GOLDEN LOTUS – Sailing Sunday

Todays woody story is a long stretch on the WW content tape measure – in fact her only two claims to fame are:

1. She spent a lot of her time in and around the Waitemata Harbour 

2. She appeared on the cover of the September 1962 issue of Sea Spray magazine

Ken Ricketts spotted the article in a pile of Sea Spray back copies and sent it in – and commented – 

“I first saw the GOLDEN LOTUS in the early 1960’s, shortly after she arrived here after a very long protracted 6 month journey, sailing from Hong Kong to Auckland via Mangonui, & we saw her everywhere, all the time, all over the Gulf, with her beautiful glistening  perfectly maintained varnish all over, for a number of years, however have not seen or heard of her many years now.” 

Ken also commented that GOLDEN LOTUS was moored in the Tamaki River for a period, in  her early days according to John Bulivant, presumably still powered by her 2cyl. Lister air cooled diesel engine.

The Sea Spray article is a good read, enjoy and hopefully someone can update us on what became of the GOLDEN LOTUS.

INPUT EX JOHN BULLIVANT –

There is a book on the complete journey of the Golden lotus, from the building to her arrival in NZ, written by Brian Clifford and Neil Illingworth Called ‘The journey of the Golden Lotus’ (printed in 1962). If you can find a copy (as I did a couple of years ago) it’s an excellent read. A great feat of navigation, using only old charts, an old sextant and a watch to sail all the way to NZ from Hong Kong.

I was working on Norfolk island in the late 70s, and 2 of her later kiwi owners lived there, one being Alan Harnish (second owner I believe) and Rick Irvine who owned the Castaway Hotel and local hardware. Rick mentioned Alan was the one who added the cabin extension to her and removed the masts (which destroyed the look) and set her up for diving. He later sold her to Rick who used her for similar pursuits and who had sold her again prior to moving to Norfolk Island.

Not sure what happened to her after that, but there was a junk which looked like her (but with more ugly additions) being used for parties/charter and based in Westhaven about 12 or more years ago, and was advertised on Trade me for sale at one time as having been imported. It was a shame that after surviving the trip from Hong Kong, that she ended up being converted to a power junk. Always looked beautiful with her varnished hull and maroon sails, sailing down the Tamaki River in the 60s before she was modified.