Category Archives: 1910’s

Una

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UNA 

Today’s photo is of the magnificent Royal Australian Navy sloop Una. HMAS Una was built in 1911 at the Bremen Vulkan shipyard (Germany), named Komat. On October 9, 1914 she and her 57 crew were captured by an Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force. She was then sailed to Sydney as a war prize. I have to say a very impressive score 🙂

During the time in which the Una was in service under Australia, the sloop was used as a Patrol and General Purpose Vessel. The sloop was used to patrol the areas of New Guinea, New Britain, New Hebrides and Malayan waters. After World War I, Una was decommissioned and taken to Port Phillip Bay, renamed Akuna and used as a pilot vessel. She was finally broken up in Melbourne in 1955.The small launch in the foreground was named Rex.

SOS at Scotts Landing

I received an email from James Groenhart giving me a heads up re a very smart double ender named Sentosa that is currently on the piles at Scotts Landing, & is at imminent risk of having an outboard well cut into her lovely hull. James commented that he had been told she was a slightly smaller sister ship of “Tuna”, possibly built on the Kaipara circa 1906.

She is for sale, for probably not much money. No engine or prop. Shaft is still in place but has been cut to remove the engine. Interior is basically stripped out. She needs a lot of work, but the hull looks pretty good, & she has some nice original features eg the original D front cabin has a nice profile. Someone save her – Owner is Paul 021 182 8135

Leitner

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LEITNER

Leitner the 1913 Harvey & Lang built launch has just popped up on trademe, thanks Andrew Pollard (via Jason Prew) for the heads up. She last appeared on WW back in Sept. 2013 and that story has subsequently been updated numerous time with details and photos. Link belowhttps://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/21/leitner/

Back in the 1940’s she was a real looker (b/w photo above) and in recent times while her appearance has been altered a lot, she was still a very smart woody (3rd photo above) from the listing it appears she has fallen back a little but at an asking price of $7,000> that is a lot of classic launch. Who’s looking for a project?

Clean Out At Thames Marina

See below – seems they are moving on some of the squatters 🙂 The notices appeared in the Set 10th. issue of ‘Thames – Neighbourly’.

Thames Traditional Boat Festival – 2021

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Thames Traditional Boat Festival – 2021

The Thames Traditional Boat Festival is one of the woody events on my bucket list and today thanks to Olaf Wiig we get to vicariously check out last weekends event. 

Olaf commented that as long as it is made of wood or riveted steel it is welcome at the festival. No 1950 cut off here 🙂

Olaf’s highlight was – Islanda, see spec sheet on her below.
Enjoy the varnish 🙂

Woodys Clevedon River Overnight BBQ Cruise – 35+ photos & video’s

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Meloa’s 60th Birthday

Photos below ex MV Buccaneer (Michelle Bostock & Tim Ord

Woodys Clevedon River Overnight BBQ Cruise

The weekend forecast for the woodys classic cruise up the Wairoa River to the Clevedon Cruising Club was a mixed bag, but as almost always is the case with woody events, it all came good and other a few light showers the 15 launches and one yacht had a ball. We were meet by CCC member Barrie Abel in his classic Sea Craft run-about who piloted the fleet up the river, only one oops that I know of, they were following Raindance and clipped a maker pole, but blamed me as I was taking photos and ‘diverting’ a tad.

Big thanks to all the CCC members that turn out to lend a hand with the berthing, no easy task with a mix of craft and ’skills’ 😉

The afternoon was spent catching up with old and new friends via a spot of boat hopping, followed by a BBQ dinner at our hosts club house.The chef, Bazza was the best, how he remembers which food on the BBQ belongs to who and how you want it cooked is beyond me. A few of us watched the All Black v Australia rugby test (on an iPhone) so the AB’s big win capped of a great night.

Sunday dawned with a perfect day, but the sun might have been a little too bright for one of two of the revellers but conditions were agreeable for the trip home.

Again many thanks to the CCC members for the hospitality and friendship extended to us – we will be back.
(Make sure you view the videos, some great dockside footage + thank you those that emailed in photos from the weekend – and as always click on photos to enlarge)

READ THE BACK STORY HERE https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/08/04/why-you-should-hold-off-paying-your-classic-yacht-association-subscription/

Woodys Riverhead Tavern – Winter Cruise 

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Te Hauraki
Dancer
Ngarimu
My Girl

Woodys Riverhead Tavern – Winter Cruise 
Yesterday was one of those days where the weather forecasters got it wrong -big time. Took the dog for an early morning waterfront walk between the showers and the ferries on the harbour were sounding their fog horns – fast forward 2 hours and the suns out, water glassy flat and we are going boating. Quick side trip to collect our quests – Margo & Jamie (MV Lady Crossley) from Westhaven and we are off.

A great turn out for mid-winter, saw 60+ woodys gathering at the historic waterside Riverhead Tavern for lunch – special thanks to those that came by car and helped with berthing the boats at the wharf. As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉

Nice to meet some new faces and if there was an award for most travelled attendee, woody Bruce Rowe on board – Ngarimu would be the winner. Bruce and his ‘decky’ mate – travelled from Thames to attend.  The boys left Thames on Friday, stayed at bottom end of Waiheke, then off Stanly Point / Bayswater on Saturday night and  will be heading home today. Talking to Bruce,  Saturday night sounded heaven – tucked up in their warm bunks, rain on the cabin top, listening to the Auckland Blues rugby game, then the NZ v India cricket test – not a lot of sleep was had 🙂

We were also graced with the company of John and Diana Olsen on their steam boat – Dancer, The Olsen’s towed Dancer from Cambridge and launched her at the old Salthouse yard to make the trip up the creek.

