CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT IONA II MAKES A SPLASH – NZ Restoration Of The Year
We have been following (link below) the refit the classic wooden launch IONA II at the Slipway Milford yard since late May. Last week she slipped back into the water , check out the video below – don’t you love a railway haul-out, such a gentle procedure.
IONA II was built in 1994 to a Bruce Askew design so sits very comfortably into the spirit of tradition category. The recent work commissioned by her owner has magnified her existing appealing looks and made her even more easy on the eye.
Probably the finest example of the Slipway Milfords work – so a big shout out to Cam, Jason, Jan and team. Easily the restoration of the year in New Zealand.
I’m pretty sure nothing on the boat has escaped an upgrade or replacement – the biggest being ditching the Nissan TD23 60hp diesel engine and installing an electric propulsion set-up.
A few finishing touches to be completed at the marina – we will do another update when completed.
The owner of the 36′ classic launch IONA II currently midway thru a total refit at the Slipway Milford is currently mooching around in Venice and sent in the above photo gallery of the hard working Venetian woody water taxis. Nice to have window into the other side of the world and to see the sun 🙂
The scope of the work on IONA II is next level and includes conversion to electric powered – there will be no combustion engine or generator i.e. not a hybrid. Really looking forward to following the project. IONA II was designed by Bruce Askew , and built in 1994 from strip planked wood + some f/glass, all good on a 1994 craft. Link below from when the work first commenced. I’ll get down there later in the week for an update, or maybe Jason Prew could put the tools down for a minute and send in some iPhone photos 😉 https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/05/28/iona-ii-gets-a-birthday/
Back. In October 2022 we reported that the Bruce Askew designed 36’ launch – IONA II had been sold and relocated from Nelson to the Milford Marina in Auckland. INOA II was built in 1994 so slips comfortably into the ‘spirit of tradition’ category of classic wooden vessels. At the time the story she was hauled out at the Slipway Milford for some maintenance – link to that story here – https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/10/04/iona-ii/
Fast forward to yesterday and IONA II is back at the yard booked in for a serious dose of TLC. Total refresh of everything other than the engine , a 60hp Nissan TD23. Should be a great project to follow.
UPDATE 09-08-2024 – Lots of activity at the yard, loving the custom bow / anchor sprit
UPDATE 29-08-2024 – new cabin sole undrway
11-09-2024 UPDATE – New windows going in, liking the green tint ✔️
01-10-2024 UPDATE – Get close to re-launching. First coat on the topsides and interior waiting for the varnish brush. The replacement duckboard brackets are a big improvement from what was there 🙂
04-10-2024 UPDATE – 2nd coat of paint on and some very impressive engineering work on the electric motor installation from Cam Malcolm at the Slipway Milford.
09-10-2024 UPDATE – getting closer, the shiny stuff is going on 🙂
Just when you think you know all the classic wooden boats out there (well at least all the pretty ones) up pops another.
Todays woody comes to us via the USA, boat designer Tad Roberts posted the story of MAXIE on fb.
Tad told us that MAXIE was designed and built by the Logan Brothers 1903. She was rebuilt with a larger deckhouse to the drawings of Bruce Askew in the early 1990’s.
She measures 36’ x 7’ and is built of double-planked kauri.
Power is a 65hp Ford diesel with a 2:1 reduction gear turning 13’x18’ prop, giving her a max speed of 10 knots. Comfortable cruising is 9 knots at 1750 rpm.
I did some sniffing around in the WW back library and discovered that back in Feb 2018 we had a wonderful insight into MAXIE’s past from Greg Noble – lots of details and photos at the WW link below. https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/02/12/mavis/
You’ll sell how todays photo didn’t jog my memory.
So woodys – where is MAXIE these days.
INPUT ex PAUL DRAKE – Lake Taupo. MAXIE has been here for many years. She berths next to ROMANCE and gets a lot of attention from passers-by for all the wrong reasons. She has been neglected for a long time and is covered in lichem (moss) and the rest. Until yesterday. Her owner started a major cleaning job yesterday. She will clean up really well and then she may be for sale. Better days ahead for MAXIE. She deserves it.
INPUT ex HAROLD KIDD – MAXIE was bought by a Wellington buyer and arrived from the Sounds in 1923. She was later put up for sale as Logan-built. Going back to 1903, H.H. Harris of Pelorus ordered a 30ft launch from Logan Bros which was shipped to Picton in October 1903. Harris called her LIGAR. In 1904 he ordered another launch from Logan Bros, a 36 footer which was “similar to MATAREKA”. I am certain he named her LIGAR as well and that she was/is MAXIE. I don’t know who christened her MAXIE, possibly the Kennys. PS MAXIE could have been named after the racehorse Marvin Maxie a leading thoroughbred around 1920. The Kennys were too late on the Picton waterfront scene to have been involved.
