Nancy AWBF Reference Information
| Registration ID: 96727219 Name of boat: NancyOwner of boat: Living Boat Trust IncDesigner: unknownBuilder: AA ‘Tucker’ AbelYear built: 1917Place built: Battery Point, HobartHome port: TASHull type: MonohullLOA – Feet: 35LOD – Feet: 35LWL – Feet: 30Beam – Feet: Beam – Inches: Draught – Feet: Draught – Inches: Freeboard – Feet: Vessel type: Power boatStyle – power boats: Motor launchConstruction: CarvelTimbers used – frames: BlackwoodTimber used – hull: Huon PineTimber used – deck: Celery Top Pine over PlywoodPower: ElectricBoat sign other info: Nancy is 100 years old this year! Originally a Huon River ferry, she also was a Derwent ferry and flying boat tender. Now she tours on the Huon again.Special boat information: This Australian Wooden Boat Festival coincides with the 100th year of Nancy, a Huon and River Derwent ferry which was built in 1917 by AA ‘Tucker’ Abel. Abel was well known boat builder in Hobart, Tasmania who specialised in motor launches. Nancy operated as a ferry, initially on the Huon River and later on the River Derwent, for almost 40 years until at least the 1950s.Nancy was built for Hobart ferry operator Harry Rowe and was similar to the Blanche Abel built earlier in the same yard. ‘Tucker’ Abel’s yard was at Battery Point, and the vessel was christened Rowella by Miss Elsie Abel. Abel ‘s yard was established in 1905 but destroyed by fire in 1917. Nancy could be one of the last craft he built at that yard. The 10.67m (35 ft) long fantail launch was typical for its period with a plumb stem, low freeboard and enclosed cabin area forward of about midships. It was licensed to carry sixty passengers and could travel at eight knots, powered by an 8hp Frisco single cylinder petrol engine. Huon Pine, King Billy Pine and Blackwood were used in the construction.Around 1925 the vessel was renamed Nancy, possibly when acquired by Tom Smart. In the 1950s it was used as a tender to the Ansett Short Sunderland flying boats which connected Hobart to Sydney. When retired from this service Nancy became a pleasure craft, and was known to be owned by Elliott ‘Spuddo’ Giles and later by E Wettenhall.For many years, Nancy lay on a mooring at Lindisfarne. She was then given to a young man who had helped the owner with the boat. The new owner put the boat on the slips at the Motor Yacht Club of Tasmania, intending to break her up to sell her Huon Pine timber in small pieces to craftsmen. Trevor Dicker intervened and signed a contract of purchase for $1, writing it on a beer coaster at the bar of the MYC.Dicker engaged a local shipwright, Mick Hubbard, who took the launch to a property on Bruny Island and built a simple plastic shelter. Over time he replaced the keel and strengthened the hull by the installation of sister ribs, before running out of cash for the project. In 2007 Martin Krynen happened to be visiting Hobart for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, purchased her from Dicker and towed her on a trailer to Queensland.Martin Krynen has meticulously restored the vessel, including building a new cabin closely matching the style of the original. His commitment was such that he even managed to source and re-build a 1907-vintage Frisco Standard engine similar to that originally used aboard the launch. He also fitted an electric motor, which is now her means of propulsion.Martin then brought Nancy back to Tasmania and has very generously donated her to the Living Boat Trust in Franklin. She now sits on a berth at Franklin where she can be inspected and from where she takes passenger tours on the Huon River around Franklin and Egg Island.
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