Mystery Flush-Decker
The flush decker in the above photos appears to be flying a ‘Patrol’ flag so could be in some official capacity e.g. race control or maybe there is someone important arriving in the flying boat ?
Very happy to see what I think is a Auckland Motor Yacht Club burgee flying from the mast.
The photo is another from a collection of photographs by the marine photographer Tudor Collins.
So woodys – any cues ?
Max Carter Passes Away
Marine industry patriarch & boat designer M.C. (Max) Carter passed away yesterday in hospital.
Max’s eyes & hands have touched many of the classic’s that grace the ww site. Rest in peace Mr Carter.
Wooden Boats in Italy
If you can see past NZ’s very own Rachel Hunter you might spot a few wooden boats 🙂
Always looking for an excuse to post a photo of Rachel 😉
I’m bad, I know…….
ENA MAE
We are overdue for a genuine mystery boat story – so woodys can anyone ID the above flush-decker? The photo is from a collection of photographs by the marine photographer Tudor Collins. Location? Bay of Islands / Whangaroa ?
The crew must have had a lot of faith in their engine to anchor that close in – fishing ? or something else going on?
There is an awful lot of string holding that mast up, must have snared a few birds 🙂
Make sure you check out the comments section today – some good updates on previous stories.
07-08-2016 – another photo added below from the Auckland Museum’s Tudor Collins collection, this one emailed to me by Ken Ricketts.
04-10-2016 HAROLD KIDD UPDATE
Mystery solved. The launch is ENA MAE owned by Cyril Sharp c1949. That’s not a huge amount of help because I have no record of her and it’s probably a re-name. Any clues out there? The Bay people must know something about her?
05-10-2016 Harold Kidd Input
Lew Redwood of Whangarei, who has a quite amazing collection of postcards and images from Northland, sent me the pic of ENA MAE below. It seems to be in the same Tudor Collins series. Lew is working on the provenance of ENA MAE now.
Wattle Bay 1913
MINX
photos & details ex Rosemary Robinson
Today’s story is on the L.C. Coulthard built launch Minx, the photos were sent to me by his granddaughter, Rosemary Robinson.
The locations of these photos all appear to be on the Manukau Harbour, I wonder if she ever left the mud & made it over to the sparkling waters of the Waitemata?
I know nothing about Minx so woodys can we help record her history on ww?
Harold Kidd Update – Les Coulthard built MINX for himself in 1913. She was 22ft loa. She was on the Waitemata in 1945 and on the Kaipara as recently as 1999 when Mark Thomas told me she had been sold from Helensville to Dargaville. A very pretty launch, reminiscent of Arch Logan’s work on, say, COQUETTE.
Lincoln Wood Dinghy Restoration (Rebuild)
Harold Kidd sent me the two photos below of a very nice little (8’6”) sailing dinghy built by Lincoln Wood which George Emtage at the Whangateau boat yard is rebuilding for him & Pauline.
The yard is a hive of activity at the moment with some of our finest classics lined up in the creek getting some TLC.
waitematawoodys.com hits 2 MILLION Views + a Great Prize 2 be Won
Yesterday saw the waitematawoodys site hit 2 million views, something quite amazing for such a niche topic. As stated in the site masthead, waitematawoodies was founded upon a desire to tell the stories & a need to archive the history of our classic wooden boats, the craftsman who built them & the characters that owned & crewed on them. A lot of people thought we would run out of content to write about in a few months, well that has not happened & given the size of my email in-box won’t 🙂
One of the things that differentiates waitematawoodys from traditional media is the ability for readers to interact with the site & with each other. So far there have been over 1,500 stories & 10,000 comments posted on the site, if you are one of the many that comments – thank you for your contribution, if you have not commented, maybe its time you did. Everyone has at least one good story to tell 😉
While at the start it was not the intention to create a reference library on classic wooden boats, we have ended up with one & its pretty awesome – I have Harold Kidd to thank for giving me a wee ‘fire-side chat’ about striving to get accurate data on the site. These days you can search by vessel name, designer, builder, year, length, category – launch/yacht/work boat, boats for sale & a lot more. Again if you have not tried the Search Box on waitematawoodys – give it a ago.
