JOMARLI – A Peek Down Below
Todays woody is the 32’ launch – Jomarli, designed and built in 1959 by Jack Taylor. She has a beam of 10’6” and draws 3’. A 120hp Ford Lehman Diesel engine gives Jomarli a comfortable cruising speed of 7>9 knots.
From the above photos ex a recent tme listing (thanks Ian McDonald) we can see she is well appointed . I believe she has since sold.
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LUYVON
A few weeks ago Glenn Martin sent in the above photos of woody speed boat hibernating in Taupo. Do not want to give the location away but – near the marina.
As Glenn commented there appears to be a cool hull shape hiding under that tarp. Well thanks to a WW story back in Oct 2017 by Paul Drake we know that the hull was very quick – back in c.1935/36 she narrowly missed out on being the fasted boat on Lake Taupo – just beaten by Piri Pono. Read the story at the WW link below, make sure you also read the Comments Section – good chat there. https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/10/31/three-taupo-boats/
Thanks to Paul and Harold Kidd we know that Luyvon was designed and built by Jack Taylor and launched in November 1934. She was two skin kauri and supposedly 23ft x 7ft. On her trials she attained 25mph.
I love that its tied onto the fence post – just in case it floats away 🙂
MOANAROA
Today’s woody – Moanaroa was designed by Jack Taylor and built c.1949 by McLeon Brothers. Unusual hull construction being carvel Totara planked (and sadly glassed) She measures approx. 34’4” and is powered by a 67hp Fordson Major diesel engine.
Based on the design and construction of the stern davits, someone has had access to a metal shop, you could left the QEII with those 🙂
VICTORY – A Peek Down Below
Back in June 2016 we ran a story on the 1939, 40’ bridge decker – Victory (link below) now thanks Ian McDonald and tme we get to have look below decks. In the WW link there is some great history on the launch from Paul Drake.
https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/06/13/victory/
We know that she was designed and built by Jack Taylor in Nukuhau, Taupo. Victory is powered by a 80hp Ford Diesel engine that gives her a cruising speed of 8 knots. As per a lot of lake boats, Victory has a 12hp Yanmar auxiliary engine for trolling .
From 1939 to c.1973, Victory was used as a commercial charter boat by Jack and his two sons. She remained within the family until 1982 when she was sold another Taupo resident.
So, Dooley and Sandy, had their plan. Now they just needed to build their boat. The line drawings below are dated June, of 1947. Sandy would have been 25 and Dooley, 27-years old. Remarkably Leda would be sailing 29 months later. She is double-planked kauri over mangeao frames with pohutakawa knees and copper rivets. Leda’s deck is double planked kauri, her cabin is Douglas fir (Oregon pine) and pine.
OLD TIMER
The above before & after photos of the Kinloch, Lake Taupo, launch Old Timer were sent to me by Larry Grigg. I’m not sure if its Larry’s boat, maybe if he reads this story he can let us know & a few more details on the restoration.
I understand was built at Taupo by local boat builder and charter boat skipper Jack Taylor.
I’m sure the Drake brothers will be able to help us out 🙂
03-07-2017 Input from Paul Drake
OLD TIMER is one of four sisters built at Taupo by Godfrey Taylor, son of Jack Taylor, in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s. They measure 18 feet, are round bilged and built of totara. OLD TIMER (not her name in those days) was bought by the boatyard when Don Norton owned it, and re configured as the yard work boat. They re-named her DULCIE TAYLOR. Her engine at that time was a Universal Utility Four (now in our SIR FRANCIS, where it has been for many years). One of the sisters, TAURUS, lives in Wellington (photos below). Another was named LADY GRACE (photo below). One was twin screw and quite fast. As kids, we knew these four sisters as “The Godfrey Taylor Boats”.
VICTORY
photos & details ex Paul & Roger Drake
Saturdays post on the Kinloch Woodys prompted Paul & Roger to dig out at their collections of old Taupo postcards. The brothers uncovered some great photos of Victory from the 1940>1950 era. Also read below Paul’s comments on Victory.
The first photo above shows Victory on the beach at Waihaha with her skipper on foredeck – Ernie Taylor, son of builder Jack Taylor.
The second photo shows her hauled out at Nukuhau, where she was built. Probably in the 1940’s, when she was quite new. Now she has a larger wheelhouse, but is not much changed apart from that.
Boat in foreground is Ahuriri – an ex surf boat from Napier.
On the other side of Victory is Romance, then Lady Pat – well documented and discussed on WW.
The photo below is dated 1959 shows Victory on the other side of the Waikato river sporting her original wheelhouse. It was altered some time later.
Behind her with bow showing only is the Logan Ponui also owned by the Taylor’s at the time.
This side of the river at the breastwork is Rangatira (Otehei) on the left and El Alamein (Ranui) 4th from left.
