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.
Todays woody is a wee bit of a mystery, and I’m confidant that when she was launched she wasn’t named – Gaza 🙂 Ian McDonald gave me the heads up on her tme listing, where it states that the 30’ launch is a McGeedy (I assume McGeady) build with a 10’ beam and draws 4’. The forward motion is via a 75hp Ford diesel. Gaza calls Sandspit home, previously on WW it was identified that in another life the launch was called most likely Astra
Anyone able to confirm the design and the original name?
UPDATE 04-07-2023 – we learnt in the comments section she was built by McGeady and previously named – Astra. The photos below (ex Ant Smit) show her residing in the Whangarei Town Basin, where she now lives after being sold.
Rather a special afternoon yesterday, got to have a sneak peek at Rogue, the 1892 Chas Bailey Jnr. built gaffer. She slipped out of Wayne Olsen’s shed and headed to the Pier 21 yard at Westhaven, with the intention being to step the mast and do a quick waterline sighting before hauling out for the final coats of paint and commissioning.
As seems to always be the case with woodys – things took a little longer than expected and she missed her launch slot – that will now be today. Rogue was last in the water 15 years ago and is without equal in terms of the total restoration – every object aboard Rogue is 100% fit for purpose and of the highest spec. As an admirer of attention to detail I was blown away. The day was about stepping back and seeing her outside of the shed after all those years, we will be back to showcase the finished project.
This link to the yachts blog page will stun you – pour a coffee, find a comfortable chair and click then keep scrolling down https://rogue1892.com/rogues-restoration/
And just because you’re 130 years old doesn’t mean you can not have a few toys – check out the wind vane below, solar powered, wireless connection to your iPhone 🙂
18-03-2022 UPDATE – On 15-03-22 Rogue was popped back in the water with 750kgs more ballast added. Floating perfectly to her lines – owner very happy. A few last chores and she will be out there chasing down a few of the A-Class fleet 🙂
I know I’m tempting fate with the headline, but who can remember when it last rained? Todays gallery of woodys comes to us from the camera of Nathan Herbert (Pacific) as he mooched around the Hauraki Gulf last week. The last 5, are from Peter Loughlin (Lady Margaret -CW) doing the same thing.
We see Tasman, Viveen, Pacific, Arihi, Escape, Chandos, Zoe, Motunau, Waiari, Juanita, Pacific, Lady Margaret (CW), Rehia, Ngaro and a few that I can’t put a name to.
A question – did Colin Wild ever design / build an ugly boat?
It was a pretty wild and woolly weekend in some parts of the north and reviewing the news and photos, Tutukaka took the brunt of it – sad to see the carnage. Angus Rogers sent in the photo below from Russell last night – tagged ‘After the Wind’ showing the Russell ferry and the launch Miss Brett, bottom right closer in.
The above yacht caught my eye recently on Lew Redwood’s fb. Olwen was designed by Claude Smith and built in 1960 by Smiths Boat Yard in Whangarei. At 33’ there is a lot of usable cabin and cockpit space, very few yacht designers manage to include good sized windows and retain a classic look.In the photo she looks like some TLC is overdue, but with those ‘good bones’ I’m sure Olwen will get the attention she deserves.
Do we know any more about Olwen?
Input ex Robin Elliott – Olwen won line honours in her first race, Dec 3 1960 in the Onerahi YC 100 mile Moko Hinau Ocean Race from a fleet of 13. Conditions were tough with a strong SE wind and gusts up to 35 knots, and set a new course record of 15 hours 15 minutes.
A HEADS UP – THE ADMINISTRATOR CONTROLLING THE WHANGTEAU TRADITIONAL BOATING CLUB facebook page HAS DECIDED THAT LINKS TO waitematawoody STORIES ARE NOT SUITABLE CONTENT. SO WW STORIES AND EVEN MYSELF ARE BARRED. This means that if you have linked a WTBC fb post to an existing WW story to provide more details on a vessel, your link has been deleted. Very narrow minded and introverted thinking – and clearly a low understanding of how social media communities co-exist and facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, and interests through virtual networks. I would have thought ‘holding hands’ with a site that has just passed 7,500,000 views would have been a good thing for WTBC. Never mind, we will find new friends to play with 🙂
In todays gallery we get a peek at a few more woodys cruising the far north, complements of BOI woody and pro photographer Dean Wright’s camera. The boats photographed above are – Florence, W1, Joleen and the yacht Nomad V. Links below to the boats that have appeared on WW before, the trawler style launch is Joleen, is I believe a 37’ Jackson design.
