CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE – UPDATE #8 – LAUNCH DAY 

After a full few months co-owner Patrick Crawshaw reports in on the big day – as always Patrick tells the story…….

“ LADY CAROLE was relaunched on Saturday with much fanfare with about thirty people turning out to see her.   

It’s taken four months’ to restore her exterior to her original lines and design. Next year the interior will be restored to her original layout and a new motor put in so we will start all over again and I will send posts on this final phase two part of the project. 

I would like to say a big thank you to Waitemata Woody’s for the help in retrieving items that were lost and also the great advice they have given me over the past four months. 

A big thank you also to the Bay of Islands Yacht Club who have also supported the restoration of LADY CAROLE  with such great spirit.   The club works on a volunteer basis and everyone helps out and works together. It’s been a privilege to be there five days a week among the great community that is the Bay of Islands Yacht Club.  It was also a great honour that LADY CAROLE  was asked to be a regatta boat. I am sure she will enjoy being in service to the club. 

So now a new chapter for LADY CAROLE  begins.  She has to date had a very full and eventful life: Some of her adventures include slipping her mooring in the sixties and getting jammed under the Waitangi Bridge.  A great petrol-vapour explosion happened in Whangaroa in the early 1970’s, after which her engine was changed to diesel. She almost sank on her pole at Waipapa Landing during a Kerikeri flood in the sixties and sailed out to witness the re-sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in 1987.  She has been all over New Zealand from Whangaroa to the South Island and everywhere in between. These are just a few of the stories I know about – there are many, many more I am sure…

On Friday night she was put on display for the weekly dinner held at the yacht club. Saturday was busy doing last minute jobs. She went in at 4pm and sat in the cradle for ten minutes as we looked at all the water pouring into the hull hoping that once we were off the cradle, the bilge would keep up. The motor started up with a great plume of black smoke and she reversed out and sped off, very happy to be free from the cradle and parched environment she had been in for four months. 

Friday Evening

Launch Day – 28th September

CIRCLE LABOUR WEEKEND IN THE DIARY – OCT 25 > 28TH – MORE DETAILS LATER IN THE WEEK BUT THIS IS SHAPING UP TO BE THE CLASSIC WOODY WEEKEND OF THE SEASON