Tag Archives: Sobrine

Classic Woody Boating Long Weekend Cruise

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Moturekareka Island
Sunset – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Sunrise – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Lady Adelaide
Vivian Bay, Kawau Island
Ngaio
Meola & Whio

Classic Woody Boating Cruise

For all the wrong reasons I didn’t do a lot of boating (on my boat) this past winter, so the looming long Labour weekend was always going to see me leaving the dock even if the weather was ‘inclement’. Luckily it wasn’t and I slid away early Friday afternoon with the ultimate destination being Kawau Island. The boredom of mostly straight line motoring was broken up by Team NZ cutting up the gulf in their AC40, so so quick.

Decided to spend Friday night anchored at Moturekareka Island, the resting place of the wreck REWA (unsuccessfully scuttled as a breakwater) , not the most settled of spots but the sunset and the bird song made up for it.

Moved on earlier Saturday to Smelting House Bay and picked up a pre-booked mooring, now before you all call me a softy, we had the new dog onboard for its 1st trip and wanted to be close to shore – didn’t want an oops on board. I can report she was an angel – woke me at 5.30am for a row ashore. Sadly she also seems to think the #1 bunk is hers 🙂 The bonus of the dog pee row ashore is catching the sunrise, almost as fine as the sunset.

Mostly just relaxed mooching around, had a drink and dinner catch up with the crews off Meloa, Ngaio, Lady Adelaide and Golandrina at the Kawau Boating Club, which had just taken the shutters down after the annual winter hibernation. Food and service was first rate – if you are not a member – join, they need good support to keep doing what they do so well. The next day we dropped the pick in Vivian Bay – very quiet and later in the day several woodys arrived – seems to be the go-to destination for the Sandspit marina crowd.

I spied a stunning villa on the waterfront in Vivian Bay – photos below, will need to keep buying Lotto 🙂

Trip home on Monday was just about perfect for a straight stemmer e.g. wind and tide on the nose – 3 hours 45 min from KBC > Bayswater, that’s a good clip for my 94 year old girl.

UPDATE 03-11-2022 – Photo below of Rewa as scuttled (incorrectly). Comes to us from Auckland War Memorial Museum libray via Maurice Sharp fb.

SUNDAYS MYSTERY LAUNCH QUIZ WINNER

Well done Ken Ricketts, the winner from the many woodys that correctly ID’ed the launch as Sobrine. The pool was reduced significantly by a large number spelling the boats name – Sabrine. Link to a previous WW Sobrine story below https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/05/31/sobrine/

Kawau Island Woodys

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KAWAU ISLAND WOODYS

Hopefully todays photo will slightly resemble my view this morning, the Labour weekend cruise had a target of Kawau Island, weather permitting.

The photo above comes to us from Mitchell Hutchings fb ex the wonderful Parsonson Family collection. Thank you Mitchell for sharing.

WIN A WW T-SHIRT

All correct answers to naming the launch bottom left in the photo will go into the draw for a WW t-shirt, fresh off the screen printing press. Close off will be Monday 24th Oct at 5pm. Email your answer to waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys

The launch is – Sobrine

Boating in the Late 1950’s & Early 1960’s

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2006
1959

Boating in the Late 1950’s & Early 1960’s
story & photo ex Brian Mace

When gathering info on the recent ww story on Sobrine, Brian Mace passed onto Ken Ricketts the story below he once wrote titled ‘Memories of boating in the late fifties & early sixties’, with Brian permission we have reproduced the story on ww. Its a great story of life aboard the launch Sobrine owned by Brian’s father Gordon Mace. I have included a 1959 photo below of Sobrine. ww readers can view / read more on Sobrine here  https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/05/31/sobrine/

Enjoy the story, it will be very familiar to a lot of ww readers. The launch in the photo above was once owned by Brian but he can not recall its name – anyone able to help out? Also above is a 1959 photo of Brian aged 13 years  kitted out for diving, which would have been a big thing for a 13 Year old back then 🙂 Sorry for the lay out/big gaps between pages – these are original typed notes.

BRIAN MACE1

BRIAN MACE'2

BRIAN MACE3

SOBRINE c1959

Sobrine

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SOBRINE c1959

c.1959

Sobrine & Luana

Sobrine and Luana

SOBRINE c1989 ex Carol Stewart

C.1989

sobrine250

SOBRINE
photos ex Harold Kidd, Brian Mace & Carol Stewart. info ex Ken Ricketts, edited by Alan H

Following on from yesterdays post on Manuroa (Lady Doreen), Gordon Mac replaced her with Sobrine after selling Lady Doreen to Len Swan of Orakei in 1951, Swan immediately changed her name to Manuroa.

