounder a hundred meters off the beach last week and a visitor from the camp ground speared a huge kingie while spearing flounder next to this jetty .

These berths regularly change hands for about $2000-$3000 depending on condition. This one was rebuilt about 12 months ago so should not need anything doing on it for quite a few years. Has had a 45 foot launch moored there before I put my 18ft mullety on it, fine for something up to 26-28ish ft but could require a digger to dig it out for anything much bigger. I will look at the closest offer to my ‘buy now’ price of $1000 if anyone is interested as I now have another berth for Scamp (the mullety)

The photos above were taken about 2 hours after full tide.”

Now here is another twist on things – FV Waimko has just failed its commercial fishing survey due mainly to rot in the foredeck area (shown in photo). The owner hasn’t got the time to do the necessary repairs so would be interested in any reasonable offers around $5000, has a good engine, gearbox, radar, VHF. She could suit someone looking for that ‘seaside bach’ to go on the jetty!

Around $6,000 all up for a waterfront pad – a few ww lads should form a syndicate….

For more details ‪itzgreg@xtra.co.nz

Project Boat Wanted

And if you have or know of a T, S or X yacht lying around, Greg was looking for another mullet boat to restore but has decided something around 12-16’ would be better. So if there is one out there looking for a good home, condition unimportant, contact Greg.

 

CYA CLASSIC JOURNAL #93

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Click link below to read the April edition (#93) of the Classic Yacht Association – ‘Classic Journal’. Apologies for being ‘out of syn’ but this issue got lost in transit / translation. Click blue link below.

Enjoy 🙂

CYA CJ 93

Lucinda

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Lucinda

LUCINDA

Built by L. Coulthard for a Mr J Griffin of Epsom, her initial ‘home’ was the Manukau. Records show she was launched with a 12-16hp Ailsa-Craig engine.

Other than this ww is very light on her history so hopefully we can expand on it today.

Harold Kidd Update

Les Coulthard built her in October 1930 for Jack Griffin of Onehunga who was the Vice-Commodore of the Manukau Yacht & Motor Boat Club at the time. Her 10/16hp Ailsa Craig had been taken from his former launch KATUI which Coulthard traded in and later sold. LUCINDA stayed on the Manukau until at least 1940 and I have no knowledge of when she came to the Waitemata and was bridgedeckerised but think it was reasonably recently.

Owner (Nathan Herbert) Update

I wish I had never seen this photo, as I was happy with the current configuration and the excellent interior room/ layout it provides until I saw the looks of the original! The engine now is where the bridge is, but there are old engine beds right up into the bow? Other than those, the only original parts are t+g sole in parts of the cockpit, and the chain locker bulkhead with Bakelite switch and light fitting attached.
The engine sump was toast from salt water in the bilge and after 4 weeks a complete replacement has almost been manufactured for me. James at Moon Diesels helped me out with a similar bell housing to replace the toasted one, which I have modified to fit.
We’ll tow her to Milford in the next week or so to be slipped for a few months to be given a full going over. A lot of gear will be biffed…

Excuse the crudely covered bridge window, I put my hand through it while navigating the sole-less cabin area

Lucinda 2014
Lucinda 2014