Category Archives: 1920’s

Mataroa (Kenya)

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MATAROA (KENYA)

As they say in the boxing game – Mataroa is the real deal – a 1928 Joe Slattery launch, named Kenya when launched, she measures 36’ LOA & was originally built for Mr Heard of Heards Confectionary. On trademe her owner claims she is a Collings & Bell but that is incorrect – read a lot more about her – build details, war history & more on the link below.

https://waitematawoodys.com/?s=MATAROA&submit=Search

Powered by a Ford 90p diesel, she will cruise effortlessly at 8.5 Knots. You will see from the photos that she is over due for some TLC but boy-o-boy the bones are there & for sale at $15k – that’s a lot of boat.

I have included below a photo from her early days, you will see how smart is was & could be with a little work.

Someone has to scoop her up.

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The Mighty P Class – Sailing Sunday

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THE MIGHTY P CLASS – Sailing Sunday
ex Yachting NZ

A pictorial history of New Zealand’s mighty P Class yacht

Whilst trolling around the Wellington Classic Yacht Trust facebook page I uncovered the above gem that utilizes the two formats of a slide show and video clips to showcase the history New Zealand’s mighty P-Class featuring images and footage from the 1920s to 2013.
The clip has been assembled by P Class expert and historian Gun Caundle, from photos collected while researching for his book ‘Our Secret Weapon’, a history and stories about the P Class. While 15 minutes long its great viewing & I’m sure most woodys will bothe relate to it & probably recognize some of the people featured. Enjoy 🙂

Darleen

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Darleen Alan H ©

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DARLEEN
photos ex Alan H & trademe

I have always admired Darleen when refueling RainDance at the Orams fuel berth as Darleen is normally berthed down at the Viaduct amongst the super yachts. The top 4 photos above I took at the Mahurangi Regatta in 2015. The others are ex. trademe. All I know is that she was launched in 1920, is 34′ long & powered by a 65hp Ford diesel. You will see that a lot of time & effort has been spent re-fitting her to a high standard, from memory I think her owner is engaged in the boat building/rigging industry.

Any of the woodys able to expand on her in terms of builder & history?

What Happened To The Viking?

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Viking?

What Happened To The Viking?
words & photo ex Mark Davis

This is a great tale – I’ll let Mark tell it 🙂

“I stumbled across your web site by accident after reading an article in the Otago Daily Times about the Elsie Evans. It got me thinking if anyone may know it’ll be yourself or one of your members. My late mum used to tell me of her life growing up in Waihi. Her dad, my grandfather, Walter Caldwell, used to own a well known fish shop in Waihi, called simply Waihi Fish Supply, (which is now a burger bar). To supply his shop he used to have a small number of boats moored at Waihi Beach. This, I think was sometime between the two world wars. Anyway to get to the point, he purpose built a boat to his own design in the “backyard” of the fish shop. This is the boat my mum talked about the most. When finished and launched at Waihi beach, most of the then town, turned out for the occasion. The boat was christened the Viking. Mum told me the Viking was an excellent sea boat and remembers going out on it once or twice. Of course being a “girl” she didn’t know any of the important stuff. The story continues, as the world was plunged into another global conflict in the late 30’s the government of the day commandeered as many suitable boats as possible for coastal patrol etc, the Viking was one of these boats. That’s where the story could end, but as chance would have it someone told mum the boat ended up at the Auckland Maritime Museum on Quay St Auckland. I’ve looked on line but didn’t find any trace of her, (the boat not mum), so put it down to urban legend or similar.

So that brings me to this email. After taking possession of mums treasures after her death I came across a suitcase of old photos. Amongst the hundreds of unidentified photos is a picture of a boat being built in a “backyard” of what looks to be the rear of the fish shop in Waihi, (I have visited and still do visit Waihi many times). The photo doesn’t show much apart from a hull being laid over with planking and not a lot of detail, however if you like detective novels then this may appeal to you or visitors to your web site. Please let me know if you’re interested, one way or the other, and I’ll email you a scan to have a look. As we now live in North Otago popping down to the Maritime Museum to research this further is not on the cards anytime soon.”

