Hoax Woody
The above person is not a classic wooden boatie. If you sight him loitering around marinas & wharfs please confiscate the ww tee-shirt. He obtained it under false pretenses.
As a result of his behavior, future purchasers of ww merchandise may have to supply proof of their trustworthiness & commitment to the wooden boating movement 🙂
ps Its not a photo of Xxx Xxxxxxxx . Name removed due to lack of a sense of humour 🙂
If this weather doesn’t improve – I could be lining up for one of these 🙂
Upper Harbour Power Boat Racing
photo ex Historic NZ Photos
I may have posted this before, but do not think so, there are a lot of similar images around from c.1930’s of motorboats moored to watch a power boat regatta held in the upper reaches of Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour.
Russell Ward commented that the launch on the left is Little Tasman, which given how good-looking she is would have to be correct.
Anyone able to ID the launch on the right & supply some details on the wee racer Peggy?
12-01-2016 Harold Kidd Input
It’s pretty clear to me that this pic was taken at the NZPBA Regatta at the Whau Creek/River on Saturday 18th February 1928. TASMAN was an entrant in the race for “fast cruisers” and PEGGY in the Burns Gold Cup for outboards.
The starters in the fast cruisers race were TARUA (scr), TASMAN (3m), ROMANCE II (5m 45s) and LADY MARGARET (8m40s). TARUA carrying number 18 won from TASMAN carrying 82. I think it’s possible the mystery launch in the above image is TARUA (photo below). While the hull details in the above image generally match, the strake forward is absent and she’s painted quite differently. What do you guys reckon?
If not TARUA then she’s a spectator launch and there’s no record of those for this event.
There I was anchored in West Bay, Rakino Island minding my own business, reading a good book & this ‘thing’ slides into the bay & almost anchors on the beach. At a guess 7>10 on board + a cat. Now that black box below the wind generator is a commercial (band) size speaker i.e. loud – VERY LOUD 😦
In the old days someone would have put a bullet thru it 😉
So folks if ‘Prickety Witch’ makes an appearance in your bay – might be time to move on or find the gun.
ps now if they had been playing Van Morrison , I wouldn’t have minded 🙂
FIESTA
I spotted the above launch anchor in Rocky Bay on 30-12-2015, wind & tide were never my friend so I did not get to see if she had a name on her stern.
She does look familiar – possibly owned by an Alloy Yachts employee & kept in the Viaduct for a while 12>24 months ago ???
Anyone able to shed some more light on her?
Andrew Pollard advised she is called Fiesta & was built by ‘Laing’, powered by a 120hp Ford & moored at Panmure.
Harold Kidd Input
AYA records show FIESTA was built in 1962 by “Lang”. She was 31′ x 10′ x 3′ and had a 100hp Fordson diesel. The first owner appears to have been K.R. Buchanan of Arney Road, Remuera who may have sold her to J.J. Lenwood of Balmoral Road in 1973, although I think there may have two FIESTAs at the time.
So was it Dick Lang who built her? He would have been 74 in 1962 but I’m not sure he was still building that late in his life. He died in 1972. Her hull is sweet enough to be by Dick, not too sure about the tophamper though. The strip plank construction doesn’t sound like Dick. There were other Langs/Laings/Langes about in the 1960s, including Philip Lang, who favoured strip planking and he could be the one. Anyone know anything about him?
23-01-2016 – Update – the photos below are ex Baden Pascoe. Baden has advised that she was built by Philip Lang in 1964 (confirms Harold Kidds thoughts) & is currently owned by Gordon Love.
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
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
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
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 🙂
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 😉
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