What is Waitemata Woodys all about?
We provide a meeting point for owners and devotees of classic wooden boat. We seek to capture the growing interest in old wooden boats and to encourage and bring together all those friendly people who are interested in the preservation of classic wooden vessels for whatever reason, be it their own lifestyle, passion for old boats or just their view of the world.
We encourage the exchange of knowledge about the care and restoration of these old boats, and we facilitate gatherings of classic wooden boats via working together with traditionally-minded clubs and associations.
Are you a Waitemata Woody?
The Waitemata Woodies blog provides a virtual meeting point for lovers of classic and traditional wooden boats. If you are interested in our interests and activities become a follower to this blog.
The Vessels Featured
The boats on display here (yes there are some yachts included, some are just to drop dead stunning to over look) require patrons, people devoted to their care and up keep, financially and emotionally . The owners of these boats understand the importance of owning, restoring and keeping a part of the golden age of Kiwi boating alive. The boats are true Kiwi treasure to be preserved and appreciated.
Fast forward to earlier this week and WW was contacted by Garry Quayle who advised he had taken over custodianship on Sunbeam (3/10/2025). Garry sent in todays photos of the progress thus far. And even the tender is getting some TLC.
Garry commented that she is now moored in Portage and is much welcomed with interest by locals, Garry has also upgraded the solar system along with some overdue maintenance.
We understand she is a magnificent sea boat, Garry and crew got caught out in big swells on Big Bay when moving to Kenapuru Sound . There was white water across the bay but she handled it easy much better than her crew did 🙂
OMG – see below, sent in by one of the WW Hauraki Gulf spotters – how can his happen, who designs something like this and more importantly who buys it ………….
I rotate my laptop screen saver image most days but for the last week one photo has remained there – its the classic wooden run-about – LADY KAY, pictured above.
Recently WW was contacted by Jeff Norris who sent some photos of his grandfathers boat – LADY KAY. Jeff’s GF bought the boat about 1953 off a gent named Eric Such. During this time the family had a bach at Kawa Kawa Bay and it was moored there , the bach was sold around 1970 and the boat was sold about 1971 to a man in Mt Albert, Auckland.
LADY KAY, named after Jeff’s grandmother, started life as a speedboat (photos 2,3,4) which Jeff’s GF turned into a cabin cruiser (top photo), powered by a Willys engine. In my opinion the conversion to cabin cruiser was very well done, very hard to get the proportions right and still look good.
Back then it was kept at KawaKawa Bay. Jeff commented that he spent his holidays fishing with his GF.
Jeff also sent in the photo of the boat below that was owned by a good friend of his grandfathers, Jack Bradstreat, a farmer from Pukekohe he also had a batch there, The boat was powered by a Ford Consul engine.
Todays woody story is a cracker read and comes to us from Matthew Underwood. Matthew and group of 7 ventured out to Wakatahuri in Pelorus Sound, Marlborough to catch up with the legendary mariner Davey Jones. To those unfamiliar with Davey, he has been lapping NZ in his classic wooden 100 year old vessel – KELVIN for more years than I can remember. When not afloat Davey lives in Wakatahuri, located in Marlborough at the top of the South Island.
The #1 motivation for the trip was to obtain an autographed copy of Davey’s book titled – DAVEY JONES OF WAKATAHURI. Anyway thats enough from me, I hand over to Matthew to tell the tale.
“The other weekend I joined some great adventurers for a marvellous trip down to get a book about Davy Jones and Wakatahuri. You can pick up a copy of this fascinating book by simple e-mail – but we made it into a bit of an adventure for the weekend.
We are a Wellington crew and our destination was the outer reaches of the Pelorus Sound at the top of the South Island. We all made our way to Picton, a number of them cycled to Havelock, and a couple of us drove the car.
From Havelock Adrian from KenePeru Water Taxis took us out to Beverly Bay. On the other side of the 100m high hill was Wakatahuri. It was a pretty challenging climb especially as my first big climb with a couple of new hips. We got a marvellous look down from the top of the hill. Natalie came and looked for us because we were slower than expected. She had tales of people coming to grief from that climb down into Wakatahuri.It was pretty amazing to walk out the last 100 metres on a track and see the wharf, the wrecks, the still functional boats, and the various sheds that fill up the Bay.
Once there we met Gavin and Davey and got a brief outline of the place. Most of us started with a cup of tea in Daveys house. We then picked through a bunch of interesting combinations of machinery and applications. There is a working slipway there with a Lister engine. It is turned over by a truck starter motor and driven off a battery. The starter wheel runs around the flywheel, and once it’s up to speed it chugs into life.
Down the other end of the property is the workshop. There was another Lister engine there that powers through a series of belts a thick-nesser and other machinery. Penguin seemed to live underneath that shed, and the possums had been in the night before as well.
There’s an old boat slung up in the rafters that belonged to one of the dads. Gavin is lovingly restoring a wooden marvel. It’s a very fast boat on not very much horse power. Something to do with being very thin and light displacement. He did admit it was supposed to be ready when his son turned 15. His current target is to have the boat ready before his new grandson turns 15.
