HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT – WELLINGTON’S CLASSIC WOODEN CRAFT

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HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT – WELLINGTON’S CLASSIC WOODEN CRAFT

I’m guilty of a lapse that a lot of us northern woodys fall into – that being, we forget about NZ’s capital city Wellington as a home to some of our best classic wooden craft. 

Auckland, the Bay of Islands and the top of the South Island tend to dominate WW content. So it was so good to receive a trip report from Auckland based woody Geoff Fiebig (SV CAPLIN) from Chaffers marina in Wellington.

Extra special to see that the 49’ woody VANESSA was now in her new home and looking very salty. VANESSA was Geoff’s reason for the trip, hopefully we can get an insight into the project he has been commissioned to undertake. If you missed her story on WW when she was 4sale with the Wooden Boat Bureau, check out this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/10/23/ready-to-unwind-this-summer-classic-motorboat-vanessa-ticks-all-the-boxes/

The next woody is the 26’ 1925 Colin Wild built launch – LITTLE TASMAN, another woody that slipped thru our hands and headed south. Not before an amazing restoration at the hands of Colin Brown and Josh Hawkw at their Omaha yard. Check out this WW link and view the video of the project. https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/06/17/little-tasman-restoration/

Lastly we have the 1964 Ben Hipkins built  50’ bridge decker – RANGIORA looking the best she has in a long time – well done to her owners.

RANGIORA has had an interesting life , check out this 2022 WW story that backgrounds her partial sinking in1973 after hitting rocks off the northern coast of Waiheke Island, Auckland. https://waitematawoodys.com/2023/01/04/rangiora-sinks-off-waiheke-21-09-1973/

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4 thoughts on “HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT – WELLINGTON’S CLASSIC WOODEN CRAFT”

  1. Morning Alan , how do i go about sending you an article on VECA 1929 that has been in the family for over 60 years , was built by the present owners grandfather and is sadly currently for sale as none of the grandchildren have the skills to take over her custodianship . Regards Pete Glue p.j.glue@xtra.co.nz

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  3. And that’s just Chaffers Marina !

    In Wellington, we also have Evans Bay Marina, Mana Marina, and Seaview Marina. All have a good collection of Classic’s 🙂

    I am the current custodian of Tangaroa, the 1953 Lanes 40. She resides in Seaview 🙂

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  4. I used to own Little Tasman. She appears to have lost her mast from which I used to raiseda steadying sail. She was originally built by Col Wilde for Berridge Spenser Who named her Tasman, Later on Berridge built a bigger boat which he also called Tasman. At that stage the boat in the photo got called Little Tasman to differentiate between the two.

    JOHN L. VAGUE

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