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[steve mahoney]

This is a great little site but it has been severely lacking in the New Zealand tug department for the last couple of months while I've been backpacking around Central Asia.
Well, the holiday’s over boys! Time for another Kiwi tug.

This time it’s the 13.4m Kaitoa, originally a Waikato River tug. I found this one while researching another totally unrelated tug and you know how it goes – it immediately jumped to the top of my ‘to do list’.

I still have a half finished 17m Voith harbour tug, the Maui, on the back burner, so I'll try and manage 2 builds at once. The Maui is a big project, the Kaitoa is fairly simple. I figure that if I get bored with one I can do a bit on the other. I pretty much did the same thing on my build (the long running Busby commission) and the Ikatere, and Kapai. Let's see how this one works out.

Here's a couple of photos of the state of the Maui build at the moment. It's probably only about 40% done. Next job is the fendering, which is quite complicated. Still haven't figured out how I'll do it yet.

And a photo of the Kaitoa on launch day. She's is a nice looking little tug. Designed for river work so she's quite wide/beamy, has a very shallow draft, and relatively flat bottom. The bow curve/flare is quite nice. The gunwales are only on the sides and it has an open bow and no transom – no waves to worry about on a river.

[steve mahoney]

Before the fun starts – a little background.

The Waikato is NZ’s biggest river, it starts big at Lake Taupo (50m wide and 10m deep at the head) on the volcanic plateau in the middle of the North Island, and just gets bigger. Because of its volume and that it falls 350m over its 426km, it now has 8 hydro dams along its course. These were built at rapids, falls and gorges so only the lower reaches were ever navigable by motorboat. Before the road and local rail were finished in the early 1900s the river was the only viable way to move people and cargo between inland Hamilton and Port Waikato on the coast.

One of the pioneers of this river traffic was Caesar Roose (1886-1967), from the small river town of Mercer.  He was a local businessman, entrepreneur, community leader and philanthropist, who owned a shipping company, flax and timber mills, a coal mine, sand-dredging operation, construction company, and a trucking business. A titan of industry, a real go-getter, he did it all. He even invented and patented the Roose-Atkins Grab, a device for loading coal onto ships that was used world-wide. Sounds like the sort of guy that wouldn’t die wondering.

In 1902, 16 year old Caesar left the family farm, borrowed £100 to buy his first boat (a lot of money in those days), and started a flourishing shipping business on the Waikato and its tributaries. In 1916 he sold his 2 steamers, 3 launches and 7 barges to the Waikato Shipping Company (WSC).
Six years later Roose bought back all of WSC’s assets (including the Huntly coal mine and 6 vessels) and formed the Roose Shipping Co which continued regular services on the Waikato.

[steve mahoney]

The largest in the fleet was the 1894 built, 400-passenger stern wheel steamer, Manuwai, brought up from the Whanganui River. 

That’s an easy 5 hour drive now but by sea it’s almost 500km. That west coast gets the full force of the prevailing northwest wind, it’s notoriously rough and has no safe harbours all of the way from Whanganui to Port Waikato. That would have been some trip in a flat bottomed river boat. 3/4 on into a strong wind and swell all the way. Maori even had a name for this strong, constant northwester – Koraki.

Looking at the Manuwai photo I would not want to have been on that trip!

In 1924 Caesar visited Glasgow, where he ordered a 400hp, 210ft steamer with a 17ft wide stern wheel. He named it Rawhiti after a boat of the same name that he had owned in 1904. Shipped to NZ in crates, the paddle steamer was assembled at Mercer in 1925.

Another Rawhiti followed in 1947, a former US Navy tank landing ship, that Caesar used on the NZ–Aus/Pacific Islands cargo routes.

[steve mahoney]

Using the experience gained from assembling the 1924 Rawhiti, and a 70ft steam river tug (Tere, also made in Glasgow) at its yard in Mercer, the Company began designing and building their own tugs not long after WWII.

The first was the original Kaitoa, initially steam but later, along with the Tere, converted to diesel. Other tugs followed, all diesel, hard chine, steel, 13 – 14m long and single-screw. They were known for their sturdy construction and battered plating.

Opuatia, built 1957. Sold about 1995.

Wainui, built 1962 (a 9m ‘pusher’ tug), and evidently not too successful on the river, because it was sold after only a few years working. It is, however, an interesting looking boat and would make an nice model. I’m going to have to stop researching subjects so thoroughly as it always highlights some new tug I’d never heard of that goes straight onto my ‘to do’ list.

Kowhai, built 1965, in service until 1996. Kowhai is now in my town and for the past 10 years has been used to dredge sand from the mouth of the Hutt River where it enters Wellington harbour. It has been signifantly altered over the years and now looks completely different – and not in a good way.

