Just when you think you know all the classic wooden boats out there (well at least all the pretty ones) up pops another.
Todays woody comes to us via the USA, boat designer Tad Roberts posted the story of MAXIE on fb.
Tad told us that MAXIE was designed and built by the Logan Brothers 1903. She was rebuilt with a larger deckhouse to the drawings of Bruce Askew in the early 1990’s.
She measures 36’ x 7’ and is built of double-planked kauri.
Power is a 65hp Ford diesel with a 2:1 reduction gear turning 13’x18’ prop, giving her a max speed of 10 knots. Comfortable cruising is 9 knots at 1750 rpm.
I did some sniffing around in the WW back library and discovered that back in Feb 2018 we had a wonderful insight into MAXIE’s past from Greg Noble – lots of details and photos at the WW link below. https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/02/12/mavis/
You’ll sell how todays photo didn’t jog my memory.
Mystery Lyttelton Launch Again only a mystery because her owner didn’t include a name on tme (thanks Ian McDonald). If we believe the tme story she is a Logan, built in1908, 36’ in length. Powered by a 1970, 65hp Rustin Rover (???)
And that woodys is all me know – any southern readers able to enlighten us more on the launch.
Following on from yesterday, today we have PART #2 – Increasing sophistication, 1870 > 1900, Yacht Clubs & Regattas :-
• The first yacht clubs • Competition in the yacht building industry • Use of kauri and diagonal construction • The rise of the mullet boat as a type • Open sail boats • Exports of yachts • Volunteers • The rise of yacht clubs and the proliferation of regattas • Patikis
Recorded ‘live’ last Thursday evening at the Devonport Yacht Club- we have Harold Kidd speaking on the topic – ‘Yachts & the Waitemata, HDK broke the talk into several time periods.The filming was a last minute idea so the quality is a little average and on the night there were a few technical issue with the sound, I have edited the best I can.
NOTE: The slides on screen were always going to be average in terms of reproduction so I focussed on the man (HDK) and his narrative. Turn up your sound and enjoy (approx. 40 minutes)
AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL – Off The Water Gallery – 70+ Classic Woody Photos
Today we focus on the spectacular collection of smaller woody craft that were displayed in and around the viaduct events centre – to a large % of the shows audience that had some salt in their veins this was a trip down memory lane.
Just so much care and attention has been furnished on these wooden craft. Sadly I suspect that a lot are now in the ‘display’ category. And as we all know with wooden boats you have got to use them or else they deteriorate quickly and then the cost to bring back is just too steep.
The minders / owners of the craft on display were overrun with people wanting to rely their own experiences and memories of the boats. Hopefully the show has ignited some interest in finding the craft that they enjoyed in a past life. The was certainly no shortage of owners looking for new blood to take over their artefact.
Enjoy the gallery and remember you can enlarge the photos if you click on them and the link to the other half of the festival – the classic woodys berthed dockside is below. https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/03/04/77770/
Slight change of format today. Normally we do one big gallery of event photos, but the 2024 Auckland Wooden Boat Festival deserves two stories – why? Well in the eyes os of the woodys I spoke to, the off-the-water (in the shed) exhibition was on equal footing to the exhibition afloat. So woodys come back tomorrow to see the off-the-water gallery, you won’t be disappointed.
From my mooching the #1 feedback I got was ‘where do they all come from’ i.e. people have never seen this number of classic wooden boats together #2 (from owners) was ‘it is so great to meet all the owners / caretakers’. I think a lot of people were quietly hoping their partners were thinking “there are other zany people out there, my partner isn’t the only eccentric old boat nut in town”.
For a three day outdoor event in Auckland we were gifted to have two (Fri/Sat) days of amazing weather, Sunday was a on/off rain day but it didn’t seem to slow down the people. I believe over 8,000 people were counted thru the dock-gate (it was free entry).
The photos tell the story today – its takes a lot of people to pull something like this off, so well done to all those that rubbed up against the show and well done Tony and team for pulling it all together.
Todays woody photo is slightly familiar but I could fine any previous reference to it on WW.
The photo comes to us from a Frank Hellsten post on the ‘Friends of Vintage,Classic & Traditional Boats’ fb page. Frank restored and colorized the photo, which was taken by a William Leonard Fletcher and resides in the Auckland maritime museum archives. No dates.
Frank commented about the gent wearing a tam o’ shanter hat (a Scottish bonnet worn by men)
I tagged a yacht but she’s really a launch 🙂
Any idea of the boats ID
UPDATE – Nathan Herbert ID her as Aenone, then Roy Jones advised she now named India and resides in Blenheim as a steamboat.
