CARIAD

Todays woody come to us from Garry Ralls via Lew Redwood’s fb and shows the launch – Cariad berthed in Whangarei c.1950’s. At the time she was owned by L E Ralls (Maunu Rd, Whangarei).

Cariad is a newbie to me and even Nathan Herbert has commented that she is unknown to him – and that woodys is a rarity 😉

I Suspect a very early name change – can anyone help out with more details?

Thanks to the input of Robin Elliott and Patrick Xavier – we know know the launches name was spelt – Cariad (corrected above). Check out the comments section – links to more intel there 🙂

24-07-2023 UPDATE –

Thanks comments from Harold Kidd we learnt some of her history, refer below. It always amazes me how craft  that have had no/low profile come to the surface, a great sign that our classic community is in good shape.

HDK comments – “Cariad was owned by D. Glenys-Jones of Whangarei in 1949. When he joined the Army in that year he sold her to L.E. Ralls of Mauna Road who had owned Valencia since 1946 and Argo in 1957. In 1966/7 at least Cariad was owned in Auckland by H.F. Harkins of Court Crec., Tamaki.” “I have an idea that the saloon in Cariad was stripped out and a tank put in to convert it to a fishing boat. Caraid and Valencia were kitted out with deep sea fishing outriggers in the early days. You can see the base of the outrigger just behind the rear porthole.”

We also learnt from Garry Ralls that in their early days both Caraid and Valencia were powered by Scripps marinised V8 engines.