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.

Mahaki – Sailing Sunday

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Wellington Boat Harbour
photo from Karaka Wharf Wellington

MAHAKI – Sailing Sunday
photos & details ex Angus Rogers

Angus Rogers has sent in the above photos of the yacht Mahaki, owned by his grandfather Lionel B Rogers with EJ Jamieson and JF Harrison in Wellington and the photos were taken about 1909. Angus knows nothing about the design but is a fan of her clipper bow.

Sadly Mahaki was wrecked on the Wairarapa coast a year or so later on a trip which Angus’s grandfather wanted to go on but could not because he was made by his mother to go to a funeral of an aunt. It was fortunate that he didn’t because all lives on board were lost with the boat.
Note: the information about the name, owners and locations are from writing on the backs of the photos

Can we shed some more light on Mahaki in terms of designer / builder & other owners?

Positive News On The Historic Vos Boat Yard – view video footage of CYA member Baden Pascoe talking about the Vos yard & the funding announcement.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/70496491/historic-auckland-boat-yard-set-for-47m-relaunch

Photos from the Round The Island race during the British Classic Week

Round The Island at Panerai British Classic Week

Harold Kidd Input

This Wellington MAHAKI was designed and built by J.T. Pratt in late 1895 for himself. The design may well have come from an overseas design, possibly in one of Dixon Kemp’s books, as did many other at the time. She was quite small, rating 1.6 or 1.7. Pratt sold her Wiggins and Hannah about 1899 and subsequent owners were Anderson & Co (1902) then the Jamieson syndicate (1906). Birch and Elliott appear to have owned her from 1907 but may just be members of the Jamieson syndicate. When her owners “went to the Front” in WW1 she was hauled up at Balaena Bay and deteriorated. She was broken up for her lead there in late 1917. Several other yachts were scrapped at the same time including MAY.
I think the tale of the wreck on the Wairarapa coast is a conflation with the wreck of a similar yacht around the same time, one of many Wellington yachts that left their bones in and around Palliser Bay.

PS thinking about the wreck, supposedly of MAHAKI, I reckon the story of the loss of the 24ft keel yacht TE AROHA has got mixed up with the legend. TE AROHA was built in late 1899 by R.G. Millman and foundered on January 2nd 1905 at Wellington Heads after returning from the Sounds. All three on board lost their lives. Maybe Lionel Rogers was meant to sail on TE AROHA?

Curlew

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CURLEW
photos ex Thomas Gross, details ex Harold Kidd

Curlew was built by Bailey & Lowe at Auckland for Percy Dufaur and launched in February 1912. Percy Dufaur was a law clerk working for the legal firm Dufaur Fawcett (now Cairns Slane). He owned many yachts in his time but was very fond of the concept of a small, seaworthy cruising boat.
Curlew had a 4hp Auckland-built Kapai auxiliary from new and was a centre boarder. Dufaur sold her to W. Abbott in 1914 and he sold her to H E Chamberlin of Ponui Island in 1918.
In 1919 A T Jamieson of Northcote bought her. He had admired Curlew and had had Bailey & Lowe build him a very similar yacht called Kereru in 1916 although she was a keel yacht. Jamieson kept her for 2 years, selling her to George Lepper of Northcote who used her to transport NZ Herald newspapers to Northcote for distribution every morning, 6 days a week.
W. Keen owned her in 1946 and D J Best 1946 to 1951 when boat builder Dave Jackson bought her (hopefully Dave J can tell us more about her recent history).
K Darrach owned her in 1973 and Bert Knight of Ngunguru owned her in 1989.
From 1946 her registration number was O15.

These days Curlew is owned by Thomas Gross & moored at Bucklands Beach.

ADVICE NEEDED 🙂
Thomas has a question for the woody boaters out there – he is after some guidance on how to re-build Curlew’s rudder that broke in 2 pieces. He has the pieces stored on the boat to bring home and use as form for the new one, but was wondering where to start, e.g. he has read that he should use different sheets of plywood and put them in different directions etc, but was wondering if the ww followers know of more information on this or what other options to rebuild the rudder.

