MYSTERY YACHT HIGH & DRY – ITS NGATIRA
Had a few mystery launches on WW high and dry recently so seems fair that we feature a yacht today.
For once I know the answer, so lets make it a quiz – all correct answers emailed to waitematawoodys@gmail.com before 6pm 29-06-24 go into the draw for a WW Burgee.
So correct boat name = one chance in the draw, correct boat name and location = two chances in the draw.Hint > location is Auckland area.
MYSTERY WOODEN LAUNCH AGROUND – c.1960
During the week the story on MARISTELLA and her several episodes of touch hydrography prompted Gavin Pascoe to send in the photo above of an unidentified launch run aground on Pukerua Bay rocks in the Wellington region. There are some impressive rollers coming in so I’d be surprised if she was re-floated.
The photo caption had a date of c.1960’s on it and the comment that the photograph was taken for the Evening Post newspaper of Wellington by an unidentified staff photograph. The origin is c/o the National Library collection.
Anyone able tout a name to the launch.
WESTHAVEN COMPETITION – Dockside chat tells me the waterfront marine community are running a sweepstake on when the classic yacht CAPLIN will leave its new berth and venture out on the Waitemata Harbour. One old salt commented that maybe its new prime position was viewed by her new owner as an ornate gift to the neighbourhood…………….. 😉
UPDATE 11-07-2024 – I can confirm Caplin has ventured out 🙂
CLASSIC BIG GAME LAUNCHES HAULED OUT
Todays photo popped up yesterday on a Bill McQuinn fb feed and shows the Orams yard in Whangarei. The photo is dated 1967.
From left to right the game boats are (1) ’something’ GLEN (Lance Reid has suggested MONA’s GLEN , Lew Redwood says MONS GLEN and Nathan Herbert commented that could be MONA’S ISLE (2) BLUE FIN (3) RUTH.
• Keen to confirm the correct name of launch #1 . From the chat on the fb page it would appear that boat #1 is Monas Isle / Rakanui Read more below –https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/06/17/rakanui-mona-isle-ii/
• BLUE FIN has featured on WW before https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/04/27/blue-fin-2/
• Very interested to learn more about RUTH.
CLASSIC LAUNCH – MARISTELLA – Sinks, Catches fire, Goes on the rocks……
The 40’ Sam Ford 1936 built launch – MARISTELLA has made several appearances on WW, one story back in 2019 (linked below) created a lot of chat in the comments section. https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/08/27/mystery-launch-27-08-2019/
Chatting to Nathan Herbert yesterday prompted me to do a deep dive in the WW files and jackpot I came across some correspondence from Murray Bridge back in Jan 2020. Murray’s family owned the boat for approx. 20 years (1959>1999) and he sent me a clipping of an article from Boating NZ. Reading the article it appears that MARISTELLA has been a very lucky boat, if she was a cat she would have used up a lot of her nine lives 🙂
In her past life she joined the sub-mariner club when she hit a uncharted submerged rock in Queen Charlotte Sound, was successfully re-floated and refitted. Then on another trip caught fire in Bluff, again repaired. And later ran aground on rocks near Mana in Wellington. I have included an enlarged section of the BNZ article below – click image to enlarge.
The good news is she survived all those oops and is still with us today as seen in the above photos. The real reason for the story today is her newish owner is in Nathan’s words ‘rejuvenating’ the boat and needs a pair of opening portholes (approx. size = 8.5”), so we are doing a shout out asking if anyone has some gathering dust. FYI – when we ask for help locating fittings its for woody folk deserving a helping hand, not owners that are doing $100k+ work at professional yards. WW points them to https://www.toplicht.de/en/
CLASSIC LAUNCH DELRAY
During a recent mystery launch story where we were trying to ID a launch moored in the Tamaki River (named NAU MAI) the above photo was recent in by Ken Ricketts , a totally different boat than the one we featured but it did jog the KR memory bank and he later advised the boat was – DELRAY.
She was built by Chris Robertson, in Otahuhu. Her original owner was Lees Bros. Ltd. who were the Ford marine diesel agents in Papakura at the time. KR recalls they used her as a demo boat for the first 2 x 250hp versions of the 6 cyl. Ford diesels that were installed in a boat in NZ.
