MARANUI – CLASSIC 100 YEAR OLD POND YACHT

Its no secret that I have a soft spot for classic pond yachts (a couple below) so when Chris Brummel contacted me regarding the pond yacht – MARANUI he had a captive audience.

MARANUI was built by Chris’s late father, Roy  when he was a boy, In the late 1920’s early 1930’s.Roy lived on Shelley Beach Rd, Herne Bay, Auckland and would walk down to Shelly beach  to sail MARANUI. This was in the days before Westhaven Marina was built.
MARANUI is made from horizontal layers of kauri, carved out, rib and then riveted. She is gaff rigged with a topsail, Chris still have the original linen sails, that his grandmother mother made for the boat.

She was open decked and still has the carry handle inside screwed to the lead keel.
The last two photos are of the inside looking forward and aft. Chris commented that he started restoring her when he started his boatbuilding apprenticeship in the 1970,s, but only built in her current configuration is Chris’s interpretation back then of what she might look like. Now semi retired, Chris would like to put her back to what she should look like.

So woodys the question of the day is  – would anyone be able to help Chris discover the origins of MARANUI. 

The obvious questions are • was she built from an existing design of the time or not •  does anyone have any info that might help in restoring her correctly.

From my experience the more original , unrestored a model is the greater the monitory value – but with MARANUI its all about the family connection.