For a plastic boat to appear on WW it has to be a tad special – the f/glass replica Logan33 launch – King Orry falls into that special category. In the past I have featured several of these boats and commented that they we years ahead of the trend and if still made today, there would be a ready market for them. They just tick so many boxes and also cater to the old salts that need to move on from their yacht, but still want a degree of stick and rag in their boating life.
There are a lot of ‘woody’ features on King Orry e.g. bronze fittings, timber bow rail, crafted t&g kauri interior, kauri mast with steadying sail etc. Like most of these launches the forward motion comes from a 40hp Lombardini engine, mounted very far forward, the drive shaft is almost as long as the boat. She has a cruising speed of 6-7 knots and tops out at 9 knots.Big (for her size) tanks (both water and fuel are 250L) give her a serious cruising range, I believe she sips 2L an hour.
Todays gallery of woodys comes to us from Barrie Abel taken last week while mooching around the bottom end of Waiheke Island and Kawakawa Bay, the ‘home’ of his armada of classic woodys. We have Trinidad, Pleasure Lady, Spindrift, Rehia and Gytha. Below are links to Spindrift and Gytha – one day we will befriend the owners of Pleasure Lady and get a peek down below of this very smart Roy Paris design, Monty Rae built launch.
Long overdue for a b/w photo – todays woody is – Sea Prince. The top photo comes to us via Lew Redwood. The ‘coloured’ one was sent to me a longtime ago but I couldn’t ID the boat, which now in my eyes is the same as in the b/w one. The caption on the b/w photo reads M.C. “Sea Prince”, Lake Manapouri, N.Z. and that folks is all we know of this very fine looking launch. Initially looking at the b/w photo and given the lack of obvious safety gear, I assumed she was probably in private ownership. But in the colour photo there’s a fair crowd on-board – maybe health & safety rules didn’t apply on Lake Manapouri 😉
Can anyone help enlighten us around who designed / built her and what became of her.
16-01-2022 Harold Kidd Input – SEA PRINCE was built at Fairlie in 1947 by Jones Motors’ boat building division under S J Guard. She was built for the Wanaka tourist trade as MALIBU. She was a 30 foot hard chine vessel with a Kermath Sea Prince 100hp engine. She was sold in 1956 and renamed (then or perhaps earlier) as SEA PRINCE after her engine. An advertisement for her sale in 1956 calls her “hard chine”. I agree she doesn’t look it. Perhaps the chine was well-guarded (dreadful pun).
16-01-2022 Input from Scott Barnsdale – Sea Prince ended up as a fishing boat at Stewart Island, looking very different to the photos. Unfortunately, she disappeared from her mooring during a severe gale in 1987, never to be seen again.
JOAN + AUCKLAND ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND CLASSIC BOATING MUST DOs
While sliding down the harbour the last week, I was passed by a very grand old lady – the 42’ Joan, built in 1919 by Baily & Lowe. She just slices thru the water with ease – no doubt helped by the very rare Gardner 612 engine. I have reproduced Harold Kidd’s notes below from a 2014 WW story – link to that and another story at the end.
