Lady Sandra

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Lady Sandra

LADY SANDRA

Built by the Lane Motor Boat Co., a very “Ultra” boat, for her era, for Len Peckham, about 1950, one of “THE” boats of the day, lovely lines, powered with 2 x 6 cyl Scripps petrol engines, right at the stern, with V drives, & with reduction gears built in to the V drives.
L Peckham was a very social person & Lady Sandra had many parties, & lots of glamorous ladies aboard, on many occasions, — spent much time tied to the Mansion House Bay wharf, with an anchor out in to the bay, & then backed the stern up to the wharf, (almost as if she owned it, she was there so much.) engines were of course, later replaced with diesels (Fords I think ( as usual)
She was later sold & I have an idea one of the Cleave brothers may have owned her for a while, however she was later owned by my dear friend, the late John Richards, who eventually sold her, & she went to Fiji where she was wrecked in a storm in the 80s.
She suffered some misadventure once, by picking up a tow line from a boat being towed, off Devonport wharf, one day, got the tow rope around both propellers & pulled the propeller struts out of the hull & of course she sank, just as they got her to the nearby beach, fortuously.

photo & ‘tale’ by ken Ricketts

Mahurangi

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Mahurangi

MAHURANGI – One we know absolutely nothing about, except that Ken Ricketts liked the look of her, when he took the photo in 1948/9, which was taken in Mansion House Bay Kawau Island.

10/03/2015 – Photo below ex Ken Ricketts ex B Worthington. Taken post 2000 while 4 sale in Tauranga. At the time powered by a 75hp Ford Diesel. She is 34′ x 10’6″.

Ngapuhi

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Ngapuhi

NGAPUHI – Owned & built by Allan Williams, manager of Shipbuilders Ltd. at the time, in 1946 or thereabouts. Possibly had a Kermath petrol engine.
Photo taken by Ken Ricketts in Schoolhouse Bay Kawau Island Christmas 1948
Any more info would be appreciated.

Coquette

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Launch Number CoquetteCoquette

Coquette, 1912 Logan designed . Coquette was used to take a mould off for the popular Logan 33 f/glass replicas e.g. Lucille, Lady Dorothy, Lynette.
The early shot ( with number 201) with dodger would have been taken c. 1926

Update from Robin Elliott 

Coquette was launched as Doreen in 1912, built by Arch Logan for his brother Robert, who named her Doreen after their sister.By 1915 (??) she was named Haku & renamed Coquette c1923.That b&w photo above was taken c1942 or so and carries her wartime number. 

Around 1945 Bill Couldrey (one of Arch Logan’s preferred boatbuilders) was asked to modernise the cabin and superstructure and this is what we see on her today. He got the curves and proportions just right. This revamped design of Bill Couldrey’s was also copied for the GRP Logan 33’s.

 
Photos of her as Doreen can be viewed in the book ‘The Logans – NZ’s Greatest Boat Building Family’ & as Coquette in the book’Vintage NZ Launches’. Both books by Harold Kidd & Robin Elliott & still available in good book stores.
Photo added as Coquettee c.1964, ex Ken Ricketts 15/10/2014
Coquette c.1964
 17-03-2016 photos ex trademe

Lady Dorothy & Valerie

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Lady Dorothy & Valerie

Two fine classics anchored off Milford Island in Whangaroa Harbour, Jan 2013. The one on the left is Robin Elliott’s Logan 33 replica. The other is the Lane designed launch Valerie, c1933. Valerie is kept at Whangaroa Marina and currently owned by John Briers and Jackie Te Hore of Cable Bay. Valerie was for many years owned by the Reynolds family, close friends of the Pickmeres, who owned her up until the late 1960’s. Apart from a short period in Auckland during the 1960’s she has spent almost all her life in Whangarei and the far North. It is believed Valerie was sometimes used by H. Pickmere when he was charting the far north. Info ex Robin Elliott.

Viveen

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Viveen was one of Colin Wild’s early landmark motor launches, built in 1924 for W.G. Rapley of Devonport. She was thoroughly up-to-date for the time, a vee-bottom bridgedecker, very much in the latest American style, her hull design obviously influenced by the square-bilge planning hulls of men like John L. Hacker & William Hand.
Her original  power plant was a 35hp Kermath but that was upgraded to an even more high-powered Winton. Her owners raced her consistently until launch racing died out during the Depression when feeding such monsters with benzine became impracticable.
Until recently, Viveen has always been a waitemata woody, berthed in the Milford Marina for years, but not lives in Thames.
The photos show her many & varied styles over the years.  The oldest one was taken at Mansion House Kawau Island in 1924 & Viveen is the launch with the black hull on the right.  The other b&w photo was taken in 1938 off the Devonport wharf, after she was made into a flush deck. There is one of her berthed alongside  other Colin Wild launches (2nd on right) in the Viaduct  for the 2012 classic launch & yacht show & one of her today cruising the gulf.
Viveen is currently undergoing a ‘rolling restoration’ in the hands of Mechaela and Andrew Dobbs.
03-10-2018   Update from owners Andrew & Mechaela Dobbs.

We thought you might be interested in an update on Viveen, our 1924 Colin Wild bridgedeck, 7 years ago we bought this lovely lady with every intention of doing right by her, but time, money and circumstances didn’t allow it, so after a few major repairs, a new engine and a slop slap paint job Andrew took her to the Colin Wild exhibition at the viaduct and we used her pretty regularly on the coromandel after that but she started to look pretty sad and we made the decision, it’s happening now, so we’ve done it, she’s been out of the water about 6 weeks now and has had all her many layers of exterior paint stripped off, has had new fibreglass put on her top decks, repairs done to a few leaky parts and is now in the process of getting her hull splined, after that she will be getting a new paint job including a different colour scheme, and a slightly larger duck board but no changes to her classic look, we hope she will look a million bucks when we are done, we will update you with a finished photo whenever that may be as there’s still a fair bit to do.
Viveen 2019

Mistral

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Mistral

MISTRAL

Motor sailer owned by Barney Bensky of Barnett Barnett major furniture retailers of the day, in Dominion Rd Mt Roskill, built late 1930s or early 40s. He had her in the later 1940s & 50s. She had a Graymarine 4 cyl petrol engine originally. Not sure of builder, or what has happened to her in recent years.
Ken Ricketts who took the photo is interested if someone could bring him up to date.

MISTRAL -- AS AT 1.11.13 -- 2 MISTRAL AS AT 1.11.13 -- 1