Wow what a weekend , stunning weather, so many classic woody boats and as always at Lake Rotoiti – nice people.
Left Auckland at 5.30am to drive down – have to say the new Waikato expressway is so fast BUT so boring as a drive.
Arrived at my hosts Dave and Glenys Wilson lake front residence and collected the on-the-water transport for the day. Had a nice surprise in that the boat came with a skipper – local boatbuilder Alan Craig (Craig Marine) who over the last 10 years has rubbed up against most of the craft floating on the lake. This made my boat buddy – cabin boy, Grant Gibbs redundant but he accepted the demotion to #1 lackey.
After recent parade weekends have been effected by CV19 and weather bombs everyone was hanging out for a special day afloat and we got it in spades.
Todays photo gallery is loosely broken into 3 sections – Mooching About / Parade / Picnic.
Enjoy – if I missed your boat – sorry, next year. Tomorrow I will do a story on the Albatross runabouts that were a major part of the parade – I believe the biggest turnout in the Southern Hemisphere.
A couple of videos below.
REMEMBER – CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
09-02-2024 UPDATE – Video of the fleet at the Picnic
Back in June 2016 Steve Horsley was on the verge of selling his 1904 Charles Bailey Jnr built 49’ B-Class gaffer – Ngatira, link below to that story. Thankfully he didn’t and not long after he hauled her home onto the front lawn for a few wee jobs. June 2016 https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/06/14/20032/
As so often happens the To Do list kept growing and next thing Steve’s into a total refit. Long term WW readers will remember Steve previously rebuilt Ngatira almost single handed. He is a seriously talent man and puts a lot of ’tradesman’ to shame.
I caught up with Steve over the weekend at the Mahurangi Regatta, Steve is a past commodore of the Mahurangi Cruising Club and produces their stunning year book.
I asked Steve how the few wee jobs were coming along and he shared the above photos. Ngatira is now closed in and the varnish (Uroxsys) is getting applied.
Steves gifted with a very considerate wife – Jo, not many would up up with a 1904 collection of kauri planks to remain at the front door for several years 🙂
I was brave and asked for an ETA back in the water – all I could get was soon Houghty, soon 🙂
As regular readers of the waitematawoodys site know the last weekend of January is always a biggie on the wooden boating calendar. The Mahurangi Cruising Club year-on-year pull off the biggest wooden boating event in New Zealand – {the} Mahurangi Regatta. If you type that into the WW search box your day will be ruined – hundreds of classic wooden boating photos.
I’ll apologise upfront for the lack of sailing photos – these days there are a lot of other happy-snappers recording the racing – when and if I get photos or links, I’ll add them to the story.
It was a sub 24hr up and back trip to Mahurangi – I had an important family event that I have been dodging for years, and this year the message was – “be here” 🙂
I came away from Mahurangi feeling very upbeat for the health of the classic wooden motor boat movement – there was in excess of 50 classic woodys in the Mahurangi Harbour and from that fleet 32 skippers participated in the classic woody launch parade. A record turnout, so I say thank you those that took part and specially those that dressed their craft.
I was particularly heartened to see the return of several craft that had drifted away from the scene due to relocations, long tern refits and frustration with the community. Of note was Florance Dawn, Kumi and Raiona.
People linked to the supposedly organisation of the the parade (I’m not talking about the MCC) need to wake up to the contribution that the classic launches make to the event – 50+ craft is a mighty powerful visual vista. So fingers crossed the housekeeping improves to ensure the loyalist keep turning up.
After the speed bumps at the start, the parade got underway and a good time was had by the skippers, crews and spectators afloat and ashore at Sullivans Bay.
Enjoy the gallery of photos – some (most) boats appear twice, some I’m sure missed the camera, can’t be everywhere:-) Thanks to Steve Horsley for the photo of Raindance and Murray Deeble for the race start photo.
As always click on photos to enlarge 😉
A reward – first woody to tell me which boat in the above photos has the largest WW flag – wins a normal size WW burgee – enter at waitematawoodys@gmail.com
CLASSIC WOODYS CRUISING THE HAURAKI GULF – SUMMER 2023/24
Now todays post is the one you have been waiting on – the classic wooden (mostly) craft that I spotted around the Hauraki Gulf over the Dec 27 > Jan 5th period.
Probably the best turn out of woodys that I have seen – seems it just wasn’t me suffering from cabin fever 🙂
As always some photos are good, some not so good – direction of sun and distance dictates that. Mostly I’m taking photos as a visual account.
Enjoy the gallery – broken into locations – I have endeavoured to list the craft in the tagged section.
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