Collings & Bell Book
Ron Wattam is currently compiling a book on the boats of Colling & Bell & is seeking any info and photos.
Contact details below.
Ron Wattam
32 Carroll Place.
Rotorua. 3010
New Zealand
Ph. + 07 345 3553
Email: olivine@xtra.co.nz
Can anyone I.D.the above unknown boat? Ken Ricketts took the photo in 1948-49, he saw her many times but never found out anything about her. She was used very regularly particularly at Kawau.
A great example that sometimes we should look backwards for boating ideas & solutions. The owner of the motor cruiser PATAMAR, still uses the original launch method developed by Carr and Stone when PATAMAR, a Jake Farrell design, was built in the USA in 1937.
The tale of two Ngarimu’s
A waitematawoody follower & classic launch owner, Bruce Rowe, has contacted me with a question.
Back in June Russell Ward sent in a photo of him sailing a dinghy between the anchored launches at Kawau Island, in the photo he ID’ed the launch Ngarimu & commented that she was owned at the time by Muir Chilwell.
Harold Kidd posted that Ngarimu was built in 1945 by Fred Goldsboro & named after Lt. Ngarimu VC.
Now the photo (b/w above) ex Russell appears to be of a launch from the 1920’s & does not match the launch named Ngarimu that Bruce owns (colour photo above).
So the question is – do we have two Ngarimu’s ? (most likely) & if so which one was the Muir Chilwell boat?
Bruce is in contact with Sir Muir Chilwell & he may have some old photos of his Ngarimu that he owned in the 1960’s. He was, Bruce believes, the 3rd owner.
Harold / Russell – can you throw & more light on this & Bruce’s boat ?
Harold Kidd Update
Well, My only personal recollection of Muir’s NGARIMU was when she was used as the finish boat for Law Society Regattas when such things were held by the Law Society. They aren’t now for reasons that I won’t go into, but suffice it to say that the Law was once a proud profession, with real people in it, yachtsmen like Muir and several other Judges including Sir Erima Northcroft (ILEX), Sir Graham Speight (VALKYRIE) and Sir Robert Smellie with whom I had the privilege of working under for several years.
So when I saw Russell’s pic of the launch he called NGARIMU and it generally conformed to the image I had of her, I accepted that she was NGARIMU. I did comment that she was “old-fashioned” for 1945. I am now certain that the pic above is Muir’s NGARIMU and that there was only one.
PPS Robin Elliott has just pointed out to me that there are some contradictions in the above from what is written in our book “Vintage NZ Launches”. The book was written in 2004 since when I’ve added 9 years of research. The NAOMIS were always confusing because they all kept their names ans were called often just NAOMI. However, it is NAOMI III in Lyttelton and NAOMI II at Panmure (or wherever she is now) despite what we said in the book at pages 18 and 19!.
1956 Sydney Hobart Race Film – Hard to Windward
Lin Pardy has just posted a great youtube link on the WoodenBoat Forum for the 1956 Sydney > Hobart race. Lin’s comments below
“Kim Newstead, our hosts when we were invited to speak at the Hobart Wooden Boat Festival last year, just sent along a link to a wonderful 15 minute movie someone found in their garage. It is a professionally made program (16 or 17 minutes) from the 1956 Sydney Hobart Race, all on classic wooden boats, all with cotton sails, not a harness, pulpit or stern rail to be seen. Yes, times have changed. Thought everyone here might enjoy this.”
Now its not a boat, but it floats sometimes & at a guess I would say age wise it would almost qualify as a classic. We do not see many of these in NZ & even fewer in Auckland.
Anyone know anything about her, make etc & what she is doing at Westhaven??
Update – website here
http://www.aucklandseaplanes.com
Update from Russell Ward
More here: http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/beaver-takes-to-water.html I am told by an esteamed (sic) friend that her registration used to belong to a Teal Solent. You show your age if you’ve ever crossed tacks with one of those on the harbour!
Let’s hope there are many more floatplanes in/on/over the harbour -could be like Victoria (the Canadian one) where one takes off practically every five minutes. Much more fun than these noisy eggbeaters.
Cheers Russell
WW celebrates 100,000 Views
The site has just passed the 100,000 views milestone & I thought the photo above was an appropriate one to celebrate with.
Thanks to everyone for the support & a special thanks to all those that send me images & tales.
If you have any classic boating photos you want to share & more importantly record / store for feature generations to view – email them to me at
waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Now is also a good time to remind / enlighten people on using the ww site.
There are many ways to enhance your waitematawoodys experience, the easiest is by using the categories & tag sections on the right hand side of the page, here by clicking on a word/s you can search by any topic & see a summary of articles linked to that topic e.g. individual designers, build / launch year, CYA owned vessels, boat names or locations etc.
To get the most out of the waitematawoodys you really need to be a follower, relax its not some new cult, all you have to do is click on the ‘Follow’ tab that appears at the bottom of you computer screen on the right when you have the waitematawoodys page open. You then enter your email address* in the box that appears & now you will be able to:
(a) receive an email advising you when new articles have been posted or updated. Means you no longer have to check in all the time.
(b) allows you to make comments on articles that have been posted.
*waitematawoodys won’t divulge, sell or otherwise do anything silly with your email address
I hope this helps, if you need any advice at any time just drop me an email.
Alan Houghton
Thats the question of the day.
You see all the motor boats at full chat (love that saying – I stole it from Harold K) & the hats seem glued in place 🙂
Harold Kidd ‘Update’
SCRIPPS III was pretty quick with her 4 cylinder Model K Scripps, bore 5.5″ and stroke 6″ = 475 cu ins =7.6 litres. It was a straightforward side-valve engine with twin ignition, producing vast gobs of torque. A special feature was a vacuum bleed off the inlet manifold leading to a distribution box which in turn had flexible copper pipes which could conveniently be affixed to the back of one’s coat and then up the neck to the hairline and thence to the top of the head. This produced a respectable partial vacuum under the hat crown, keeping it firmly in place (unless one was a Mexican or Tom Mix or wore a ponytail).
If you were like me & a little confused as to what all the noise was about the proposed cuts to NZ’s recreational fishing, you have to watch the youtube clip from ‘deacker on sport’. It explains it all & gives some telling insights into the politics behind this PROPOSED cut.
Watch the video & then send the link to all your friends. You can also show our support at http://www.legasea.co.nz
Todays photo shows a pretty near perfect boating scene, any takers for location & approx date?
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