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Anyone know anything about this boat???


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if it is one of the Lees built H28,s they were built for Harry Sharp as charter boats many moons ago and it does look like Kerrys boat. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

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Maroro - ketch rigged H-28

 

Built by Stewart Mitchell in Whangarei around 1956 and launched 1957 and registred as D-57, taking NZYF 1040 in 1969.

 

28'10"x 23'6"x 8'4.5"x 4', ketch, 4000lb outside ballast - 300lb inside, 8hp Stuart turner (1956 dimensions and details)

 

Did a lot of racing with Onerahi YC in the early years and also did the 1961 Trans-Tasman - 3rd yacht to finish. Did a cruise to Noumea in 1963.

 

Sold to Hugh Barton in Wellington in 1970, who sailed her down there, but by 1971, she was registered to F. Noble-Beasley of Lower Hutt, who appears to have owned her up to 1980 at least.

 

Obviously she has since been sold back to the north.

 

A do all of my boating in the BOI and points north so I'll keep an eye out for her. It's amazing what rolls into the odd bay from time to time. :)

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It's always possible. There were several around wellington in the 1970's and early 1980's. But H-28's went EVERYWHERE. Great boats.

 

I only pick the names up if it turns up in print and someone reports them clearing e.g. Opua or Whangarei, bound "for the islands" etc.or if a returning cruiser reports meeting up with "the New Zealand boat xxxx in Port Vila" or suchlike.

 

There were hundreds of cruisers that quietly set off and (sometimes) many years later, quietly slipped back in again without making it to the news. I'm continually amazed by the number of those sturdy, home-built Woollacotts, Hartleys, Burns, Cox, Ganley's or Ferro-cementers, etc etc that often took a decade or so to build, that just one day just slipped away, and stayed away.

 

I had a lot of fun at Pittwater, and around Brisbane some years ago, spotting what I thought might be ex kiwi boats. What they were named originally is lost under a succession of ownerships, and name changes, but they were still recognisably Woollacott or Athol Burns, Richard Hartley etc etc.

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Hi Boatslut, Quite by chance I found this site. My boat with me on board! I have been trying to locate you too, if you were the kind soul who gave me a tow off Kawau on a very calm day in January. I have drunk the bottle of Scotch I got for you but can soon get another. Be in touch.

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ah Russell you kind man, knew you would pull through. It was a bit of a drifter and you obviously made it to whangateau, you never know what you may come across out there. Talk soon.

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A bit of a belated contribution to this forum thread but I happened upon the conversation whilst doing a general Google search for "H28 Maroro", if anyone is still transmitting on this frequency? Maroro was built by my father (Stuart Mitchell) and I can confirm that the information revealed on her here is accurate. The third placing overall in the 1961 Auckland-Sydney race was sufficient to win the "Non Australian Handicap Honours" (I still have the trophy, Dad having passed away in 2004). The cruise to New Caledonia followed on from the trans-Tasman race so would probably have been earlier than stated above. Mum and Dad set off on a world cruise in her for their honeymoon in 1963 (newspaper clipping of their departure also held!) but soon after leaving Mum got wobbles of a magnitude I was never fully enlightened about and they returned for a second departure by ship. Dad worked at a boatyard in South Hampton during their year away. I have never seen Maroro and would be delighted to do so should anyone has a contact for her. For many years she was centre stage on post card and picture book photos of Oriental Bay, but the last I heard of her she was somewhere in Auckland. I have many photos of her and of the other boats Dad went on to build as a profession in a workshop next to our family home at Ngunguru - if they were to be of interest to the current owners (including a Townson 34 launched as "Slice of Lemon" if anyone knows her location). Dad and Des Townson were close friends - Des was Best Man at Dad's wedding. Incidentally, Dad built Maroro II as a retirement project - a kitset amphibian aircraft that he did over 200 hours in around the Northland coastline.

 

Kenrick Mitchell (currently casual crew aboard the Logan built "Thelma") 09 2984801

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Oarsome, thanks for that! Might take a wander sometime and leave him a note. She was built on spec and sold to an Aucklander by the name of Wynyard originally. Built of triple skin kauri planking as I remember. The name referred to her hull colour at time of launching. I think she was the second boat out of Dad's new shed, she followed a racing trimaran called SkipJack. The new boatbuilding business had been funded by several seasons of crayfishing up north and was no doubt the realisation of quite a dream. Sadly Mr Muldoon put the brakes on it with his boat tax soon after establishment. He squeezed out a couple of Starlings for my brother and I, it was a great start to life with school just a short walk along the beach and a workshop full of tools to learn respect for at home! 

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Hi Kenrick, Slice of lemon is still painted a nice pale yellow. Looks like she has been off shore or at least has been set up for it; life raft, hard dodger etc.

 A bit of a thread drift, but great to reminisce. I lived in Browns Bay before the harbour bridge was built and in the years after when it was still a sleepy holiday place. A number of boat builders there in those days who didn't seem to mind us snotty nosed kids following them around kicking up the wood shavings. I remember John Spencer building Infidel, I think, and paying us kids a few pence for bringing him lead that we had "found", for her keel. A bit like you, a great place to grow up.

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