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[steve mahoney]

My wife says that I have 2 faults – I don’t listen, and something else.

Could be impatience. My Maui build is taking forever. 4 years and not even half done. Tiny successes but no real progress. I picked the wrong hobby for instant gratification. I may have to knock out something quick and simple to give me a feeling of achieving something. Bear with me, I’ll get to the point in a minute.

The first photo shows a couple of the 130 P51D Mustang MkIIIs ordered for the Royal New Zealand Air Force towards the end of WWII. The war ended while the first batch of 30 were on a ship from the US. The NZ Government suddenly had a heap of excess equipment and servicemen waiting to be demobilised. They tried to return the planes but the US said ‘no returns’, so the planes went into long term storage at several air bases: Hobsonville, Te Rapa, Ardmore and Rukuhia, until the Territorial Air Force was formed in the 1950s and they were formed into 3 squadrons based in Canterbury, Wellington and Otago.

Photo 2 is one of the planes (2415) from the Canterbury Squadron. The Wellington Squadron had yellow and black chequerboard (photo 3), Otago Squadron had blue and yellow.

[steve mahoney]

When I was a kid, for 40c, you could get an NZ P51D printed on a small sheet of balsa that made into a good glider. You could also get a Spitfire, Hawker Sea Fury, Hurricane, T6 Harvard, Kittyhawk, Fw190, Me109 and a Zero but the Spitfire and P51 were the most popular – by far. The photo shows a larger version of the little balsa sheet that I have on a wall at home – it’s the same 2415 from the Canterbury Squadron (above).

This ply sheet is 2.4m long, so I’ll need a lot of plasticine on the nose of that one.

[steve mahoney]

When all the P51s were decommissioned in 1957 they went into long term storage at RNZAF Woodbourne, in the South Island, and were eventually disposed of in the 1970s. One farmer ended up with a Mustang, 2 Kittyhawks, a Mosquito, Tiger Moth and a Hudson in a paddock at nearby Mapua. Lucky "xxxxx".

A couple of these Mustangs, including 2415 are still flying after extensive restoration.

[steve mahoney]

That’s all very interesting but it’s the boat in the first photo that I’m interested in – W47.

By 1942 the RNZAF had reached peak strength of 42,000 personnel and 1336 aircraft. Not bad for a country of 1.6 million. The RNZAF Marine Section was operating hundreds of vessels across New Zealand and the Pacific, including launches, tugs, powered and unpowered barges, dinghies and punts. They were named/numbered after their entry into service. The first being W1 (Watercraft 1).

This one: W47, was built by W. G. Lowe & Sons (Auckland), with a Redwing Hesselman 6cyl diesel, later 145hp Chrysler. The boat was built sometime in the 1930s, and probably requisitioned into service in late 1939/early 1940.

The photo could have been taken at any time between 1945-50. Not sure where – Hobsonville is the only storage depot that’s on a harbour – Auckland Harbour, and it's an easy 10k barge trip from the port up to Hobsonville. The other storage depots are all well inland. Hobsonville also had a large flying-boat base and W47 has the kapok and canvas fender strips which were common on boats working with seaplanes.

[steve mahoney]

During the war NZ had quite a large fleet of Short Singapores, Catalinas, and later, Sunderlands around NZ and throughout the Pacific. Squadrons 3, 5 and 6 were based in various islands around the Pacific. Another squadron (Hobsonville Utility Flight) was based in NZ.

Photo 1 is the flying boat base at Hobsonville. Photo 2: Catalinas on the hard at Hobsonville. Photo 3: No 6 Squadron personnel. I'll bet the manufactureres never stress tested the wings to that weight.

One of the PBYs is still flying now and I was able to get a flight on it at a local air-show a few years ago. Great fun, the observation bubbles give a great view – better than the pilots’. Although it did vibrate a lot and felt like a bunch of rivets flying in formation.

The plane is now for sale if anyone is interested (photo 4). Might need a bigger shed if you do buy it.

[steve mahoney]

Flying boats were used a lot after the war for passenger flights to Australia and the Pacific Islands. In the 1960s my wife (as a little kid) used to fly back and forth to the Chatham Islands, 500km off the coast, in a Sunderland. There is still one out there, slowly disintergrating in a field.

I’m pretty sure that she flew on either an S30 or a Solent, as most of the Sunderlands had been retired by then. But hey, she was only 4, so easily confused.

[steve mahoney]

That’s enough side tracking, back to the boat.

The RNZAF had quite a large fleet of boats, barges and dinghies used for refuelling and re-arming flying boat squadrons. Launches served as control boats coordinating take-off and landings, rescue tenders in case of emergency, and passenger transport, especially between the Hobsonville, the adjacent Whenuapai Depot, and Auckland city, and also in bases throughout the Pacific.

Many of the wartime boats were requisitioned from civilian life so there were many varied sizes and designs. Some of them would make good subjects for a model.

W1 has nice lines.