Details on Victory ex Paul Drakes comments on last Saturdays ww post
“VICTORY is very much a lake boat. As Colin says, she was built at Taupo by local boat builder and charter boat skipper Jack Taylor. She was launched, I believe, in 1942 or 1943. It is said that no power tools were used during her construction. Kauri planks on jarrah ribs with totara floors. She was built to replace ROMANCE (Bailey and Lowe 1914), who was sold by Jack in 1943. VICTORY became a very busy and popular charter boat. The Taylors sold her in 1982. Although it is said that Jack often wished he had never started building such a large launch (40 feet), assisted by his wife, – his two sons were away at the war – he must have enjoyed her immensely once finished. She was a big step up from the 26 foot 6 inch ROMANCE. VICTORY was perfect for the four or five day charters which were very common in the day. VICTORY is a Jack Taylor design, built from a model which Jack towed behind ROMANCE as he refined the shape. She is of shallow draft – a useful attribute on Taupo (no tidal rise and fall) – as it allows access to beaches where the drill is to put the bow on the beach and disembark via a ladder (in VICTORY’s case a rather long ladder). She did spend a few years in Auckland (Pine Harbour) during the 1990’s, but for 90% of her 70 plus years she has been at Taupo. She is well looked after and nicely appointed internally.”
Victory June 2016 at Kinloch
c.1959
Sobrine and Luana
C.1989
SOBRINE
photos ex Harold Kidd, Brian Mace & Carol Stewart. info ex Ken Ricketts, edited by Alan H
Following on from yesterdays post on Manuroa (Lady Doreen), Gordon Mac replaced her with Sobrine after selling Lady Doreen to Len Swan of Orakei in 1951, Swan immediately changed her name to Manuroa.
Sobrine’s hull was built by Jack Taylor in Onehunga & moved, after some disagreement with Taylor, to the Lane Motor Boat Co in Panmure, to be finished & she was launched in November 1956.
When launched she was 38′ but had her bow extended by approx 4′ by Shipbuilders Ltd., 1 > 2yrs later. When lengthened Mace moved her original stern exhaust to a short stack on one side of the rear of the bridgedeck cabin top, which had to be on one side because of her internal layout. In the interests of aesthetic balance he put a non active ‘look alike’ on the other side.
She originally had a Graymarine petrol engine when launched, which was replaced with a Gardner 6LW diesel, when she was very new. Gordon Mace’s son Brian advised she needed to have the bridgedeck cabin top cut off, in order to lower the Gardner in place.
In c.1962 the Mace’s had moved to Coromandel, along with Sobrine to live.
Mace sold her to a friend, Jeff Innes of Coromandel. The story goes that Jeff Innes had fallen in love with her Sobrine at first sight & had pestered Mace for some time to buy her. One day Mace on the spur of the moment accepted an offer from Innes & the boat was sold, much to the families disapproval.
Innes sold her to Bruce Stewart, of Thames in c.1980’s.
Stewart sold her in July 1992 to Roy Ladd of Auckland, who still owns her.
Note: The name Sobrine came about by one of lifes little oops moments – Gordon Mace’s eldest daughter, Aileen, when christening the boat mixed up the intended name ‘Sabrene’ (pronounced Sabreeny) with Sobrine & with her being very young at the time, the family decided to stay with Sobrine 🙂
Hints on removing bottom paint off a wooden hull (ex Baden Pascoe – MV John Dory)
The best time to do a major paint job on the bottom of your boat is when you have it out for a major or minor refit. Just wait long enough and the timber will shrink from under the years of paint and become very easy to remove. Leave this job to the very last as the paint also holds a little moisture in the planking while you are doing the endless list of other jobs.
I started off by placing tarps under the boat to catch all the old paint and then three of us used Linbide (spelling?) scrapers. My friend Jim Mateer has put a long pipe handle on his with a plug in the end and as you scrape, most of the paint flakes run down the centre of the handle. Just empty it every 5 min or so. He sometimes attaches a vacuum cleaner via a soft vac tube, I tell ya, it works very well, I think with the three of us it took about 6 hours work.
I took 23 kg off John Dory and I am very proud to say none of it went into the sea, I disposed of it at Trans Pacific for about $50.00. Then I sanded the surface and gave it 3 coats of International Primercon, one very diluted coat so that it went into the timber, one medium dilution and them a fairly non
diluted coat. The bottom looked so smooth, not bad for an old fishing boat!!
Then I gave it two hard anti fouls in blue and covered it with two soft antifouls. So, when I go to repaint, I just scrub or wet sand off until I see the blue paint. That way I hope to never have to do this again.
Photo shows Jack Taylor now 92 (going on 60) & Jim Mateer, in his late 70’s working on John Dory.
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