Above. Romany on the upper reaches of Auckland's Waitemata harbour. We are on a 'run' up to Riverhead.
STEAM LAUNCH "ROMANY"
"Romany" was built by Alex Baxter in his Whangarei boatyard in 1994. I first met Alex several years previously when we had my previous steamer "Gypsy" on the Ngunguru river in company with Percy Ginders on his boat "Romp". Alex was on "Romp" and, being an inveterate video taker, had taken a lot of shots on the day. I think he was quite taken with "Gypsy" -she is a nice little ship although I don't like the doghouse she now has. Rumour had it that Alex laid the keel of his own steamer very shortly thereafter and worked on her in between other more pressing projects.
She is a heavy, traditionally-built boat; typical of the sort of small steamboat of the turn of the 20th century and certainly typical of a Baxter boat -a real mainlander. She has easy lines, straight stem and transom stern with out board rudder. Scantlings were typically heavy: Tallow wood keel, spotted gum ribs at 6" centres and heavy kauri planking copper fastened, She scoots along very smartly with no fuss or bother.
Sadly Alex fell seriously ill when the hull was substantially complete and he had just started on the machinery. I had by this stage sold "Gypsy" and, feeling a little lost, I bought Alex's last boat from the family.
We sadly lumbered her out of the boat shed and on to a trailer to bring her to Auckland. John Rea kindly took her over for some pattern making, the making of the rudder, boring and fitting of the stern tube and some subtle rearranging of the engine beds.
I had a new coal fired vertical firetube boiler that was ideal and a 3 x 4 single cylinder engine that was had previously proved in "Gypsy" for a season. The whole lot was installed in "Romany" and a keel condenser fitted to cater for the used steam. I also fitted a main mast from a Montague whaler that had been in the garage rafters for the last four house moves.
So that is the good ship "Romany" which was named for Alex's grand daughter. We took her up to Whangarei in 1999 and had a little -sometimes tearful- ceremony with all the family including the Baxter grand daughters on board. Romany herself did a lot of the tiller work.
I plan to take "Romany" down to Rotoiti for the symposium. I am busily stripping the machinery out for a little detailing.
Russell Ward
You can read more about Russell and his addiction to steam at www.steam.co.nz
