Earlier in the week a nugget of gold dropped into my inbox – Mark Newcomb sent in a copy of his families yacht – TAMATEA A20 log book (refer PDF file link below to read)
The log book covers the background to the building of the yacht and her first race + some wonderful insights into life in the WWII period.
Tamatea was designed by A.C. Robb and built by A. Couldrey, launched in Jan 1937.
Amazingly the yacht was built from one kauri log, grown on the owners property in Waitakere (note: log was from a ‘dead’ tree)
Click on the blue text below to open the PDF file, the original of the log book is in the hands of the Maritime Museum, so probably this file is the only record, given the Museum’s track record with ‘losing’ things 😦
Todays WW story started last week – I’m standing in the queue to catch the Waiheke Island > Devonport ferry and the lady (Penny Ericson) behind me asks if I’m from Tasmania, now it was Friday afternoon and I had been to lunch so the brain took a few milli seconds to engage. I was wearing an Aust. Wooden Boat Festival t-shirt and the logo was plastered over the back of the shirt. I explain no I’m not, and then Penny tells me she is off to Tasmania in 7 days time for a holiday, so being the nice person I am I give her my ’Things you must do / see in Hobart’ speech. I then open the photo gallery on my iPhone and back the story up with photos. She comments that there are a lot of boat photos and I explain why and tell the waitematawoodys story.
Snap – she knows the site and was in fact about to email me concerning her grandfather > fathers launch named Venture.
After that long led in I’ll let Penny tell her story –
“This is Penny , I met you on the Waiheke ferry the other day and we discussed the fact that I would love to know what happened to my father and grandfathers boat that he used on the lakes in Rotorua as a charter fishing launch . I think that it operated out of the fishing camp on the Ohau channel , and the Harvey family lived in a house on Lake Rotorua on the other side of the channel . As you will see from the above photos the launch was called Venture, and the Log book below begins in 1937 and finishes in 1941.
No one in the family knows what happened to the boat but I had a feeling someone thought it may have been sold to someone in Auckland . I was delighted to meet you and you sounded so positive that you may be able to find the boat for me . In the bottom photo my father John or “Jack” Harvey is on the left . He was distinctive as he had a wooden peg leg having lost a leg on the western front in WW1. All his life despite his disability he was a marvellous fisherman and boatman. I grew up in Torbay so was always in boats as a kid, Dad building many dinghy’s for us .
Thank you Alan , I would greatly appreciate finding the boat and maybe the original logbook needs to be reunited with the boat”
So woodys can we help Penny in her search for the launch Venture and along the way learn more about her and what became of her.
17-03-2023 INPUT ex HAROLD KIDD – VENTURE was bought by K H Wilson of Rotorua in 1947 and fitted with a 52hp Graymarine engine. He kept her until at least 1955.
I’ll reward the woody that is the most helpful with a WW cap.
Last month I bombarded you with a several photo galleries of the 2023 Australian Wooden Boat Festival. As part of the wrap up of the festival, the organising crew have pulled together a 3min short film that utilises a lot of aerial film footage. The video gives us a wonderful overview of the festival, the Hobart harbour and waterfront – if there is any saw dust in your blood – Hobart February 2025 needs to be circled on your calendar. As festival director – Paul Stephanus says “This festival is one of a kind” . And its the largest event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and surprise surprise woodys – its free, no charge – we like that.
Find a comfortable chair and prepare to be wowed.
TIP: To enlarge screen size – scroll over the screen above and click on the icon I have highlighted below
“Dad had a pretty good memory and for many years we asked him to write his memories down, at last he and I got cracking. Dad grew up in Lyttelton and the sea was a great part of his life. The Sanders Cup left a lasting impression on him, the article on HUIA and the Sanders Cup was taken from his book (Just George). His love of the sea continued all of his life and at one time he was the proud owner of Cherub #1. Like the owner who gave HUIA a new lease of life, Dad did the same for Cherub #1. My Brother David and I were also keen yachties
Unfortunately my photos of the HUIA sailing in the Sanders Cup leave a lot to be desired, I would be interested if anyone has a good copy as I am in the process of updating Dads book, I am now up to the chapter of the HUIA and the Sanders Cup and that’s how I came upon the waitematawoodys site when I put HUIA into the Google search engine. Thank you for your interest.”
Extract Below From George Hemsley’s Memories (2.8.1913 > 29.7.2010)
It was the year 1939 when my Brother Bill Hemsley’s yacht “Huia” the Canterbury representative won the Sanders Cup. This event was sailed on Bluff Harbour with the first race starting on the 20th January. She was skippered by W A Tissiman with the crew of Bill Hemsley, S Sillars and H Brodie.
Her placings were as follows:-
Race #1 – Third
#2 – First
#3 – Huia did not start as she was unable to reef:-
#4 – second or third
#5 – First
#6 – First
HUIA wins the Sanders Cup.
