BOAT BUILT AT MT. PLEASANT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27657, 13 May 1955, Page 12

BOAT BUILT AT MT. PLEASANT

Spare-Time Work For Six Years LAUNCHING DAY TOMORROW Saturday will be a day of great expectations for the Ealand family, of Akaroa, for on that day they will superintend the launching of the 40ft launch which for six years they have been building on the front lawn of their old home on Mount Pleasant. The Tere-moana (“Speeding over water”), as the vessel will be called, is one of the largest boats ever built in New Zealand by an amateur in his spare time. The man in charge of construction is Mr E. J Ealand, once a metallurgist for a Christchurch firm, but now a teacher at the Akaroa District High School. His wife and 10-year-old daughter, Yvonne, have worked hard as boat-builder’s assistants, and the other two members of the family, John, aged 2£, and Susan, aged 10 weeks, have looked on at the later stages.

Mr Ealand is not quite sure how he began to build his boat, but he has been interested in boats and boating ever since he was a small boy. He thinks the project probably began when he started to glance through plans for cruiser launches. With the Tere-moana now almost completed he and his wife have started to think about holiday cruises to Fiji and other Pacific Islands and—at present the largest idea —a voyage to Melbourne in November, 1956, to see the Olympic Games.

The boat has been built from plans for a Norwegian trawler with superstructure designed to meet the particular requirements of the Ealands. As she is now, completed except for interior fittings, engine and paint, the Tere-moana weighs about 11 tons. She is a little less than 40ft long, has a 12ft 3in beam at the deck, and a draft of 4ft 3in. When fitted with engine, tanks, furnishings and other gear Mr Ealand expects she will gross more than 18 tons. Australian Wood Used Australian tallow-wood, said by Mr Ealand to be the best available for his purpose, has been used throughout the Tere-moana. Planking is Ilin thick, braced by laminated ribs of the same timber and strengthened by 12 stringers (six on each side of the massive hull). With her 300-gallon tank full of diesel fuel the boat will have a cruising range of 2500 miles on engine alone. She will also carry 400 square feet of sail on her single mast. Materials for the boat have cost about £2OOO, and when finished she will have a market value of about £7OOO. The diesel engine bought for her at a cost of £ll9O, was wrecked beyond repair when it fell from a carrier’s truck on the way to Akaroa. Another, probably of 30 horsepower, will be bought, but not, Mr Ealand trusts, at his expense. Below the Tere-moana’s decks is large cabin space—enough to sleep nine persons in comfort. With someone always on watch in the wheelhouse during a cruise Mr Ealand expects his crew will total 10. Already Mrs Ealand has collected sheets and blankets and other soft furnishings for the boat. The squabs on the saloon will be a claret colour, she said yesterday. All the bunk mattresses, and there are nine of them, each about 6ft by 3ft and filled with kapok, were made by Mrs Ealand. The Tere-moana has a stem 30in thick and the rest of her frame is equally as massive. Engine bearers lOin by 4in run the length of the boat and there are five water-tight bulkheads. The cabins have all been panelled with mahogany plywood which will be polished. A 12 volt generator will supply electric power for the flush-light-ing in every cabin. No beams on which a taller person might bump his head protrude into the cabins. Launching by Crane-ship At present the launch is 500 ft above sea level behind a corrugated iron fence around a house on Mount Pleasant road. On Saturday a large transport truck will arrive from Ashburton to take the boat to Lyttelton where the crane-ship Rapaki will make the launching. Fishermen from Akaroa and Mr George Brasell, of Lyttelton, have taken a great interest in the building of the Tere-moana and on Saturday about a dozen of them will drive to Mount Pleasant to help with the moving operations. Yesterday a trawler arrived from Akaroa to tow the launch around to Akaroa where final furnishing will be done. Mr Ealand has sea-faring traditions for his father, Mr Charles Ealand, was a British seaman for 20 years. His maternal grandfather was Captain Lars Christensen, who distinguished himself by leading a Danish geological expedition to Iceland. The expedition was ice-bound for three years and when Captain Christensen’s ship finally returned to Leith Harbour, Scotland, only three men remained alive, and they were seriously crippled by frostbite.