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.
Today’s WW story has a nice twist – usually, we post old photos and hope that, if we’re lucky, a few more recent ones turn up later. This time, it’s the other way around.
The 39’ RARANGI, a 1951 Lane Motor Boat Co. build, first appeared on WW back in December 2021, when a tme listing gave us a rare peek below decks and a look at her on her marina berth. Link here https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/12/12/rarangi-a-peek-down-below/
Fast-forward to last week – woody John Dawson sent in the photos above, finally completing the circle. Always great when a classic like RARANGI resurfaces to remind us how enduring these classic launches really are.
Fingers crossed we see an upturn in the profession in NZ. The UK are facing the same challenges we are eg an ageing workforce resulting in the numbers of traditional boatbuilders declining, plus the people who haul boats, step masts and carry out seasonal servicing – the skilled hands who keep the yards working year-round – are becoming fewer, older and harder to replace.
Full weekend details in the downloadable PDF file below, which includes the entry (free) form for the sailing events.
The classic wooden launch VIVEEN is one of Colin Wild’s early landmark motor launches, built in 1924 for W.G. Rapley of Devonport. A vee bottom bridge-decker VIVEEN has always had an impressive turn of speed.
Her original power plant was a 35hp Kermath but that was upgraded to an even more high-powered Winton. Her early owners raced her consistently until launch racing died out during the Depression when feeding such monsters with benzine became impracticable.
Berthed in the Milford Marina for many years, she relocated to Thames marina in early 2000’s. Todays photos are a gallery from 1938 to more recent times. Recently she appeared on tme and thanks to that listing we get to have a gander down below.
Today we are trying to help out a woody boater named Andrew Macbeth, Andrew contacted WW asking for help to learn more about the launch REBEL.
All we know is that she came from Mercury Bay and is now in West Auckland receiving some well overdue TLC, or more likely correcting the deferred maintenance from an extended period of neglect 🙂
So woodys, do todays photos and the name REBEL ring any bells.
Leaving the Whangārei Maritime Festival on Saturday, I made the rookie mistake of thinking, “I know a shortcut.” I didn’t. Instead, I found myself deep in the industrial maze of Port Whangārei.
The upside? I stumbled across a couple of woodys hauled out at Oceania Marine — home to the biggest travel-lift I’ve ever laid eyes on.
Tucked away among a line-up of serious commercial tonnage was today’s mystery classic wooden launch. She’d clearly had some recent TLC and looked about ready to be splashed again.
I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the generous helping of zinc hanging off her stern gear… seems the message about no / over-zincing hasn’t quite made it this far north yet! 😅
So, woodys — what do we know about this mystery craft? Any sharp-eyed locals able to share her name and history?
15-10-2025 UPDATE ex owner – Launches name is VALIENT, once called PLAY-BOY, Possibly built by Bailey & Lowe. 32′ in length. Has spent several extend stints as a long-line fishing boat. Once owned by the RSA Fishing Club in Whangarei, they did the name change. In a previous life was moored in the Waitangi river. Currently powered by a Nissan diesel.Has undergone a rolling restoration with lots of structural work, which included over 800 new copper rivets.
WOODEN CLASSICS TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT THE 2025 WHANGAREI MARITIME FESTIVAL
Early Saturday morning I pointed the car north and arrived in Whangārei just in time to catch the soft early light — perfect for photography and well before the dockside crowds arrived.
Whangārei’s Town Basin really is the ideal setting for a maritime festival — easy dock access, great viewing angles, and plenty of nearby cafés and attractions. Add in the buzz of the Saturday markets and you’ve got all the ingredients for a standout event.
Wooden boat numbers were a little down on last year, but a few visiting commercial vessels — including Customs, Pilot boats, fishing craft and a pair of Waka — helped round out the fleet. From a public point of view, it was still an impressive line-up. Given the number of classic boats that have migrated north in recent years, it would be great to see more of the region’s wooden heritage on display next time around.
It was great to catch up with so many familiar faces — clearly the new highway was busy with Aucklanders heading north for the weekend.