We had a great chat to Davy Jones in his kitchen / lounge. There are just so many interesting photos, and so many interesting books. Over a cup of tea we went around the room and discussed all the photos that we were looking at. We all bought a copy of Davey’s book and it was pretty nice to have it autographed at Wakatahuri itself. One of our group, Ross Giblin, took the cover photo of the book. Davey remembered clearly the year in the 1980’s that the photo had been taken.
As we went to leave a group of kayakers turned up to spend the night. They had had a pretty full day paddling and were keen to set up tent and relax.
You had to be impressed with how quickly Davey disappeared into the engine room of the 100 year old Kelvin and soon had her all fired up ready to take us home. We had a lovely put-put back to North West Bay. After opening up the house we had a meal and a couple of beers with Davey before he trampled off back home.
It was fascinating to see 100 year old boat, with the Lister engine in it, but also a modern race car seat for the skipper, lots of charts in the roof lining of the wheelhouse, but also a radar, a couple of VHF radios, and a chart plotter and auto steering. The switchboard seemed to reflect most of the 100 years the boat had been around.
Since we’ve got home I’ve started reading through the book, and I’m fascinated by the history of it all, and all the boats that are described in the book.
You can get a copy of the book for $60 posted to you by emailing Lynette on
Another treat in North West Bay was to see one of the little boats that were part of the Wahine rescue fleet. Pugwash is sitting in a garage there still resplendent in what I understand to be Giant Paints special mix of “AA yellow”. Tony Coard, our host in Northwest Bay, had been skippering his Dad’s boat Pugwash as part of the rescue on the day.
What a great weekend that was. A big thanks to Davey for hosting us and to Tony Coard for setting the weekend up.”
Loving the photos of Davey Jones sporting a WW cap, donated by Matthew 🙂
Todays classic wooden launch comes to us from the July 1960 issue of Sea Spray magazine via Ken Ricketts. The write up appeared is a popular magazine section titled ‘Gadabout’.
As learnt from the accompanying copy – the 42’ twin engined launch was built by a Mr. C. Maxwell and his sons – Ron and Barry. The article mentioned a Nov 1961launching date.
The launch had a 12’ beam and that sadly is all we know about her. It looks like someone has ‘borrowed’ the design of the cabin windows from the Lidgard yard, the 3 aft were a signature Lidgard look.
So woodys todays questions are
1. There is mention of there going to be a post launching story – did that happen
2. Do we know her name , designer and what became of the vessel
3. Who was ‘reporter’ that went by the handle – ‘Gadabout’
INPUT ex NATHAN HERBERT – Waiana/ Exclusive Lady, purported to have been a Lane but obviously incorrect. The windows do have the Lane Ma Cherie look to them, mind you.
Today woodys you are seeing the future of classic motor boating, MALOLO is best described as a salon style launch, in America they call them Picnic boats.
Having had the privilege of being at the launch last week and getting up close to MALOLO I can report the future looks outstanding.
Some facts –
• MALOLO was designed by Nick Peal and built at Wayne Olsen’s Horizon Boats yard.
• She is appprox 35’ (10.6m) in length and has a beam of 10.5’ (3.2m).
• Forward motion is from a Yanmar 315hp diesel naturally aspirated engine.
Her owner went to great length to keep her as low tech as possible but there is no shortage of systems to enhance the on-the-water experience.
Her name MALOLO means ‘Rest & Relax’ in Samoan.
Below is a snap shot gallery from the Horizon Boats yard.
Once MALOLO has had all her sea trials and gets thru the xmas / ny period we will revisit for more details.
Now a shout for Wayne Olsen and Horizon Boats – if you like what you see today, Wayne is ready to build one for you.
ROMANCE JUNIOR – AUCKLAND’S FIRST IDLE ALONG CLASSIC YACHT
During the week WW was contacted by Brian Peet regarding ROMANCE JUNIOR, the first Idle Along yacht to appear in Auckland. Brian commented that ‘Romance Junior’ was built by Sam Ford for Master Len Hodgkinson and was launched 3 April 1937. It was initially registered in the Y class as #18 and also carried the class name on its sail – presumably for promotion purposes. By 1937 the class was already strong in Wellington.
The photographer that took the above photo was AW Powell, a professional photographer of Eden Terrace, Auckland.
Before his death, he passed the photo to his neighbour’s son who’s now passed it to Brian.
WORSER BAY BOATING CLUB – 100TH BIRTHDAY – 2026
Worser Bay Boating Club are celebrating their 100th Birth Day in 2026 and are looking for classic , old school sailing dinghies that were associated with Worser Bay in the early years, as static displays for the special weekend events 30 Jan 2026 to 1 Feb 2026. As part of the celebrations the club is searching for a functioning ” Idle Along” and a ” Zeddie ” and other classic dinghies ( or even old launches used as pickup boats ) associated with Worser Bay for a rigged up static display.
