Author Archives: Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

Unknown's avatar

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.

Raira

Posted on by
17

RaIra

photo ex Brian Fulton

Brian took the above photo in Woolshed Bay, Coromandel over the 2015 Xmas / New Year period. She is called Raira & is based at Panmure.

Interested to learn more about her.

Harold Kidd Update

RAIRA was designed by Charles Collings but built by her first owners, the McLeod brothers, Ted and Ray, and J. Verran, at Bayswater and launched in February 1915. She was 38′ x 38′ x 9′ x 3′ and was originally fitted with a 3 cylinder 30hp heavy duty Twigg, built in Auckland. She usually cruised with AUMOE after Alex Foster (of Fosters) bought her in 1919/20. The bridgedeckerisation was done by W.G. Lowe & Son in 1937 when owned by N.J. Campbell.
Her lines were published in the N.Z. Yachtsman magazine in 1914.

Photo below ex Jason Prew (Wairiki) of Raira crossing the Firth of Thames on the 27-12-2015

08-01-2016 Input from Jonathon Aston

Raira has been our family launch for the last 13 years and have many great memories. In 2009 we put Raira onto a large shed and over the next 3 years completely re-ribbed, refastened & re-corked her hull with thousands of copper nails & roves just like the McLeod brothers did when building her all those years ago as well as replacing all her keel bolts with new silicon bronze bolts. The stern deck was added in the 70’s & the bridge was added in 1982 by a local boatbuilder while based in Tauranga. She was brought back to Auckland in the early 90’s & has been based at the Panmure  Yacht & Boating club since.

Original lines & recent photos ex Jonathon Aston

 

 

Princess

Posted on by
7

PRINCESS
photos & details ex Paul Drake

Paul has advised that the above launch has arrived at Lake Taupo within the last few weeks. Now if we believe the name plate she is a 1927 Colin Wild boat. Paul commented that its a nice touch having the build year and builder’s name being advertised, but it would be nice with they spelt the name correctly (Wild not Wilde) 😦

Paul believes that if her provenance stacks up, she is probably the only Col Wild on the lake.

The name plate states her home anchorage was Mahurangi, so what more do we know about Princess & how did she end up on the lake ?

Pirimanu

Posted on by
20

PIRIMANU

Every time I catch the ferry to Waiheke Island I notice this classic sedan top launch moored in Matiatia Bay, in close & to the the right of the ferry terminal. Never been close enough to get its name so last week after anchoring in the bay (just a coffee stop) I rowed past with the camera. She looks to have recently had some TLC as she appears a little smarter than on previous visits 😉

What do we know about Pirimanu?

ps hard to tell from the photos but a very tall mast

Harold Kidd Input

The 28 footer PIRIMANU is an Arnold Couldrey design built by Salthouse Bros in 1968 for W.M. (Bill) Macindoe. Her design harks back to 1948 but good things don’t date, do they? Both Couldrey and Macindoe put some time into the build at Greenhithe.
Macindoe still owned her in 1972 according to Couldrey’s notes and in 1973 according to AYA records. Dennis and Suzie Craig owned her 1997

Yacht Porn – Sailing Sunday

Posted on by
4

Yacht Porn – Sailing Sunday
photos ex Jason Prew

I ‘borrowed’ the above photos off Jason’s facebook page, I’m sure he won’t mind as they are simply stunning & show off his 1904 Arch Logan classic – Wairiki, perfectly.

The photos were taken around 8.30pm on Boxing Day as Jason was sliding along at 6knots on-route to Patio Bay.

Most old things in life – including boats & people look better in the evening light & knowing Jason, these photos were most likely snapped on an iPhone which just shows how far technology has come – who needs a camera 😉

As always – click any photo to enlarge.

Link below takes you to the blogsite on the restoration of Wairiki – 100’s of photos 🙂

http://www.wairiki.co.nz/Wairiki1904/Welcome.html

Waiere

Posted on by
3

WAIERE

I have been waiting for details, ex the owner, on the above launch for a while & to date have received nothing so thought I would post the photos & see what we can dig up.

I took the photos of this very pretty boat while aboard Trinidad on-route to Greg Lees shed at Sandspit. I understand that she was ‘rescued’ from a farm paddock in West Auckland & has been restored & recently relaunched.

Would love to to hear / see more details about the restoration project 😉

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

FYI – Some interesting waitematawoodys blogsite stats from 2015

1. The ww site was viewed over 830,000 times in 2015
2. The busiest day of the year was Feb 9th with over 13,000 visitors – the post that day was on the 2015 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade
3. In 2015 there were over 400 new posts, growing the total archive to over 1,400 posts
4. The post that got the most views in 2015 was ‘Chris McMullen’s ‘Electrochemical Damage To Wood’
5. The vessel topic post that got the most views was the restoration of the classic launch Arohanui, with over 10,000 in the first 24 hours.
6. ww had visitors from 151 countries – the most came from NZ. Australia & the USA were not far behind. My challenge in 2016 is to improve the UK viewing audience
7. The 3 most active commenters were – Harold Kidd, Whangateau Traditional Boats & Nathan Herbert
8. There are lots of stats on ‘where you came from’ i.e. the web browsers you use & where you have been before visiting the ww site & where you go afterwards – very interesting to a marketer like me, but boring to most of you 🙂 I will say that you not big facebook users 😉

Mahina

Posted on by
4

MAHINA
photos & details ex Russell Ward

Mahina is a William Garden (USA) design & was built in the early 1960’s, her wheelhouse is a later addition. She had an open steering position. She still retains the inside helm and  is still powered by a Gardner.
Russell has a suspicion she was launched as Konoihi, any able to confirm this ?