“The Sanders Cup” yes it would seem that salt-water activities create bad feelings between yachties. Take the “Americas” cup today, what do we have, well when I was still at school the “Sanders Cup” was the same as the “Americas Cup” capable of stirring up the people of New Zealand to great enthusiasm between each province that competed. The reason that I do remember because my brother Bill (William Roy Hemsley) had bought the 14 footer HUIA.
Now in Lyttelton we had a man that built these 14 footers they had to be the exact measurement set down to fit a mould and no excuses for any mistakes. Mr Fred Dobbie was the man who built most of these 14 footers. Well brother Bill’s yacht was built by a different builder – from memory his name was Dick Tredenick.
It came time to race to determine who was to represent Canterbury – it was sailed in Lyttelton. To the best of my knowledge Huia won the first three races outright, so was the winner, but no they had to sail another three races, which she also won, now she had won six out of six races, but they the ”opposition” was determined that a Dobbie built boat was going to go, so they counted another three races which HUIA refused to enter and another boat was the winner of the next three races. This caused bad feeling especially when Brother Bill was asked to lend his set of sails to send the other boat away.
However the next year when HUIA again won the races there was no doubt. The HUIA did represent Canterbury for the 1939 Sanders Cup and did win the Sanders Cup for her province. The racing was held in Bluff with Bill Tissiman as skipper.
Between 1921 and 1946 Canterbury won the Sanders Cup 9 times, with the racing being sailed in Lyttelton 5 times and between 1921 & 1946. There was no racing during the war years of 1942-43-44 and 45.
I remember reading about a rowing race that was held for the visiting reporters as well, before the commencement of cup racing. I don’t know if this was always the case but the race in question was 1928 at Stewart Island. This caused a great deal of hilarity as well and was fiercely contested. Boats of supporters followed each reporter yelling encouragement to them and the opposite to the opposition. I do wonder if the same spirit is still as evident today.
06-03-2023 INPUT BELOW EX ROBIN ELLIOTT
Bit of an essay here but …. it’s complicated
Recollections are tricky things and although correct by and large, several seasons in your father’s memoir, 1936-1939, appear to have been conflated into one major story. I recommend a serious trawling of Papers Past to straighten out the kinks.
As unfair as it sounds, it was not uncommon for Sanders Cup committees to ‘swap out’ crew, or sails from one winning boat onto their chosen representative, such was their desperation to be successful. Many skippers angrily resented this practice and refused to comply with requests to turn their boat over to their Sanders Cup Selection committee to have the best bits pinched off it. Here is the justification.
Huia also suffered from being regarded as ‘an old boat’. Back in 1924 R. Tredennick and Fred Dobby built Pioioi, Dobby’s first 14-footer, which was wrecked during its maiden race. It seems that 8 years later, rather than go back to Fred Dobby for a new boat, Tredennick may have used these 1924 moulds to build Huia. She was often referred to as a Dobby boat ‘built by Tredennick’.
Either way, Huia was launched in November 1932, carried sail number X-7. She did little of note until sold to Bill Hemsley around 1935 who installed Sanders Cup winning skipper Elliot Sinclair on the helm. She was suddenly a very competitive boat.
This caused a problem for Sanders Cup selectors because Canterbury had won the previous 4 contests in the newer Dobby-built boats, Avenger and Irene. The Huia design, if from the Pioioi moulds, would have been over 10 years old, and amateur built at that. Maybe too much risk?
The committee selected a proven winner, the Dobby-built Avenger, put Huia’s Eliot Sinclair on as skipper with one of his crew and two of Avenger’s normal crew.
Avenger won the 1936 Sanders Cup so it was all seen as justifiable in the end.
It is unclear when Bill Hemsley sold Huia, possible as early as 1937. For the 1936/37 Sanders Cup Trials he sailed with Bill Tissiman on Colleen, won selection and was Canterbury Rep that season, coming a close second to the winner Lavina from Wellington.
In the 1937/38 season Huia was sailed by R. Hendry, and in 1938/39 Bill Tissiman was on the helm when she won selection for the 1939 Sanders Cup at Bluff.
It doesn’t look like Bill Hemsley was in the crew of Huia that season. He may have accompanied the group to Bluff but he was not selected as crew.
Just to complicate matters, I have a copy of the Wheatley & Reid’s Sanders Cup book which has, facing page 169, a ‘photo of the crew of Huia’ at Bluff 1939 (the same as your ‘crew of Huia’ photo above).
X-class historian, the late Murray Stark has noted on my copy of the book, ‘Facing page 169 NOT the 1939 crew’ and lists the crew as per the Papers Past articles above.
I suspect that the ‘crew photo’ is that of Colleen from 2 years earlier with Bill Hemsley in the crew.
You may find more details in a trawl of Papers Past.
Whoever owned Huia sold her to W. Pool of Akaroa in 1941 and she was still racing with the Akaroa Sailing Club as late as 1948.
My Canterbury contact (the late Graham Mander who raced many times at the Akaroa Regattas) was fairly sure she had been converted to a runabout in the late 1950’s early 60’s.
