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Adam Morgan with Cate Louise Near Howden-Tasmania c.1965
Cate Louise
Adam Morgan with Cate Louise Near Howden-Tasmania c.1965
Adam Morgan with Cate Louise Near Howden-Tasmania c.1965

Cate Louise

Vessel numberHV000833
Date1933-1937
DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 3.41 m × 1.46 m (11.2 ft × 4.8 ft)
DescriptionCate Louise is an 11ft traditional Huon Pine rowing boat made in Hobart’s historic Battery Point precinct around Napoleon St. It has been suggested that Cate Louise was built sometime between 1933 and 1937. It was built by prominent Hobart boat builder Albert ‘Tucker’ Abel as a typical general purpose boat, made for carrying people and goods.

Abel’s boatbuilding business operated from 1898 to 1937, and in this time his yard launched more than 65 vessels ranging from small dinghies to substantial motor launches. By 1911 his own fleet the Royal Blue Motor Launch Line (RBML) consisted of three vessels, BLANCH (48ft. built 1906), BLANCH ABEL (42ft. built 1908), and EVA BLANCH (34ft. built 1910 HV000773) which operated cruises and were also available for hire. His yard destroyed by fire in 1917, however he continued to build vessels until his untimely death in 1938 in a car accident. The ferry NANCY (HV000334) built 1917 is another of Abel’s vessels on the ARHV.

Cate Louise has a clinker built hull, transom, thwarts and thwart rises, a native Tasmanian hardwood keel, stem and knees. It is fastened with copper nails, roved/clenched. After twenty years in a shed, Cate Louise has gone through an extensive restoration process. Preliminary work was carried out in the 1990s with disassembly and paint stripping, however it wasn’t until 2019 that substantial work began. This was undertaken in Williamstown Victoria under the direction of Greg Blunt, the fifth generation of the Blunt family to operate the prominent C. Blunt Boatbuilders wooden boat centre.

The work took two years and involved:

A strip down and removal of decayed timbers

Replacement of damaged or missing ribs (steam bent Huon Pine)

Repairs to the hardwood keel

Restoration of the stem piece (broken in half)

Replacement of damaged planking

Replacement of thwart risers

Repairs to gunnels and belting

Reassembly of thwarts and seats with original hardwood knees

Installation of floor decking (New Zealand Kauri)

Painting and varnishing

All structural repairs were carried out using original timbers, with minor replacements using same species timbers. Cate Louise is an excellent example of a Huon Pine rowing boat restored using traditional methods. After a succession of owners in Tasmania Cate Louise has been under the same family ownership in Victoria for the past thirty years.

Compiled with the assistance of Ian Bakos and his website https://www.seapad.com.au/classic-wooden-boats/tucker-abel-dinghy-cate-louise/


SignificanceCate Louise is an 11ft Huon Pine rowing boat built in Hobart’s historic Battery Point by renowned Tasmanian builder Albert ‘Tucker’ Abel. It was built sometime between 1933 and 1937 as a typical general purpose boat, made for carrying people and goods. Abel’s business operated from 1898 to 1937, and in this time his yard launched more than 65 vessels ranging from small dinghies to substantial motor launches. In 2019 Cate Louise underwent extensive restoration with some of the works including replacement of damaged ribs, restoration of the stem piece, installation of New Zeland kauri floor decking, and painting and varnishing. It is an excellent example of an early 20th century Huon Pine rowing boat built and restored using traditional methods and original timbers.
NANCY IN 2012, restored to an exceptional standard
1917
MAY QUEEN, June 2012
Alexander Lawson
1867
LOUISE at the Geelong Wooden Boat Festival in 2010
c 1900
OLIVE MAY at its mooring in 2008
c 1880
Garbo
Tommy Rann
1928
Profile on trolley with draught horse
John Hawken
1889
WALNUT shows its ample proportions
C Blunt
1920
CYGNET in 2015
Wilson Brothers
1925
AVON at its mooring
C Blunt
1907
NERANA crossing the finish line off Adelaide to win the  Forster Cup trophy in 1953, the first …
Charlie Peel
1932