Cheers Alan Houghton
WIN – Now I’d like to offer up a very cool prize to mark the 2 million milestone. Regular ww readers will be aware that Robert Brooke recently published his book ‘Beautiful Boats’. Robert has been collecting classic yacht designs for over 50 years, amongst his collection is work from our most talented & recognized designers – Arch Logan, Chas Bailey, Charlie & Alex Collings, Colin Wild, Bert Woolacott, Bob Stewart, Des Townson, Alan Wright & Robert’s father – John Brooke. From his collection Robert has chosen 50 & redrawn each design, tracing off the original drawings to present them in a similar format. To add to the wow factor, Robert used the drawing equipment & ships curves that were once used by either Arch Logan, Charlie & Alex Collings or his father. The 105 page, A4 size book allocates 2 pages to each vessel with specs & photo/s on the left & the drawings – hull lines, profile, half breadths, sections, diagonals & sail plan on the right hand page. We have given away 4 copies of the book on waitematawoodys over the last few weeks, in addition Robert donated a framed 380mm x 300mm rendered print of one of the featured boats. Sample below
SO WOODYS – TODAY’S PRIZE IS YOUR VERY OWN FRAMED PRINT OF THE BOAT OF YOUR CHOICE FROM THE BOOK – BEAUTIFUL BOATS.
How to enter & a few t&c’s
1. The first woody that can supply the name, designer, builder, year & photo location of the large yacht on the right in the photo above wins the print.
2. Entries must be in the ww comments section & have all 5 answers correct. You can enter as many times as you like.
3. The judges (thats me) decision is final & no correspondence will be entered into.
4. The winner must collect the prize from Auckland.
5. HDK you are excluded – you have already got one 🙂
THE BOOK
If you would like a copy of the book – visit Boat Books at 22 Westhaven Drive, Westhaven, Auckland & grab a copy for yourself, cost is $60. For out of towners or those who refer the web – copies are available on line at https://www.boatbooks.co.nz/
ps I have also held back posting this on ww until 7.00am to give all woodys (not just the night owls) a chance to win 🙂
Cherokee 4sale
photos ex trademe
Today’s boat is a nice example of Roy Parris’s work. It’s what I would call a transitional classic. She measures 31′ 6″ & was built in kauri & launched in 1965. Powered by 120hp Ford diesel she has a good turn of speed for an old girl – cruises at 8 knots with a max of 14 knots. From the photos she looks to be very well cared for.
Home port is Blenheim, Marlborough so she is fitted with a diesel heater so a very comfortable cruiser. I understand she is for sale at $39k so in my eyes is a very good buy. The broker obviously doesn’t want to sell it, he has done the usual trick & tried to hide the name of the boat. Must be sad to be that insecure in your job 🙂
Anyone know her name & anymore details about her past?
12-05-2019 Update ex Robin Smith (current owner)
SHALOM
photos ex Barbara Cooke & Ken Ricketts. KR-details edited by Alan H
During the recent CYA meet-up at the Salthouse Boat Yard at Greenhite, we got to see Greg Salthouse’s own launch ‘Shalom’ up close. She was built in 1973 in Browns Bay by local boat builder T K Atkinson as his own personal boat. When launched she was approx. 42′ but while in the ownership of her 2nd owner, Howard Collier, she had an extra 6′ added on by a now non-existent company, in Whangarei.
She is powered by 2 x 350 hp Yanmar diesels & has a top speed of around 25 knots & cruises comfortably at 17/18 knots. A wee bit faster than his father-in-laws magnificent classic – Trinidad.
Greg & Delayne Salthouse have owned Shalom for 3 years & commented that although T K Atkinson built her for himself, she was owned by Collier most of her life e.g. 25>30 years. Collier kept her at Whangarei during this period. Greg believes she was built to a design ex the American designer, Ray Hunt.
A while ago I (Alan H) was aboard & Greg has sprinkled some of the Salthouse yard magic on her, mainly modernizing the interior to better suit his young family. For 48′ she is a very big boat. When I was aboard I was in company of Colin Pawson, one of the marine trades most fastidious technicians & he was impressed enough by the T K Atkinson’s workmanship that he was heard to mutter ‘I’d own her’, enough said 😉
While she is sporting a penthouse, it is very ‘light’ in appearance & almost gets a tick 😉
Laughing Lady June 2016 Update
photos ex James Dreyer
Chatting with James on-line a while ago I nudged him for an update on LL. As ww followers will know the Lady has been tucked up in the shed at Whangateau Boat yard for over two years getting a serious over-haul from Pam & when in country James + hangers on. James & LL’s co-owners re to be commended on they desire to return LL to her former elegance – below is the note James sent me (slightly edited)
“I was hoping to get some varnish on the topsides before departing offshore and subsequently photographing her looking sharp and shiny but it didn’t happen. We did, as you know get her in her new coat of Flag Blue. Unfortunately the port side will need a re-shoot due to some sags – the weather was not in our favor the day we had to spray. We will definitely be in better shape to give a good update in August as we should be well on the way with putting her together.
