THE MOTOR BOAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13097, 9 February 1906, Page 7

THE MOTOR BOAT.

A REVOLUTION IN SHIPPING.

LOCAL BUILDERS' WORK.

A NEW FACTOR IN SETTLEMENT.

;.: One of flic most striking features in the history of Auckland shipbuilding has been: v the impetus given to the industry by the application of oil engines to sailing vessels. The installation of auxiliary steam motive power to sailing vessels is no new thing, of course, but it cannot, on the whole, be said to have been a complete success, otherwise, it would have been more generally adopted. A few years ago the famous Bremen firm of Bickmers titled up one of the largest s-.nliti" - ships with auxiliary steam power, and much was expected of her by shipowners all over the world. She sailed on a maiden voyage to the East, and was never heard of ' again. Many yachts have auxiliary steam ■■ power, hut vessels built for the pleasure of private owners need not be taken into account when considering the commercial aspect fit the question. Where steam may hive failed as an auxiliary, oil has been, and continues to be. a great success. The reasons arc obvious. The oil. or petroleum, spirit. is put into the reservoir, the flywheel is given a turn or two, and the engine is ready for work. There is no coal, no water, no waiting for steam to get up; 11. mess of coal-dust, and no leaky boiler tubes to watch ; and the cost of oil is materially less than the cost of steam. Oil. KNGINES AS AN AUXILIARY. Sailing out of Auckland are severed notable examples! of trading vessels lifted with oil engines. We need only mention the Government's schooner Countess of P»anfurly. 198 tons. 90 horse-power; the schooner Vaite, 107 tons, 50 horse-power ; and the schooner Kaeo, 184 tons. 60 horsepower (built at Whaugaroa). These vessels can. and do. go anywhere in any weather, rough or smooth. The Countess of Ranfurly and the Vaite thread their way among coral patches in the islands, independently of the treacherous! currents which so often prove destructive to ships dependent upon sail alone for motive purposes. The Kaeo usually trades on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, which is sufficient to say that she has to meet year in and year out every variety of weather, and some of it as heavy as prevails in the roughest waters of the northern hemisphere jt times. The application of the oil engine to vessels of such tonnage as has been mentioned must be a work of time, and more or less restricted, for fewer sailing vessels are being built year by year, although, it is quite possible that the introduction of the oil engine may bring about a, great change in this respect. Already in Auckland, to say nothing of Sydney, the motor boat is ousting the sailing yacht as a cruiser, and power-boat races were included in recent regatta programmes. To show in what measure the auxiliary powered boat has grown in Auckland during the past seven years, it may be stated that there are running in and out of the Waitemata alone no less than 54 vessels fitted with oil engines, besides a large fleet of small oil-motor pleasure' boats, and the size of the engines tuns from, three horse-power to over 100 horse-power. Auckland has already a Power Boat Association, with a large membership roll, and over 60 oil boats on the register. OPENING UP THE COUNTRY, he oil boat has already begun to play a very important part in the solution of the transit problem in North Auckland. Such extensive, and in many cases tortuous, , waterways as the narrow branches of the : Kaipara, Hokianga. Northern Wairoa, and the arms of the Manukau, are now utilised to a very large extent. The " teuf-teuf" of the motor launch is heard in the upper willow-fringed, still, Wairoa River, right up to the head of navigation, almost to the foot of the Wairua Falls. The motor boat penetrates far inland from the Kaipara. Drawing little more than half-a-dozen inches of water, it brings down settlers' produce to ports of transhipment, or to within easy access of the rail. Towards this important factor in the opening up of. the country, the Government has not been asked to contribute one penny. Long ago one of Auckland's most prominent citizens used to row 55 miles up the Northern Wairoa to court his wife. It was a long pull, but love gave the needed strength. To-day this gentleman would probably jump into his oil launch, turn on a tap, give the fly-wheel ' i a twist, and sit with tiller in hand, and pipe in mouth, while the engine did the rest. The dairy farmer in the North just puts his milk vessels on board the launch, and " steams" down to the factory ; the orchardist piles his full fruit- cases, as many as he can, on board the boat, and goes down leisurely with or against the tide, lands his fruit on the wharf, and brings back a new . plough or a line of stores. The introduction of the motor coastal sailing boat has revolutionised the lives of coastal settlers, as well as those having access to inland waters, for they compete with coastal steamships, which formerly had matters in their awn hands, and steam freights are now lower by 40 per cent, than before the oilengined vessel made its influence felt. THE SETTLER'S CUTTER. The small oil-power vessel can obtain passenger and freight business—and make it paywhen the traue would not be sufficiently remunerative for steam vessels. The natural development, of the reduced cost of freight, brought about directly and indirectly by tin- oil-power vessel, has been to make every settler, who owned a sailing ;utter, extremely anxious to install an engine in his craft, and thus save a great deal of time which could b • men profitably devoted to (in- development of his holding. Consequently, fully 20 per cent, of the coastal cutters in the Auckland district are engined with oil motors of from five horsepower to 50 horse-power. The least advantage which this power has conferred upon its users is the reduction of their isolation from the metropolis, while there has been a very considerable saving of time effected in the transit of goods to and from the Auckland markets. The fishing industry has gained enormously by the oil engine, and fishermen, who were formerly dependent upon coastal steamers picking up their catch somewhere out in the gulf, are now able to bring their vessels right up to ; the Queen-street Wharf without loss of time, and at any state of tide or weather. It may not be long before the fishing industry will be so organised as to be worked by a ■ fleet of oil-power fishing boats, carrying their catches to v. large s-.eamet out in the ' gulf, and so avoiding loss of time in travelling independently backwards and forwards to town. IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGINES. There was a time when a man hesitated to put very far out in a motor boat, because lie was not certain whether his engine ,:: was going to fail him at some critical moment, and the spectacle of the power-boat £ , 'being towed back to port by a cutter or a scow has been seen on the Waitemata. Hut improvements are made, one might Ifr : • say, almost- hourly, in the oil engine, and K; ■:: stops are now very rate. The oil engine is

