SILVER SPRAY – Motor-sailer

WW was recently contacted by Bella Scott whose father owns the rather impressive motor-sailer – Silver Spray.

WW is very short / light on details – can anyone tell us about Silver Spray

INPUT EX PAUL DRAKE #1 -Built for the McManaway family of Paremata, Wellington, as a commercial fishing boat, and fished out of Paremata for many years. Converted to present configuration at Mana Marina twenty or more years ago. Good to see that she has retained her name.-

INPUT EX PAUL DRAKE #2 –Built by Jack Guard in about 1938. Owned by Wilfred Thomas McManaway and fished as a line boat in Cook Strait. According to his grandson Ian who served on SILVER SPRAY as a teenager and who I talked with today, she was a very stable working platform. Painted green with white boot topping when new. After being sold out of the family and reconfigured much as she is now, she struck rocks in the Marlborough Sounds and sank. She was salvaged and somewhat rebuilt by McManaway Marine (Picton). It is said that she survived her rocky encounter only because of her collision bulkhead, which had been retrofitted by grandson Ian at the behest of the Marine Surveyor, probably in the late 1960’s. Ian McManaway served his time as a shipwright with the Wellington Harbour Board when he finished his time fishing, and later became a Pilot-Launch Master.