Tag Archives: Albatross

CLASSIC EX WOODEN WHALE CHASER – ALBATROSS

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CLASSIC EX WOODEN WHALE CHASER – ALBATROSS

Today we have another story from Sven Wiig and the Ryland family album. The woody above is named ALBATROSS and apparently she was an ex whale chaser, owned at the time of the photo by Harry Ryland. In the photo we see ALBATROSS towing two waterskiers on ‘aquaplanes’ on the Wanganui River as featured in the newspaper clipping.

For not a very large craft, ARIZONA must have had a powerful engine, those aquaplane boards would take a fair degree of zoom zoom to get on the plane.

PETER BROOKES BOATBUILDER -Yard Open Day

SATURDAY 12TH JULY – 2pm >>> 108 Woodhill Park Road, Waimauku

ALBATROSS SPEEDBOATS

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ALBATROSS SPEEDBOATS

The annual Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade always attracts a good turn out of the Albatross speed boats, but at last weekends parade we had the biggest turnout in one spot in the Southern Hemisphere. Read below for the local (Lake Rotoiti) on the craft – as told by Richard Stevens.

“Campbell Motors (Queen St Auckland) were the NZ agents.
The Beamish-White family at Okataina Lodge had a fleet as “Drive U-Self” hire boats, including a 4-seater with Coventry Climax version of the engine and one of the two seaters had a factory alloy-framed full height 4-pane glass windscreen.
They also had a set of hull jigs and did all their own maintenance on site including re- skinning.
These boats took a hammering and were eventually replaced by outboard-powered craft. Les Warner ran a small hire fleet from his home at Hinehopu. (I recall as a kid seeing one as a crumpled mess after crashing into the jetty at speed.)
There was also a hire fleet on the Rotorua lakefront. These were painted red. One allegedly sank and was never recovered.
There was also a fleet at Queenstown. These may have been the remnants of the Rotorua hire fleet.
The boat in these fleets may be double-ups. I do not know how many boats there actually were in total.
In addition to the Stevensons and ours there were two more on the Lake during the ’60s. One was the Annabel family, the other the McDonalds. (I saw their boat in Auckland a few years ago, complete and painted black) 

These boats are the MG Midget of the water. They don’t have excessive power in their standard format, but they are fast, nimble, well designed and beautifully built with excellent handling. They are simple, cheap to run, easy to maintain and, above all, great fun. 

These boats have held classic status worldwide for many years now and are highly collectible.
It is pleasing to see that they are acknowledged on Rotoiti as part of our boating history. 

Addition: Alan Clark owned one here at Lake Rotoiti in the 1950’s. 

Addition: Don Wykes and his brother purchased the Rotorua Lakefront business from Judd & Jean Davies in the 70’s.
It had the launch Ngaroto (the Davies had this built in England) that took people out to Mokoia Island and had 3 Albatross hire boats: 2x 2 seaters and 1x 4 seater. They were painted Red. 

He is able to confirm that one of the 2 seaters sank just short of Mokoia Island, when his worker was heading over to mow the grass. They put a buoy over the oil slick, but when they went back to retrieve it someone had moved the buoy. They sent down 2 divers but were never able to locate it, the water was too murky. He doesn’t recall who he sold the others to, but remembers one of their workers bought one and put a bigger motor in it, a 105 he thinks. “

Below is a gallery of the Albatross craft that participated in the parade – as always click on photos to enlarge. Also scroll down to view yesterdays WW story – 200+ classic and wooden boat photos from the 2024 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade.

Read more about the boats at the WW link below to a 2015 story on Greg Lees pride and joy. https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/07/30/an-albatross/

Also included is a copy of the NZ Register of Albatross craft- supplied by Alan Thorn

boat-register-v7Download

Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

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Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

As I’ve send many times before, if your want a stunning day weather wise, schedule a Classic Yacht Association event – the hit rate must be 9/10.

Over 100 CYA members & friends made the trip north to Lees Boatbuilders at Sandspit – our host for the day, Greg Lees, turned on a brilliant woody event – we had everything – woody projects underway, the best collection of 1/2 models I seen outside of the RNZYS walls, a photo montage recording the history of the yard & the vessels built over the years.

