The first report from the woody armada out cruising over the summer holidays is from Angus Rogers on his 42’ 1967 Bailey & Son built launch – CENTAURUS.
Angus was overnighting in Man ‘o’ War Bay, Waiheke Island and was sharing the anchorage with the 233’ majestic CLASSIC super yacht – HAIDA, built in 1929 (originally steam powered). Rumour has it these days owned by another billionaire from Hong Kong.
Also sharing the bay was Peter Loughlin’s 42’ 1927 Colin Wild build launch – LADY MARGARET, see below.
Last week WW was contacted by STERLING’s owner who advised they were in the process of getting her back up to speed for her 100th next year. They commented that with the help of a tame boat builder, they have removed the dodgy timber and replaced with good Northland Kauri, pulled the engine out and given it an overhaul, reconfigured the main cabin and will replace the very agricultural duck board and raise and reconfigure the aft cabin. Along with a full rewiring, she should be good to go for a wee while.
That’s all good news put they have a wee problem – in pulling out the old 6 cylinder Ford Lehman, it was discovered that the cast manifold is beyond repair and are reaching out to see if there are any woodys that might know know where they can get a replacement.
So question today is – can we help out, someone must have one in a shed somewhere.
She’s recently been hauled out on Waiheke Island, her new home, for some tidy-up work after a few stern fasteners decided to call it quits. The owner was full of praise for a talented young boatbuilder based on Waiheke who took on the transom rebuild — great to hear skilled hands are still out there keeping these classics alive.
With the heavy lifting underway, the owners rolled up their sleeves and treated her underside to a well-deserved birthday.
As the black-and-white photo below (ex Nathan Herbert) shows, MAITAI has made it close to 100 years without suffering at the hands of the dreaded wood-butchers. Long may that continue.
PAIKEA – ONE OF OUR FASTEST CLASSIC WOODEN MOTORBOATS
Last week during a visit to Gulf Harbour I spotted PAIKEA tucked away on one of the inner berths, looking very smart. This master link will take you to several stories that document her past + lots of photos https://waitematawoodys.com/?s=Paikea&submit=Search
In one of the stories we learnt from Harold Kidd that PAIKEA was built by Collings & Bell for A.H. Court and launched on 26th January 1921. She was fitted with a 120-150hp Model M Van Blerck 6 cylinder petrol engine (not a straight-eight Packard as is often said). PAIKEA had Chas. Collings’ “concave-convex” type of hard chine design which he made famous with his various FLEETWINGS and whale-chasers. Indeed she was a refinement of the FLEETWING whose image appears in the Collings & Bell section of WW.
PAIKEA was good for 20 knots and can still do it with her present big Iveco/Fiat, Harold commented that she goes like hell and stable with it.
I n recent years PAIKEA has been one of launches that line up for the Auckland anniversary day motorboat inner harbour drag race, in fact earlier this year (2025) she was 1st across the line on corrected (handicap) time. Will be interesting to see if she turns up in 2026 to defend her title.
Photo below from the 2025 race where we see PAIKEA unsuccessfully trying to catch the winner – MY GIRIL.
THE REFURBISHMENT OF CLASSIC COLIN WILD LAUNCH – TASMAN BEGINS
The classic 38′ wooden launch TASMAN, built/launched in 1929 by New Zealand foremost wooden boat builder – Colin Wild, has made numerous cameo appearance on WW as her past owners were attendees at most of the major classic boating events in and around the Waitemata Harbour. A few years ago ownership of TASMAN changed hands and her new owners are perfect custodians of this soon to be centenarian.They have committed to undertaking a rolling restoration that will see TASMAN celebrate her 100th birthday in 2029, looking better than the day she slid down the Wild slipway. In owner, Stephen’s words – ” This is the first of a stepped plan of restoration for her centennial at Easter 2029. This first stage was completed by Marineskills at Half Moon Bay. The primary task was the removal of the original 1929 foredeck canvas to ply, glass and strengthen the foredeck.
This required removal of all the furniture, toe rails, winch and sundry gear. The 1960-period guard rails were replaced with a reduced rail around the work area forward.
Old winch and gear chromed, salt water wash-down pump fitted and new spare-man provided. Toe rail teak restored and rebuilt. Sundry other works around ‘Tasman’ included restoration of period navigation lights in wheelhouse roof mounted boxes to reflect the originals.”
We look forward to future updates on the refurbishment and will keep the WW readers updated.
(Photo below dated Feb 2021 of TASMAN in Whakaatakalaka Bay aka OBC, Auckland by Nathan Herbert)
CLASSIC COLIN WILD LAUNCH – LINDA – THE FULL CIRCLE
Back in 1959 the 1927 Colin Wild built 47’ launch LINDA relocated from her home waters , the Waitemata Harbour, to Whangarei, Northland. Her new owner was Reg Fisher.
In the April 1961 edition of Sea Spray magazine there was an article (as above) on the boats history and recent modifications and updates.
In later years she returned to Auckland and in the last 2 years has relocated North again to Kerikeri, – the full circle.
The Sea Spray article comes to us via Ken Ricketts.
Today we have a report in from Mark Newcomb who was stooging around Sandspit Marina and the Club hardstand over the weekend.
The first classic woody above is one we normally see at the Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade – its named RURU was possibly built in 1935 by Lidgard, 19’ in length. https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/07/22/ruru/
In T he third photo we see LADY MAY, a Salthouse 37, spirit of tradition classic. If its the same launch I spotted at KAWAU ISLAND over Labour weekend , I think is is running a Hamilton Jet unit.
I visited Milford during the week to view the work underway on the launch – MONTEREY (yesterday’s story – scroll done) so took the opportunity to check out NGAIO. On previous visits there has been mainly deconstruction, template and repair work – yesterday we got to view first-hand the skills of boatbuilder Paul Tingey. So rather than ‘bury the photos on the end of the existing story, I made the call they deserved their own story. (I will also add them to the existing on-going story)
While at the yard I caught up with 3 generations of the Brooke family working on the family launch – LINDA. Robert came over to inspect the work on NGAIO and even though in the photo above it looks like Paul Tingey is having a chat with the headmaster – Robert had high praise for Paul’s work.✔️
LINDA
30-11-2025 Been a tad slack on the update photos – three sets (visits) below. Re-launch is close.
Todays woody is the 36’ launch – MANAAKI built in 1928 by Collings & Bell. The photo comes to us from Karl Webber via Lew Redwood fb. In the fb story is comments that at the time of the photo (1930) the boat was owned by the Webber family and was built of kauri and used primarily to cross from Kapiti Island to Paraparaumu.
Looking for confirmation that todays MANAAKI is the same launch that was build for the Zane Grey fleet – ALMA G, OTEHEI and AVALON were the names of some of her sisters.
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