All up, a thoroughly enjoyable day. Hopefully today’s photo gallery will inspire a few more of you to make the trip in 2026.
And there is always a few foody pix – hands down the best two seafood fritters ever – one mussel and the star – one whitebait. And a free KOWHAI coffee because she liked my WW t-shirt.
FYI – when I’m at an event I point the camera at what catches my eye , sometimes I miss a few boats but I like to think the photos are more like someone strolling the docks rather than someone trying to capture the whole caboodle 🙂
CLASSIC SPEEDBOAT BLACK TULIP – LOST HER SHINE, KEPT HER ATTITUDE
Earlier in the week one of my Picton spies (Steve) spotted a ’new’ arrival at Waikawa Marina, in Picton. Boats name is BLACK TULIP, which rang a few bells with Steve, so a quick WW search popped up a July 2022 story – link below. At the time Dean Wright had spotted the boat sign and dry in Paihia.
Now a few days later she popps up on tme – post an extensive make over, and powered by a 280hp Yanmar, that sees her topping out at 23 knots.
An oid salt told me once that once you lose the varnish on a classic ,it just becomes another white boat – well I think if you check out the photos below, you would have to agree, she has lost the WoW factor – but its only paint and maybe the next owner will see the light 🙂
I suspect I’m going to get history lesson today…… The above photo surfaced on a Maurice Sharp’s fb feed and was captioned “The motor launch Speedwell om the Waitemata Harbour – 1920’s – 1930’s” (NZ Herald). Searching WW we get a link to a ROSEMARY M story where Harold Kidd advised the ROSEMARY M had once been named SPEEDWELL – link to that story here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/07/rosemary-m/
Harold also made reference to his and Robin Elliott’s book – Vintage NZ Launches’where we see another SPEEDWELL, this time one of several launches of the same name owners by WA ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson . To my eye this SPEEDWELL (2nd photo above) is not the one in Maurice’s fb post.
Can we correctly put a builder / date on this one.
13-10-2025 INPUT ex GREG PHILPOTT – advertisement below appeared c.1920’s Bay of Islands Swordfish Club yearbook.
Off to Whangarei today for the Whangarei Maritime Festical – fingers crossed Monday will be a great story 🙂
WELL, THAT’S SORTED – TWO CLASSIC LAUNCHES NAMED MA CHERIE NOW IN AUCKLAND
Yesterdays WW story (scroll down to view) certainly delivered the goods in terms of clarifying the questions around two launches named MA CHERIE.
Firstly Murray Deeble advised that yesterdays launch is berth in the Milford marina, Auckland.
Then Dave Forrest contact WW re the other Ma CHERIE , as seen above, mentioned in yesterdays story – I’ll hand over to Dave – “My name is DaveForrest and I am the new owner of the vessel called MA-CHERIE and I have owned her since May this year. She is currently moored at Te Atatu , West Auckland. My MA CHERIE was built by Garth Lane in 1960/61 in Panmure , Aukland . Her name when first built was ma- Cherie then in 1999 her name was changed to ADI KUILA and went to Fiji as a charter boat. Then came back to NZ in 2001. Murray Sole from Whangamatā had her then. In 2002 a new owner was recored as S.C.R. Holdings Ltd in Te Atatu”
Dave also commented that he has an extensive documented history on the vessel. The WW link below from July 2014 has a great collection of older day photos , including her Fiji days. https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/08/22/adi-kuila/
28-03-2026 UPDATE ex owner DAVE FORREST – MA CHERIE seen below relaunching after some TLC.
Earlier in the week John Dawson sent in the above launch day photo of the classic wooden launch – MA CHERIE, a WW search threw up numerous stories linked to that name but none that match the above launch size and design.
There was a brief mention of a MaCherie being built in the early 1960’s at the Visa Ship Yard in Tauranga for a Don Shattock. The Visa name may be a typo as I recall a Tauranga boatbuilder named Bill Visser, who possibly worked at Kingfisher Boats – sorry for any confusion – hopefully we can clarify todays launch heritage.
