A guy named Harry Julian of Pacifica Shipping had the cat. He was at one time chairman of the Auckland Harbour board. He was also a Kiwi and owned tugs and ships from the 50s. Just found a model being built of one of his companies ships on a union site. That ship ended up in Fiji as the Spirit Of Free Enterprise, not sure if it's still there.
Also found a pic of a commemorative plaque for a ship Named the Kaitawa. As a kid I went to the second engineers wedding to an Aussie girl and unfortunately he went missing with the ship a few weeks later. Still have a photo of them at the wedding. There's a SA guy here at the moment who has bought a Chinese Nanchang trainer (like a yak53) and he really puts it to good use, - it's certainly no 'hanger queen'like a lot of others. He's out every weekend barreling round the sky (doing aerobatics last week).
SA pilots here all seem very good and well trained and I think a lot are ex SAAF. I mentioned a while back, the guy who owned our biggest hobby shop, Daroish Kraidy was an excellent pilot and had won competitions in orienteering in SA and came 2nd in the world champs before his death ( went out in his Acro sport bipe over the sea one day and deliberately didn't come back) Nice guy, real shame. Felt sad for his kid as they were always building and flying models together at shows and events, see vid
JB

Meant the Cat JB - interesting story though........

The guy was actually a Kiwi and was a descendant of the founder of Queenstown in the south island. His hydrofoil was supposedly the first in NZ and was imported in the 60s. His name was Frank Howorth and he died in 2015 at 92. He was a pioneer of boat tourism on the Southern lakes
JB

Probably the same people who had the hydrofoil - seems they left Rhodesia in 1973/4 - lots of people emigrated to Kiwiland then - including a few friends. Lost touch over the years however...........

The name on the Hydrofoil is the same as the wave piercing cat we had here about 28 yrs ago as a fast ferry out to Great Barrier Island from Auckland (60nm). Was leased from Australia by a private individual for a few years then went back to Aus. Now running tourists on the Great Barrier Reef .
Also, a nice little British built Hydrofoil (privately imported and owned) which ran on Lake Wanaka in the South Island for years. Original owner died (80 odd) and boat was bought by a truck wrecking co, and the owner has restored it and transports it to the lakes for special events. Pics of Sea Flight in NZ and Oz (with pontoon on the GBR)
JB

For a minute thought it was the same hydrofoil - here's the Rhodesian one (only pics there are - see the stamp!) however it was a Seaflight - built in Messina - and the locally built slow ferry that virtually never missed a sailing........ was called Seahorse with sister Sea Lion - traveled about as fast as a Seahorse - 5 or 6 knots seem to recall - all owned by the Lake Shipping Co - no mention in the history blog of how unsuccessful the hydrofoil was.........

Hi Red, we had a Rodrigues PT 20 Hydrofoil in Auckland for a number of years doing the city to Waiheke Island run. Sold to Australia in the 80s and still afloat (barely) with a seized motor (MTU 12V) Guy couldn't afford to fix it. I've actually talked (email) to the guy in Sydney who owns it (and ran it for a while as a tourist ride), and he'd sunk a lot of money into it, but in the end it pretty much sent him broke. It was the last operating PT20 in the world,-real shame.
Google Manu-wai hydrofoil if you are interested.
Re cars,-I have a 90 Toyota Cressida (3L twin cam 24valve 7MGE) as my Sunday cruiser which is still quieter than most modern cars. I think they were a popular car in SA going by what SA friends have told me.
JB

Re -Are you thinking about a new project or is it a secret at the moment?
I've put some pics on the build blog Martin, might be the next.
JB

Meant to say the hovermarine sounds about as much use as the hydrofoil on Kariba - booked on the thing about 4 times - never got to go as it was broke each time......... built in Italy think it had spaghetti rubber instead of engines - and the one time they got it to go well it hit a submerged log..........was eventually sent back to Italy in disgrace - and promptly sank in the Med a while later when testing after repairs.

Did you mean tinworm JB ? Lots of cars in UK suffer from that - from the salt on the roads.
My VW Badger Jeep was built in 1980 - Beetle with fibreglass Willys WW2 body - aka Beach Buggy- everything rusting except the body , Its a 1600 motor so probably 70's. Love it.
Better half runs around in a 900cc 3 cylinder modern type which goes like the clappers ....... She's also known as foot flat..........
To top it all we have the use of a friends old Chrysler Voyager seven seater - lovely to drive when we can afford the fuel......... Only a V6 but floats along well - long distance an absolute pleasure.
Kits are a ridiculous price here - a small Lindberg plastic tug costs the equivalent of 60 quid. Artesania kit priced at 50 in UK costs over 100 - more than double.

So Jb,
Are you thinking about a new project or is it a secret at the moment?

Martin555.

They want far too much for these Martin, and I need to spend some money on the house this summer. I was on the site looking at cars, (my 88 Corolla liftback I've had for 16yrs is going to need replacing soon, as it's getting a bad case of the brown moth,- living near the sea's not helping) and I had a quick look to see what models were for sale.
Mostly Chinese plastic racers now days and very few scale models. Still kits in the model shops if you want to pay around $600 for a large Billings kit, which is why I've scratch built my own, (still costs around $300 to build something like the ST with all the gear though)
JB

Hi Jb,
With a lot of work and the skills you have I'm sure that you will definitely do a good job on them if you were to get them.

I am assuming that you are looking for your next project?

Martin555.