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?