
RANUI,
Photo taken c.1950 by Ken Ricketts, before she had the 6 or 8 ft added to the back end, & when she still had her 2 original Ford V8 petrol engines, & was owned by Hec Goodfellow. She was built by R Lidgard circa 1947 was approx 38 ft long, at that time. She is a Chris Craft design, that Goodfellow had seen in the Pacific Islands, when he was a naval officer stationed there in WWII.
He was so impressed with the design, after the war he acquired a set of geinuine plans, & commisioned Lidgards to build RANUI for him. The family owned the boat for a great many years, & she was moored in Whakatakataka Bay, had an adjoining boatshed on the banks of the Bay in Ngapipi Rd, where she spent much of her time in earlier days, & was only seen on her moorings occasionally. In her later life, she lived much of the time at Christian Bay Takatu Peninsula during his ownedship, as he had a property there.
She was lengthened as above, in the later 50s or early 60s & the Ford V8s were initally replaced with 2 x 4 cyl Ford Diesels, when she was lengthened & these have later still been replaced with 2 x 6 cyl Ford Diesels. The last heard of about a year ago, she was living in the Sounds at the top of the South Island looking lovely.