With yesterday being the end of the year it was perfect timing to hit the 1,500,000 views – thanks to everyone for following the blogsite. Cheers Alan H

Santa slipped a few one-off ww tee-shirts into some friends & family santa sacks. ‘Santa’ was a little concerned they might not have been well received but they have been spotted at Waiheke, London & Prague !! so santa must have got it right 😉

 

 

Arahi

Posted on by
9

ARAHI
photo ex Pam Cundy

The above photo shows Arahi moored in Tryphena Harbour at Great Barrier Island. Looking at her there are some seriously old bones there, so she must have a past that some of the woodys know about?

Almost forgot to wish you all a happy New Year & if you are out on the water – be careful, booze & boats are not always good partners 😉

 

 

Kuri

Posted on by
11

KURI
photos & details ex Raymond Morey

Previously on ww there was some chat about the an old tug and barge that used to lay in Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island. Ray advises the tug ‘Kuri’ & the barge was ‘Waiti’, which was built as the 78′ schooner rigged scow ‘May’ by Davy Darroch in 1898. They both lay at Frank Hooks place, the little brown cottage virtually on the beach, around from the Mansion House & were ultimately sold to Bert Subritzky.
Ray does not know the history of Kuri but in regard the above photo’s, the coloured one Ray took when she first went back in the water after a long rebuild and was running day fishing parties out of Whangaroa some 12 years ago. The white ones are of her in the Marlborough Sounds and in trade-a-boat.
Ray does know that Kuri was in Fiji during the war, her skipper then was Roy Taylor, and she had a direct reversing Fairbanks-Morse engine that was still in her when Frank owned her. She later had an L3 series Gardner.
In Rays eyes the flat white all over paint job does nothing for her looks 😉
What do we know about Kuri & what became of her?

Input from Barry Davis

“I can give some details of this vessel, but there are some gaps.

Kuri was built in 1929 by W. G. Lowe & Sons for Richardson & Co. as a tug towing lighters at the port of Napier. She was requisitioned in 1942 for use by the RNZAF. I don’t know much of her history after W.W.II, I first came across her in 1963 at Kawau when she was then renamed Altona. Sometime in the 1960’s she was acquired by Mc Callum Bros and renamed Kuri, and used as a tug towing their shingles barges from McCallum’s Island to their shingle depot in St Marys Bay. Her dimensions were 38.66’ x 11.4’ x 4.08’.

The b/w photo was taken at Kawau on 27 January 1963, the colour photo of her in McCallum’s ownership has her on Shipbuilders Ltd. slipway and was taken 13 June 1971.”

01–1-2016 Input from Baden Pascoe

Kuri was built by WG Lowe in 1929 for Richardsons of Napier as a lighter tug
(There are two books written about this small shipping company). She was
designed by Herbert Levi.  Her next owner was Frank Hook who used her for
barge work around the Hauraki Gulf. Frank ran the operation by himself and
had a ghost crew member to keep the Marine Dept off his back. He re powered
her with the 6L3 Gardner that she still has. She was sold to McCallum Bros
in 1961 and the photo below is of her with the barge Ann ex scow Havoc.
Havoc was a big scow, not far off 90′ O.L. Alec Pascoe often skippered her
and this photo may have been taken by him. If any Woodies followers have any
photos of her during her working days, Baden would like be keen to view them.

First Boat Trip?

Posted on by
7

First Boat Trip?

photo ex Jason Prew

Jason sent me this photo a while ago & I filed it in the ‘holiday post’ file – these days we are so PC about life-jackets & smoking, this photo almost seems unbelievable, at least these days 🙂
I wonder if the lady is the babies mother or a nanny – looks a little too formal to be the mother.

Tainui

Posted on by
11

TAINUI

Heads up from Murray Willis (MV Margeurite)

Tainui was built to survey for the Auckland Harbour Board in 1967, originally a workboat but later converted into a pleasure vessel. She is built of kauri & is 38’ in length with a 9’3” beam.

Tainui is powered by a 70h.p. 3LWGardner diesel that gives her a comfortable 9 knots at 1000rpm. A great sea ship, she has plied across Cook Straight many times.

Currently moored in Whangaparapara Harbour, Great Barrier Island.& listed for sale on trade. The asking price is $15k ono & from the photos, for that price looks like a great restoration project.

What do we know about her, designer, builder & who did the conversion?