Category Archives: 1920’s

Cruise To The Riverhead Hotel

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CRUISE TO THE RIVERHEAD HOTEL
If you have not visited the Riverhead Hotel by water, its time you did. The Classic Yacht Association (CYA) has an afternoon cruise to the pub next Sunday (18th). These events are a lot of fun – we head up the river / creek on mass & anchor / raft-up before going ashore for a drink & a catch-up. If you have concerns about the route, just follow the boat in front of you & anchor with the others. There will be plenty of ‘old-hands’ to show you the ropes.
High tide is 16:24pm & so we aim to be heading up the ‘creek’ 2hrs b4 HW, its a small tide at 2.8m so I would imagine we will be meeting up in the Herald Island / Lucus Creek area around 2.00pm, so leaving Westhaven area around 1pm. ETA at pub is 2.30pm & departure from the pub approx 5.30pm.
If you are not a CYA member (yet) come along & see what you have been missing out on.
The photo gallery above is a snap shot of past trips – enjoy.
Ps – Wear your WW shirt 🙂
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Folly III

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FOLLY III

Today’s woody story features a 5’10” video on Folly III, a 33’ cruiser designed by W. Holmes & built by his sons, Reginald & William, c.1920 in Sydney, Australia. Her beam is 9′ & she draws 3′.
I understand Holmes senior was a kiwi builder that moved to Sydney to build bridges & later turned his talents to wooden boats, of all shapes & sizes.
I’m sure HDK will be able to enlighten us on the man.
The Folly III design follows the look of the popular American Lake Union Dream Boats.
The video is beautifully shot in Moreton Bay, Queensland & has a ‘colourful’ commentary from the Folly III owner, Stephen Lake 🙂 Enjoy
Thanks to woody John Sloane for the heads up on the video.

Kermath 182

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KERMATH

I saw the above photo of Kermath on Lew Redwood’s fb & immediately thought of the 2018 Rudder Cup launch race – so todays post is a big nudge / reminder to get your entry in.
What do we know about Kermath, race #182 ? This photo was tagged ‘Winner of the Big Tree Handicap at the Ponsonby Regatta, March 3 1923.
Harold Kidd Input – There were several KERMATHs built for C E Mackie, of 25 London Street, St Mary’s Bay (the house in which I lived as a toddler) just behind Collings & Bell. Mackie was the Auckland agent for Kermath marine engines. The earlier boats were built by Collings & Bell but I think this is the one built by Leon Warne in December 1920 which, by the time of this race, had a Cadillac car engine installed which made her quick. I think she’s the KERMATH that went to the Bay of Islands soon after.

Mystery Launches at Whangamumu 

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1928 Whangamumu

Mystery Launches at Whangamumu 

Today’s photo ex Lew Redwood’s fb shows the whaling station at Whangamumu & is dated March 1928. From the number of barrels of oil in front of the factory, a visit from a freighter must be due.
Anyone able to ID the launches at anchor? The bridge-decker on the right shouldn’t be too difficult given the design, oval ports on the cabin & twin masts?
Kairangi Out at Gulf Harbour
Photos below ex Ken Ricketts hauled out at Gulf Harbour for a spring spruce up

Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

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If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
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Mavis

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MAVIS

Chris Manning sent in the top photo of Mavis, as built by Ernie Lane in Picton in 1919 & advised she is still alive & living in Havelock.

Greg Noble also sent me the above photos of Mavis on a ‘buck’s’ cruise (love that description of a boys trip), the photos come from Greg’s grandad, Perceval Noble, journal. 

In a previous WW story on the launch Maxie, in the WW comments section – Gavin Pascoe question if Mavis was the motor launch that took part in the early days racing at the Evans Bay Yacht & Motor Boat Club (1919 onwards),  can anyone comment / confirm this?