They probably didn’t get much smaller than W241 – W1’s dinghy looks bigger. Who doesn’t like a carvel dinghy?

W210 looks interesting. Fortunately I can’t find any more photos of it or it would be straight onto my ‘to do’ list.

W? looks like it was the general dogsbody around Hobsonville. And, yes, that is a fishing rod on the starboard side.

W276 was a US built 63ft Miami class crash boat. The RNZAF had a few of these operating from Hobsonville and Laucala Bay in Fiji . The class was originally powered by 4 Kermath 500hp ‘Sea Raiders’ (linked nose to nose in pairs) but later had twin 630hp Hall Scott ‘Defenders’ – some with V drives. A number of variants were made. Top speed was around 36 knots (16 model 168s were built with twin Packard 1250hp for a speed of around 48 knots). That’s a lot of power! Like an old car I had years ago – could pass anything – except a gas station.

[steve mahoney]

It wasn’t uncommon for the launches to be used for recreational purposes (e.g. the fishing rod on W?), especially in places in the Pacific Islands, with servicemen using them for fishing trips, excursions and other less official, but more fun, trips. I'm hoping that these photos were all taken at the end of the war, there seems to be a lot of goofing around on expensive Govt equipment.

Photo 1: Airmen watch on from an unknown boat as a guy is towed on an improvised wake-board, Fiji, 1945. Check out the pith helmets!! This photo confirms all of the old prejudices that my father, who was in the Navy, had about life in the airforce.

Photo 2: Very expensive diving platform.

Photo 3 shows the speedboat built in the Solomons by Flight Lieutenant Cyril Plumtree’s crew (RNZAF No.6 Flying Boat Squadron). They are launching it on the Catalina ramp at the flying boat base at Halavo Bay, 1945. Sergeant Sir Edmund Hillary (NZ’s most famous bee keeper) is pushing, far left. Apparently the boat later had an engine fire and Sir Ed was badly burned but it didn’t stop him from going on to greater heights after the war.

The big question though, is: what’s the deal with the guy next to him? Why is he starkers?

Rear Gunner Sugden doesn’t do anything to alter my father’s opinion of the airforce. Probably an Aussie.

[steve mahoney]

So, on to the W47 boat.

There’s only this one photo of W47. It’s not a particularly important boat, it just happens to be in a photo of some interesting planes. However, it is interesting to me and fits in with my usual local NZ tug/workboat subjects. It’s also a very simple little boat so the build shouldn’t be too complicated. I can slot it in between sessions on the never-ending Maui.

Figuring out the dimensions relied a lot on guesswork. I could have got some measurements of various parts of the P51 (there are plenty of them available) and tried to extrapolate them onto the boat. Yeah? Nah! Too hard. Too much distance between the plane and boat.

Another way to figure it out is using the height of the guy in the boat.In 1950, when the photo is most likely to have been taken, the average height of a New Zealand bloke was 5’8’’ (68 inches). From the top of your head to your fingertips is 64.3% of your total height. So measure that on the crewman (A) and that is equal to 64.3% of 68inches (C). Then use that to work out the boat’s dimensions. Easier than it sounds.

Ended up with a LOA of 25’9”. Sounds about right, looks about right. Below the waterline is pure speculation but it’s a single chine, planing hull.

[steve mahoney]

One of the readers on another forum found this online. It says that W47, 48 and 49 were 24 feet long, built in Picton (South Island) in 1942 but finished off in Auckland. All were shipped up to Fiji and 47 and 48 were shipped back to Auckland in 1944. That's a lot of travel for a little boat.

My initial research showed that 47 was built in Auckland by Lowe's, a wellknown boatyard. Picton built boats were made for the Marlborough Sounds and were quite distinctive. The Sounds get lots of wind and serious chop but not much swell so the local boats were made for those conditions. In Wellington, 50km directly across Cook Strait from Picton, the local boats were different again, having to content with bad weather, big swells, strong tides and rips.

W47 looks a lot like an Auckland boat – ideal for inner harbour work. Maybe the plans came from Auckland, and it was completed by Lowe's.

Anyway, it means adjusting the size of the hull parts slightly. No biggie.

[steve mahoney]

I've reduced the length at waterline to 24ft, and am recutting the cutting the parts.

The lines are pretty simple and I’ve based them on similar sized workboats built in Auckland in the 1930s. There were some very nice launches produced then and WG Lowe & Sons (W47’s builder) made some classics. No pleasure boats were built in NZ between 1939 and 1946 – all essential materials, engines, and boat builders went to the war effort. The RNZAF even had its own shipwrights.

[steve mahoney]

The re-cut ply will be here on Tuesday so we have time for one last little interlude.

Although Auckland had many thriving boatyards no pleasure boats were built in NZ between 1939 and 1946 – all essential materials, engines, and boat builders went to the war effort. Pleasure boating was seen as a bit frivolous during wartime, fuel was rationed, trigger-happy Home Guard coastal batteries, plus, there were submarine nets and mines around most harbours. Not all friendly ones either.

