Tag Archives: Lady Claire

Lady Claire

Posted on by
5

A LADY CLAIRE QUESTION
photo & details ex John Wicks

Now Lady Claire has appeared in detail on ww before but I have had a request via John Wicks from her owner, Bruce Carter to see if any woodys can ID the people in the above photo. The photo was supplied by Rebecca Hayter (Boating NZ) . No one knows anything about the photo but John feels it could be pre WWII.
She was a magnificent looking launch & must have been one of THE boats in her day.
To read / view more on her click this link   https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/07/02/lady-claire/

Remember you can click on the image to enlarge, then click on ‘View full size’, then move the magnifying glass icon over the image & then click on the area you want to enlarge further.

Photo of Lady Claire & Lady Eileen hauled out together – may 2014 ex Ken R

LADIES EILEEN & CLAIRE Late May 2014

25-09-2023 Update ex John Dawson – photo below of Lady Claire berth near the old Wilson cement works in Auckland, now the site is known as Silo Park

Lady Claire

Posted on by
19

2014 West Park Marina
2014 West Park Marina

LADY CLAIRE

photos from Nathan Herbert & Papers Past, details from Harold Kidd & Jason Prew.

Lady Claire the 42′ bridge deck cruising launch was launched on 14th Oct. 1935. Built by Colin Wild at Stanley Bay for W.J. Reid of Herne Bay. Reid was Des Townson’s grandfather.

Lady Claire is currently owned by Bruce Carter. Colour photos at the marina.

 Harold Kidd Update

She was launched with a 160hp Lycoming but Stan Headland replaced that with a 105hp Kermath in 1952. G M Lagan owned her for a while around the 70s and Bruce Carter recently (still?). Lovely craft.
PS Wild used Lycomings around this time. WAIRIKI, the 39ft bridgedecker he built for L E MacQueen in October 1934 also had an 8 cylinder 160hp Lycoming, essentially the same engine as in the straight 8 Auburn car of the time.

04-07-2015 New Photo Below

Chris McMullen sent  the photo below in from his files. It was given to Chris by the late Des Townson. On the back is written  Lady Claire. 42ft OA Built by Colin Wild. For WJ Reid  1935. Who we know was Townson’s grandfather.
Chris once saw a photo of the same vessel on the wall of Des’s office. Hopefully someone has it still & a copy might surface on ww – a job for Bruce Tantrum maybe ?
Chris commented that when you look at both Lady Claire & Wirihana – one of the reasons for their good looks is the absence of safety rails forward.  These days health and safety concerns encourage safety rails which need to be one meter high as on commercial vessels to do much good, lower than that they can pitch you over the side. Wiihana is still ‘nude’ of rails but there are lots to hold on to on Wirihana.

Lady Clair (L) & Lady Eileen at Gulf Harbour May’14

Lady Clair (L) & Lady Eileen at Gulf Harbour May'14