When I received the photos above the first thoughts were ………… where and why.
Chatting with the sender, Ant Smit, I learned that the location was the MacKenzie Basin, which is situated approx. 1/2 way between Christchurch and Queenstown in the South Island. The area is almost the dead centre of the island.
Ant advised that a friend was on a motorcycle tour and spotted the boat and couldn’t not stop and snap a few photos.
I quick chat to my WW steam guru – Russell Ward and we learn she was purchased ex Picton and should currently be viewed as ‘art’. Lets hope there is a long term plan to restore her.
Her back story is a good read and she appeared on WW in May 2020 – link below. We learned then she was made of steel in 1987 and was originally named – James Torrey, and was used for trout fishing tours on Lake Tarawera – lots of details in the story. In the photo below we see her at Picton when she was running as a commercial passenger vessel. https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/05/17/ss-duke-of-marlborough/
Anyone able to enlighten us more on her future
INPUT ex DAN CONAGH (owner) – I can confirm that I’ve purchased and moved the Duke to a section of land I own in Twizel. Our intention is to restore, repaint and return to service on one of the lakes in the MacKenzie District.
Unfortunately the boat is showing the signs of having been stored next to the ocean in Picton. The hull has some rust that requires attention. The wooden topside has some sun damage. New varnish required, and the PVC roll up sides are beyond repair. The photos in this article are very recent as I was up there on Saturday cleaning up all the coal spread across the floor inside.
Todays woody is rather a large craft , built in 2005 for coastal and off-shore cruising – the log book includes Alaska, Marianas and Port Ross (NZ Sub-Antartic). Built via cold moulded timber and f/glassed and kitted out with all the gear for extended cruising.
Power is from a 240hp Volvo Penta 70 series diesel that sips 8L an hour, combine that with a 5,000L fuel take thats an impressive range.
Unfortunately we do not have a name – her tme (thanks Ian McDonald) didn’t mention that 😦 Its named Maia and she was built in Tauranga by Aquatic Solutions
Built in Wellington in 1929 by B.J.L. Jukes in Balaena Bay. Jukes had built in 1926 two sister ships – Vagabond and Nereides. Ruapani was commissioned by the NZ Govt Tourist Dept for use on Lake Waikaremoana, to carry passengers from Hopuruahine to the Lake House Hotel.
When the hotel closed in 1965 she was sold to Peter Ash’s company – Waikaremoana Launch Services. Ash replaced the original 40hp Thornycroft petrol engine with a Perkins 84hp diesel and operated her on the lake for another 11 years.
In 1976 Ash sold Ruapani to her first private owner, Noel Tong, who sold her in 1984 to her present owner – Ken Menzies, that woodys is 38 years ago, very impressive.
Menzies initially kept her on the lake, but in 1990 trucked her to Evans Bay, Wellington (his new home). The move was a very lucky break for Ruapani as Menzies engaged well known Wellington boat designer – Bruce Askew to undertake a major rebuild / restoration of Ruapani. The work involved redesigning the above deck area to a style similar to Nereides, below deck the engine was shifted aft to accommodate two large cabins forward. The change to salt water necessitated upgrading a lot of her ‘hardware’ and the addition of freshwater tanks – life on the lake equaled a permanent supply of fresh water.
These days Ruapani is berthed in Picton Marina and is a wonderful boat for cruising the Marlborough Sounds. Ken Menzies commented that Ruapani was maintained very well by the original launch master Frank Smith and she remains in sound condition after 92 years.
The gallery of photos above date from when Ruapani was on Lake Waikaremoana in the early 1930s, thru to approx 2004. The top photo is a recent shot and perfectly shows what a magnificent woody Ruapani is. And a lucky woody to have had 38 years of continuous ownership at the hands of a devoted owner.
The photos were shared with us by Ken, and the details I have extracted for numerous WW comments and newspaper clipping.