So woodys, can anyone help Mark out? Is there any truth in the Maritime Museum story or as Mark says – is it just an urban legend.

Paikea

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PAIKEA - 1970s

PAIKEA
photo ex Fraser Chapman

While Paikea has appeared on ww a couple of times (nearly 2 years ago), the above 1970’s photo emailed to me by Ken Ricketts was just too good to just add to one of the existing posts, so here she is looking very voom voom. Harold Kidd has advised that in her day she was good for 20 knots, read below.
Harold Kidd Input

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, as I experienced not long ago at Sandspit. She goes like hell and stable with it.

Alf Court sold her to Hec Marler in 1925 and he sold her to R B & S S Wilson just prior WW2. She was in NAPS during WW2 as Z17.

Hec Marler had great taste in boats – having once owned the 1905 Arch Logan yacht Rawhiti, one of NZ’s most stunning classic yachts.

You can view a gallery of historical Paikea photos here   https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/16/paikea-2/

Little Tasman

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LITTLE TASMAN
shed photos & info ex Ken Ricketts. Pt Wells photo ex Mark Edmonds. details ex Harold Kidd. edited a lot by Alan H

Back in early March Ken Ricketts dropped in to see artisan boat builder Colin Brown at his Omaha yard. Colin & side kick, Josh, have been restoring the rather pretty 26′ Colin Wild launch Little Tasman.  She was named Tasman when built in 1925 for Albert Spencer & changed her name to Little Tasman in 1927 when the bigger Tasman (photo included below) was launched by the same owner/builder. Its said she that LT was a prototype / test boat – Mr Spencer was not short of a few pennies 😉

It is such good news to see whats happening to Little Tasman as she sat on a front lawn at Pt. Wells for a number of years (photo below) & her future was at risk.

Little Tasman at Pt Wells

In Harold Kidd’s words Little Tasman is ‘pure class’ & whats happening in Colin’s shed is also pure class  – the man is one of the best classic friendly tradies out there.

You will see in the above photos that she now has a brand new 4 cyl Nanni 38 hp diesel in place, which should give her a top speed of around 10 knots, with a cruising speed, with her 2 to 1 reduction gear, of around 7 knots. Will be interesting to see her performance as the Nanni is a lot lighter than the old 6 cyl Ford diesel it is replacing.

Her restoration has seen most of her ribs replaced, a full recaulk (no splining), work on the forepeak & bow, a new dodger, very faithfully copied from the original & a full interior refit & partial redesign of the interior layout, for greater space use, & practicality.
Steering will be from the front of the tram top, as it was before, where there will be a large hatch fitted, to the newly replaced, as original, T & G cabin top. Check out the stern photo, classic Colin Wild on show there 🙂

Launch date is fast approaching so we will update on the event.

Read more on her past here      https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/04/20/little-tasman/

Below is a photo of Tasman that I took a few years ago in Sullivans Bay. She is stunner & on a lot of woodys bucket list.

Tasman @ Sullivans Bay

30-06-2016 – Another great photo update from Ken R of Little Tasman’s restoration at Colin Brown’s yard. Remember click on photos to enlarge 😉

Mystery Yacht – Sailing Sunday

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Mystery Yacht – Sailing Sunday
photo ex Max Pike ex Auckland Weekly News (23 April 1930)

I’m sure the stick & rag woodys will be able to ID the above yacht, the only info I had was the caption which was something like ‘yacht off Freemans Bay preparing for race’.

