A serious boat shed

Greg Lee’s shed (Lees Boatbuilders) at Sandspit is the real deal, no concrete floor here, the tide comes & goes twice a day. You have to wonder how many tools have been dropped into the tide over the years.

The launch in the shed is CYA member Angus Roger’s ‘Mahanui’, built by Keith Atkinson & originally launched as Jacinta II – photo taken in Jan 2013 while she was getting a 9 month major makeover that included two new Perkins Sabre M135′s with Newage PRM gearboxes. That deep shine on the coamings is ex a tin of Uroxsys.

Their tug boat ‘Karewa’ (a CYA register boat) was built in 1951 by Lidgards for the Department of Works to push barges on the Piako river for the construction of bridges. From there she went to the Tauranga Harbour Board as pilot/survey vessel, finally coming to Warkworth in the early 1980s, where she has been working tirelessly since. In the photos above she along side Steve Horsley’s yacht Ngatira.

In the photos the number 8 on her side I assume is her ‘race’ number from when she won the Parry Trophy (tugboat award) as the Best Presented Survey Commercial Tugboat in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta in January 2008.

When I was there in 2011 I spied the very cool ‘Auck Motor Yacht Club’ sign, that should be in a museum – hang on, it is – The Lee’s Museum 🙂