Winsome Ways

SUPPLIED

Big game fishing in the Bay of Islands on the Winsome II when it was owned by Andy Donovan.

They may not have been looking for a boat, but a motor launch with a rich history has become a special part of Chris and Julia Knowles’ family. The couple chat with Paula Hulburt about how Winsome II came to be.

The ocean breeze tugs playfully at clothes and hair, whipping around ankles and lifting sunhats from heads. The bright white of Winsome II’s hull gleams under the Marlborough sun as the frothy wake bubbles behind.

It is 36ft of kauri-hulled beauty, lovingly restored over the decades and by both previous and current owners Chris and Julia Knowles who keep Winsome II on a pole mooring in Picton Marina. She easily catches the admiring gaze of those who spot her smooth lines and the crisp white of The Royal New Zealand Air Force Ensign as it flutters proudly to attention. The Winsome II is an alluring sight, fresh in countenance but with a patina of age that comes with a varied history. Through the passing of the years and different owners, the boat has not lost any of its original charm, explains Chris, who wryly adds that he never had any big plans to be a boat owner. “A friend of ours, Mike Allen saw it [Winsome II] in the North Island and brought her back to Havelock.” “We had a few friends with boats, and we definitely liked that it was wooden, we are definitely not fast boat people,” Chris adds. “I was semi-retired and needed another challenge, so we bought it.” Built in 1922 by boatbuilders Lane and Company in Auckland, Winsome II was soon owned by David Teed, then Mayor of Newmarket. Originally named Maude T after his daughter, the now classic launch has enjoyed many identities. After Teed’s premature death in 1925, his estate sold her, launching her on a new journey and a different fate, ultimately taking her into the care of the Knowles family. Chris talks of the motor launch as a loved member

of the family; indeed, Winsome II has played host to many family outings in the Marlborough Sounds over the years. Looking around its deck, glimpses of memories past make themselves briefly known. Shrieks of delight echo through the years as Chris’s mind’s eye conjures up his children fishing from the stern and jumping off into the cooler embrace of the Sounds. The pop of a cork prised from a pinot and the clink of glasses are there again, then gone. Happy times. While the children are now adults in their thirties, Winsome II is host to a number of family friends. Part of her charm for the family is her ability to adapt while maintaining her style and heritage. “She hasn’t changed that much since her pre-war years,” explains Chris. “The work executed by us, and by a valued boating friend in Richie Browning has been done sympathetically in deference to Winsome II’s great age.” “She’s almost 100 years old now,” Chris says. “She still looks gorgeous, still got some lovely lines.” Her history is captivating, an integral part of her attraction. Both Chris and Julia have gone to great lengths to discover and document more about the boat that has come to mean so much to them. Her charms are many and have captured the imagination of others who happily share knowledge of her past online. “She was bought by a ship’s pilot who came to New Zealand from Shanghai when the British were big traders there. Captain Emanuel was quite senior in the Malaysian Rubber Company, and he renamed her, Latex.” Winsome II is a piece of history in her own right. Sitting low in the water, her umber underside almost hidden by the waves as they thwack against the hull, it is easy to envisage some of the journeys she has been on, the people, now long since gone, who also once stood at her helm.

“At the outbreak of war,” Chris says, “she was commandeered by the Royal New Zealand Airforce, ferrying trainee pilots across Auckland and Tauranga harbours.” “It is this service that allows us to fly the RNZAF ensign today.” From troop ferry to charter boat, Winsome II changed hands again around 1946, turning from duty to pleasure as a big game fishing vessel. “Andy Donovan had her then and I believe he lived on the boat too,” Chris says. A well-known boat broker and ships chandler in the Auckland area, Andy was said to be a dashing figure around town who owned Winsome II up until his death in 1989. “At this point he passed her on to his grandson,” explains Chris. Records obtained by Chris and Julia show Donovan bought her from the Crown in 1946 and made some changes, many of which have shaped the Winsome II the Knowles have today. The worn-out Stearns Motor Manufacturing Company’s marine motor was eventually replaced with a brand new 1946 Chrysler 8-cylinder marine engine. Latex got her new name here too, with Donovan naming her Winsome after his daughter. She is now powered by a sturdy Nissan TD 42 diesel. “He added the II after realising there was another Winsome out there owned by the Picmeres in Whangarei,” Chris says. Responsible for the development of Blenheim’s Hotel d’Urville in the 90’s, Chris and Julia have a natural flair for aesthetics which they have put to good use on Winsome II, adopting the adage, less is more. The one thing they haven’t skimmed on though is time, with the pair taking their dream boat out whenever they can. “We try and go out every week when we can. One thing we have learned to do is recognise the dangers and be very cautious out on the water, especially in the sounds,” Chris says. Semi-retired and a self-confessed Jack of All Trades, Chris has no plans to give up his sea legs any time soon, or the Winsome II. “We’ll hopefully all grow old together.”