Update – 19-09-2015

Whangateau Traditional Boay yard have been helping Thomas with the repairs – Pam’s words “Lots of good wood still so George decided to make some simple repairs.
New rods with thread and nut to draw it all up tight again”

And for the yachties – todays bonus is a link to Day 4 + Ladies Race photos from the British Classic Week. Enjoy

Day 4, Race 5 & Ladies Race at British Classic Week

Kotuku

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KOTUKU

photos ex trademe

Built in Picton in 1923 by Ernie Lane, 28’ long & powered by a Volvo MD3B diesel engine. She has been for sale on trademe at around $17,000; at that price she would make a nice entry-level launch to get in to the classic wooden boating scene.

She is currently set up as a day boat for the Sounds but the forward cabin could easily be converted back to a double berth.

Any woodys able to expand of Kotuku’s past?

Todays bonus viewing ex Baden Pascoe is a link to photos from the recent ‘Thames Traditional Boat Rally’ – clink to view

Chris Perkins photographs the Thames Traditional Boat Festival

Waikawa AK41

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WAIKAWA AK41
photos & details from Joseph Shanks

The 57ft. Waikawa was built in 1948 at the Percy Vos yard in Westhaven & launched as a fishing boat (AK41). Today her home is Lyttelton, Christchurch & she is owned by James Shanks (Joseph’s father) who has had her for 7 years & almost completed the restoration to the pleasure boat you see above. Joseph has promised to send in photos of the restoration so hopefully today’s post will spur him on 😉

The photos below of her during construction, on her sea trials & as a fishing boat are from Baden Pascoe’s magnificent book ‘Launching Dreams, Percy Vos – The Boats & his Boys’. Copies available from badenhp@xtra.co.nz

Mystery Launches 21-07-2015

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MYSTERY LAUNCHES 21-07-2015
photo ex Harold Kidd

During the recent post on the launch Manana (Raehutia) Harold Kidd sent me several photos of Manana while she was owned by the Seagar family.
Thats her on the left in the photo above – today’s question for woodys is what are the two launches to the right of the wharf ? & while we are at it – the location?

To view / read more about Manana – click link https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/07/17/manana/

And to brighten up the day – some stunning yachting photos from the first 2 days of the British Classic Week -click the link below

A spectacular 2 days of Panerai’s British Classic Week in images.

Update from Hylton Edmonds

From Left to Right – Manana (pre Leon / Chris Brown), Albacora (Pat Edmonds) and Lady Doreen (“Snooks” Fuller / AE Fuller & Sons), – and yes, taken at Otehei Bay, hmmm… guessing around late 50’s?. Due to the fact that Otehei Bay had the Lodge and was an official BOISFC Weigh Station Site, a lot of the Big Game boats  would operate out of there,  (as well as their home bases Russell / Paihia ) over a season. A few of them had permanent moorings down there too. Great Photo of a wonderful era.

ACHINAR > Achernar > Betty

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ACHINAR > Achernar > Betty
photos & details ex William Horne

Yesterdays post on Betty uncovered the impressive collection of photos above. I could have just added them to yesterdays post but they deserve their own post.
The photos are from William Horne & from the 1970’s when his father Rod, owned Achinar. If you have read the previous posts you will be aware there has been a degree of name rotation in her past – the link below explains this. It would be nice if at some stage she reverted to Betty again 🙂

William commented that you can see from the photos that she had the Achinar spelling back then so it appears it was spelt that way for a long time. Rod Horne purchased the launch from Dr. Gilbert in Tauranga and the photos show her as first seen by him up the Wairoa River & then later in black & white at her mooring.

William’s family had many holidays on her, in fact William was on the boat before he could walk and it was the first vessel he helmed so his father must have owned her for a few years.

Betty / Achernar / Achinar

Betty (Achernar)

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Betty 1947

BETTY  (Achernar)
photo & details ex Betty Black (Stewart)

Today’s post is an example of what makes ww so special & motivates me to keep doing it. I received the email below last week.

“Dear Alan
 
My son in Sydney was browsing on the internet presumably looking up about his grandfather Bob Stewart, when he came across your blog about Achernar.  I was most interested to read this as I had no idea what had become of the launch “Betty”. It was  requisitioned by the Americans during the war. My grandfather died in 1943  and my father became the owner.   He got it back after the war in an appalling condition.  I remember him saying there was oil all through the bilge.  We had a number of family holidays on it  until the yacht Helen* was built.  The photo was taken by me in 1947 (on a Box Brownie camera).
Kind regards
Betty Black (Stewart)”

To read / see more on Betty / Achernar click here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/10/14/achinar/

*Photos below of Helen (K1) during 2015 CYA Classic Yacht Regatta

Update 29-07-2019 Oct 1939 photo below

Betty Oct 1939

Helen 2015
Helen 2015

Ben Bolt S48 – Sailing Sunday

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BEN BOLT S48 – Sailing Sunday
photo ex Gillian Williamson

Today’s post is of the mullet boat Ben Bolt when she was owned by Gillian’s father Tom Hollows.