“JOAN was built by Bailey & Lowe in December 1918 as IMANOTA for William Lang Casey of Hamilton Road, Herne Bay, the then President of the Victoria Cruising Club. She was 42ft x 11ft and was fitted with a Millar engine. Casey sold her to James Donald in early 1922 and he renamed her MARION D, although the name didn’t stick very well and she was often referred to as IMANOTA for years afterwards. During the winter of 1922 Donald re-powered her with a 30hp (rated) 3 cylinder Twigg and had the dodger built on. Donald owned her until just before WW2 when Athol Umfrey Wells of King Street, Panmure bought her and renamed her JOAN, probably after a daughter because his wife was Gladys. During WW2 she was with NAPS as Z19 under Wells’ command and the Twigg was replaced by a Gardner in 1944. Athol Wells owned her for many years, I think until he died in 1975. A chap called Walker owned her in the mid eighties when her provenance had transmogrified into her being built by Chas. Bailey in 1914 and being used by Zane Grey for game-fishing, all myths.” LINKS TO WW JOAN STORIES – more insights here https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/11/20/joan-2/ https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/03/17/joan/
Today woodys we get to go on a virtual trip back in time – to the early 1970’s and finish off in 2022.The hero of todays story is Callisto, the 50’ sport cruiser that Jack Barrott built in Waipu, Northland over 3 years in the late 1960’s > early 1970’s. Firstly some background on Barrott – his family owned a saw mill and native forests in Northland (back in the days when you were allowed to do that). During this time the Ministry of Works had a wee problem – a giant kauri tree – named ‘Packwood’ was about to fall over and block the main road north, on the Brynderwyn Hills, so the decision was made to fell it – Barrott’s mill was the obvious choice. So this giant kauri and other trees from their private native forests provided the timber for the construction of Callisto.
In the early 1960’s well visiting the USA, Barrott came across the latest motorboat designs in Florida – known as Sportfishing boats – he liked what he saw and made a half-model and drawings, which he showed Whangarei boat builder Alan Orams, who then drew full plans and would help Barrott during the building process. The backbone and frames were in fact constructed at the Orams yard, then transported to Waipu for assembly in Barrott’s shed. Construction is very traditional, with kauri used for most of the structural members and exotic timbers else where. The 42’ keelson came from one solid kauri log, as did the floors, ribs, hull and deck beams.
The design of Callisto with its flybridge, as compared to the traditional sedan top launches of the time, was years ahead of the market and even today, 50 yrs later, she is still a looker amongst a marina of white plastic boats. Post launching Callisto spent approx. 15 years moored in and around Whangarei Harbour – her next owner was a Bob Doughty, who changed her name to – Challenger’ in c.1987. Fast forward to 2002 and she changed hands again – this time to Steve and Elizabeth Cowie – who quickly changed her name back to Callisto (fyi – Callisto is the 3rd moon of Jupiter). The Cowe’s undertook an extensive refit that included modernising her interior. A bonus was that Steve Cowie was fully expecting to have to remove the 30 yearly twin Caterpillar 3160 – 10.5L, 210hp, non-turbocharged engines, that had never had the heads off. When inspected by Cat technicians they were found to be in top condition and given a clean bill of health. In fact they remain in the boat today. Being semi-displacement Callisto cruises at 10>12 knots and tops out at 14.
Callisto passed thru several sets of hands – the trial looks something like this (if I have it wrong, let me know) – Jack Barrott > Bob Doughty > Ken Carter > Steve Cowie > Kurt Settle and in 2018 ownership went to the 3 Forsyth brothers (Kent, Rhys and Tobias) and their families who share the use, costs and maintenance but mainly the love of being out on the water in Callisto, She gets used extensively around the gulf and most summers to the Bay of Islands but with more farther afield adventures definitely in the long term plans.
Callisto has just completed a 3 1/2 week full hull repaint in the shed Pine Harbour Boat painters, The result of the finish achieved being simply magnificent with the quality of workmanship second to none. Whilst in the shed the brothers made the most of things with an additional kauri knee fitted to the duck-board, teak cockpit re-caulk and tidy up and some new bronze rudders cast at the Foundry in Silverdale. As I say often – some boats are lucky in they owners – Callisto is one of them 🙂
Do People Still Tune Into waitematawoodys Over The Holidays ?
Short answer – YES, in fact these holidays more than ever. On Jan 4th we hit a record for the highest number of individuals ever logging on in a 24hr period. Other than Xmas day, every day was bigger than the average (normal) daily viewing. Thanks for the support, seeing the above skyscapers makes the effort of doing a daily story worthwhile. Best Regards Alan Houghton
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