Mystery Woodys at Kawau Island

Screen Shot 2018-07-07 at 3.18.47 PM

Mystery Woodys at Kawau Island

The caption on the above Tudor Collins photo, ex Auckland Museum (via Lew Redwood fb) states that the photo is dated 1936 & possibly / probably Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island.
Interested in ID’ing the closest launch to the shore. At first glance I thought Tasman, then Rehia but the shape & number of portholes is all wrong – what say the Woodys?
The dark hulled vessel behind, could be one of the early pilot boats – Ferro?
And any clever yachties able to ID the small yachts – mullet boats?
Input from Robin Elliott

NOT Mullet boats but 18-foot V-class. See endless posts and publications over the last 20 years (puts hobby horse back in stable)

From what I can make of the name on her transom, the light coloured hull looks to be Vaalele, V-78, built by Charlie Hardman to a Ralph Goodwin design in 1936.She was one of the four Auckland 18-footers that travelled to Sydney for the first World’s 18-footer championship in 1938. Charlie Hardman kept Vaalele until 1939 when he sold her to S.H. Bailey.

The darker boat is a bit later and looks to be quite new. She’s marconi rigged and could possibly be another Charlie Hardman / Ralph Goodwin boat, Vindex, V-35 built in 1939. Marconi rigs were not common in the V-class but by 1939 the more competitive yachtsmen were moving away from gaff.

From other photos I have seen, she was painted a dark colour, either black or royal blue and was marconi rigged. Vindex was laid up in 1940 and In 1944 he sold Vindex to Keith Atkinson who was working at Lidgards with Hardman.

If this is the case then that would date the photo to the summer of 1939/40, with the two Hardman boats cruising in company, and also explain the patriotic display of the Union Jack from the wharf,

15-07-2018 Update from Steve Pople (current owner)

Steve sent me the 2 b/w photos below (ex NZ Herald) of RF as launched – what a stunner, just about perfect from any angle. Steve confirmed Ken Rickets comments re being lengthened (by 6′). RF is currently in the very capable hands of Dave Patterson of Leader Boats in Pakuranga undergoing a total refit. I will updated the restoration story with new photos.

Royal Falcon 1934 Martin boat 1

Royal Falcon 1934 martin boat 2

5 thoughts on “Mystery Woodys at Kawau Island

  1. NOT Mullet boats but 18-foot V-class. See endless posts and publications over the last 20 years (puts hobby horse back in stable)

    From what I can make of the name on her transom, the light coloured hull looks to be Vaalele, V-78, built by Charlie Hardman to a Ralph Goodwin design in 1936.She was one of the four Auckland 18-footers that travelled to Sydney for the first World’s 18-footer championship in 1938. Charlie Hardman kept Vaalele until 1939 when he sold her to S.H. Bailey.

    The darker boat is a bit later and looks to be quite new. She’s marconi rigged and could possibly be another Charlie Hardman / Ralph Goodwin boat, Vindex, V-35 built in 1939. Marconi rigs were not common in the V-class but by 1939 the more competitive yachtsmen were moving away from gaff.

    From other photos I have seen, she was painted a dark colour, either black or royal blue and was marconi rigged. Vindex was laid up in 1940 and In 1944 he sold Vindex to Keith Atkinson who was working at Lidgards with Hardman.

    If this is the case then that would date the photo to the summer of 1939/40, with the two Hardman boats cruising in company, and also explain the patriotic display of the Union Jack from the wharf,

    Like

  2. You could be right Nath — have cross reference her with a pic I took in 1948 in the same bay Mansion House, — & the bow & the portholes in the bow add up, however she would have had to have been lengthened however, between 1936 & 1948 because whole dodger area makes her longer, & I think they would have had to extend her by the size of the cockpit to do this, also the bridgedeck has been replaced with a slope from the rear as well & the new bridgedeck starts further forward than the original & has bigger volume, ( refer to sweep in the deck in association with where the bridgedeck starts), — so they are substantial alterations but I agree that it is all possible & it could well be her . have sent my 1948 Mansion House pic to Alan so others can cross reference & give their thoughts. — Cheers — KEN R
    Photo added. AH

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s