Category Archives: 1920’s

Classic Woody Summer Cruising – A Game Of Two Halves

Posted on by
3

WOODYS AFLOAT

Classic Woody Summer Cruising – A Game Of Two Halves

Happy New Year Woodys – WW is back ‘live’ so no more oops boating photos 🙂

On Saturday when I was reviewing and editing the above photos I struggled to believe that we had a xmas/ny cruise, but as they say the truth is in the photos 🙂

I decided to break todays story into two parts:

1. Raindance related

2. Woodys Out & About 

Mostly from my camera but assisted by Barbara Cooke (Bay of Islands), Mark Edmonds (Waiheke), Russell Ward, Jason Prew (upper harbour) and Alan Gilder (Woody Bay Rakino)

Raindance’s cruise / tiki tour mainly consisted of bouncing between Rakino Island and Waiheke Island. Left on 27 Dec and the weather was just stunning with crystal clear, warm water. On 01 Jan the forecast was starting to look very average and most concerning was all 3 weather platforms that I follow were saying the same thing. So early morning on 02 Jan we made the call to up anchor and head home. Turns out that was a good call because for the next 5+ days if it wasn’t raining it was drizzling non-stop + ugly seas and high winds.

So woodys the second half of our planned cruise was sent at home enjoying good food, wine, movies and watching almost every wooden / classic boating video on YouTube.

Very grateful we had 6 days of great weather before we pulled the pin. As an old salt told me once – when it comes to happy family boating – better to have a handful of fabulous days than an abundance of average days – very sage advise.

Enjoy the gallery.

UPCOMING ON-THE-WATER WOODY EVENTS

Circle the calendar:

28 January – Mahurangi Regatta launch parade – more details closer to the day

25 February – Stillwater Picnic + Dockside Raft-Up – more details closer to the day

SHENANDOAH  Q03

Posted on by
1

SHENANDOAH  Q03

The 1929 Chas Bailey & Son built motor launch – Shenandoah has made several appearances on WW and we have seen her – as launched, in her war fatigues, restored and sadly neglected – way too many mentions on WW to list the links, just type her name in the WW search box to view.

Today thanks to Bruce Papworth we get a look at Shenandoah at sea and her crew war crew ashore – in the 2nd photo we get a rare sighting of the photographer – Tudor Collins, that is him second from right. He would have been on board Shenandoah in his role as photographer.  Bruce P commented that he believed Hick Goodfellow was the captain.   In the third photo, showing the Whangarei Town Basin there is a great collection of craft that had been commandeered by the NZ Navy for war service – that I can identify- we have:

Q03 – Shenandoah, Q08 – Lady Margaret, Q01 – Wirihana, Q02 – Maristella, Q12  – Lady Shirley and Z38 – Ranoni. In the last photo we have L>R Lady Margaret, Maristella and Wirihana. For more background on these craft, click on this link  https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/11/23/whangarei-town-basin-1943/

Classic Wooden Boats At Waikawa Marina

Posted on by
5

Classic Wooden Boats At Waikawa Marina

Following on from last Mondays story where we shared Dean Wright’s recent Southern trip and a gallery of photos from the Havelock marina todays photo gallery comes to us from the Waikawa marina. Some stunning woodys and remember – click on photos to enlarge 😉

A lot of woodys that are new to WW and they will morph into WW stories in their own right.

Enjoy 🙂

13-12-2022 INPUT EX MARK MCLAUGHLIN

The big bridgedecker with 4 ports is RAHEMO (launched as Strathmore), built by Dick Lang.

Others I can positively identify are (from the top):

VECA (Arthur Sang)

VAGABOND (Joe Jukes)

?

?

?

RAHEMO/STRATHMORE (Dick Lang)

HUNTRESS (possibly McManaway designed/built?)

VARUA (Bob Swanson)

OSPREY (Harold Saunders)

PALOMINO (Bob Swanson)

TOANUI (Roger Carey)

Yacht ANNA JANE (?)

NUKUMEA (American “Bartender” design by George Calkins)

YVONNE (Bob Swanson)

PEARL (?)

