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Dedicated to the study & appreciation of wooden boats. WaitemataWoodys® was founded upon a desire to tell the stories & a need to archive the history of our classic wooden boats, the craftsman who built them & characters that owned & crewed on them. To share – email your photos, video's & stories to Flora McKenzie at waitematawoodys@gmail.com – Special thanks to marine author & historian Harold Kidd. Click the follow button at the bottom right of the page to get email alerts on new & updated stories. WW gets a LOT of emails every day – we like that, but sometimes we just can't answer them all, it's not that we're lazy or rude – just busy working on the next story :-) alan houghton – WW founder ©2024

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – ROAM

Recently WW was contracted by a reader who was looking for intel on the 34’ launch – ROAM, recently on tme.

All they knew was she was probably a Chris Robertson design and built by Brin Wilson.

There had been a name change approx. 5 years ago, previous name unknown.

Can anyone enlighten us more on the vessel.

Seems the lack of navigation skills isn’t restricted to NZ, friend John Burland sent in the photo below from Germany.

Update ex JB – No rain in the forecast, Rhine level dropping by the day. Recovery ran to around €10k/NZ20k.

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adventurousmilkshake7189d7260b on September 16, 2025 at 10:32 am said:

We recently purchased Roam, and now know her previous name was Malihini, she had a flybridge added in the late 80s but is now back to as she was originally, and also now sporting a Cummins 6bt engine. We are looking forward to being out and about this summer with her new home base on Waiheke.

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KEN RICKETTS on August 31, 2025 at 3:14 am said:

I don’t know the slightest thing about AI–KEN R

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Des on August 29, 2025 at 8:05 pm said:

It’s def. a Chris Robertson, I do wonder whether this was the one that had been re-named “Bubba 2” and was located in the Bay of Islands around 6 years ago.

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KEN RICKETTS on August 29, 2025 at 2:33 am said:

A stunning example of the wonderfully distinctive design skills of Chris Robertson, combined & in harmony, with the building artisanship, of the late Brin Wilson — LOVELY — KEN R

I’m not sure if I prefer the old KR dialog or the new AI version 🙂 Alan H

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