Author Archives: Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

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About Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

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.

Osmond + Woody Quiz

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ORMOND – Where Is She


I was recently contacted by Christopher Butler looking for information on the launch – Ormond. He uncovered the above photo in his uncles collection of precious things his grandad, Desmond Butler left behind.Desmond Butler was a shipwright for the Navy based in Devonport and had a strong relationship with the naval sailing club formerly at Torpedo Bay. Christopher commented that for him to have kept this old photo the boat must have meant a lot to him. 

Christopher has set himself a mission to track down the Ormond which in the photo looks like it is on the Hokianga. It could be Christopher’s great grandfather at the wheel. Even if the boat is a no longer sea worthy,  it would be great to track her down what became of her.

Input from Harold Kidd – ORMOND was entered in the 1908 Auckland Anniversary Regatta in the Launches Allcomers over 7 knots race on 54m handicap. She did not start for some reason. Certainly she must have been built in Auckland and launched in late December 1907 or January 1908. Maybe she wasn’t finished in time to start the race? I have checked through the many unnamed launches built in that time span and can’t pick her out. Her “torpedo”/ “cruiser”/”compromise” stern was cool at the time. Any Auckland builder could have produced her. Her disappearance from the record in Auckland is consistent with shipment to the Hokianga. Records of launches on that harbour are very sketchy.

Input from Dave Stanaways – photo below of a similar vessel on the Hokianga

WOODY QUIZ – Answer the question below correctly and you will go into the draw for a copy of Brian Peet’s #1 selling 334 page book, Des Townson – A Sailing Legacy. All entered via email to waitematawoodys@gmail.com.  Entries close at 8pm 25-08-2020. If you miss out , pick up a copy here https://destownson.co.nz


Q: How many launches did Des Townson design? 

28 Days On Board Waitangi – Auckland > Sydney

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28 Days On Board Waitangi – Auckland > Sydney


Hopefully today will be the last day of lockdown at L3 for Aucklanders, so should therefore be the last day of ‘staying-close-to-home’.

A perfect excuse to view this great video from the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, the club are approaching their 125th anniversary and have come up with a cool idea, under the umbrella ‘Club Conversations – Unplugged’- today we get to meet club member Peter Oldham QSM, and hear the story of his passage aboard the classic yacht Waitangi, on her 28 day journey from Auckland to Sydney in 1949 + a peek into his life story.
Enjoy 🙂

Peter Oldham QSM

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Wooden Pond Yachts + Next Woody Event Details

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WOODEN MODEL / POND YACHTS


If you are a regular WW reader you may recall that I have a fondness for pond yachts or as we call them in NZ – model yachts. One of my favourites makes a cameo appearance in the photo below. I don’t ’sail’ them, just collect. Last week I uncovered this very cool video of Rich Hilsinger (WoodenBoat School director) chatting with pond yacht guru – Them McLaughlin.

The video is labeled ‘The Elegance & Joy of Wooden Pond Yachts’ – grab your favourite chair and push play, then sit back as these two gents entertain and enlighten you 🙂

NEXT WOODY CLASSICS WEEKEND EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

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Input from Russell Ward – “I had a Star pond yacht as a kid aged 4 in the UK. Had a lot of fun with it in Littlehampton, the local harbour where the old man kept his boat. The Star was really just a toy and made in the thousands from 1918 -82. The makers guaranteed them to sail. They are quite collectable now. See the photos below of the business.I made one (The Duke – refer below) up for grandson for his 7th birthday with some slight mods to enable it to cope in Wellington! I was amazed how well it sailed when let adrift with no particular fine adjustments of sails once the sails were set slack and rudder set. It tacked, luffed in the gusts and sailed off, you name it. All with no attention. We caught it at the other side of the pond some time later. Great fun and highly recommended as a bonding exercise.By the way, there were no fences round the pond at Avalon in Petone. No kids appeared to have been drowned that day.

Turanga SOS

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TURANGA SOS


Currently on tme is Turanga – a project looking for a woody to step up and bring her back into the classic launch fleet. There is no mention of a designer / builder, but its thought that she splashed c.1920. Below the sheets of plywood that make up her cabin, is a very sweet kauri planked hull. She measures 36’, her beam is 8’6” and has a draft of 3’.Under the engine box is a 1974, Commer TS3, 135hp diesel engine that sees her cruising comfortably at 9.5 knts. and topping out at over 12knts. 


The photos above were taken approx. 5 years ago and the ones below are current. In a recent storm she suffered a wee oops in her berth, but nothing a good woody boat builder like Geoff Bagnall couldn’t fix.


Her auction closes Sunday at 8pm – its a $1 reserve and when I last looked she was sitting on just over $2,000 – someone will get an entry level woody for not a lot of money 🙂
(Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up)

28′ Coastal Cruiser

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28’ Coastal Cruiser
Recently American boat designer, Tad Roberts, posted the above design sketch on fb, Tad commented that she was a coastal cruiser in classic British Colombia style. In my eyes, just about perfect – a Gardner 3lx tucked under the pilot house sole and I’d be disappearing over the horizon 🙂 I had better keep buying Lotto.


I shared the sketch with Dean Wright, who shares my passion for converted workboats and Dean sent me the photo below that he took of the launch – Georgia, that has been in the Bay of Islands approx 5 years ago. A pretty boat.

