Todays video comes to us from Cecilia Viktoria Rosell and showcases a selection of woodys from the Canadian Classic Yacht Association Fleet berthed in Ladysmith, British Columbia.
As they appear, we have Loueda > Sannox > Euphemia > Falcon > Bianca.
Cecilia commented that the youngest member wasn’t the 7 month old kitten on Bianca as one might think, but rather the 8 week old baby onboard Loueda.
HAVE YOU RSVP’ed FOR THE WOODYS CLEVEDON OVERNIGHT BBQ CRUISE
ECLIPSE – A Peek Down Below Back in Sept 2016 John Sankey was mooching around Nelson and sent in a selection of woody photos, amongst them were several of the launch – Eclipse. At the time she was looking a little sad and was for sale.
Now thanks to a tme listing we get to have a peek down below, she has also had a lick of paint.Some details – 37’ in length with a 9’ beam and drawing 3’4” , powered by a 70hp Nissan SD25 diesel engine, giving her a cruising speed of 8 knots.
Her tme listing states she was built in 1907, but in the 2016 story Harold Kidd advised that she was built in November 1922 by James McPherson at Dunedin for W. Webber of Ravensbourne.
04-06-2021 Update ex Keith Murphy – photo below of Eclipse at Ravensbourne
JULIE ANNE 15321 Todays photo of the launch Julie Ann comes to us from the camera of Bay of Islands photographer Dean Wright who snapped the photo while mooching around the Te Puna and Kerikeri Inlet area. Dated Dec 17th 2020.
Given the reg #, she must have been in commercial use at some stage – do we know anymore about her?
Today’s photo comes to us from William (Bill) Brown, and is dated Feb 1958 and was taken on his parents honeymoon cruise, and the location is Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island. I’m pretty sure they were not on this boat, but Bill if you see this story, can you confirm? Bill lives and works overseas.
The boat looks familiar but I wont try and guess – can we get a positive match? Original (non crop or colour corrected) copy of the photo below.
Yesterdays Lidgard 1/2 models – anyone else have a view, when the knowledge of Dave Jackson is ‘in play’ – we all tend to freeze – the mans seldom wrong 🙂
UPDATE: The launch is Lady Joan, thanks Ken R for the reminder. Sadly no longer a float she was scraped back in 2018 and a few fittings were saved, hopefully to grace another woody. Photos below LJ has appeared on WW before – see and read more here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/29/lady-joan/
Esperanza II The above photo of the Chris Craft, pictured above in the Bay of Islands, come to us via Len Redwood’s fb.There is a great story at the link below as to how the boat came to be in NZ. https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/04/08/esperanza-ii/
Make you check out WW tomorrow, we have a feature on New Zealand’s best Lidgard woody and she is looking for a new custodian 😉
A Classic For The Lake Woodys This cute clinker launch popped up on tme (thanks Ian McDonald) and at 18’6” it would be perfect as a family lake boat – even the kids couldn’t get into too much trouble in SS Magoo.She was built c.1950 by Swanson, and current home port is Waikawa marina in the Marlborough Sounds.Powered by a 2.2L BMC Diesel engine , she will comfortably cruise at 5>6 knots, perfect for trolling (I think).
I suspect with a make-shift wooden cradle she would slip into a shipping container, for a relatively low cost re-location.
SNOOZER The 1947, 33’, Sam Ford built bridge-decker – Snoozer has just popped up on tme (thank you Ian McDonald),. We do not know much about her other that she is kauri carvel planked and powered by a 85hp Isuzu diesel that has her cruising at 8 knots. Whangarei is her home town. Might be wrong, but I would suspect a name change at some time.
Can anyone enlighten us on Snoozer’s past life ?
06-05-2025. UPDATE– for sale again , current owner credits her designer/ builder as Sam Ford 1947. And says previously named JUANITA – Would be nice to confirm.
Input from Bruce Pullan – bellow is a picture of Awa Manu, it looks like Snoozer.
Yesterdays Quiz Winner To Name The Launch Alongside The Wharf – was K. Sutherland, who was the first to correctly ID the boat as Lady Helen – WW cap on its way 🙂
Something different today a 4 minute black and white movie featuring mainly Russell in the Bay of Islands and some of the A Class fleets underway and racing. A cool flashback to that era. Their are two movies on the link – the boating one starts at 6 minutes, fast forward – Enjoy 🙂 (movie ex Archives NZ Weekly Review #390 – 1949)
WIN A WW CAP I’ll give a WW cap to the first woody than can correctly ID the launch alongside the Russell Wharf. Entries via email only to the address below and to make it fair NO entries before 8.30am. waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Photo below ex Greg Philpott, of Pirate next to the Deeming’s boat shed at Tapu Point across the water from Opua.
PIRATE – A Peek Down Below
Unless you are a Warkworth river rat, mooching around the upper reaches of the Mahurangi Harbour you wouldn’t have seen much of the stunning 1939 46’ launch – Pirate. Launched in 1939 at Matauwhi Bay in Russell, Bay of Islands, designed and built by Leon Warne. She has spent a large chunk of the last 18 years berthed alongside the old Cement Works. She always makes an appearance over the Mahurangi Regatta weekend and is one of those boats that just look right from any angle.
Pirate is constructed in full length kauri carvel plank and has twin Ford 6 cylinder 100HP diesel engines.
Pirate has an interesting provenance having been built for a German wool buyer (Otto Sommer), commissioned by the NZ Navy in World War II and used in degaussing operations, and subsequently in 1944, became Auckland’s second Police launch, replacing Tirimoana. Later she was a well known big-game fishing boat in the North, hosting among others Lord Mountbatten, who signed the Log Book.
She is a fine example of a classic launch restored and cared for by passionate owners (18 yrs), these owners have just made the hard decision that it is time to pass Pirate onto her next custodian – so woodys, this is a unique opportunity to own a classic wooden boat of the caliber of Pirate. Expressions of interest should be directed to waitematawoodys@gmail.com BUT – do not hang back, boats of Pirates size, presentation and provenance find new owners very quickly
In fact a tad more than a facelift- its a total refit 🙂
A couple of weeks ago I was moodching around the Tauranga / Mount Maunganui area and took Doug Owens up on his longstanding offer to view Nereides in her ’shed’. The timing was perfect as I also meet son Mohi, who is project managing the refit. Click photos to enlarge.
Nereides has always been a rather special woody – as are most boats built by Colin Wild. She slipped out of the CW shed in 1937 and her specs where 55’x15’x6’5″ and powered by a 200hp John Deere. The photos above are a combination of the ones I took on the day and others shared by Doug and Mohi, as you can see its a mammoth undertaking but is very close to re-launch. WW will kept you in the loop on this project.
Pre – Refit
UPDATE 12-04-2022 Getting very close to splash day 🙂
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