Blue Duck
1895 Fantail clinker work boat
This 1895 fantail launch was found in Alexandra were she had been a garden feature for 25 years. She is 16′ with a beam of 5′ 4” draft 2ft. Her prop is a 17×30 and is full protected by her keel. She was built by Knewstubb brothers in port Chalmers and was powered with an oil engine. In 1927 she was converted to electric as a tender for a experimental electric gold dredge at Maori point on the Shotover river. Some time in the 1970s she was converted to a day sailor with a fixed keel with a lump of railway iron as ballast and a cabin. 1980 she sank in the Frankton arm of Lake Wakatipu. She was then salvaged and taken to Cromwell for 15 years in a garden then moved to Alexandra for another 10 years in a Garden. 2005 I salvaged and restored her and fitted a steam plant after 1 fire and all sorts of other close calls steam was out We restored a 1907 Gray 8hp for her this gave us lots of starting problems. bench testing her no problems started easy ran well put it back in boat would not start back to bench started back in boat would not start so we tried a restored Stuart Turner same problems. We are now developing a electric power plant to go in her using a 36 volt brushless motor and a planetary box with deep cycle battery’s
New seating is in 
15-1 reduction box with a temporary 24 volt dc motor this setup push’s her at 3.5 Knots 13 amps
Brushless motor fitted 3.5 Knot’s 6.5 amps big improvement