The second Kaitoa (this project), built in 1966 and very much a development the Kowhai design. In service until 1996, then sold to Total Marine in Auckland. Total also now own several other tugs that I have made models of: Tika, Koraki and Kapai. Kaitoa has also been altered extensively over time and now looks as dull as ditchwater.

I’ll be building it as it was launched in 1966. As usual – 1/50, display only.

Caesar died in 1967. The Company’s Hamilton wharf and depot closed down about five years later, and in the 1980s the remaining fleet and plant at Mercer was sold as a going concern to W. Stevenson & Sons Ltd – the same Sir William Stevenson who had christened Kaitoa in 1966.

Kaitoa means ‘warrior’, or ‘serves you well’ – your choice.

[steve mahoney]

OK, that’s enough of the that, let’s get on with the job.

First task was to draw up some plans using the measurements I had, and a few handy reference photos. Assuming that the cabin door is the traditional 6’6’’height gave me a good starting point for some of the other dimensions.

The superstructure is also quite simple – all straight lines. The air vent on the WC/head is a classic. And no deck equipment at all, only bollards – yahoo!

The lines I drew up are very basic – purely for me to figure out some cutting templates. I’ve done this a few times and know by now the minimum required.


In the past if anyone has asked for plans of one of my builds I have drawn up fairly comprehensive GAs and hull lines. This profile of YTL625 is an example. I drew this one up as several examples of the YTL variants used in the Pacific. These YTLs were made in Australia and NZ for the US Navy and Army. The Aus/NZ boats were slightly different. YTL625 was one of 17 YTLs built by Steel Ships Ltd in Auckland.

The plans show YTL625 as HMNZS Kawatiri 1946, YTL625 as James O’Brien 1947-85, US ARMY ST10 1945, and Hong Kong Police Boat No 26 1967 (Aus variant).

The drawings are a lot of work but hopefully someone will find them useful.

My pared down lines for the Kaitoa were turned into laser cutting guides. And, bingo! – a stack of laser cut parts like this, ready for assembly (these are for another project but same sort of stuff). Anyone spot my error in the cutting guides?

The build appears to be pretty straightforward. Fingers crossed.

[steve mahoney]

So the laser cut pieces are back. I spent yesterdayafternoon cleaning the bench and getting things organised, and this morning I got started.

The basic parts: superstructure and decks were laser cut out of 1mm ply and the hull frames and keel out of 3.6mm birch ply. My new disc sander made short work of cleaning up the laser cut parts. So far so good.
 
The hull is a fairly simple, hard chine shape, so no real problems there, although I tend to have more trouble building hard chine hulls than curved ones. Let’s see what I can do to this one...

The frames slotted into the keel and were braced to keep everything true and square. Probably overkill on the bracing but I've had a hull at this stage warp before and it's a major headache to try and staighten it. Never really works out well, so now it's: beter safe than sorry.

Once the deck is on the whole thing is quite strong. Very strong. Dropping it onto the concrete floor didn’t do any damage at all, although it’s not recommended – raises the stress levels too much. A few years ago I dropped one project and stuck out a foot to try and soften the fall and punted it straight into the wall. Brilliant move. Did twice as much damage. Knee jerk reaction – more jerk than knee.

[steve mahoney]

Things are moving along nicely – an afternoon's work and it looks like I'm really making progress. The bow and stern quarters were packed out with balsa blocks and sanded to shape to give the hull sheets something solid to glue on to.

The hull sheets went on pretty smoothly. I made some patterns from thin card to check the fit and then used them to cut some 1mm ply. Even cutting the ply with the bias it still needed maximum clamps to hold the ply in shape. Left the clamps on overnight to ensure a good bond.

Happy so far, could have turned out a whole lot worse. The curves at the bow are quite complex but should be OK with a bit of filler. Also extended the keel a bit – the initial one didn't look right.

[steve mahoney]

Primed, and so far, so good. I gave it 2-3 medium coats. Looks a bit rough at the moment bit the paint fills any tiny holes and sure shows up any blemishes. A few sanding sessions later and the surface is looking much better. The hull’s quite a nice shape.

I installed the brass prop shaft and made a rudder heel out of 0.8mm brass, and some rudder bearings out of various brass tubing. I won’t be breaking that off in hurry. The rudder is styrene with a brass stock. The hull’s looking much better after a little remedial work.

A few years after launching a Kort nozzle was added – barely distinguishable in the photo – it looks more like a propeller guard than a true Kort nozzle. Either would be useful in a river. I’ll leave whatever it was off as I’m building this as it was launch day

A few more sanding sessions and I can attach the bulwarks.

[steve mahoney]

The laser cut 0.8mm ply bulwarks dropped into pre-cut slots in the deck – although not as easily as I had planned. The slots had clogged up with excess glue and needed quite a bit of cleaning up and clearing out with a file, mini dremel and scalpel. All OK in the end.

