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.

Katoa

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Katoa
photos ex John Burland, Paul Drake & Judith Wallith

Morning woodys, I know there has been a few ‘mystery boats’ lately but that’s how it rolls, you post one & it triggers another.

Today’s launch arrived in Mapua, Nelson two days ago & no one knows much about her. An interesting mix of styles, a little bit of everything there.
Can we shed some light on her?

UPDATE

Today’s post had woodys the length of the country digging out there photo albums & cameras & we have uncovered some very cool details.

Paul Drake via his brother Roger sent in the b/w photo below of Katoa (is she still named that?) when 60 years ago she was berthed at Lake Taupo. Owned by the Bull family at the time.

Judith Wallath sent in the below photo of a painting she did c.2000 of a launch anchored at Forestry, Great Barrier Island that must be the same boat.

John Burland, who blogs on the very funky blog http://notthenelsondailyphoto.com/ who put me originally onto the boat, today sent in more photos. He had also un-coverd that she is owned by a gent called David Smith who owns a business in Mapua. The launch used to be at the Nelson marina and before that, it was at Riwaka for a long time.

08-12-2015 Update from the owner via John Burland. (edited by Alan H)

Current owner bought the launch for $27,000 in Jan. 2015 from a gent in Riwaka called John (surname unknown, possibly passed away).
Built 1911 “by 2 brothers in Auckland”. There’s a 1913 bridgedecker at the Nelson marina built by the same  “couple of brothers”.
Currently powered by a 60hp (American) 4 cylinder Ford, (fitted 30 years ago).  42’ long, beam 8’, draws 1.1m,  displaces 5.5t

Legend has it that she was sailed (motored) to Fiji at one time. Cruises at 7 knots, tracks like a dream and he used 2 litres of fuel from Nelson to Mapua.
The engine is very forward (like Seabird) – 25’ drive shaft. What appears as the funnel is actually the chimney for the wood burner stove.

All of the above needs confirmation, John B is attempting to access further info.

16-05-2017 Update  –  Photos below from her new owners Ra Hammer & Joseph Henrey

Mystery Launch at Westhaven

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Mystery Launch (Wanda) at Westhaven

No name, all I know is that her designer / builder was Garth Lane in 1948. Her specs are LOA 38’6″  x BEAM 11’3″ x Draft 3′
She is powered by two 50h.p., 4cyl BMC Leyland Commodores.

She looks bigger than 38′ & rather pretty. I took the above photos while at the Westhaven / Waterfront AKL 2015 Open Day & she was berthed on the brokers pier, so she could have been for sale.

Someone must be able to supply some more detail on her?

Mystery solved – its Wanda see more here 😉

Wanda II

LAKE ROTOITI 2016 CLASSIC & WOODEN BOAT CALENDARS

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LAKE ROTOITI 2016 CLASSIC & WOODEN BOAT CALENDARS

Once again waitematawoodys, Chris Miller & myself are rapped to have worked with the Lake Rotoiti Classic and Wooden Boat Assoc. on the production of their 2016 calendar.
The calendar is chocker full of photos from the amazingly popular 2015 Classic & Wooden Boat Parade. The calendars make excellent Christmas presents for those ‘hard to buy for’ friends & are great value – $10 for 1, or $8 each for 5 or more.  There is a limited amount printed so get in quick, last year they sold out very quickly.

If any woodys are interested in buying contact Rachel Jamieson via this email link

zea.rachel@gmail.com
Postage is $2.40 for up to 7 calendars, $5 for more than 7 or courier ($6 North Island $7 South Island  –  RD extra).
Payment is via direct credit – please use your surname as reference and email Rachel when you make the payment. Remember to add the postage 😉

The bank account number is:    12 3155 0140546 00  Lake Rotoiti Classic and Wooden Boat Assoc.

This is one of those cool win/win situations – its a great way to support the wooden boating movement & you get something back i.e. a cool calendar. Order now.
ps sorry for the slightly wonky cover photo – Rachel needs a few photography 101 tips 🙂

Lady Jane (Lady Joyce)

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LADY JANE (Lady Joyce)
photos ex Ken Ricketts

Today’s photos of the launch hauled out at Gulf Harbour were sent to me by Ken Ricketts. Close inspection of the starboard side revels the remains / outline of some lettering that most likely says ‘Lady Jane’.

Hidden below those sheets of plywood is a rather pretty hull. What do we know about her?

