QUEST – Sailing Sunday
Mid-week we were lucky to have a peep at some of Peter Midgley’s fathers photo collection, that show the launch Kenya & the Joe Slattery boat shed. I asked Peter if he could share with us anymore of Eric Midgley’s photos & today we have the yacht Quest, built at the Vos yard for a Mr Wood of Devonport.
The top photo shows the launching on 10 December 1936, Peter commented that this photo of the exact moment a lady christens Quest has always fascinated him as a great moment frozen in time. Eric is third from the left with his arms folded. The man in uniform far left appears to be a St Johns person, did they have then at launchings in case of accidents? The man next to him with pen & paper in hand is perhaps a reporter for the “Star” or “Herald”. Then a lady in a heavy overcoat & umbrella, looks like a wet day in December.
Then the man far right also with umbrella “Photo Bombing” the photo.
Unfortunately the lady doing the honours, is blocking our view of the man holding the sledge hammer, Peter has an identical one in his dad’s toolbox.
Then the real character of this photo, the lady with a piece of paper in her hand having just read some words, with an expression of surprise as liquid sprays back towards her. Perhaps she is the wife of the owner – Mr Woods?
You have to love the way two planks of wood balancing on two saw horses is sufficient for the lady to stand on, no health & safety in those days!
The bottom photo of Quest moored presumably after launching.
As a footnote in the Percy Vos book, ‘Launching Dreams’, it states Eric Midgley worked at the Vos yard from 1937 to 1938 & only worked on the ‘Korea’ but Peter thinks he was there in 1936 working on the Quest. He went on to work at the Devonport Dockyard throughout the war & built the sailing dinghy ‘Kiwi’ in 1947, the NZ Navys gift to Princess Elizabeth & Prince Phillip for their wedding. Link here
https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/10/25/kiwi-sailing-sunday/
It would be great if any woodys could identify people in this photo.
Input from Harold Kidd
QUEST was a design by Dr. Harrison Butler (he of the metacentric shelf) built by Percy Vos (with one S) in December 1936 for L.M. (Milton) Wood of Devonport. His brother Lincoln had the Butler-designed 22 footer MEMORY built by Fred Mann in 1930. She’s very English in her lines (and all the better for that).
As to the people my guess is, from left, A St John’s “Zambuck” who used to be present at Rugby matches (and possibly launchings if they were yachties, as many were), W.A. (Wilkie) Wilkinson of the Auckland Star, Vos employee, the matriarch Mrs Sarah Wood, Milton and his wife/fiancee not sure when they married), Lincoln being silly. There was a multitude of Wood brothers and sisters, so the latter could any one of the other brothers.
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Yep, owned by John ‘Steamer’ Stanley who owned it when I was over there in 2002 with the M’s. Steamer sold her shortly after but bought her back a few years ago when the owner had let her go. I may be wrong but i think he now has her up in Yamba in Northern NSW.
I emailed him the link to this page yesterday.
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Linc HELPED build MEMORY at Fred Mann’s house in John Street Ponsonby, but I reckon Fred did most of the work. I reckon Linc’s stories had morphed a lot by the time Wayne sailed with him. I sailed with him when he was in his early 50s.
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Lincoln Woods told me he built ” Memory ” but he could have been trying to impress an 8 year old . We spent a lot of comfortable , even if a bit slow , hours traveling from Whangaroa to Great Mercury & the Great Barrier .
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…..who wasn’t Milton’s wife/fiancee at all but his niece, the daughter of his sister Hilda and Joe Sarson of Devonport.
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The lady swinging the champers is Miss Muriel Sarson.
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Hey, surely that’s wrong? Please, Ken, give us a list of the yachts launched with varnished coamings pre-1945? Just a handful, I suspect.
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I think this boat is being restored in Sydney now. I was contacted by the owner.
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PS as to the people my guess is, from left, A St John’s “Zambuck” who used to be present at Rugby matches (and possibly launchings if they were yachties, as many were), W.A. (Wilkie) Wilkinson of the Auckland Star, Vos employee, the matriarch Mrs Sarah Wood, Milton and his wife/fiancee not sure when they married), Lincoln being silly. There was a multitude of Wood brothers and sisters, so the latter could any one of the other brothers.
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QUEST was a design by Dr. Harrison Butler (he of the metacentric shelf) built by Percy Vos (with one S) in December 1936 for L.M. (Milton) Wood of Devonport. His brother Lincoln had the Butler-designed 22 footer MEMORY built by Fred Mann in 1930. She’s very English in her lines (and all the better for that).
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Without doubt, QUEST is one of Voss’s most beautiful boats, her natural grace of her lines is quite stunning. I think she looked positively “elegant” & in her earlier days, in the 40s to 60s at least, when she had lovely rich red sails, which I always thought gave her a romantic look, if you happened to see her at dusk or when the sun was low in the sky, on a summers evening. — Saw he sailing around Bon Accord Harbour on a number of occasions at that time of day. One of the few yachts of the era, that had white painted coamings from new — lovely.– KEN R
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