Electra

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ELECTRA
 
I was contacted yesterday by David Grogan whose grandfather, Ted (Edward Alfred) Grogan, who’s family lived in Ngunguru up near Whangarei, in 1919 Ted owned the motor launch, Electra in partnership with a Mr. P Wellington.
 
David had uncovered a Northern Advocate report about the arrival in Ngunguru of the vessel, in October 1919, She was described as having, “just arrived from Auckland…about 28 feet overall with a good beam and mast and sails. She is fitted throughout with every modern convenience”. From this brief description David commented that Electra does not sound like she was a working boat. She may have been converted into a pleasure craft, at that point however. David had done a WW search and found a suggestion from Harold Kidd that Electra may have been designed by C. Harrison Smith and built by Bailey & Tyre, at Hall’s Beach, Northcote.
Ted Grogan married in 1922 and its likely he sold his share in Electra, to help finance the family home back in Auckland.
 
I contacted Harold Kidd and he was able to confirm that Electra was designed by C. Harrison Smith and built by Bailey & Tyer at Hall’s Beach Northcote in December 1912 for G. Thorne George and D.M. Davis of Parnell. She was 30’ x 8’ and had a 10hp Djinn kerosene engine. Harold also supplied the above photos.
She was sold after a couple of years to a Mr Hogan who sold her to Whangarei ‘for fishing purposes’ in 1919, so it would appear that David’s grandfather took her north for fishing.
She disappears from the record in 1922, probably with a name change.
 
Is anyone able to enlighten us on what became of Electra post 1922? Harold commented that she looked almost square bilged, but she wasn’t. Hopefully her distinctive lines may have made her memorable.
 

Quest

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QUEST
Earlier in the week, we featured the ex work-boat Quest II, this prompted John Gander to send in the above photos of the 33’ Quest, built by Roger Carey in 1959, her beam is 9’9” and she draws 4’6”. 
Roger built Quest to be his families boat, but later sold her to a Southland farmer who then in 1964 sold her into commercial fishing. John understands that Quest fished the waters about Stewart Island. In the 1970’s > 1980’s period she also fished the waters off Southland.
 
Sometime in early 2000 she returned to Picton, where John took the photo’s of her in the marina at Waikawa in 2008. John commented that she looked to be well kept and in a tidy condition, her engine a 5LW Gardner. She was then lifted from the water onto the hardstand and as the photo taken in 2013 shows she has deteriorated with her hardwood planking drying out with considerable shrinkage. 
 
John remarked that doesn’t like to look at Quest now that she is in such a sad state, having been fitted with a tight fitting cover and John fears that with lack of ventilation her condition will deteriorate further.
(special thanks to Dean Wright for facilitating getting the story to WW)
 

Mystery B.O.I. Launches – WW Gear To Be Won

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Mystery 1

Mystery Launch #1

mystery 2

Mystery Launch #2

ID These Mystery B.O.I. Launches – Win WW Merchandise

Ok woodys, double banger competition today – we have two photos (by Tudor Collins) sent in by Nathan Herbert. All those that can correctly name the two launches, go into the draw for a WW T-shirt (s/s) and hat. Entries close at 8pm 18-08-2020.

ENTRY BY EMAIL ONLY to  waitematawoodys@gmail.com

WW Merch copy

Quest II

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QUEST II

Quest II was built by Miller and Tunnage in 1924, currently configured as a pleasure boat, her tme listing doesn’t tell us anything about her past life, so woodys today can we uncover what happened to her from 1924 until her conversion?
Home port is Whangarei.
What we know is that she is 40’ in length and powered by a 6 cyl. FD6T Nissan diesel.
A very salty looking woody.
Photos below sent in by Dean Wright that he took of Quest II back in 2012 when she lived in Opito Bay for a bit.
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Lake Taupo Launches At The Landing

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Lake Taupo Launches At The Landing
The above photo comes to us via NZ Vintage Postcard fb and is captioned – The Landing, Taupo and is possibly from the 1930>1940’s period.

A question for Paul Drake – is the boat ‘closest to the channel‘ your 1914 Bailey and Lowe launch – Romance  ? If so, that would date the photo post 1931.

Can we ID any of the other boats?

Input from Paul Drake – Yes the launch nearest the channel is ROMANCE, still at Taupo and owned by the Drake Brothers. She arrived ex Napier post 1931 earthquake as a flush decker, and had her cabin raised when acquired by Jack Taylor and put to work as a commercial boat, probably in 1932. The counter stern boat is KINGFISHER. Thomas Ryan ran the 60 foot steamer RMS TONGARIRO ( Bailey and Lowe 1899 and built at Taupo) until 1925. She eventually rotted away on the foreshore between the Boat Harbour and Acacia Bay – photo below at the Taupo Wharf, before the 2 storied cargo shed was built , so quite early on in the 1900’s.

Tongariro

Input from Nigel Drake – The boat between Romance and Kingfisher looks to be Waihora, about 23 feet in length and probably a Couthard built boat, (not to be confused with the Brin Wilson built Waihora). She was on the lake for a long period of time and ran for hire under local identity “Tabby” Tabernacle.
POHUTUKAWA 
Lock-down = less going out = more fires, so collected a load of firewood today, life is easy when there is an arborist in the family 🙂
While at his yard, I spotted this magnificent pile of Pohutukawa logs, the coffee cup is there to give you an indication of the size of the 12 logs . A huge tree came down in a recent storm, blocking a road so out with the big chainsaws. Not destined for firewood, I’m told a few coffee tables and bar tops.
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