On June 14 1940 the German merchant raider KMS Orion (photo 2) laid 244 mines around the approaches to Auckland Harbour. The following night the RMS Niagara (photo 1) hit a mine not far north of Auckland and went down – with 8.5 tons of gold bars bound for the British war effort. $750million! After the war they salvaged most, but not all of it from 121m deep.

The Niagara had always been a bit jinxed. At her 1912 launching she was nicknamed 'The Titanic of the Pacific' as she was luxuriously appointed, the first oil burning passenger ship, and extremely fast. That name didn't last long. In 1919 she was responsible for bringing the Spanish Flu to NZ, another bad call. In 1931 she hit the wharf in Vancouver at speed, and in 1935 collided with a freighter at full noise. In 1937 300 crates of fireworks went off while being loaded in Sydney, 1 dead, 5 seriously hurt.

Strangely enough, Niagara's sister ship, the Aotearoa was converted into an armed cruiser (HMS Avenger) in WWI

The Orion had sneaked into the Pacific disguised as a Brasilian, and then a Dutch merchant ship. It was armed with a lot of canons, including a 6.5inch, 3 torpedo tubes, a hidden seaplane, and a hold full of mines and munitions. It went on to sink 10 ships with its guns, and take out several others with mines around NZ and Australia. A few mines washed up on the NZ coast but didn’t do any damage. Photo 5 shows someone about to prove that anyone can defuse a mine once. Careful parking outside the pub in the dark (photo 6).

Germany had also used this tactic successfully in WWI with the Seeadler (Sea Eagle) captained by Felix von Luckner (Der Seeteufel – the Sea Devil) and his crew of ‘Piraten des Kaisers’. The Seeadler (last photo) was a 3 masted windjammer with 2 x 105mm guns and a couple of hidden 500hp engines for quick getaways. They used a sailng ship as there were very few  bunkering stations available to Germany in the Pacific – the only German territory – Samoa, had been taken over by NZ at the outbreak of the war.

Check him out on wikipedia, his story is fascinating. Can’t understand why it isn’t a TV series, makes Indiana Jones look like a lazy, feckless, wimp.

Back to the build on Tuesday – promise.

[steve mahoney]

Well, the Easter Bunny came through with the goods on time. I got the re-sized, re-cut parts and was able to make a start. A pretty good start – everything slotted together really well. So far, so good, although at only 1mm thick the ply is very flexible. The keel is 2mm – two pieces stuck together. Just about the bare minimum for structural pieces.

The grated piece is a base for the duck-board decking. It should all make sense in a minute.

Little W47 is basically an open boat so there aren’t many places to hide any structural framing. Building it at 1/50 it’s not really feasible to build the ribs to scale, so all of the formwork and strengthening will have to be in the keel, the deck (disguised as duckboards), and under it, and the topside deck. The grated piece will also be the edge of the chine line.

So, first job is to make the duckboards. The grate is the base for the styrene planks. The boards are 2mm x 0.4mm and spaced a gnat’s apart.

Once they are all in place, you can’t see the grate base. Yeah, W47 might have had a standard ply deck but I like the idea, and look, of the duckboards.

Then the deck was attached to the keel and the only frames that I can hide. These were squared up, braced and clamped. The second bow frame will have the top section cut out after the hull side are attached. Not much to it.

[steve mahoney]

The hull is a simple, single chine, planing hull, similar to many launches of the era. Not many structural pieces to hold everything in place but the grating base really firms everything up. The hull base and sides are 0.7mm styrene. They all went together quite easily. Gotta love that styrene cement! Instant and clean!

And the whole thing is quite strong and robust. When the top deck sections are on it’ll be bullet proof.

[steve mahoney]

I had thought that the futtocks (there’s a word I don’t use every day) and stringers would be purely cosmetic but they actually really stiffen up the hull. Who knew?

The styrene futtocks are 1mm square and the stringers are 1mm x 0.5mm. I made a little cutting jig for the futtocks, it really made the whole process simple and tidy. I'm lovin' that styrene!!

Happy with the way they turned out. The tops of the hull sides will need to be sanded down and I’ll have to paint the interior now as I won’t be able to get into all of the nooks and crannies after I attach the topsides.

[steve mahoney]

I went for ‘Cambridge Blue’ for the interior. Perfect match to the BW photo.

In the 70s my father built several ply dinghies in these colours: hull: white, with Cambridge Blue duckboards. It’s also the colour of the North Auckland Rugby team, just up the road from the Hobsonville airbase – go the mighty Taniwha! The engine cover and towing bitt will be maroon. Cambridge blue and maroon – go the Hammers!

The top deck is attached, the hull has been smoothed out, and most gaps filled. The propeller shaft tube is in, and the keel has been deepened a lttle. I’m happy with the way it’s heading. The hull needs a bit more sanding and lots more detail yet.