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.
Mahurangi Regatta 2007 – Glyn Bird (L) & Romo (Traveler,Jean Gordon) built by Joe Fell 1904
Oct 2005 – thru wreck of Rewa
GLYN BIRD
photos from Russell Ward, Dean Wright,Baden Pascoe,trademe
details from Russell Ward,Baden Pascoe,Ken Ricketts
Built 1909 by Ernie Lane, 54ft long.
Was owned by Parry Bros the tug & scoria people for many years, from the 1930s through till at least the 1972-73.
She is most likely still powered by a 1956, 150h.p., 8 cyl in line, 8L3 Gardner diesel.
She was originally used for a good number of years as the “rubbish boat” by Parrys, collecting & disposing at sea of rubbish from visiting overseas & coastal ships to the Port of Auckland. She was later converted to a tug in the 1950s & used extensively for towing shingle barges from Kaiawa to Auckland, ferrying shingle from the quarry there.
She was converted to a tug by R Lidgard, who also replaced the original little wheelhouse with a larger replacement in the 1950s, now missing (refer below).
She was eventually laid up at Herald Island for quite a period & eventually sold by Parrys, & was sold either by them, or by others in-between, to Russell Ward, who used her for pleasure use.
In Russell’s words “I salvaged her from Herald Island on a stormy night and got her to Westpark where she was slipped and major hull repairs done. I then did a walking refurbishment over about 8 years but it was not a restoration”. Russell had a long love affair with her that ended about three years ago (2010) when he sold her to a Nelson fisherman. During this period she caught fire (wheelhouse) on the hard at Tarakohe.
Glyn Bird has now ended up in the B.O.I. & is for sale on trademe.
North Island’s Parade of Classic & Wooden Boats – Sat 8th Feb
When an invite to a classic boating event is accompanied with the above photo it would be rude to say no.
So waitematawoodys will heading off to Lake Rotoiti for the 2014 Classic and Wooden Boat Parade. Now this is the North Island event so its just a three hour drive from Auckland.
I have ‘followed’ the event on line for the past 5 > 6 years & its a cracker.
This year is the 17th year it has run & the formula is simple: A parade (on-the-water) to showcase the boats then everyone motors / steams off to a sheltered bay on the lake to enjoy old boats and fine company.
Built by L C Coulthard in 1936. I just ‘discovered the colour photo in my files. There have been other ww posts on her so type her name & the search box to view.
I understand that she might (HDK ??) be featured soon in Boating NZ.
the photos are straight out of the camera / iphone – no enhancements
A lot of ww followers will be back at work today so I thought I would post something to remind you all why we go boating. For several years we have been visiting a wee bay at the bottom end of Waiheke area, not Waiheke itself. Its rather special & ticks most of our boxes. Even has pipis, but the stingrays where not impressed I was collecting 🙂
New Years eve there has become a bit of a tradition. A group of us call it Bev’s Bay but that not its name, its too small & special to name here. The other cool thing was there were only 8 boats in the bay NYE & 5 were wood.
If your viewing this at work, I hope the day is not toooo long & you reward yourself with something cold at the end of it.
Over the xmas/ny period we mooched around Coromandel Harbour for a few days. I can report that the shellfish beds & rock oysters stocks were all good – steamed pipis & fresh shucked oysters + fritters were on the menu several nights. I had not been into the township in years (like 30+) so took the opportunity one day to load Raindance up with several friends off other boats & headed up harbour.
These days the river / creek channel is clearly marked but we played it safe & anchored near the wharf & took two RIB’s that we had towed, up. Along the way there is interesting collection of floating (some just) craft tucked in & around the mangroves.
The town was brilliant, so cool to see a provincial area doing well, the place had a great vibe to it & all the shops appeared to be doing well. The architecture of the main street has not been ‘mucked up’ & its like stepping back in time to the good old days of Main Streets e.g. a hardware store, cafe, chemist, craft store, fish & chip shop, pub, stationary store, pub, land agent, etc.
The highlight for me was the Coromandel Smoking Company, if it comes out of the sea, these guys smoke it – if you are down that way, try the smoked scallops.
Other than the name, I know nothing about Sunbeam/Sea Breeze – so any input would be greatly appreciated.
Harold Kidd Update
There are/were many SUNBEAMS and SEABREEZES, all over NZ. I had a look at that website to see if there’s any information on the boat, where the image was taken etc, but couldn’t find my way through it very well. I kept recoiling at some of the stuff in it, though. Thank goodness WW has peer review processes.
The image is very tiny, but if the launch was photographed as-built, she dates from the period 1920-1928, probably early in that period because the dodger is relatively modest in size.
She looks remarkably Bailey & Lowe to me, but could equally be Dick Lang or a dozen other Auckland builders. Sam Ford is a possibility because he inherited Lang’s moulds and plans when he bought Dick’s business and turned out Lang-style boats until he shifted to Ellerslie and went ultra-modern.
Perhaps the most likely candidate is the Taupo hire launch SUNBEAM of the 1920’s onwards about which I know little but the Drakes will.
Oddly enough there was a SEABREEZE built by Jas. Reid in 1909 and a SUNBEAM built by Bailey & Lowe the same year. Both would have had to be heavily modernised to look like this. That SUNBEAM is currently alive and well in Picton.
Nigel Drake Update
This photo was taken by my father or grandfather in the late1930s and is part of the Drake collection. The location is Boat Harbour in the Western Bays on Lake Taupo. She is tied up alongside the old steamer Tongariro which used to run between Taupo and Tokaanu at the southern end of the lake. Tongariro was converted to fisherman’s accommodation on the opening of the road between Taupo and Tokaanu when her services were no longer required.