Sobrine’s hull was built by Jack Taylor in Onehunga & moved, after some disagreement with Taylor, to the Lane Motor Boat Co in Panmure, to be finished & she was launched in November 1956.

When launched she was 38′ but had her bow extended by approx 4′ by Shipbuilders Ltd., 1 > 2yrs later. When lengthened Mace moved her original stern exhaust to a short stack on one side of the rear of the bridgedeck cabin top, which had to be on one side because of her internal layout. In the interests of aesthetic balance he put a non active ‘look alike’ on the other side.

She originally had a Graymarine petrol engine when launched, which was replaced with a Gardner 6LW diesel, when she was very new. Gordon Mace’s son Brian advised she needed to have the bridgedeck cabin top cut off, in order to lower the Gardner in place.

In c.1962 the Mace’s had moved to Coromandel, along with Sobrine to live.

Mace sold her to a friend, Jeff Innes of Coromandel. The story goes that Jeff Innes had fallen in love with her Sobrine at first sight & had pestered Mace for some time to buy her. One day Mace on the spur of the moment accepted an offer from Innes & the boat was sold, much to the families disapproval.

Innes sold her to Bruce Stewart, of Thames in c.1980’s.

Stewart sold her in July 1992 to Roy Ladd of Auckland, who still owns her.

Note: The name Sobrine came about by one of lifes little oops moments – Gordon Mace’s eldest daughter, Aileen, when christening the boat mixed up the intended name ‘Sabrene’ (pronounced Sabreeny) with Sobrine & with her being very young at the time, the family decided to stay with Sobrine 🙂

Manuroa (Doreen)

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MANUROA WHAKATAKATAKA BAY c1963

Whakatakataka Bay c1963

Sail Rock 1959
C1952>1960

Whitianga c1968
Half Moon Bay c1999

c1999
c1999
c1999
c1999
c1999
c1999

MANUROA MILFORD MARINA 2015

Milford Marina 2015

Manuroa (Lady Doreen)
photos ex Rob Alloway, Brian Worthington, Rob Swan. research ex Ken Ricketts (edited by Alan H)

Manuroa started out in life as Lady Doreen & was the last of 3 identical sister ships ( Wanda II – 1948, for Fred Porter, then Connie V for Valentines of Hamilton, refer previous ww stories). Then Manuroa (Lady Doreen) in 1949 & built by Lane Motor Boat Company for Gordon Mace of Panmure. Mace lived 5 minutes up the road from Lane Motor Boat’s premises on the waters edge of the Tamaki River. She was named after his wife Doreen & was the first of 2 boats that were associated with Lanes for him, the other being the Sobrine which was built partly by Lanes, in 1956.
Mace sold Lady Doreen to Len Swan of Orakei on 12th June 1951, who immediately changed her name to Manuroa, which it has been ever since (65 yrs).

Swan sold her in c.1962 to Harold Alloway, a Waikato (Rotorangi) farmer. He kept her in Whakatakataka Bay & slipped her in the green sheds in the bay, whilst at Rotorangi & also when he later moved to Auckland. She stayed there until c1966/67 when according to his son Francis, Harold moved to Whitianga & took Manuroa with him. While at Whitianga, he fitted her with game fishing poles & used her for game fishing in the later part of his ownership.
Alloway sold her on 30th Sept. 1970 to a John Quinn of Ponsonby, Auckland & she was reportedly seen moored in Westhaven not long after. It was possibly Quinn that sold the vessel to Dick & Paula Hillary of Auckland.

The next record of her sees her popping up in Sept. 1996 owned by the Hillary’s, they owned her for many years, just how many years is unclear but research by KR  indicates they may well have owned her from some time in the 1970’s, until when they sold her in Sept. 1996 to Fred & Flo Presland of Kawau Island. During the Hillary ownership they replaced the Gardner 4LW diesel (imported direct from England by Gordon Mace & installed in Nov 1950) with the 6LW that she still has today.

The Preslands sold her c.2000 to Bernie Wood, a Auckland boat broker of Half Moon Bay. When Wood passed away his estate sold her in Sept. 2005 to her present owner Bruce Johnston of Milford. Bruce supplied the two pages below from the 1951 log book.

MANUROA Log 1951

Log Book Page 1 – 1951

MANUROA LOG - 1951- 1

Log 1 1951

 

MANUROA SHIPS LOG - 1951 - 2

Log 2 1951