There are lunches, dinners, book launching and club day sailing events for young and old and especially visitors and a classic boat club BBQ.
Our idea is that the sight of these old boats will trigger lots of stories and reminiscences. More Details Below
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH TE RAUPARAHA FACELIFT GOES ALL WRONG
Yesterday WW was contacted by a reader in Hamilton who shared a link for a sales listing for the classic wooden 55’ launch – TE RAUPARAHA was built by Chas. Bailey and Sons Ltd in 1938 for a Harry Mills and back in May 2013 we heard from Pamela Hillyer, Harry Mills’ granddaughter, Pam shared a lot of detail and photos. We also had a great update, below, ex Harold Kidd.
“A true “Express Cruiser”, TE RAUPARAHA was the product of the late flowering of Chas. Bailey Jr’s genius, exemplified too by his design of the 94ft ketch NEW GOLDEN HIND for his old customer H.R. Jenkins (SHENANDOAH, 1929),which was built by Deeming Bros of Opua in 1939 and several outstanding sweet-lined contemporary fishing boats like KATOA, JOAN and MARGARET.TE RAUPARAHA was fitted with twin 110hp Buda diesels which were becoming very popular at the time, supplied by Seabrook Fowlds and fitted by Allely Bros. They were replaced with Graymarines after her extensive wartime patrol work in WW1, often well off the Northland coast. A motor launch to make the pulses race if ever there was one”
Back then Andrew Pollard advised she was for sale in Noumea, New Caledonian – then radio silence – until yesterday when she has popped up for sale in Queensland, Australia. OMG – why do people do this to a classic wooden boat – surely its cheaper to just buy a plastic one than turn such a fine craft into what we see today… words fail me.
She’s recently been hauled out on Waiheke Island, her new home, for some tidy-up work after a few stern fasteners decided to call it quits. The owner was full of praise for a talented young boatbuilder based on Waiheke who took on the transom rebuild — great to hear skilled hands are still out there keeping these classics alive.
With the heavy lifting underway, the owners rolled up their sleeves and treated her underside to a well-deserved birthday.
As the black-and-white photo below (ex Nathan Herbert) shows, MAITAI has made it close to 100 years without suffering at the hands of the dreaded wood-butchers. Long may that continue.
PAIKEA – ONE OF OUR FASTEST CLASSIC WOODEN MOTORBOATS
Last week during a visit to Gulf Harbour I spotted PAIKEA tucked away on one of the inner berths, looking very smart. This master link will take you to several stories that document her past + lots of photos https://waitematawoodys.com/?s=Paikea&submit=Search
In one of the stories we learnt from Harold Kidd that PAIKEA was built by Collings & Bell for A.H. Court and launched on 26th January 1921. She was fitted with a 120-150hp Model M Van Blerck 6 cylinder petrol engine (not a straight-eight Packard as is often said). PAIKEA had Chas. Collings’ “concave-convex” type of hard chine design which he made famous with his various FLEETWINGS and whale-chasers. Indeed she was a refinement of the FLEETWING whose image appears in the Collings & Bell section of WW.
PAIKEA was good for 20 knots and can still do it with her present big Iveco/Fiat, Harold commented that she goes like hell and stable with it.
I n recent years PAIKEA has been one of launches that line up for the Auckland anniversary day motorboat inner harbour drag race, in fact earlier this year (2025) she was 1st across the line on corrected (handicap) time. Will be interesting to see if she turns up in 2026 to defend her title.
Photo below from the 2025 race where we see PAIKEA unsuccessfully trying to catch the winner – MY GIRIL.
THE REFURBISHMENT OF CLASSIC COLIN WILD LAUNCH – TASMAN BEGINS
The classic 38′ wooden launch TASMAN, built/launched in 1929 by New Zealand foremost wooden boat builder – Colin Wild, has made numerous cameo appearance on WW as her past owners were attendees at most of the major classic boating events in and around the Waitemata Harbour. A few years ago ownership of TASMAN changed hands and her new owners are perfect custodians of this soon to be centenarian.They have committed to undertaking a rolling restoration that will see TASMAN celebrate her 100th birthday in 2029, looking better than the day she slid down the Wild slipway. In owner, Stephen’s words – ” This is the first of a stepped plan of restoration for her centennial at Easter 2029. This first stage was completed by Marineskills at Half Moon Bay. The primary task was the removal of the original 1929 foredeck canvas to ply, glass and strengthen the foredeck.
This required removal of all the furniture, toe rails, winch and sundry gear. The 1960-period guard rails were replaced with a reduced rail around the work area forward.
Old winch and gear chromed, salt water wash-down pump fitted and new spare-man provided. Toe rail teak restored and rebuilt. Sundry other works around ‘Tasman’ included restoration of period navigation lights in wheelhouse roof mounted boxes to reflect the originals.”
We look forward to future updates on the refurbishment and will keep the WW readers updated.
(Photo below dated Feb 2021 of TASMAN in Whakaatakalaka Bay aka OBC, Auckland by Nathan Herbert)
waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 14+ million views 