The Designer : Denis Ganley : 1943 – 1979
Denis Harcourt Ganley was born in Hamilton on 3 September 1943. Growing up on the shores of the Lake, his first boatbuilding project was to help his father build a Frostbite. As a young boy he sailed P class and Q class yachts. He was bored at school and often troublesome, preferring to be playing on the water. He was an adept sailor, swimmer and athlete.
In 1959, at age 16, the lure of marine engineering took Denis to Listers Engineers in England, where he learned the basics of marine engineering and naval architecture. In Listers office he met his bride to be, Philomena Collier. Denis returned to NZ with Phil in 1965 and they were marrid in Auckland on 16 April 1966.
In 1968 Denis designed and built his first boat : the 24′ timber “Lone Gull”.
In 1974 he established Denis Ganley Yacht Design Limited. As a designer he was ambitious and a perfectionist. Both Phil and their daughter Denise, a qualified librarian, helped in the business. Denise had a significant input in to naming Denis’ designs. Denis’ aim, in his own words, was “to design well balanced, easy to build cruising yachts mainly for construction in steel” and ” to sell stock plans to amateur and professional builders worldwide”.
Steel became Denis’ passion in his career as he learned of its success for blue water boats. New Zealand is isolsted in the southern ocean, with challenging sailing westward to Australia or northward to the islands of the South Pacific. Those waters and the South Pacific islands offer their share of challenges with some pretty tough sailing conditions and coral reefs to be negotiaterd for each safe anchorage. Denis Ganley saw early on the benefits of steel construction, providing greatest structural strength and watertight integrity.
A pinnacle in his career was winning the Consumer catagory in the 1986 Steel Awards. The awards recognise “excellence in design, engineering and capability for the innovative use of steel used in a commercial manner”. His Ganley “Pacemaker 40” took the honours, the award never before granted to a boat.
His successful career spanned 25 years until 1997 when he and & Phil died tragically in a car accident just north of Murchison in the South Island on 24 May. Today Denis’ daughter Denise operates Ganley Yachts (Plans) Limited.
The Builder : Ron & Sue Grantham
The Boat : “Sea Kiwi”
Sea Kiwi is a Ganley Revelation round bilge centre-cockpit steel cruising cutter with transom boarding platform, built and maintained to a very high standard. She was launched in Tauranga in 1997, co-incidentally the same year as the untimely and unfortunate death of her designer. She spent most of her first 13 years berthed in Whangarei, doing many coastal cruises with her builder/owners & family, and several trips to the Pacific Islands. In 2011 her new owners relocated her to Wellington.
She is built totally of steel (hull, deck & cabin top), with moderate fin keel & skeg rudder.
LOA : 18.8m; LWL : 13.8m; LOD : 16.2m; Beam : 4.5m; Draft : 2.3m; Displacement : 21 ton;
Engine : 115 hp Cummins, Model 6B; Cruising speed : 7.5 – 8 kn; Max speed : 9 kn; Gear Box : Borg Warner; Propeller : English Auto Prop H9 570mm (22.5″).
Diesel : 750 lt (in keel); Water : 1600 lt; Hot water : 80 lt.
Her rigging is Sparcraft from USA. She has a Leisure Furl Boom for the mainsail and Furlex Roller Furlers for headsail and staysail. Sail wardrobe comprises mainsail, genoa headsail, yankee headsail, staysail, MPS sail and tri-sail.
Winches are 2 x Anderson 66 ST primary winches, 2 x Anderson 52 ST secondary winches and 1 x Anderson 46 ST electric winch. She aso has a Maxwell VWC 3500 anchor winch.
Secondary power generation is from 4 solar panels (approx 300w charging) with Tri Star Programmable Controller, and Air Marine 400w wind generator.
Helm has Raymarine E120 MFD, Silva 125 steering compass, and Raymarine ST7001 Autopilot Controller, plus cockpit speakers for stereo.
Nav station has latest Raymarine E120 Widescrean Hybridtouch MFD (chartplotter/fishfinder/radar/AIS), GME GX558 VHF Transceiver (with cockpit speaker), and Raymarine GPS Nav 398. The Raymarine E120 is duplicated at the helm station in the cockpit. Instruments in the cockpit are latest Raymarine i70 panel instruments (3, with 4th in the aft berth), plus forward-facing Hummingbird depth sounder.
Interior comprises double V berth forehead with good wardrobe & storage space, large storage locker on starboard side, generous double bunk berth on port side, large spacious saloon (Phillips MCD 710 stereo with CD/DVD player and Samsung 22″ flat screen LCD TV), full nav station on starboard side, floor to ceiling locker behind, then bathroom on starboard side ( head, vanity and separate shower). On port side is large L shaped galley (with Force 10 Gourmet oven with glass front and 3-burner gas hob, microwave oven, Isotherm air-cooled fridge and Isotherm water-cooled freezer). Aft berth has queen sized inner sprung mattress with en-suite head and vanity).
All in all, a very comfortable and satisfactory cruising yacht, thanks to the talent of her designer and the meticulous care and perfection put in to her construction by her builder.
SEA KIWI 