The freeing ports were also laser cut out as part of the bulwark. Given the sheer on the deck the bulwarks fitted perfectly. I even surprised myself.

The bulwark knees are just cosmetic, the bulwarks are pretty solid and robust without them. Even at 0.8mm that ply is a lot stronger than it looks. No flex at all. The capping rail is styrene rod CA’d into place.

[steve mahoney]

Lastly, a couple of rubbing strips at the deck line and just above the waterline, and welding seams along the chine line. These are 2mm and 0.5mm half-round styrene. Only a few little blemishes to fix up and she can get an undercoat.

[steve mahoney]

Next job: The superstructure.

These parts were all laser cut out of 1mm ply and went together pretty easily. A coat of primer highlights any areas that need a touch up. Not too bad in this case – nothing a bit of filling and sanding won't fix. Easy peasy.

The ventilation holes for the toilet are cool.

The roof won’t be attached until much later, after the glazing.

[steve mahoney]

The funnel is about the only major item left to make.

The pictures explain my building process better than words: laser cut ply spine, balsa packing and two layers of 0.2mm styrene skin, plus a few little details.

I’ve used this method a lot and it seems to work pretty well for me. This funnel is quite small but that didn’t present too many problems.

[steve mahoney]

At this stage I can never resist a dry fit to see how it will look. Still needs a few sanding sessions with 400 grit and then wet&dry before any painting but it’s definitely getting there.

Old Caesar and the boys did quite a good job on this one, it’s a nice looking little tug. Not bad for an in-house design and build.

And these are the guys who built the real Kaitoa at the Roose yard in Mercer: Jimmy Thompson (L), Bob Parker, and Bob’s son: Bob Jnr. Bob Junior would be in his late seventies by now.

[steve mahoney]

Next job: the railings – simple enough, no problem.

Only they weren’t, they were a major pain in the a*se.

The grab rails on the engine room should have been simple but were a real headache. I wanted the stern ends to follow the same angle as the bulwark end, and to slot into the wheelhouse wall at the forward end. Usually I rate my soldering. I can usually do this stuff standing on my head. This time it was like I had been.

Nothing seemed to go right: wrong measurements, wrong angles, weak joints, too much overflow, dropping things on the floor (clumsy), losing things in plain sight (dumb), touching red hot joints (dumber), flux in the eye (now that is really dumb, and really stings), things not lining up, breaking things, and my personal favourite – touching the soldering iron to see if it was on (next level dumb). It was an egregious litany of dumb.

I soldered everything in place and eventually it looked about right. After I had removed the rails to clean them up they wouldn’t fit back in place. Why? How? Who knows?

Much, much remedial work and grumbling. I wasted a day on a 1 hour job.

The gunwale mounted railings have complex vertical and lateral curves. They are only slight curves but are critical to fitting on the capping rail correctly. It took ages to get that part right. Finally I soldered everything together and went to attach them and made a real hash of it. More cutting, bending, re-soldering, filling, filing, gluing, rinse and repeat. I was digging a hole and it only got deeper. It all just kept getting messier and messier. It took a whole day to realise that the all rails were rubbish, I took a long hard look at them and started again from scratch.

I should have taken along hard look at myself instead, I hadn’t really thought things through properly. Another wasted day. No excuses, just a bad day at the office.

Once I had calmed down it only took an hour or so the next day to fix things. Now I just want to cover up all of the cock-ups with some paint, hide my shame and forget all about it.

Anyway, here they are – can’t see what all the fuss was about.

[steve mahoney]

This photo of the ‘as launched’ Kaitoa (on the left) shows an engine-room vent below the wheelhouse windows.

I made the louvres from a brass grill from the spares box and some 0.2mm styrene slats.

They look a bit rough out in the open. Looks much better in place, with its sliding cover and some rails. Now for some paint.

[derekwarner]

The E/R vents look good Steve.....being a River Tug, there would have been little chance of a wave breaking over the bow    and thru the vents


Derek

[steve mahoney]

Dead right, Derek! Especially with open bow bulwarks.

When she was sold on for ocean work that vent was removed and replaced with a standard ventilator, as in the photos. The other 'improvements' add up to make present day Kaitoa fairly boring looking, IMHO.

[steve mahoney]

So, for the colours...

All of the photos of the Roose tugs are at least 50 years old, and only in black and white. None of the boats look like they were painted the same colours. The first Kaitoa and the Tere were quite dark and look like they might have been black hulls with tan topsides. Who knows, but the hull and superstructure are much darker greys than the BW images of my Kaitoa.

The Opuatia and Wainui have quite pale hulls and what looks like white superstructures.

The Kowhai was built a year before the Kaitoa and looks like it had a very similar colour scheme – mid grey hulls, white superstructures in the BW photos. The hull and anti-fouling paints are about the same shade of grey.