Update from John Thompson

The first photo below shows Lady Jane in Whitford Creek  prior to the opening of Pine Harbour. The second photo is ‘original’ as built by Willie Oliver. When checking her one morning on her mooring she had broken free and drifted onto John’s landing point in Whitford Creek. No damage done, and they re-floated her on the next high (after digging a trench in the mud and papa)

Update 04-12-2015 from Ray Morey
Ray sent in the photo below of Lady Jane when she was named Lady Joyce & owned by Willlie Olivers. Willie built her on his farm at Pukekawa. Launched without any interior or glazing. The engine was an “OSCO” marinised Ford V8 and the fuel tank was a 4 gallon tin. There was never an aft cockpit dodger, Willie maintained she was too short to carry one. Willie was not impressed (0 out of 10) with the for the re-modelling work 😦

Great photo – I can hear Nathan H hyperventilating over this one 🙂

More Photos here of Lady Joyce https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/12/08/lady-joyce-2/

11-12-2015 Photos below supplied by Dave Walker ex previous owners. Sourced by Ken Rickets

c.1947
Launch Day 1948
1948 ready to launch
Fitting dodger – Panmure Basib
c.1949-50 with new dodger
Waikato>Tauranga delivery trip

Misty Rose (Sybil Frances)

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(L) Crusader, Misty Rose (R)

MISTY ROSE (Sybil Frances/ Francis)
photos & details ex Eddie Viv

The photos of today’s launch were sent in by Eddie Viv who has recently purchased her. She is currently named Misty Rose but was previously named Sybil Frances. From what Eddie has been able to learn she was apparently built in 1945 & is 3 skin kauri. In the past she has been a commercial long-liner & was owned by a person named Jack for 35 years and was moored at Port Fitzroy , Great Barrier Island.

The photos above show her as she is now & I would have to say ‘what a difference a coat of coat makes’ :-). We had her on ww back in August & she was looking a little tired. See link          https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/08/05/sybil-francis/

Back then the trademe listing had her as c.1935/36 & powered by a 120hp Ford. In the comments on that post Shamus Fairhall advised that she had been owned by a diesel mechanic named Jack Ngati, kept on the piles up the Tamaki River & used as transport to his property on the Barrier.

So woodys a few more details – can we expand any more?

 

Capri IV

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CAPRI IV
photos & details ex Michael Fann

Danger – Alert – Not A True Woody 😉

Today’s post breaks one of the fundamental ww rules, it has to be wood………….. but sometimes rules need to be broken (not too often).

Capri IV is a Mason Marine Clipper 24 built in the early 1970’s & if you believed the company hype back in those days “the finest powerboat in the world”.
In recent weeks I have had the pleasure of sharing some time with the her present owner, Michael Fann & her previous owner, Tim Evill. Both gents are wonderful, passionate classic boaties but I understand that it was the owner prior to Tim, a Taupo resident who painstakingly restored her.
Capri IV is 24′ long with a beam of 8′, these days she is powered by a Volvo Penta 5.7L V8 that has her comfortably cruising at 22>24 knots & topping out at 32>34 knots -thats quick for a boat of her size. I imagine that Michael is on first name terms with the the fuel jetty jockey 🙂

I have dropped a copy of the May 1971 boat test from Sea Spray magazine into a slide show for viewing, see below. Click to pause & enlarge.

When launched the Clipper 24′ had a quite a revolutionary launching set-up with a sliding cradle trailer (see photo), further proof of the build skills of the team at Mason Marine, Capri IV is still using the same trailer today – thats over 40 years later.

Some of the sales advertisements make amusing reading, as do the features on Tony Mason.

Enjoy.

Sea Spray – May 1971

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Remember to click images to enlarge 😉

 

 

Mermerus M16 – Sailing Sunday

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MERMERUS M16 Sailing Sunday
photo ex Mac Taylor collection

The above photo of the M-class Mermerus planning at speed is proof that you do not need composite construction, carbon fibre & space-age  fabrics to go like the stink & most likely have the crew bricking themselves 🙂
Now if you believe Ron Carters 1954 book, ‘The Glory of Sail’, she was built in 1939 by Gainor Jackson of Devonport, Auckland.

I’m sure one of the anoraks will be able to confirm this & enlighten us further.

Update 01-12-2015 The photos below were sent in by harold Kidd ex Robin Elliott’s 1994 book ‘ Emmie – 70 Years of M-Class Yachting’

The first photo below shows Mermerus broaching, at this stage she was heading straight for the photographers boat & everyone (including the photographer) was in trouble. With skill (luck?) she passed inches from where the photographer was standing, prior to dropping flat onto the deck 🙂

The 2nd two photos shows Mermerus safely through the gap – Maui was not so lucky.

02-12-2015 Input from Robin Elliott

OK ….Opening Day 1946 – in a hard westerly.
Maui, in her first race and flying, had already capsized, and Manaia had broken her mast, had tidied up her broken spars and sails and was anchored awaiting a tow. Mermerus, sailed by 16-year old Phillip Jackson, has started about 10 minutes late and was miles behind the fleet. She had blundered into all this this carnage, got hit by a puff and bore away, but too far, because the Sandspit off Devonport was dead ahead – it was low tide and running aground at speed was not a good thing.