Pam and I had a bit of a discussion recently and think it is probably worth me commenting on the dark two part LP finish that I have gone with, before the armchair generals and experienced boat builders / owners wade in. There has been many well qualified comments about the potential for paint failure over the last two years and they have certainly been weighed up and taken onboard.
When LL had her hull rebuild in San Diego, she was taken back to bare wood, re-framed and re-fastened, then impregnated with two coats of epoxy and many seams were splined. She is tight seamed double planking and the new bottom is double planked and epoxy glued. The paint system that was applied to her extremely fair hull 10 years ago in San Diego is a two pack epoxy / LP system – Awlgrip above the waterline and International below. After 10 years sitting in a semi finished state, in the rather extreme conditions of an inland San Diego yard, she had cracked and opened a number of seams, but to be honest, no more than the single pack finishes on the boats around her.
My concerns were that she would move significantly once parked in the Whangateau shed as she adapted to the cool, moist environment. Pam repaired various areas that were in need, primarily around the extreme flare and planking twist in the bow, then built a good base of primer. We let her sit for a year in primer, and surprisingly there was no movement or cracking to speak of. To strip her back to bare wood was to remove the hundreds of hours of fairing and painting that had been never seen the water even though it was done years before.
On this basis and after much deliberation and discussion, I chose to continue with the two pack system. The aim from the start was to get her in the water and in use as soon as practicable (as far as restorations go).
For the first 50 years of her life, she was painted jet black and spent hot summers in the water around Long Island and her winters in a snow covered shed. After the work in San Diego she was painted Awlgrip royal blue.
We chose Awlcraft Flag blue as the topside color. Awlcraft has some more give (urethane rather than polyurethane) and can be locally repaired and polished. My goal was to have her looking as close to original as possible when she launched, and the dark hull is truly striking as I’m sure everyone agrees.
I am well aware that the system will probably show some failures around the seams as she moves. Its also likely that we will be painting her white in a few years, but to me it makes sense to let her out the door in the current (gorgeous) state and see how she fares. If need be, we will re-wood her and go single pot, but if not, then a white two part system will continue to be used”
REMEMBER – To enlarge a photo – just click on it 😉
16-07-2016 I received an email from James today with the 2 photos below attached – when LL was launched she was powered by Packard straight 8’s, nowadays is powered by twin Volvo turbo diesels. In his travels overseas James came across the engines below – my response to the email was short – “WALK AWAY & DO NOT LOOK BACK” 🙂
August 2016 Update (ex James D fb)
It appears with the hull painted its now down to the shiny stuff 🙂
01-09-2016 Update ex James fb
Applying 24k gold leaf to the carved details on Laughing Ladys hull. The first arrow head needs a little tidying up, but with some more practice the unique scroll work detail carved into her bow in 1949 to identify her builder is going to look sweeeet!
The Bristol Pilot Cutter – Cornubia – Sailing Sunday
Today’s post is a 8 minute film on the 1911 66′ bristol pilot cutter Cornubia. Built by J. Slade & Son, Polruan, in the UK, she was restored by current owner Tony Winter in 2009. She is carvel constructed, larch planking on oak frames. The film is wonderfully narrated by Tony Winter.
She is a thing of beauty both on the water & down below.
Anyone know the status of the bristol pilot boat that Peter Brooke is building at his yard in Waimauku?
Now if you have ever seen me mooching around in a bay in the dinghy collecting drift wood, if its a tree branch its for the garden. If its a piece of timber its for an old mate, Simon Yates who makes these rather cool signs. He bought an old metal stencil set in the USA (on ebay) & now knocks up the below – they look great at the bach – not for sale, its a labour of love 😉 All the wood on this one I collected last xmas around the gulf.
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