Sunbeam was built by Sam Ford, date unknown, for Sid Blake and plied for hire on the lake. 36 feet long, 8 foot 6 inch beam and powered by a 4 cylinder Gray Marine petrol engine. She had a galvanized iron lined engine room to be able to ply for hire. Was one of the first boats on the lake to have a two way radio. Sold to Donald Hunt in 1939 and plied for hire out of Tokaanu until 1952. Left the lake possibly in the mid 1950s.
In the 1980s she was moored in Pilot Bay, Mount Maunganui, and had been used as a fishing boat. Her name had been changed to Sea Breeze and cabin had been changed markedly. In the 1990s she was rebuilt by Tauranga boat builder Barwich Harding and now resides in the Tauranga Marina.
Harold Kidd Update #2
Interesting issues arise here.
SUNBEAM, from the sheer upwards is an almost exact replica of my Bailey & Lowe ROMANCE II (and their 32 footer ROTOMAHANA), same seven clerestory windows, same treatment of the dodger. That’s simply because ROMANCE II was a high-profile fast launch, built to race, and represented the height of style and practicality in 1919. This postwar, post-‘flu epidemic period was a time when few launches had been built since late 1914. People had had a chance to think about what they wanted their post-war launches to look like, to provide in the way of headroom and volume, and how they were to be controlled. The ultra-smart, racy-looking raised-foredeck flushdeckers of 1912-5 were no longer built and most existing ones were easily and speedily modified to get the new look.
The hull of SUNBEAM does appear to have a “knuckle” in the sheer at the bow which is uncharacteristic of Bailey & Lowe. Ken considers it to be a hallmark of Sam Ford. It is certainly strongly reminiscent of his family’s Sam Ford-built JULIANA (formerly WIDGEON, apparently, but of unknown other history). I don’t totally agree with that and make the point again that Ford churned out Dick Lang launches for some years after he took over Lang’s business in 1923 when Dick went to Sydney (mind you he was back soon afterwards, building at St. Mary’s Bay again, alongside Sam).
So is the “knuckle” Sam Ford or Dick Lang???
It was only shortly after this that the US “express cruiser” and “bridgedecker” forms and styles gained attraction and we got LUANA and LADY UNA, for example.
By 1928, say, this 1919-style in ROMANCE II and SUNBEAM, with clerestory or “tramtop”, a minimal dodger and aft-control was becoming very dated, giving way to “sedans” and bridgedeckers of US inspiration.
Harold Kidd Update #3 (13/01/14)
I see that the Taupo boat history site states that “SUNBEAM was built by Sam Ford in 1936 for Sid Blake”. Two things are wrong with that which muddle the situation;
1. SUNBEAM was clearly a product of the early 1920’s not 1936.
2. According to newspaper reports, SUNBEAM was a hire launch on Lake Taupo from at least December 1926.
In fact I have now zeroed in on her as being built by Sam Ford for Blake in early December 1925 and fitted with a 25-35 Model V ohv Gray. I was fooled because the newspaper reports said that Blake (of Taupo) was going to use her for troutfishing on Lake Rotorua. I wonder if she spent a few months at Rotorua?
Currently for sale on trademe, this bridgedecker could be a good buy for someone wanting to get into classic boating.
She appears to be very well presented & excellent value for money.
The listing says she is a 1952 Collings & Bell but HDK advised this is incorrect & she was built by Charlie Filmer. She sleeps 6-8, 10m (32.8′) long, with a 2002 90hp motor. While Picton based, thats not a big issue, ‘Boat Haulage’ are not that expensive, if you are prepared to wait for a return trip.
Stuart Findlay of Paunui Road, St. Heliers owned her in 1957 and may well have been her first owner. He was followed by Solicitor Arthur Bourke of First Ave, Stanley Point in 1959. Her original engine was a 100hp Scripps-marinised Ford Mercury V8.
I can’t fathom why she is now claimed to be a Collings & Bell boat. The APYMBA records show her as built by Charlie Filmer. She doesn’t look Collings & Bell to me anyway.
Probably some oracular shellback advised an owner that she was C&B. That’s the process that has given us today more Logan, Sam Ford and Lane Motor Boat Co launches than they ever built.
Photo below hauled out at Motueka marina, Jan 2018, photo ex John Burland
Update 26-09-2021 Photos (ex Grant Stone) below when owned by a Tom Wilcox in the late 1950’s
The name plaque says built by Bailey & Lowe in 1912, I’m sure if this is correct, Harold will be able to shed some light on Jessica. HDK has rather a soft spot for B&L craft. Jessica was photographed at Thames over the xmas/ny period.
Harold Kidd Update
1. “JESSICA” is a re-name. I know she’s been that since at least 2006. 2. Although foliate scrollwork on the bow was a feature of Bailey & Lowe work up until say 1920 (by when it was considered “old hat”), their scrollwork was much more free-form than this symmetrical work. Maybe the first owner wanted a symmetrical job, but I’ve not seen another and therefore have mild doubts about the “Bailey & Lowe” tag. 3. She was obviously built as a raised foredeck flushdecker. 4. It would be nice to know her previous name(s) so that we can establish some real provenance for her. 5. I do wish launch owners didn’t so readily change their boats’ names, seemingly often to butter up the female members of the family who had dark thoughts about hubby buying a boat. My father did exactly that in 1934.
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