Boating New Zealand - May 2018

120 Boating New Zealand

G

rowing up in Henderson and Herne Bay,

Bagnall’s father Warwick was a carpenter with a

passion for boats. he late Roy Parris built two

launches for Warwick, the 7.7m Lady Mary and

the 8.5m Achilles.

Parris became good friends with the Bagnall family and in

1970 ofered to take on Geofrey Bagnall as an apprentice at his

Beaumont Street yard in St Mary’s Bay.

Parris specialised in designing and building carvel-planked

launches, mostly in the six to nine-metre range. He’d served

his apprenticeship with Dick Laing, building nine to 14m

displacement launches. He spent some time during the war at

the Naval Dockyards building 30m trawlers and after WWII

went out on his own with his brother Ken.

he Parris brothers ran a canny operation; watch the

overheads, minimise waste, build fast and do the paperwork and

designing after hours – good lessons for any aspiring boatbuilder.

Parris usually designed from half models and had a very

good eye for a fair line. “He always said a boat has to look like a

lady’s leg with no callouses,” says Bagnall. “If it’s right to the eye

then it’s right.”

Parris closed his yard around 1975 and began building

clinker dinghies from his Westmere waterfront home. hese are

highly regarded by those who own them. He sold his home in

the early 2000s and moved to Perth to be closer to his sons. He

passed away there in 2012.

with JOHN MACFARLANE

REFLECTIONS

For 18 years boatbuilder Geo Bagnall’s

worked out of a shed at the head of

Milford Marina near Auckland. But the

shed’s to be demolished and replaced

with waterfront apartments. It seems an

opportune time to tell Bagnall’s story.

Moving on

THE GEOFFREY BAGNALL STORY