Unknown fishing boat

KATOOMBA (Dorman Engineering, Nelson – not wood, built in Corten Steel!!)

Unknown (possibly Bruce Askew?)

CORYLUS (Bruce Askew)

TAREPO (launched TAREPA)

ARCTURUS (McGeady)

? (looks like a McManaway or Morgan fishing boat design?)

? (under the covers)

CRISTINA (Athol Burns)

PURUATANGA (launched as MARIANJO)

Most of these have featured previously on WW, so a quick look in the search bar will glean more details if interested.

Classic Wooden Boats At Havelock Marina

Posted on by
6

Classic Wooden Boats At Havelock Marina

Back in late October 2022 Dean Wright was in Blenheim attending John Gander’s significant birthday, all birthdays are significant but the ones with ‘0’s’ in them are more significant.

While down south Dean did some marina mooching and todays photo gallery comes to us from the Havelock marina. Nice to see a couple of our bigger northern woodys now safely tucked way down south – Turongo and Durville. Sad to lose them from the Waitemata but if we were keeping score I think we win more than we lose 🙂

A lot of craft unknown to WW and will probably morph into WW stories in their own right. As always click on photos to enlarge.

Southern Woodys at Riwaka

Posted on by
4

Southern Woodys at Riwaka

One of my southern woody spies – John Burland, has just has returned to NZ after summering over in Germany (he lives there, well at least in the northern summer).

Not long after unpacking the bags he was heading down to the Riwaka riverside marina, close to Motueka, Tasman. As the photos show the area is seriously tidal and John’s visit was at low water. 

While John commented that the photos were of the usual suspects, it always good to see what’s normally hidden.

In the photos we see Varlene getting some TLC, as an aside looking at the finish on Varlene’s rail and the tin – it looks like at last Cetol is an ok finish – used to be a horrendous orange/yellow colour, similar to what actor George Hamilton used to use as fake tan (photo below)

13-12-2022 UPDATE – ex John Burland – more photos below, and yes the tides still out 🙂

Classic Launch Linda – A Birds Eye View

Posted on by
2

Classic Launch Linda – A Birds Eye View

The 1927 Colin Wild built launch – Linda, being one of the finest on the Waitemata has made numerous appearances on the WW site. One of the most engaging is at this link – https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/11/24/linda-3/

Today we get to see a view of Linda not often seen unless you are a seagull. Recently relaunch after a pre summer spruce up at The Slipway Milford prior to heading to the Bay of Islands for summer.

UPDATE – photo below ex Russell Brooke taken in Jan 2021 showing the two Colin Wild launches – Linda and Wirihana at anchor in the Bay of Islands

Woodys Classic Beach Picnic Review + Open Boat

Posted on by
Reply

Woodys Classic Beach Picnic Review

On Sunday we held a woodys gathering ashore on Motuihe Island – trip down was commonly described as ‘lumpy’, except for the large woodys skippers who just smiled.

The bonus of a lumpy passage was almost zero trailer craft or pwc’s, so had the beach to ourselves. Very sheltered and sunny afternoon – always good to catch up with other woody owners and swap tales. Trip home was perfect with wind and tide assisting.

Nice to see both Lady Crossley and Pirate after there winter hibernation / haul outs.

My boat of the day was John Wright’s latest project the uber cool double-ender – Kiwa. That man has a wonderful eye for bringing the best out of any classic craft. Photo below when she was at Te Atatu Boating Club + links to previous WW stories on her 

2014  https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/09/30/boat-on-the-move-kiwa/

2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/09/10/what-happened-to-kiwa/

KATHERINE  ON DISPLAY @ WESTHAVEN – THIS WEEKEND – INVITATION ONLY

Considering an upgrade or a boat for summer – the 38’ Conrad Robertson designed classic – KATHERINE, has been relocated to Westhaven Marina for one weekend only – inspection by invitation.

