Category Archives: 1910’s

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.

Arab

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ARAB
Today’s woody is the 32’ Arab built in 1913 by Collings & Bell, pictured above in the above 1915 photo, at the time owned by Alfred Grundy. She is seen here moored in the Hopua Crater > Geddes Basin > Onehunga Basin. The photo comes to us via Maurice Sharp’s fb (Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection).

A quick wikipedia search provides background on the area – located in Onehunga. Its 300 m wide, sediment-filled explosion (maar) crater was used as a boat harbour in early European times and known first as Onehunga Basin then as Geddes Basin. It was reclaimed in the 1930s and named Gloucester Park in 1935 after the visit to New Zealand by the Duke of Gloucester in that year. From 1975 into the early 80’s the South-western motorway was built right through the middle of the park and crater. The southern side was turned into a sports ground, and the western side as a wetland with activity space for Aotea Sea Scouts who took ownership of the Manukau Yacht and Motor Boat Club (MYMBC) club house, in 1977 (refer the white building in the 1910 postcard below).
Thanks to Harold Kidd and Matt  Urquhart in a previous WW story we know a lot about Arab (WW link below, read comments also) but keen to learn what became of Arab post the mid 1980’s when she possibly went to Tauranga?  

https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/08/23/3911/

Naiad 361 – Sailing Sunday

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NAIAD 361 – Sailing Sunday

Today’s woody – Naiad,  resides in the Bay of Plenty and I know little about her , other than she was built by Lou Tercel, of Ranger fame. The question of the day would have to be – is she distended for a beehive restoration or will she be saved and sail again? Photos come to us from Jason Prew.

Input from Robin Elliott –

Naiad was built 1914 ‘1915 by Tercel Bros to a modified C.D. Mower/T. Fleming Day (Rudder Magazine) Sea Bird design and launched possibly late 1915. She was entered in the 1916 Regatta but recorded a DNS and appears to have done no racing until 1916/17 season.
From 1916 onwards she was a regular entrant with the Ponsonby and Victoria Cruising clubs.
She had many owners and had a lot of mods done to her over the years. She was converted to a yawl in 1949.
Last registered with YNZ in 1999.
There is a lot more info in the book Ranger by Sandra Gorter and Aroha Tercel.


Anyone Able To Help ID The Design /Build Of This Run-About 


I was sent the photos below by Matthew Farrant who is hoping that someone can ID the design/builder of his 20’ double diagonal stripped kauri run-about. Matthew believes it was built in the 1960’s and originally had a shaft drive but has been converted to stern drive. Engine is a 3 litre  Ford Essex. 

The Minerva

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The Minerva
Talking with woody – John Wright the other day and he mentioned that he spotted an old framed photo in the dump bin at the Te Atatu Boat Club, a quick bit of bin diving reduced the photo, which John sent me a copy of and asked for more intel on the vessel – The Minerva, the photo is captioned – ?.N. Jones Family 1986.The rear of the family has a lot of detail, but sadly very hard to read – it says she was built by Chas Bailey, most of the other detail is just too hard to read.
Well jackpot – Minerva featured extensively on WW back in March 2015 and we uncovered a lot about her provenance.Snapshot – built in 1910 as a Auckland harbour ferry, she had a very shallow draft for negotiating creeks and estuaries. Her original power was steam via a coal fired boiler, that fuelled two 14hp George Fraser & Son engines. Around 1922 she moved over to the Kaipara Harbour and worked there until the late 1940’s. Around this time she was converted to diesel power and remained a work boat until c.1945. Around then she came back over to the east coast and was rallied and rolled into 1964 when she dropped out of site. There was a reported sighting of her back in 2015 under a cover in Kerikeri.
Read / see more here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/03/04/the-minerva/
Does anyone know her current status / condition?

Photo below dated July 2019 ex google + link to TVNZ story on the restoration project. Both ex K Ricketts

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/countrys-oldest-ferry-set-restored-in-northland?fbclid=IwAR2PRIosZVyh7_7ye19Y-19GYO26jnT1DPaaj6ViNq8MzCjjggxEbVtDCKc

100 Year Old Wooden Fishing Boat Saved

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100 Year Old Wooden Fishing Boat Saved

Ok I’m getting older and boring but when out and about (driving) I normally listen to Radio NZ – Nine to Noon show, but with CV-19 lock-down I missed Wednesdays show. And woodys I missed a goodie, but Charles Rogers via Angus (Centaurus)  Rogers pointed me to the RNZ website for the story.

That story involves the 27’ 1915 Milner & Milner ex workboat – Elsie and how Brian Railton the commodore of the Dunedin classic boat club, came to own her. There is a link below to the full on-line interview between Brian and Kathryn Ryan (RNZ), but a quick overview looks like this.

Elsie started life as a hand lining fishing boat on the Otago Harbour, she remained as a commercial fishing boat until the early 2000’s when she was retired. Like a lot of oldies Elsie didn’t like retirement and escaped i.e. broke her mooring and took herself on a tour of the Dunedin waterfront, eventually ending up on a rock seawall. Repaired but then she suffered damage on a sandbar. Luckily for Elsie the boat was spotted by Brian who acquired her and transported the boat from Carey’s Bay near Port Chalmers to his home in Wyndham in eastern Southland where Brian and a retired boat builder friend, are undertaking a rolling restoration. Most importantly – they intend to use her for what she was designed for i.e. fishing. In the photo above, taken by Brian, the pumps are working overtime to keep her a float.
Click below to hear the full interview

Harold Kidd Input – ELSIE was built by the MILLER brothers.