Mystery Whangaroa Launch 1930’s
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.
Are we able to put a name to the launch?
REMEMBER – WOODY STILLWATER DOCKSIDE PICNIC TOMORROW
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 😉
LAUNCH AT RANGITOTO – Rangitoto II
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-
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.
AMAKURA II RELAUNCHED
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.
Nov 2020. https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/11/02/wooden-boat-yard-visit-50-photos/
May 2018 https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/05/05/amakura-ii-in-the-old-days/
April 2017 https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/04/01/amakura-ii-a-great-story/
Ethel Big Game Fishing
The passage of life sometimes is a tad scary – recently I have been doing several stories based around Whangaroa Harbour in the Far North and yesterday the phone rings and one of the last standing relatives has passed on – and where is the funeral – Whangaroa, so tomorrow the car will be pointing north. These events are never good but in her mid 90’s, it will be a celebration of life.
Anyway moving on to todays story – thanks to a Lew Redwood fb post we get to see a c.1931 photo gallery of the launch – Ethel in / around Whangaroa Harbour, in her big game fishing heyday. Regular WW readers will known my personal views on this heinous practice – one photo is tagged ‘Mako shark being killed with a spade’. Ok its not a spade, but seriously how barbaric is that.
(Photos ex The British Museum collection)
Get a Wee Bit Excited About The Upcoming Mahurangi Regatta – next weekend – Jan 28th.
Valhalla At Whangaroa 1932
In the above March 1932 photo we see the launch Valhalla alongside the wharf at the Whangaroa Swordfish and Big Gamefish Club in Northland.
Two very impressive Mako sharks are being weighed in – must have been a hell of a battle to land that pair in a boat the size of Valhalla 🙂
I’m a bit light on intel on Valhalla – can we learn more on her?
(Photo ex Lew Redwood fb)
INPUT ex Greg Philpott – below press clippings. I wonder if she survived the fire i.e. rebuilt.
WEDNESDAY WOODY QUIZ – Win WW t-shirt + a Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Calendar
⎈ Name the boat yard and location (approx) in the photo below – and your are in the draw for a WW t-shirt + LRC&WB calendar. ENTRY ONLY VIA EMAIL TO THE ADDRESS BELOW (entries close 6pm 18-01-2023
waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Weigh In Time At Whangaroa
Todays photo, dated 1938 by Tudor Collins ex the Auckland Museum via Glen Ngapuhi and Len Redwood fb shows several launch off the wharf at the Whangaroa Swordfish & Big GameFish Club.
Can we attempt to name the boats L>R? My contributions – I think of the two dark hulled craft, stern in, the one on the right (middle) is Ethel.
INPUT EX NATHAN HERBERT – These game fishers are the Marlin, the Rosemary and the Wanderer II
Woody On Wheels
Last year on fb John Bertenshaw posted the photo below of a 1963 woody MGB , photo taken at the 60th anniversary of the MGB model.
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
EASTER 2022
DECEMBER 2022 – Expensive ‘Undercoat’
DECEMBER 2022 – Ready To Launch
DIVINE INTERVENTION
Sometimes its faith based, sometimes its via loved ones and other times its from friends – what ever activated the aha moment, let’s just be grateful it happened.
The 1930, LC Coulthard built launch Lucinda was recently hauled out at the Slipway Milford for some annual TLC, which included a new paint colour for the coamings. I was asked by the owner last week for my view of the colour – I was honest and polite and relied
1. It’s your boat, paint it what ever colour you want
2. Its only paint, change it next time if you go off it
3. Are you prepared to be that boat e.g. when someone asks another boatie where in the bay they are moored , the answer will always be ‘ to the left of that red boat and 2 back’.
Well there was an intervention and we have another colour scheme – each to their own opinion but it gets my tick 😉
Well done Jason D for making the decision to order more paint 🙂
The ports even got some TLC.
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