They did not keep her terribly long & sold her to Mr. Ah Chee the owner of NZ’s first supermarket in Otahuhu. KR commented that there was a story told at that time, that he went away for his very first trip in her and the master stateroom, happened to be right above where the chine enters the water and the story goes that he didn’t get a wink of sleep all night, because of the little ‘plopping sound’ of the waves in the bay on the chine. He was not at all impressed, having just spent a lot of money buying her.
Do we know what happened to DELRAY post the Ah Chee ownership period.
UPDATE – As Murray Deeble pointed out in the comments section – DELRAY is the boat on the slip. I assumed KR was talking about the moored boat. The slipway boat probably wouldn’t have passed the woody test i.e. too modern in appearance and sporting a ‘block of flats’. So the question is whats the moored boat?
CLASSIC LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #3
Again co-owner Patrick Crawshaw walks us thru the latest work
“First thing, I would like to say a massive thank you to Ron Trotter who after last week’s post got in contact with waitematawoodys to say he had the original cowl vents. He posted them up to the Bay of Islands and I had them on Tuesday. This website is incredible for putting the right people together and after spending literally hours and hours searching the world online for these things, I was very happy that I have the original ones back. One closer inspection when they arrived, I could see they were made back in the day by hand, hence the reason I could not find them and even more of a deal that we had the original ones to go back on LADY CAROLE. They will get panel beaten and tidied up and then have to go to be re-chromed.
This week has been a little more challenging, not in what LADY CAROLE has thrown us, but more in what mother nature has.
We are working through the Winter and have a limited time frame at the yard. The slipway closes during the Summer season because of the cruise ship passengers, which tender to the wharf there. So, we ordered a large – very large – piece of plastic, the type of which is used for tunnel houses, to cover the boat and then we waited on a certain freight company who shall remain nameless, and we waited….
On Monday the weather delivered very low lying persistent fog, which hung around for most of the day. The boat was so wet, no sanding could take place, then on Tuesday and eight days later the plastic arrived. We tented the boat just in the nick of time and the heaven’s opened – it hasn’t stopped raining since then. Then the power went out…., but luckily we could press on…
Now she is tented, we can remove things like steel/glass hatches (wooden ones need to go back) and the windows, which was done yesterday.
The windows were a tricky one as I am trying to keep as many of the original elements of the boat as possible and did not want to remove them, but we discovered over the years that they had been replaced as they broke, or as they were changed. The boat had a complete mix of different tints and types of glass and most were leaking, so they all had to come out. I decided after much deliberation to go for clear glass. The objective of this restoration is to try and get LADY CAROLE back to her launching look, and she would have had clear when launched, so that’s what we are going for, but in safety glass of course.
Sam, the Wynn Fraser rep has been helping with the colour scheme, which was posted previously. The inspiration behind the colour scheme is the reddy brown she had in the 70’s on the side section, with the added addition of a deep blue hull with white pinstripes to break up the blue and make her lines pop even more. It’s crucial that the blue works well with the reddy brown and that the white is not a bright white, more subdued almost like a mellow antique white. The finish will be low sheen, not gloss as I think that belongs to the modern boats with their perfectly finished hulls. The low sheen will give her more forgiveness. The whole boat is getting a flexible two pot system for strength and durability. Sam supplied the paint cards and test pots shown below to make sure they work on the boat and in the outdoor light. The test pots were glossy, so the finished look will be more subdued than the photograph.
The ceiling in the forward cabin had to come down to sort a hatch that had been put in the wrong place. When the boat was reconfigured a past owner put a hatch in the centre of the forward cabin (to let light in I think) and then covered over the forward hatch. They then moved the mast to the top instead of the centre of the forward hardtop. So, in order to correct this back, we had to remove the ceiling as one of the ribs had been cut to allow for the hatch and this was compromising the integrity of the roof. The new ceiling will have insulation and show the ribs to give a little more height.
Meanwhile a lot of sanding has been taking place and we are almost there – well, first sand anyway.”
CLASSIC LAUNCH THETIS – BACK HOME
Back in March we reported that THETIS had been sold and was now back in Auckland via Exclusive Transport and Boat Haulage. She was taken straight to the Tamaki Haulout Yard.
Early in the month owner Norman Ramsay advised that he scraped and repainted the bottom and had her put back in the water within a couple of weeks. She then motored down the Tamaki River to a berth in central Auckland. In the last photo above the launch in front of THETIS is Norman’s other launch – a Formula 4000 named ISLAND TIME.
