Active retirement keeps Foxton Beach boat builder young of mind

Warren Vaughan's current project is taking shape.

Retirement has not been wasted on Foxton Beach resident Warren Vaughan. Machinery of all kinds has fascinated him for years. As a member of the Vintage Machinery Club, he specialised in Seagull outboard motors, which were first made in the UK in 1931. He’s been collecting them for 30 years and has about 40 motors from different years.

Long since retired, he said his engine fixing and boat building keeps him young at heart and young of mind.

Warren Vaughan with his drawknife, used to shape oars for one of his boats.

“I was a member of the Wellington Vintage Machinery Club 30 years ago and decided on boat engines as I enjoyed boats, and then picked the Seagull engine.”

Marston Seagull, who made Sunbeam Motorcycles, invented the Seagull, originally named Marston Seagull. It was designed as a marine engine and eventually attracted the attention of the British Admiralty, who were looking for a small engine that could run all day on light assault craft during World War II.

The legacy of the Seagull endures to this day. Seagull engine owners in New Zealand have a few events each year at which to test their engines, such as the Waitara River Regatta on February 11. There is also one on the Waikato River (April 9) and the Mokau River (Feb 12).

A few of Warren Vaughan's Seagull engines.

Vaughan’s shed is full of engines, boats, engine parts, tools, and machinery, such as no less than five saw benches.

“You accumulate a lot over the years, and I always thought I ought to buy equipment rather than go on borrowing from others.”

He used a hand tool, called a drawknife, to shape the oars for one of his boats, which can also be used as a sailing boat. In one of his storage spaces he has a small boat, used as a cradle for the grandkids, most of whom are in their 20s now. It can be suspended from the ceiling to rock.

Trained as a fitter and turner, he became an engineer later in life, and had a dad who was a woodworker and a brother who was a mechanic, so there isn’t much he cannot do. He is still building timber boats 11 years into retirement.

He worked as an electrician at Turks for 10 years prior to his retirement, rewiring the entire factory while it was still working.

The inboard engine, stripped down, cleaned, put back together and painted as part of Warren Vaughan's latest project.

“Boat building is keeping me busy, and in my head I feel younger than ever. When I retired, I decided I had to keep my mind and my hands working, or I would be in a box before too long.”

He’s built a kayak, around a mould, then varnished it after applying fibreglass.

In recent years he has swapped from outboard motors to inboard motors, such as the one he repaired for his current project.

“When this boat is finished, there will be so much of me in it, I will not sell it.”

He enjoys tinkering, and has collected timber - he only builds boats made of timber - old lawnmowers, lamps, camping stoves, spare parts, and built his own thermette. A project currently on the drawing table, and he has rather a few sets of drawings, is a 12-foot French sailing dinghy.

“I already have the tiller.”

One of the oars made using a drawknife.

Much of the timber he acquires is reduced to thin strips so it can bend more easily, and an epoxy resin glues them back together again to form parts of his projects. He said he used fibreglass on the inside and the outside.

“It is not about the boat itself.”

He said he will leave his workshop to his grandsons, most of whom are also keen on building things.

Image 1 of 7: The grandies in one of Warren Vaughan's canoes.