A Helping Hand Needed
Alice Morrison is the owner of the classic woody launch – Taurima (WW link below) which is currently in Tauranga. Alice has been trying for months to move her to Whangaroa, or at least Whangarei but due to weather and availability she has not yet been able to. So woodys – anyone out there that could help Alice relocate Taurima? Alice is prepared to pay, but is short on intel on who could / would do this. You can comment in the WW comments section or contact Alice direct at alice.morrison3@gmail.com https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/02/13/24919/
Boat Less These Holidays Consider a cruise on board a very classic looking wee ship on Lake Taupo. The Ernest Kemp isn’t a true woody (steel hull, wooden super structure, she was designed by Bruce Askew and built in Whangarei in 1980. Named after Alfred Ernest Kemp, the last member of the Kemp family to live at Kemp House Kerikeri. She briefly earned a living transporting passengers down the Kerikeri inlet. She was then sold in 1981 to business interests in Taupo, where she remains to this day.
Ernest Kemp is 47’ in length and has a 3’ draft, perfect for the sometimes swallow lake waters she operates in. Powered by twin 4 cyl. Ford 73hp diesel engines that give her a cruising speed of 9 knots. Ernest Kemp offers scenic cruises on Lake Taupo during the day and an early evening cocktail cruise. Details here https://ernestkemp.co.nz photo below ex Angus Rogers
I recently stumbled across the above photo of the steam ship – Duke of Marlborough and knowing nothing about her put a call into Russell Ward aka Mr Steam. The man is never embarrassed to speak so – take it away Russell, WW is all yours…..
“Once, 30+ years ago, I built up a steamboat called “Gypsy”. So pull up a chair, warm yourselves by the fire and I’ll tell you a story which isn’t about “Gypsy” at all, it’s about the “James Torrey” which became the “Duke of Marlborough”.
But, through “Gypsy”, I met one Lloyd Lewis of Lake Tarawera. He was an ardent enthusiast for steamy things (who wouldn’t be – living on Lake Tarawera.) Lloyd had made a steamer up out of a hull I had sold him a year or so previously and really had the steamboat bug badly. As the late Pete Culler (he wrote a lot about boats and he was a wise man) said “It’s awful, don’t go near it or you are hooked.” And you can’t argue with facts like that, folks. Suffice to say Lloyd got steam enginitis in a big way.
He had Wellington naval architect Bruce Askew design a hull for a 36’ steam vessel following the style of the early 1900 steam boats The steel hull was built in 1987 by Gordon Clark and Brian Starrock in New Plymouth and shipped to Rotorua for Lloyd to complete. He did a fine aesthetic job. She was launched as “James Torrey” and he used her to take fishing tours on the lake. The lads appreciated the warmth from the boiler at times.
Lloyd built the engine – an English design by A.A. Leake and a dashed good looker it is -a traditional open compound, driving a 28” by 42” propeller giving a service speed of 6 knots. A piston valve is fitted to the high pressure cylinder and a balanced slide valve on the low pressure one. It has cross-head driven twin feed pumps and air pump. Exhaust is through a feed-water heater to a keel condenser. There you feel a lot better for knowing that.
But to sum up, working on salt water, you have to condense the exhaust steam or you run out of feedwater real quick. Besides, condensing gives you a useful addition to the power through the vacuum created which, in essence, sucks the piston while the steam pushes.
The steam is provided by a Kingdon type boiler (1900’s Simpson Strickland design) built by Langley Engineering in the U.K and, since you didn’t really want to know, It is a vertical fire-tube type, 34 inches high by 30 inches diameter over lagging, has 3.4 square feet of grate area and has 84 square feet of heating surface. She burns coal and there is nothing better.
Lloyd had quite job actually getting Ed Langley to dispatch the finished boiler although it had been long since paid for. Ed had had his delivery problems over the years…. Legend has it that, in frustration (remember communication was all letters and phone calls that had to be booked well ahead in those prehistoric times); Lloyd flew over to the UK and turned up at the works just ahead of the receiver. Seeing the likelihood of his investment coming to nothing, he took matters into his own hands and loaded the boiler up himself. Lloyd just wasn’t the sort of man to argue with and got his boiler. It is a very handsome job.
Anyway after a number of years, Lloyd tired of his steamboat and Roger Frazer took her to Picton. He renamed her “Duke of Marlborough” and did a lot of restoration which is a credit to him. He has been taking passengers out of Picton for some time. I’m sure the passengers appreciate the boiler’s warmth even more that the Lake Tarawera types.”
I understand she may be for sale………
WoodenBoat Magazine Interview #3
This week WB editor Matt Murphy interviews Harold Burnham in a live discussion of how, for nearly three decades, he has been instrumental in revitalizing the shipbuilding and maritime culture of his region by designing, building, and rehabilitating traditional vessels for cultural tourism. Harold is an 11th-generation shipwright, and has, at various times, also been a sawyer, mariner, model maker, and sail maker.
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