More details on this immaculately presented, ready for immediate delivery craft – click here https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/06/13/katherine-a-peek-down-below/

To book a viewing time email waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys

Classic Woody Boating Long Weekend Cruise

Posted on by
3
Moturekareka Island
Sunset – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Sunrise – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Lady Adelaide
Vivian Bay, Kawau Island
Ngaio
Meola & Whio

Classic Woody Boating Cruise

For all the wrong reasons I didn’t do a lot of boating (on my boat) this past winter, so the looming long Labour weekend was always going to see me leaving the dock even if the weather was ‘inclement’. Luckily it wasn’t and I slid away early Friday afternoon with the ultimate destination being Kawau Island. The boredom of mostly straight line motoring was broken up by Team NZ cutting up the gulf in their AC40, so so quick.

Decided to spend Friday night anchored at Moturekareka Island, the resting place of the wreck REWA (unsuccessfully scuttled as a breakwater) , not the most settled of spots but the sunset and the bird song made up for it.

Moved on earlier Saturday to Smelting House Bay and picked up a pre-booked mooring, now before you all call me a softy, we had the new dog onboard for its 1st trip and wanted to be close to shore – didn’t want an oops on board. I can report she was an angel – woke me at 5.30am for a row ashore. Sadly she also seems to think the #1 bunk is hers 🙂 The bonus of the dog pee row ashore is catching the sunrise, almost as fine as the sunset.

Mostly just relaxed mooching around, had a drink and dinner catch up with the crews off Meloa, Ngaio, Lady Adelaide and Golandrina at the Kawau Boating Club, which had just taken the shutters down after the annual winter hibernation. Food and service was first rate – if you are not a member – join, they need good support to keep doing what they do so well. The next day we dropped the pick in Vivian Bay – very quiet and later in the day several woodys arrived – seems to be the go-to destination for the Sandspit marina crowd.

I spied a stunning villa on the waterfront in Vivian Bay – photos below, will need to keep buying Lotto 🙂

Trip home on Monday was just about perfect for a straight stemmer e.g. wind and tide on the nose – 3 hours 45 min from KBC > Bayswater, that’s a good clip for my 94 year old girl.

UPDATE 03-11-2022 – Photo below of Rewa as scuttled (incorrectly). Comes to us from Auckland War Memorial Museum libray via Maurice Sharp fb.

SUNDAYS MYSTERY LAUNCH QUIZ WINNER

Well done Ken Ricketts, the winner from the many woodys that correctly ID’ed the launch as Sobrine. The pool was reduced significantly by a large number spelling the boats name – Sabrine. Link to a previous WW Sobrine story below https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/05/31/sobrine/

Alecia

Posted on by
1

ALECIA

This week we have had a several very fine looking woodys appearing on WW, today we have another – Alecia and she comes to us from John Dawson who sent in the above photo.

With that very distinctive scroll (is that the correct term) on her bow Alecia couldn’t be anything other than a Bailey & Lowe design / build. 

Do we know what became of the launch – is she still around today?

If you lose the tram top, its very similar to Harold Kidd’s old launch Romance II, also a Bailey & Lowe – photo below 

UPDATE – SORRY IF YOU EXPERIENCED SOME DUPLICATION WITH THIS STORY – ALL SORTED NOW 🙂

MANOWAI – Gets A Visit To The Beauty Shop

Posted on by
Reply

MANOWAI – Gets A Visit To The Beauty Shop

The 32’ Lake Rotoiti based launch –  Manowai has been owned by a string of owners that have lavished time and $$ on her. That we know of, this started around 2003 when boat builder Colin Brown undertook major refit, including new interior. Fast forward to 2015 and Manowai has been relocated to Lake Rotoiti (Nth Island) and spends a year in Craig Marines shed where boat builder Alan Craig undertakes a 12 month refurbishment of her interior & exterior. At the same time she was re-powered with a 4 cyl. 40 hp Lombardini diesel.

Now in 2022 she has just emerged from Alan Craig’s shed after some serious TLC and addressed some issues with the steel screws used in her construction. Links below to previous WW stories – lots of photos and chat.

Manowai’s past is a little cloudy but she was possibly built in 1921 by Bailey & Lowe – would be nice to be able to confirm her provenance. 

2013 WW Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/19/manowai/

2015 WW Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/09/14/manowai-2/