Classic boats cruise around lake

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From jet engines to the power of steam, the seventeenth New Zealand Antique and Classic Boat Show welcomed marine vessels of all kinds.

The two day event attracted around 120 clinkers, steam launches, classic motorboats, sailing dinghies and their owners, to Lake Rotoiti’s Kerr Bay for displays both on and off the water.

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Nelson’s Nicky Murdoch and Newton King.

The event, which first started in 1999, was the creation of Pete Rainey. “I was restoring an old classic boat and got interested in the kind of activity that was happening in the States with classic boating and saw that nobody was really doing that kind of thing in New Zealand, so thought I’d give it a go,” he says.

Nelson boat owners Newton King and Nicky Murdoch brought their 1960s runabout Taranui along for the weekend, a boat they found and purchased around two years ago and know very little about.

The vessel was discovered in the shed of a bach they bought in Tennyson Inlet in 2013. The previous owner believed it had not been in the water for at least 20 years and, once it was brought back to Nelson, it was found to be in near perfect working order.

While a number of awards were handed out for the different classes, it was the hydroplane Bel Air lll that took home the Jens Hansen trophy for Best Vessel Overall. Owned by Peter Knight Jnr, the boat was built by Peter Knight Snr in 1965 and set a world speed record in 1968.