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Peregrine, Pupuke, Goshawk, Mollyhawk, Korea, Ngaroa,
Sparrowhawk, Ewen W Alison and Alex Elison.”
Most of these were powered by triple-expansion steam
engines – with the crankshaft directly coupled to the propeller
shaft driving a prop at each end of the boat – one pushing, one
pulling.
Around then Burnnand designed his first boat, a 4.8m
runabout, and built it in the evenings and over weekends. He
bought and rebuilt a Durant Motors Rugby engine and fitted it
to his new boat.
“It would do nearly 20 knots,” he recalls.
After-hours boatbuilding became a profitable sideline for
Burnnand, which was just as well as aged 17 he’d bought a
waterfront section on the Panmure River for £850 pounds. He
paid it off in a just over three years by building 10 4.8m boats to
his own design but similar to the Mosquito Craft boats, which
he sold for around £90 each. As a comparison, his wages were
then around £2.10s per week.
He resigned from Millar Samson in 1956, the day his five-year/10,000 hour apprenticeship was completed.
“I was more interested in boats, so I approached Garth Lane
for a job and he asked me to start the next week.”
The Lane Motorboat Company was then located on the
Tamaki River and employed around 10 boatbuilders and
five apprentices. Burnnand was the only engineer and did
everything; making patterns, installing engines, shafts,
propellers, rudders, steering, controls, wiring, stoves and the
deck fittings. Little of this equipment was available off the shelf,
it all had to be custom-built.
Then, thanks to the restrictive import and licensing
regulations, obtaining a proper marine engine was near
impossible and Burnnand marinised many vehicle engines
such as the Ford Trader diesels. He also carried out a number of
launch repowers during his time at Lane’s.
With his section paid off, he wanted a bigger boat. He asked
Gerry Breekveld to design a 15.2m tugboat, which Scholton
& Brijs (later Vos and Brijs) built to a hull and decks stage in
steel.I was more
interested in boats,
so I approached
Garth Lane for a
job and he asked
me to start the
next week.TOP Burnnand’s first dinghy, powered
by a 4.5hp Villiers engine.
BOTTOM Burnnand designed and built
10 of these 4.8m outboard powered
runabouts.