SELENA
photo & details ex Harold Kidd

Selena  was built in 1963 by Alan Williams at Milford for Stan Blundell of Fisher & Blundell. She was a Williams Banshee design but Stan wanted her no longer than 30ft oa so she finished up at 30’x27’x9’6”x2’9”.
She had a 4 cylinder 60hp Ford diesel. Stan’s son John thinks they probably fitted a Parsons marinisation and marine gearbox as they were the importers, to the annoyance of Lees Marine.
Stan didn’t keep her long, swapping her with F.J.H. Leighton for a bach at Maraetai around 1965.
So where is she now?

It is  very hard to design / build a  sub 30′ motor launch that proportionally looks ‘right’. Over the next week I’ll be posting on some smaller launches that tick all the right boxes.

Input from John Blundell ex Harold Kidd

Hi Harold,

The picture of Selena on the WW website today looked great.Re your comments on Lees Marine,they probably didn’t mean much to most viewers. The import restrictions in those days meant that you could not import marine engines unless you had a “special” license or overseas funds.
F&B managed to import a few on these terms but Ted Lees took it up with the Customs Dept and Ford Motor Co and got “protection”. However F&B continued to import gearboxes and other conversion parts from Parsons which were then sold on to local Ford dealers.
Keep up the good work!
John Blundell