Virgo: 39 ft Jorgensen and Sons Fishing Boat

1963

Build Date

Jorgensen & Son Ltd.

Boat Builder

39.3 ft

Length

Beam

Building Virgo and The Maddren’s

Virgo was launched in 1963 as a commercial fishing boat. She was made out of kauri by Jorgensen & Son Ltd. in Picton. At some point Virgo was converted into a pleasure boat and was powered by a 130hp Gardner 6LXB diesel engine.

It is unclear how many owners Virgo has had or when it was changed into a pleasure launch but in early 2009 Neville and Annemarie Maddren (de Castro) purchased the Virgo through Gordon Low Marine Ltd. When they purchased the Virgo, she had been used to take people on diving trips. Virgo was structurally good but needed some updating. They replaced carpet, upholstery, installed an electric toilet, added a new bench top, re-fibre glassed the decks, removed rot in the cabin windows and installed a locker for anchoring.

The Maddren’s and Virgo’s Later Owners

The Maddren’s used Virgo to go cruising and fishing in the Queen Charlotte Sound and Tory Channel. Writing in a 2021 NZ Boat Sales brochure, Neville Maddren said Virgo was a pleasure to own, giving them many happy memories and proving to be very reliable in all sea conditions.

In 2014 they sold Virgo to Vaughan MacDonald and since then the Virgo has been sold again, possibly a few times. In 2022 it was believed Virgo’s home was Waikawa marina in Picton.

References

To research Virgo we used Waitemata Woodys and jorgensenboats.nz which has Annemaire de Castro’s account of the Virgo.

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Donna Maree – 38ft Jorgensen and Sons boat that started life as a trawler and is now a pleasure boat

Jean – 45ft South Island fishing boat built by Jack Guard.

Gleam – 42ft Guard family boat built by A.J. Morgan in 1946