Gillian & Tom would love to know what happened to her & if she is still around today.

ps sorry about the poor photo, must have been a photo taken off a framed photo, a bit of reflection going on 🙂

Robin Elliott Update

Whisk Martinengo maintained that Ben bolt was in fact a Rudder cat-boat design built by Arthur Perkin(s) and I have no cause to doubt him. He was right about so many other things. Many Rudder designs were appropriated by local yachtsmen and modified to local needs, the cat-rig itself never finding favour here apart from small centre boarders such and the Tauranga (P-class) or the Zeddie.

Here is all I have of her owners. No mention of Tom Hollows but there are plenty of gaps in the registered dates so he could be there somewhere.

What date is the photo? I see she’s flying an RNZYS burgee and I seem to recall her being on the register of the Squadron post war, but I can’t fine my old RNZYS year books to see if I missed something.

A. Perkin 1922/23+? A. (F.) Glover (Grover?) 1925?/30+?; A. Sainty & Others 1931?/33; S.V. Cunningham 1933/34+? ; Brown (Whangarei) 1939?/40+?; R.M. Allen (Whangarei) 1945+? ; D. O’Donoghue (W’rei) 1948?/50+?

NZH 30/1/1940: Racing Onerahi Regatta
SS May 1949: Racing with Whangarei CC
NZYB Sep 1978: G.F. Brookbanks says he owned her before WW2.

Update: Gordon Brookbanks owned her in the 1935/36 season.

Maitiatia Classics

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Maitiatia
photo ex Simon Smith ex the Sir George Grey Collection

The scene above is a wee bit different from life today in Maitiatia at Waikehe Island. The hills look a lot higher without todays planting & housing.
Its not the best of photos in terms of quality but there certainly are a lot of classics at anchor – must have been a holiday weekend.

TIP OF THE DAY

Looking For Info On waitematawoodys ?

You may have noticed that I sometimes repeat post ww followers comments in the main section of ww. I do this because when you use the ww search box the search does not include content posted in the COMMENTS section. If you want to do a full search of the ww site, use google. Just enter waitematawoodys.com followed by the word / topic you are interested in e.g. waitematawoodys.com clinker dinghy & you will see all the content that relates to those words.

The lack of a full search function is the wordpress site administrators doing, not mine, its done to limit excess ‘chit-chat’ filtering into posts.
When content is factual & very interesting (just about anything that Harold Kidd writes) I repeat it.
So remember if you want to view every single item on a subject, use google as I described above.
BUT REMEMBER TO RESPECT COPYRIGHT

As I post this I’m sure Karen Moren is typing waitematawoodys.com mcgeady into google right now 🙂

Manana (Raehutai)

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MANANA (Raehutai)
photo & details ex Gavin Hargreaves

With today’s post we are looking to see if we can join the dots. Gavin sent me a photo of Manana, his Colin Wild launch.  Gavin has owned her for 7 years after purchasing her from Bill Webber of French Pass who owned her for 20 odd years running a fishing charter business. When purchased she was pretty run down with what appeared to be the original interior. Gavin spent many hours and money giving her the love she deserves. The only difference in looks now is she has a fly bridge and a cut in stern leading to a boarding platform apart from that she still looks as pretty as the day she was launched.

Now back in 2013 via Adrienne, Dave Jackson sent in the photo below of a launch that he thinks was Raehutai, that Bill Seager changed the name to Manana.
So the question of the day – are these the same boats? For easy of comparison I have dropped both photos into a slide show.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Harold Kidd Input

Bill and Gerry Seagar got the design from Colin Wild, probably the last he ever did. They got her built at Chas. Bailey & Sons because, effectively, they owned that company at the time. Harry Pope was the foreman on the job.
The two brothers were notorious for their barneys with each other. Bill wanted her called REHUTAI after the two steam launches the family had built in the 1910s but Gerry wanted her called MANANA. She was launched as MANANA.
Photo below of her in Seagar ownership.