Check out the below flyer – cool woody events like this are why if you aren’t already, you need to join the Classic Yacht Association. As the Irish say “the craic will be mighty”

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The Gables Hotel, Russell, Bay of Islands + Mystery Launch

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The Gables Russell, BOI

The Gables Hotel, Russell, Bay of Islands + Mystery Launch

Today’s photo of the Russell foreshore,  comes to us from Lawry Williams via the ‘Old North Auckland / Northland fb page.
Anyone able to ID the launch on the beach? The canoe stern should help.
Recently I hosted one of the worlds foremost boating photographers onboard Raindance. We were out shadowing the CYA classic yacht race fleet. At some stage I’m sure Ben’s photos will appear somewhere very public. He was very taken with Waitangi, the most photographed yacht on the day. Ben snapped a photo of Raindance – see below, probably the only photo I won’t remove the photographers tattoo from 🙂
Alan Houghton at Helm of RAINDANCE
Also out on the day was the RNZYS photo boat, who kindly shared with me some photos they took, the one below I like a lot (enhanced a little by mate Chris Miller, the light was poor)
Raindance 1-RNZYS- CM

Estrela

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ESTRELA
Estrela a double-ender, triple skinned kauri launch was built be Joe Fell in 1920. Her zoom zoom comes from a Hino H07C- 158 hp diesel. 
She  measures 43’in length & from her trademe listing (thanks Ian McDonald) she appears to be very well kitted out. 
At 42′ with her hull & the Hino engine, she must have a healthy turn of speed.
 
Being a double-ender makes her very distinctive so hopefully we can un-cover more on her.
Update – Woody Chris Leech has asked if the above launch is previously named Dawn Star, once owned by ex DYC member John Mitchell – see photo below. Sure looks like it to me (AH).
Dawn Star
Input from Harold Kidd – I didn’t know that Joe Fell built double-enders. The rest of his launches were mainly cream launches for the Hokianga Dairy Company and clones of SIERRA with a tuck stern for carrying capacity. I wonder which one she was originally? Can’t place her.
Dave Jackson will probably know.

Wooden Boating VIP On The Waitemata

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Wooden Boating VIP On The Waitemata

Today I hosted Ben Mendlowitz on Raindance, Ben is the number one wooden boat photographer in the world & shoots for just about every boating magazine there is & produces the world famous “Calendar of WoodenBoats’ + has authored dozens of books on the subject.
While in New Zealand Ben was keen to photograph some of our classic fleet, so we headed out yesterday to catch the classic division of the RNZYS Winter Series race.
Ben will have some stunning photos, I was just the driver today so only took a few, very average photos – I did however capture 2 rare events:
1. Thelma going a ground off Stanley Point – some very red faces
2. Jason Prew venturing forward of the mast on Rawene – he didn’t look comfortable 🙂
Photos below – enjoy
THE NEW ZEALAND SAILING DINGHY EXHIBITION
In case you missed it – in 2 weeks (Oct 5>7th) is the annual Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition at the Viaduct – this year the theme is ‘The New Zealand Sailing Dinghy’ – I’ll post more on the event during the week – but right now Tony Stevenson is doing a call out to anybody interested in displaying their classic NZ designed and built sailing dinghy, yacht class information or memorabilia.
Please contact Tony Stevenson tonys@nwv.co.nz  or 021 977 456
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Ark & Oi

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ARK and OI

Today’s photo ex Lew Redwood’s fb shows two woodys alongside the boat sheds at Wiahopo in the Far North. Wiahopo is situated at the upper reaches of the Houhora Harbour & was a big kauri gum field area.
The photo is tagged 1910-39 & attributes ownership as ‘Nortwood’s Ark & Harold Wagener’s Oi.
Harold Kidd Input – Don’t know about ARK but she’s obviously a small square bilge scow. OI is actually the cargo launch OEI, built for H.B. Wagener of Pukenui by T.M. Lane & Sons at Mechanics Bay (NOT Totara North) in 1910. She was fitted with a 7hp Standard engine (hardly zoom zoom). Dims were 36’6″x10’x2’8″. Arthur Subritzky delivered her north in November 1910 taking 25 hours Auckland-Mangonui.