Speaking of races I’m venturing over to the dark side today & crewing on Rainbow in the Ponsonby Cruising Club’s Vintage & Veterans race. Hopefully we will get some wind, I have been the kiss of death weather wise when aboard other classic yachts 🙂

Mystery Launches & Location

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1927 guess names and place

Mystery Launches & Location
photo ex Nathan Herbert

The above photo is dated 1927 & show an amazing collection of launches. The challenge today is what’s the location, the reason for the gathering & how many can we name?
On my estimate I can count 38 people on the ‘dark’ launch in the foreground, the Harbour Master compliance nazi’s would wet themselves these days if they saw that, & no sign of any life-rails 🙂
This launch is sporting the #6 on her & the passengers have a very high % of females on board which makes the occasion very interesting, I look forward to the replies.

Luana

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LUANA

Sometimes I get sent a photo/s & the jaw drops – yesterday was one of those days. The above photos show the 1920 MT Lane built Luana in the Bay of Islands at Easter. Luana is a very special member of our classic fleet & in my eyes is in the top 3. Now there’s an idea – a survey for the classic launch’s that have the wow factor, boats that when you cruise into a bay & see them, you cruise by to get a second look. Post your top 3 in the ww comments section.

For the record – my top 3 (no order) Lady Margaret (Dick Lang) , Luana & Tasman.

Luana has featured a lot on ww – great photos here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/22/luana/ but if you enter Luana in the ww search box you can view more.
Love the ships cat in the top photo, I think there is normally two on-board 🙂

Vagrant – Sailing Sunday

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VAGRANT – Sailing Sunday
photos from Duncan Elliot, details from Harold Kidd & Robin Elliott. (edited by Alan H)

I was contacted recently by Duncan advising that he had purchased Vagrant off trademe last year & was looking for details on her history.
She had sunk due to a 100mm x 60mm hole in the transom below the bolt on the drop keel box . When Duncan started the repair he a little surprised to find that someone had filled the area with  epoxy from a tube and no fibre. Subsequently this failed & popped out resulting in the trip to Davey Jones locker. Duncan did a temporary repair on the hole
& later cut out the old hole and scarfed a piece in and built a box around the existing box as this was too short i.e. does not go all the way down to the keel and deadwood.
Vagrant she is now back in the water and drawing about 5 litres a water a day. Duncan intends to take her out in a couple of months to do a total re-fit, doing the work myself as he is joiner by trade.

I contacted Harold Kidd & Robin Elliott and asked if they could provide some details on Vagrant for Duncan & true to form, they delivered 🙂
HAROLD
VAGRANT was built by Jack Greenhalgh in 1924 according to MBQ (pretty unreliable). My first hit on the boat is a shade before the 1926 AAR (which was certainly her first race).
She’s in the  list of N’s in NZA of 18/11/25 (as N7).
My guess is built by John/Jack Greenhalgh of Richmond Rd about late 1925 and owned probably with his brother Albert.

ROBIN
I first trip over Vagrant registered as N-7  in the 1926 Anniversary Regatta.
Owners details:
• A. Greenhalgh 1925?/26+?; P. Churton 1932/+?
• On Manukau 1928, registered as number`19′ with Manukau Y & MB Club
• Pennant? 6/10/32: Purchased by Churton who intends to use her for cruising only.
• Re-appears post-war registered as N-17 c1945
• Owner Cyril Hill early 40’s? E.L. (Ernie) Beaver 1945+? D.A.K. Taylor 1949+?; Dick Still 1962?; D.J. Mason 1964/65+?
• Dimensions 1949: 20’x 20’x 9’x 2’10”, 330 sqft gaff rigged, 1ton ballast
• Listed as ‘Unregistered’ 1970
• 1990 on beach, North Harbour Kawau.?
 
There is one photo of her in the Auckland Museum Bond Collection, negative number PH-NEG-C37485 dated 1st February 1947.

Robin helped paint her in 1963 when Dick Still owned her and she was still in gaff at that stage (Or was she?). Dick Still lives in Pakuranga and may have some photos of her from that time.  If anyone knows Dick, give him a nudge re any photos 09-5348158

LOOK OUT for Mondays post  – its on the Lake Rotoiti (Sth Island) antique & classic wooden boat festival, lots of cool boats 😉