Check out the Woodys Classic Weekends Event Calendar at the link below, for upcoming outings – our next one is an overnight BBQ cruise up the Clevedon River on the weekend of 14 > 15th August – a heads up – numbers will be restricted due to berthing / anchoring limits -so RSVP early.

https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/06/15/woodys-classic-boating-calendar/


The poster below greeted us at the door to the tavern – has a nice ring to it………….  maybe someone is sending me a message 🙂

Madison Rose – A Peek Down Below

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MADISON ROSE – A Peek Down Below
The launch Madison Rose made a brief appearance on WW back in Feb 2019, now thanks to tme and Ian McDonald we get to have a peek down below.Her design / builder is unknown, with a possible build date in the early 1900’s.

It is rumoured that in a past life she was a Marlborough Sounds Mail delivery boat. Madison Rose is approx. 33’ in length and powered by a 80hp Ford diesel that gets her along at 8 knots.Home port is Nelson.


If I didn’t know better I would say that Jason Prew had a hand in those davits 🙂 Nothing a small tungsten tipped chainsaw couldn’t fix.

Previous WW story at link belowhttps://waitematawoodys.com/2019/02/01/madison-rose/

RSVP – Boat name and approx. # attending to waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Liberty – A Peek Down Below

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LIBERTY – A Peek Down Below


Liberty last appeared on WW in early 2020, I took those photos during a WW Woody Weekend cruise up the Clevedon River – see link

https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/02/14/liberty-2/
https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/02/22/liberty-446/

Now thanks to tme (and Ian MacDonald) we get to have a peek down below.She was built in 1919, is approx. 33’ and powered by a 35hp BMW engine, that gets her along at 8 knots.

Lipton Cup – 100th Anniversary – Photo Gallery

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Lipton Cup – 100th Anniversary – Photo Gallery

Following on from yesterdays teaser and results oops – I’m a launch person wont know an L Mullet boat from an H Mullet boat – no one died, its a new day, we move on.The winner of the actual Lipton Cup, hosted by the Ponsonby Cruising Club  – L division (22’) was Orion, 2nd went to Limited Edition, with Tamerau 3rd.The H division winner was Corona. As of Sunday night there were no results posted on the PCC website – so at some stage soon 🙂 go there for details.

There are lots of tales around how the PCC obtained the magnificent trophy, which was crafted by the same jewellers as the Americas Cup – you can read more about the history of the cup here https://www.pcc.org.nz/history


I was land based, using a long lens so some are a little fuzzy, but you get the vibe of the day. Sorry if your boats missing – drop me an email and I’ll check the photos, took lots, but some had other boats in the background etc. As always click on photos to enlarge.

Good to see Geoff Bagnall floating around on his launch, must have escaped Gisborne for the weekend 😉 
Photos below ex Don MacLeod

The Start
Rounding The Second Mark
Fleet Leaders Second Mark – Tamatea > Orion > Tamerau > Limited Edition

HUIA – Needs A New Owner

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HUIA Needs A New Owner
Huia the 37’ 1919 built kauri launch has just celebrated her 100th birthday and was destined to receive some serious TLC from her owner her bought her in Jan 2020, but a speed bump got in the way – the owners are expecting a an additional to the family and its not another boat – this one has arms and legs 🙂

So woodys – Huia has to move on to a new owner, who has the time and determination to take on a cool project. Huia is powered by a 60hp Ford Lees diesel and appears to have most of the boat bits needed to be an good woody. Price is very realistic – so anyone keen on taking her on?
Back in 2014 – Huia featured 4sale on WW and I took the liberty of pointing out how bad the tme listing was – link below 🙂https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/09/08/how-not-to-sell-a-classic-wooden-launch/


NEXT WOODYS WEEKEND UPDATE – the date has been pushed out, will come back next week with details on our upcoming events.

WAITEMATAWOODYS ON MOBILE DEVICES eg if you read WW on our mobile (smart) phone, hopefully it should now be loading faster and you’ll be able to find the sections that appear on the right hand side of the screen (on computers), examples below, highlighted in red, at the bottom of the stories.

Lake Rotoiti Mystery Boat – 1914

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Lake Rotoiti Mystery Boat – 1914
The above photo is ex Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection and comes to us via Maurice Sharp. The photo is tagged ‘Boarding a boat on Lake Rotoiti, 1914’ – possibly the photographer is Frank Herbert Stevens.

It a big ask, but can we ID the launch?If someone can give us the name, I’ll drop a copy of the 20121 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Calendar to the first correct entry. Enter in the WW comments section.I have included an enlarge version of the photo below.

Input ex Paul Drake  – KINGFISHER? Later at Taupo? Photo below. Paul commented that there is a porthole missing, but look at the steering wheel and chains etc. And rubbing strake. Could be the same boat but could just be a close relation.