Their crew would appear to have been all over the place because the sudden course correction to starboard to avoid the Sandspit made the spinnaker sheet hand slip to leeward, still holding the sheet, where, so I was told, he got his fingers jammed in the spinnaker block. The extra few metres of sheet allowed the spinnaker pole to sky and lift the bow. Control is absent at this point. And …. Phillip’s older brother Gainor, has just spotted a Blue Boat dead ahead !!!

Max Frommherz of Marine Photos, standing on the foredeck of the Blue Boat, takes this one iconic photograph. The only one he took in the entire sequence, but what a photo!

Mermerus is now heading straight for the Blueboat. The crew are at sixes and sevens and all over each other as the sheet hand releases his fingers from the spinnaker block, lets go the sheet and the kite flogs like crazy.

Ian Mason, photographer for the NZ Herald, standing next to Max takes this next photo.

Mermerus now has major problems and very little time to fix them. Both photographers go flat to the deck as Mermerus’ spinnaker pole flies off the mast and arcs around the forestay, zipping over their heads (Ian Mason told me he still remembered the ‘woosh’ 🙂 ) as Mermerus rounds the bow of the Blue boat and head for a very narrow gap between the disabled yachts.

Ian Mason has a snazzy fast German camera and gets the next two shots away as Mermerus threads the needle between Maui and Manaia.

Note the first of these last images: the crew of Maui have ducked for cover as Mermerus slaloms through the gap, the man on the stern just can’t get far enough away from the flailing kite pole, and you can just see the fingers of the crewman amidships flat to the top planking and clinging on to the deck. In the second image, they surface, safe and relieved, after the mad flailing beast has gone through.

 

ONLY 1 DAY LEFT TO ORDER WW T-SHIRTS BEFORE XMAS

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Rawhiti MV

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RAWHITI

Rawhiti was designed and built by the Strongman Brothers in Coromandel in 1962, originally as a fisheries inspector vessel. She at some stage moved to the Kaipara where she was used as mother ship for a mullet fisherman.
She is a very capable sea boat with a fine entry forward, generous hips amidships and a flat run aft. She has a nice flair and a tumble home transom. At 28′ x 8.5’. Powered by 49 hp 4108 Perkins she cruises comfortably at 8 knots.

Her present owners have had her for 12 years and taken many trips to the Great Barrier, Bay of Islands and fishing north of the Poor Nights.
Her owners are boat builders & had planned to remove the cabin and replace with something more flattering to her hull quality. However they preferred to invest the money on beer and bait 🙂 The cabin is functional with full height headroom forward to the galley and steering station. The above photos were taken recently when hauled out at Snells Beach.

I understand she was / is for sale. Any woodys able to expand on her past?

ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT TO ORDER WW T-SHIRTS BEFORE XMAS

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Mystery Launch 27-11-2015

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Mystery Launch 27-11-2015
photo ex John Wicks

The above launch has just been hauled out at Hobsonville Marina (the old/new Westpark). Now in some eyes she is a bit of a potpourri but there is a honey of a hull there. As John commented, the shape comes down from Norse / Viking craft & later on whale boats.
Would not take much to drive her along a hull speed & above 😉

Any woody able to expand on her?

Update from John Wicks

“Today I was able to interrogate her owner. Had to inflict considerable pain – you know how reluctant boaties are to talk about their boats 😀
She’s “Florence” (not to be confused with the larger double-ender now known as “Florence II”). Her current owner has been restoring her for a couple of years and she’s about to get wet for the first time in a while. He believes she was built by Miller & Tunnage back in the early 1900s and was originally an inshore fishing boat. She’s had other commercial uses, apparently including being a line handling boat round shipping wharves – Port Chalmers?
I’m sure some other WW-er will know more of her history. HDK???
At any rate she’s now looking spick ‘n’ span and it’ll be good to see her out and about.”

ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT TO ORDER WW T-SHIRTS

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WW Logo Brown (1) copy

Mystery Location 26-11-2015

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Mystery Location 26-11-2015

The photo view is looking out to the bay, taken between two large macrocarpa trees on the beach front. A ferry can be seen in the bay heading south as well as a yacht & 2 launches. Taken in the early 1900’s. Anyone want to have a go at ID’ing the location & if your really good the launch on the right.

Remember you can enlarge the image by clicking on it 😉

waitematawoody t-shirts – remember to get your order in – limited print run, full details here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/11/22/waitematawoodys-t-shirts/

Old Logo ww shirt