It seems unlikely (though not impossible) that she is the X-class Huia since restored and appearing on the earlier Woodys post.
Todays woody is a big ask to identify – the caption is captioned ‘1930’s Whangaroa’ but the vessel is unnamed.Its mooching around a large school of Kahawai so no doubt is trolling a lure.
The photo comes to us from the British Museum via Lew Redwood fb and the photographer is probably J.M. Booth.
Woodys On Tour – Hobart – Australian Wooden Boat Festival – Day 5
Hello Again Woodys Felt slightly guilty this morning when I called home to advise Air NZ had cancelled my Hobart > AKL flight. Next available – 7 days away…. A little bit of online work and I found a flight out of Sydney on Thursday night. So 2 more days in Hobart 🙂
One big plus – I get to see the very cool kiwi singer- Marlon Williams live in concert.
Anyway back to the boats – today is an extension of yesterdays gallery – there is just so many woodys to see.
FYI – WW viewing numbers spike when the weather is bad and people are at home, so yesterdays numbers were approaching an all time high. Today (Tuesday will be another bumper day)
Boat Of The Day – HEATHER BELLE, a 24’6” gaff rigged pilot cutter, built in 1990 by Andrew Wilson to a Lyle Hess design. She is a sister-ship to Larry Pardey’s – SERAFFYN.
And compulsory food shot – lunch = seafood chowder 🙂
LAKE ROTOITI 2023 PARADE OF CLASSIC & WOODEN BOATS – 150+ PHOTOS
As has become my norm for Waitangi holiday weekend early on Saturday morning I pointed the car south and made my way to Lake Rotoiti in the middle of NZ’s North Island.
2023 marked the 26th anniversary of the event and after a horror week of ‘once in a 100 years’ rain storms I had concerns that the parade might be postponed or cancelled. Well woodys as you’ll see from the above photo gallery, my fears were redundant.
The day started overcast with some light drizzle but this passed thru before the parade kicked off at 11am. Numbers were down a little from last year but conditions were perfect on the lake.
Enjoy the gallery above – if you’re craft is featured above and you want a high res copy of the photo, drop me an email at the address below. Apologise if I missed your boat or if the odd photo is a little out of focus – just me in a run-about jiggling the throttle, looking out for other boats and holding the camera 🙂
My pick of the boat I’d most like tied up at my imaginary lake jetty is – ELLEN (#14), 26’ in length, built in 2004 in strip planked cedar from a plug taken off an old abandoned hull found in Kopu. Thought to be a ‘Milkmaid’ design by Bailey & Lowe. Powered by a 29hp diesel. In my eyes just perfect. Photo below
Special thanks again to Dave and Glenys Wilson for the loan of a boat to get me out on the lake.
As always – click on photos to enlarge.
Lastly I never tire of the sound of big V8 (5.7L) water exhausts. Shawn Vennell, the owner of Judy H, was lining me up for a prop shower – a few words of warning as to what my reaction would be, made him change his mind 😉
Todays woody mystery launch is a goody – quite distinctive looking but no name.
The photo is dates is tagged Rangitoto Island, c.1930’s and is from the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections and comes to us via Nathan Herbert. So woodys can we ID her.
07-02-2023 INPUT EX NATHAN HERBERT -The boat is the Rangitoto (II) Designed and built by Couldrey and Reg. Noble; caretaker at Rangitoto. She has had 4 iterations of style in her life-
As pictured
Bridge deck replaced and raised
Whole coamings replaced with more modern sedan style perhaps 1950’s
Sheerline step moved forward
On Saturday I did a down and back in one day trip to Lake Rotoiti (Nth Is.) for the annual Classic and Wooden Boat Parade – forecast was average but the sun made an appearance so managed to take some great photos. Check out WW tomorrow (Tuesday) for 150+ photos. The lake level was so high, just wasn’t Auckland getting a soak last week.
Seems its the time of the year for relaunches, recently we had Haunui back in after a 2+ year rebuild and yesterday it was the turn of Amakura II.
The 52’ Colin Wild designed and built woody was launched in 1936 and excluding a few minor additions has remained very original. I have been aboard several times and was always impressed with her presentation.
Nearly (maybe longer) 3 years ago her owners made the call to haul her out and engaged maestro boat builder / restorer Peter Brookes and his team to intake a complete refit.
Regular followers of the WW site will know that work at the Brookes yard is a bit like the breeding of elephants, whose gestation period is > 2 years but the workmanship is second to none. Supported by the fact that numerous classic owners have returned to the yard with other craft.
Fast forward to yesterday and Amakura II was gently set afloat again at the Hobsonville Marina in West Auckland.
As we have come to expect from anything that comes out of the Peters Waimauku yard she is a work of art – well done to Yvonne and Chris for this amazing restoration.
Below are links to previous WW stories on Amakura II – the first one, shows the extent of the refit.
waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 14+ million views 