absolutely safe, and cannot explode. The worst that can happen to it is to stop. Unlike the. motor car, there is no constantly recurring heavy bill for tires pulverised by bad roads. For long runs the oil launch holds already a better record than steam vessels of equal size. One recent run was from New York to the Black Seai, and, coming nearer home, runs are talked of from Melbourne to Sydney, while a- reliability test from Sydney to Newcastle (New South Wales) is to take place in April next. THE PLEASURE MOTOR BOAT. Coming to the pleasure boats, it may be mentioned that the New Zealand Power Boat Association, Auckland, numbers over 60 members, audi has 30 boats on the books. The boats have raced in all recent regattas, and it is expected that Auckland will be represented in the motor boat club's championship regatta, to be held at Sydney in April. The number of these pleasure boats now being turned out by Auckland builders is very considerable, ncairly every builder having two or mote on the stocks. Last year one builder turned out 12 such boats, valued at from. £125 to £350 each, the total orders executed teaching £2700. Another builder in a smaller way of business reports having built six boats, averaging 25ft each. These were for Auckland. Kaipara, Thames, Waikato, and elsewhere in the district. The fastest boat in Auckland at the present time is the Togo, travelling at over 15 knots an hour. She is fitted with 25 horsepower four-cylinder engines. The very fast boats of this kind are much more heavily engined ;. for example, a. recent trial trip of a bomb designed by Herreshotf's of New York, put up 36 miles an hour. tier engines were 98 horse-power. While some builders in Auckland confine themselves entirely to building motor launches, others build them together with j other vessels, but there are very few build- , ers indeed who cannot say that the motor boat figures very largely in the annual output of their respective yards. SOME PRICES OF BOATS. One reason for the rapid expansion of the industry, not only in Auckland, but all over the world, is the comparative cheapness ot the power boat. For example, in London recently there were shown ait Olympia boats ranging from £50 for one horse-power to £70 to £80 for one and a-balf horse-power, according to the timber in the hull, while for a 28ft boat with a,u 11 horse-power three-cylinder engine £700 was asked. In Auckland a thoroughly comfortable cruiser 25ft in length, fitted with a five horse-power engine, and giving seven knots, can be obtained for £180. This would not include costly Utrecht velvet cushions, silver-plated door handles, silk curtains for ports, or a dazzling array of mirrors. Of course, smaller vessels with smaller engines cam. be built for much less. The work put into the hull by local builders is the best that can be done, and there is no need to dwell upon the eminent suitability of kauri and other woods for boat building. American engines appear to be very popular in Auckland, but elsewhere there is also a good demand for British makes. Mr. S. Hordern, the well-known Sydney yachtsman, has received a- 55 horsepower engine from Yarrow's, the famous torpedo boat builders. Anxious parents have for many years turned their attention to electricity as a. congenial and profitable solution of the problem of " what to do with our boys."' but the most modern industry of a mechanical sort is the making and fitting of oil engines, and it has now become firmly established in Auckland, and is increasing in importance daily. THE QUESTION OF LEGISLATION. There is one matter which gives local builders, engineers, and boat owners some concern at the present moment, viz., marine legislation, in so far a;s it applies to power boats. It seems odd that, although a man may be a highly-qualified steam engineer, he may know nothing whatever about an oil engine, simple as it is to work. But the great majority of average engineers, not realising that a new power had come into being, considered it beneath their dignity to learn anything about it, yet sufficient influence was brought to bear in high places, and it resulted in a law being passed prohibiting any oil-engined vessel to put to seat without an engineer on board. Perhaps the following story will make the matter clearer. Two brothers who had been trading out of Auckland, who had run their oil-engined cutter without accident for five years to a port some hundred miles away, were surprised one clay, when on the point of departure, to be told that they could not leave without an engineer. To enforce this ruling, the cutter's propeller was removed, and the brothers had to spend some time in j getting a " service ticket'' to work an engine | which they had been running for five years, j It is difficult, indeed, to find among the | average settlers a man able to stand before an inspector of machinery and answer correctly theoretical questions, for he may not be able to read properly, and yet such men have shown themselves to possess all the knowledge required to work their engines at sea with perfect safety, and to' effect temporary repairs in case of breakdown. It is doubtful if till the theory that the average settler can grasp through the medium of books will serve him when be experiences some practical or mechanical difficulty with his engine. The oil engine is undoubtedly here to stay, for it has demonstrated its usefulness too well to do otherwise. It is only a question of time when every facility will be given by the Government to users of such vessels to work them to the very best advantage, having due regard, of course, to the safety of the lives and propert v of those who use them, for it is impossible to realise how important a part they may yet play in the opening up of the colony gem-rally, and the Auckland provincial district in particular. The motor boat is displacing the gondola on the Venetian canals, it is used in chasing pirates in the Mediterranean, and it is employed to catch American fish poachers in Canadian inland waters. The first navy to employ the motor boat was that of Sweden, but it is surely working its way into the larger and more conservative navies of other countries. It is used for tire brigade purposes in harbours and rivers in. Europe and America, for police patrolling of waterways, and for towing and passenger and freight work in the canals of North China. Its rapid advancement in Auckland is only what might have been expected, and it may not be long before a very considerable development of the boating industry in Auckland may result from the advent of the motor boat.