 Center stage was Jenny & Angus Rogers – Mahanui, in the shed for a new deck, alongside her was a very original Chris Craft that was getting a restoration. 

The varnish guru Dale has already applied 23 coats, with 6 more to come. Compared to our old girls, these American woodys are very lightly built, amazing that so many have survived.

Outside we had Anna & Nic Davidson’s – Juanita, on one slip & Barbara & David Cooke’s woody flagship – Trinidad, alongside the wharf. In midstream was Yvonne, waiting her turn in the shed.

On the hard was a selection of small craft built by either Greg, his father Tim or other local craftsman. Not woodys but certainly classic were Greg’s two English built, aluminium Albatross runabouts – the very rare 4 seater is next on Greg’s to-do list. Included are a few photos of other woodys in or out of the water.

Greg gave an articulate talk on his families boatbuilding history & how they came to be situated on the Sandspit foreshore. At the end he announced the official launch of the 2018 Rudder Cup launch race to be run on Friday 14th December to Sail Rock & back. See flyer below, I encourage all woody owners to consider participating. At this stage we (I’m on the race committee, along with Jason Prew, Nathan Herbert, Baden Pascoe & Barbara & David Cooke) are calling for expressions of interest in racing – entry to the race is by invitation, as per the original race format in 1908.

 Big ups to Greg & family + staff for turning on the day, including BBQ. Special thanks also to the CYA committee members that pulled it all together. 

Lastly a little something below for the petrol heads – Greg had on display his Jesser BSA 500cc twin, hill climb racer. Built in 1962 by Les Jesser, she is a 2 time Australian  class champion. 

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CYA Rudder Cup 2018 flyer

Which Boat Today ? Revisited

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Which Boat Today ?

If your names not Tony Stevenson that’s not a question many of us ask ourselves. When I picked up the Jan/Feb issue of the uber cool kiwi lifestyle magazine – NZ Life & Leisure, I discovered that there is someone else out there that’s been bitten by the classic boating bug, big time 🙂 Enter Charlotte & Richard Stevens, their menagerie of boats includes – ‘D’Urville’ a 70′ kauri, Laurent Giles designed motor boat, built by McMullen & Wing in 1975 – ‘Mickey Mouse’ a 1967 Ford 10 powered Albatross Motors speedboat – ‘Carvel’ their exquisite 1962 Norm Keen designed & built lake boat – a Frostbite, a Lazer, numerous canoes/kayaks & paddle boards AND a 45mph V8 powered ski boat. That ww followers is an impressive collection.

The article is a both a great read & a wonderful visual insight into the life & boats of Charlotte & Richard & we thank them for sharing it with us.

Todays post has been reproduced with the permission of Fairfax Media. The spectacular photos are from the camera of Tessa Chrisp & the words from the typewriter of Rebecca Hayter (NZ Boating editor). Check out the magazine at their website     http://nzlifeandleisure.co.nz

Note: if the images above are a little hard to read – you can view it here as a PDF file, click the blue link 😉

Lake Rotoiti

An Albatross

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An Albatross
photos above & details ex Greg Lees & John Macfarlane (Boating NZ)

Today’s post features Greg Lees restored classic runabout (she has no name), one of a small fleet of these cool British craft in NZ. In their day these we very chic boats, the owners list was a real who’s who – Prince Rainer of Monaco, Prince Phillip, Stirling Moss & even the bombshell Bridget Bardot.

The story starts back in the UK c.1949 when two engineers, Archie Peace & Peter Hives set up a company named ‘Albatross Marine’ to design & build a small runabout, called the Albatross. They had great credentials with Hives the son of a Rolls Royce director & Peace an aeronautics engineer. Post WWII there was no shortage of aluminum so given Peace’s plane background the chosen build material was alloy.
They initially built two versions  – the Mk1 was a 2 seater sports, powered by a marinised Ford 100E side-value Prefect 1172cc engine & the Mk2 which had twin carbs (SU’s) for more zoom. Later on a Mk3 was launched with even more zoom. A 4 seater, called the Continental was also marketed, powered  Mk1= 100E motor, Mk2 = Ford Kent 1500cc 60hp motor. The last 150 built had a 88hp Coventry Climax engine.
Come the 1960’s that evil substance that starts with F & has the word glass at the end was entering the boating scene & even though they tried other models, the company folded in the mid 1960’s.

