As purchased
Stripped bare
Re-launch day
KIWI
In late Jan 2018 when myself and Jamie Hudson were holding David Cooke’s hand as he piloted Trinidad around the top of NZ and slid down the West Coast to the Marlborough Sounds, Jamie and I had an evening to kill after being cast ashore in Picton. The plan was to catch the late (overnight) ferry back to Wellington. My idea was to hit the waterfront bars, but Jamie has more self-control than I and suggested me stroll the marina for a few hours before we hit the bars, otherwise we might struggle to catch the ferry – as it turned out, very sage advise from Mr Hudson 🙂
While taking in the Picton sea air, we spotted numerous very smart woodys at the marina – one of them being Kiwi. Now fast forward 20 odd months and I get an email from Alistair McRae, who had just returned from Picton, on a trip to purchase a very nice Colin Wild woody launch – details on that another day.
While in Picton, Alistair visited a mate – Wal Edwards, who had bought an old double ended fishing boat named – Kiwi, built in 1922 (he thinks). Kiwi is 33′ long and was built by Steve Carey of Carey’s Bay. As you will see from the photos above, Wal has done a magnificent job of rebuilding Kiwi. Check out the ballast they removed from her bilge.
Kiwi is powered by a John Deer.
The photos above a mix of mine and from Wal and Alistair’s collection.
Can anyone tell us more about this very cool woody?
Right on HAROLD AS per BLUFF advert 2004 KIWI Ex Fishing Boat 34 ft Double Ender M + T For Sale ,,, Would like to find SIMILAR as in original format THANKS DICKO
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Isn’t this the KIWI built by Millar Bros in 1912 for Speight & Tonkinson with a 14hp Viking, later in NAPS?
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Nice to see these comments. Robert Watt was my brother, died about 3 years ago. His lovely steel motor sailor Katherine Johnstone is now in Seaview Marina in Wellington. His earlier Tiercel – a real classic based on an H28 – is still based in Dunedin as far as I know.
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They done real good by her. Dear wee thing -used to see her on the piles at St Leonards Dunedin. The late Robbie Watt -then in the OHB Drawing Office- designed the rebuild in the ’70s wherein she got the rig and wheelhouse. Looks a lot bigger than she is. Robbie later built his own steel motorsailer with many innovative features -great if she was on WW too.
I struggled with the idea of buying Kiwi way back -big Isuzu diesel and lots of stuff on board (as seen on the wharf!) but flagged it fortunately because she is in such good hands and a delight in her new style. Well done!
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Very nice! But I hope they replaced the ballast………..
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