I haven’t found any colour photos of the as-built Kaitoa. I have one BW on the stocks and one at launching although they were taken in 1961 by and for the local newspaper, which was only printed in black and white. I have a copy of the launch photo which was hand coloured in the 60s and you could assume that whoever coloured the photo had probably seen the boat in real life – they knew it was green. But what colour green?

The image’s colours are very similar to the Union Steamship Company’s colours, as in photos 5 and 6 below. This isn’t too much of a surprise because at this time Caesar was on the Union Co. Board of Directors.

Based in Wellington, NZ, the Union Steamship Company was the largest shipping line in the South Pacific and dominated the Pacific/Aus/NZ/US/Canada routes. It was known as the Southern Octopus because of its reach and routes, and was renowned for the high quality of their liners and the modernity of their fleet. In 1917 they had 74 liners. After WWI they set up 2 airlines that eventually became the NZ international (TEAL: Tasman Empire Airways Ltd) and domestic (Union Airways/NAC) airlines.

A couple of years ago I drew up one of the Union Co liners – the Maunganui in different stages of its life: as a troopship 1915, liner 1925, and hospital ship 1945. Sold a few as large prints.

Sadly it all started turning to custard for the Union Co around the time Caesar was on the Board – not implying anything, just an unfortunate coincidence. Air travel, containerisation, and competition from cheaper Asian shipping lines saw the company head into a death spiral beginning in the late ‘60s. Losing their flagship, the inter-island ferry TEV Wahine, in 1967, with the loss of 55 lives didn’t help either. At the time it was the most modern and advanced ferry of its type in the world. By 2000 the Union Co was all gone. They had had over 350 ships, including the SS Warrimoo. Google that one, it’s a great story.

[mikelimajuliet]

Hi Steve,


Thanks for the interesting information re the Union Steam Ship Company and the liners and airliners. I had a mate who's dad worked for the Southern Octopus. Love the detail in the builds and keep up the good work.


 Mike

[steve mahoney]

Thanks Mike. The Union Co is all consigned to history but in its day it had some great looking liners, especially pre-WWII. The Awatea which did the trans Tasman routes still holds the record and the "greyhound" pennant for the fastest crossing. It's cruising speed (26 knots) was so fast that during WWII when it was used as a troopship it was quite lightly armed as they didn't think anything could catch it. A couple of torpedoes from a squadron of Italian bombers did eventually get it as it was leaving Algiers and before it got up to full speed. Better end than the breakers' yard.

But I digress.

The colours in the hand coloured image are very similar to the Union Steamship Company’s colours, maybe a little lighter on the hull, and the Union Co colours were: Union Co Green hull (a very dark green), yellow stripe, white superstructure, terracotta deck, blood orange funnel with a black top, buff ventilators and deck equipment (no similar stuff on the Kaitoa). The Union Co tugs were also these colours. So that’s what we are going for – sort of.

In the BW photos the hull green and anti-fouling are almost the same shade of grey. So, we’ll go for a green that’s about as dark as red oxide: green hull (lighter than the Union Co Green), terracotta deck, black railings, red oxide for the anti-fouling, and an blood orange funnel.

And the superstructure is pretty simple – all off-white, with black railings. Easy!

Plus, the hand coloured photo above shows that the nav light housings were painted red, and green. Handy!

And here’s the hull. Done! Had a good crack at painting it over the weekend.

The yellow stripe wasn’t on the Kaitoa but was on all of the Union Co liners. I’m having it.

The name on the stern is a rubdown/dry transfer, from Flightline Graphics in the UK this time.

The dark grey patches are adjacent to the engineroom windows.

[steve mahoney]

And a couple more.

[derekwarner]

Steve.....is that yellow a self adhesive automotive car detailing pin-striping off a roll?...if so, what brand & reference?........Derek

[steve mahoney]

No, auto pinstriping tape is 3mm wide. I needed 1.5mm for this. I tried trimming electrical tape but that didn't stick too well as I had to temporarily stick it to a flat surface to cut it into a thin strip and it lost a lot of its adhesive properties.
Eventually I went to a local signwriter, explained what I was trying to do and he gave me a few centimetres off the end of a 600mm wide roll. Easy to cut and apply. UV and exterior rated. Much thinner than auto tape so it is very low profile. And free. Perfect!
Sometimes being a dopey old buggar who makes toy boats is useful.

[steve mahoney]

For the glazing I laser cut 0.4mm ply window ‘rubbers’ that slightly overhang the window holes so that the ‘glass’ will drop in from the interior. Printing the window shapes onto clear film helps cutting the panes to the right size and shape. That’s the plan anyway.

It worked! Made a few spare ‘rubbers’ as they are very fragile. Didn’t have to use too many.

A much later photo of the stern area shows a small louvre/slit vent on the engine-room stern bulkhead. I’ve added a few more down the sides of the engine room.

[Martin (Admin)]

 Looks Great!