POWER CHIEF

Today’s woody is a very smart looking 40’ ex work boat named Power Chief, which given the stated 1906 year of build, I suspect has had a name/s change at some stage.

Her tme listing (thanks Ian McDonald) tells us she was built by McPherson Bros. on the banks of the river Lieth in Dunedin, South Island. She fished for many years out of Port Chalmers, Oamaru and Timaru – these days home is Back Beach, Port Chalmers.

The seller is very conservative in the asking price so I suspect she will be snapped up asap. No mention of what powers her.
Any southern woodys able to tell us more about how and when this fishing boat made the transition to pleasure?

Harold Kidd Input – POWER CHIEF was a new name given to an earlier launch built in 1923 (according to NAPS records – Z166) probably by McPhersons.
G J Morrison of Company Bay Port Chalmers bought her in 1939 and renamed her POWER CHIEF after a popular brand of Caltex petrol. He was probably a garage proprietor. Her dims were 36′ x 9’3″ x 3′ 6″ and she had a 16hp Viking marine engine built in Dunedin by Tonkinson.
I haven’t figured out her original name yet.

07-03-2022 UPDATE Recent photos of PC hauled out, she is powered by a Nissan LD28 diesel engine.