A t the time of purchase / sea trial they was an issue with one of the Graymarine diesel engines, so Norman commented that engine work is ongoing in the berth at the moment and they are working through options from rebuild to replacement with Duetz engines. Post this the next step will be the interior.
Very happy to see THETIS back on the Waitemata and looking forward to reporting on the rolling restoration.
LOTS TO READ & SEE AT THE TWO PREVIOUS WW STORIES LINKED BELOW
https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/09/02/thetis-a-peek-down-below/
https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/09/13/thetis-ii-the-lane-motor-boat-co/
A CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT OUTSTANDING IN ITS FIELD
Sometimes the WW “Mystery Launch’ stories are easy in terms of putting a name to a vessel – todays one I suspect will burn some fuses in the odd woody brain.
The above photo was sent in by Jason Prew and as he commented there is a nice looking hull hiding under the additions.
The location is at the Stoney Oaks Wildlife Part in Kaimana, Inglewood, Taranaki (middle’ish of the North Island for non NZ readers). Its been there a considerable time but how it got there and what is doing there is unknown. There is a ‘river > creek’ – Waitara River that runs from the ocean at coastal Waitara, so maybe…….. thats how she ended up at Kaimata.
The park is sort of a farm / petting zoo and has an impressive collection of critters for visitors to rub up alongside. So woodys can we ID the launch and get some background on her.
UPDATE 24-06-2024 ex Previous owner – Albert Littin – This is “Waihou”. 1912 Baily built 36 foot. Originally built as a work boat with the dredge building the stopbanks on the Waihou river. I have some early photos in its original form with the dredge. Sometime later it has been transformed with chainsaw, fence battens etc until I aquired it in 1999 and worked on it to tidy it up. Used out of Port Albert until 2010 then sold and trucked to its present posion up the Waitara River.
UPDATE 24-06-2024 ex Previous owner – Allan – I can confirm this is the Waihou.I was an owner from 1997 until 1999.Waihou was on the Tamaki River,when I purchased her from Ray? who had recently taken on the launch Joan.Waihou had a Gardner 5LW.Sold her to Northland,where she was moored at Mangawhai
ROTHESAY SOS
The 33’ launch ROTHESAY has recently popped up on tme, back in July 2018 WW reported that she had changed hands and there was a plan to restore her. Based on the photos above that hasn’t happened and now her ‘owner’ and interested parties are trying to find a home for her. According to the tme post ($1 reserve) she was built in 1930 and has a Ford 40hp engine in her. I will not attempt to ID the builder, a Nov 2013 WW story (link below) with input from Harold Kidd, talked at length about several vessels named Rothesay. https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/11/15/the-rothesays/
It will be a big challenge but if there is a woody out there looking for a project, this could be it. Boat location is Rawene on the Hokianga Harbour, Northland.
OM0KOROA (PHENELLA > WANGANELLA > KOTUKU > OMOKOROA)
The 36′ launch OMOKOROA has made several appearances on WW. Each story (links below) has told us more about her and her colourful past. The most recent story was in April where we saw she was nearing the end of another restoration. The name Lyndon Chambers is a common element in most of the stories and today Lyndon has shared with us a gem of a photo from the Western Bay of Plenty District Libraries collection dated c.1950’s. This b/w photo was supplied by Claudia Hume.
In the corresponding text we learnt so much more about her provenance and the many names that have graced her transom. Reproduced below”
“The Kotuku was originally the Phenella, built by Sam Middlebrook as a houseboat in around 1920 on the banks of the Uretara, helped by William Mulgrew and Noble Johnston. Sam lived in her until 1938, when he moved to Waihī. It was sold to Norm Blomquist who renamed her the Wanganella. Claude Hume bought a share in her, and took her over when Norm died in 1949. He engaged a boat bulder to rebuild her superstructure, then renmed her Kotuku. He kept her for 20 years until 1971 when H. G. Lomas of Waihī Beach bought her. She is said to have been taken to Tauranga in the late 1980s for repairs, and there has been no further record of her. The story of the Phenella/Kotuku is on pp 220 & 221 of Max Avery’s book “Maritime Tauranga”.
JULY 2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/07/10/omokaroa-omokoroa-saved/
APRIL 2024 https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/04/24/omokoroa-in-former-times/
April 2024 https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/04/25/omokoroa-april-2024-update/
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