The Auckland agent was Campbell Motors & they sold approximately a dozen boats, most as hire boats at the Lake Okataina Lodge.(Rotorua) This was not a great success & the fleet was broken up & sold to other hire operators – Hinehopu (Lake Rotoiti), Rotorua & Queenstown.

Now back to Greg Lees , who owns the very classic friendly boat yard Lees Marine at Sandspit. Greg bought his Albatross in 1990 & the Lees family used extensively her for many years. Fast forward to the year 2000, Greg & daughter Rosie (talented lady – search her name on ww) started a full restoration, including rebuilding the 100E engine. The restoration took a few years (12 in fact) & since then the boat has been doing the rounds of the classic wooden boat lake events – both North & South Island Lake Rotoiti.
These boats are highly collectable in the UK with less than 100 left a float. Greg’s business has also completed a restoration on another Albatross for a kiwi classic boating client.
The photos below I took at the 2015 Lake Rotoiti Wooden Boat Parade (Nth Is.), Greg’s Albatross must be the smallest powerboat to fly the RNZYS burgee 🙂

Which Boat Today ?

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Which Boat Today ?

If your names not Tony Stevenson that’s not a question many of us ask ourselves. When I picked up the Jan/Feb issue of the uber cool kiwi lifestyle magazine – NZ Life & Leisure, I discovered that there is someone else out there that’s been bitten by the classic boating bug, big time 🙂 Enter Charlotte & Richard Stevens, their menagerie of boats includes – ‘D’Urville’ a 70′ kauri, Laurent Giles designed motor boat, built by McMullen & Wing in 1975 – ‘Mickey Mouse’ a 1967 Ford 10 powered Albatross Motors speedboat – ‘Carvel’ their exquisite 1962 Norm Keen designed & built lake boat – a Frostbite, a Lazer, numerous canoes/kayaks & paddle boards AND a 45mph V8 powered ski boat. That ww followers is an impressive collection.

The article is a both a great read & a wonderful visual insight into the life & boats of Charlotte & Richard & we thank them for sharing it with us.

Todays post has been reproduced with the permission of Fairfax Media. The spectacular photos are from the camera of Tessa Chrisp & the words from the typewriter of Rebecca Hayter (NZ Boating editor). Check out the magazine at their website     http://nzlifeandleisure.co.nz

Note: if the images above are a little hard to read – you can view it here as a PDF file, click the blue link 😉

Lake Rotoiti

Ronomor

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RONOMOR

photo ex Baden Pascoe, details ex Geoff Brebner, Harold Kidd & Baden Pascoe

Geoff Brebner has been sniffing around for info on a launch by the name of Ronomor (row-no-more) which he had last seen a number of years back on the hard at Half Moon Bay. The small  amount he has been able to glean was that she was built at Stanley Bay by D M Darroch & Sons probably in the 1920’s. The story he heard was she was built to save them the frequent trips to the city side in the yard rowboat, hence the name Ro no mor.

Now in consultation (that sounds very posh for an email) with Harold Kidd, Harold agrees that Ronomor was built by Darroch  but originally as Albatross and renamed Ronomor after she was lengthened about 1919. She was used to commute to and from Omaha/Mahurangi rather than across the harbour and did at least two pleasure trips to the Bay of Plenty, probably why she finished up in Whitianga.
Harold advised that there were several Ronomors or variants of that name, which doesn’t help.

Now Baden Pascoe adds that his father fitted a Lees  Marine 90 hp Trader & that she did a good 10 knots. More photos to more ex Baden.

Anyone else able to add to the story of her past / present?