Todays ride on a paddler

[kiwimodeller]

Had an interesting ride today at the Paeroa Maritime Museum on a boat called Tamati. The boat is built on a 100 year old wooden launch hull. In recent years it has had what is best described as a "Tram Car" type cabin added for commercial and charter use. It was then converted to a paddler, apparently because the South Island lake on which it used to work was prone to weed. The power is provided by a small Izuzu diesel with independent hydraulic drive to the wheels which are relatively narrow fearthering wheels with stainless steel floats. The motor appears to only run just above idle most of the time and yet the boat gets along really well. Stopping one wheel assists the rudder to turn the boat a bit but when the inside wheel was reversed the boat swapped ends almost in its own length. With a little "back and forward" in opposite directions the wheels almost moved the boat directly sideways for mooring. Very impressive and a very enjoyable voyage which just shows that there is still a place for paddlers and that they have advantages. Cheers, Ian.

[Eddy Matthews]

I found a couple of very small images of the Tamati mentioned above....

Regards
Eddy

[kiwimodeller]

Thanks for those Eddie, the camera was one thing we forgot to take. Cheers, Ian.

[Harold H. Duncan]

Hi Ian,
Sorry I couldn't get to join you Sunday. Some photos taken of paddle box repairs last time I was in Paeroa.
cheers
kiwi

[mjt60a]

If I remember right, there was an article in 'Paddle Wheels' on this boat, the feathering wheels are roughly based on those fitted to Maid of the loch, apparently... 

[kiwimodeller]

Whatever they were based on they were very well made and very effective as was the hydraulic drive which was quiet and smooth and gave infinitely variable adjustment to the speed of each wheel separately. Altogether a great advert for modern paddlewheels. Cheers, Ian.

[Roderick Smith]

I knew that I had posted material on PV Tamati before.
I went to the search box, on 'Tamati': it brought up five items, and not mine.
I searched on 'Ianthe', and it found my items.
There are three on the one page, including scans of the brochure.
www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2541.msg9860#msg9860
www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2541.msg10446#msg10446
www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2541.msg11678#msg11678

In turn, they refer to a video posted or linked in the video section.  With no direct reference, that left me having to pore through the whole video section to find it.  That proved to be futile: there is no video section.  youtube is bringing up nothing useful under either term.

Yes, paddle beats screw in weed, as I have discovered in Barmah Lake, moored at Wentworth Junction Rally, and cruising Murray River above lock 7.  At the rally, the bigger paddleboats made a few passes to munch the weed away to help the smaller vessels.

Post edit: I found the Books, magazines & videos section.  It is only six pages, so I went through them all: I couldn't find any reference to one about Tamati.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor