Category Archives: 1930’s

Rangi – Sailing Sunday

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RANGI -Sailing Sunday

In the top photo we see the B Class yacht – Rangi on the slipway at the W.G Lowe shipyard in Auckland, just prior to the start of the first Trans-Tasman Yacht Race in 1931, I believe there was only 3 yachts entered – Oimara (Australia), Teddy (Norway) and Rangi (NZ) – Teddy won.

In the second photo we see her being towed to the start line, and in the bottom photo, on the left is Alan Leonard, owner of Rangi, alongside Alan, steering the yacht is Master Lowe, the grandson of the builder of Rangi. The occasion is welcoming Rangi back into Auckland after the return voyage from Sydney. 

The race was held again in 1934 with only two boats entered – Te Rapunga (Germany) and the legendary Ngataki, with Johnny Wray at the helm – won by Te Rapunga. 

The photos comes to us from the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection.

UPDATE: John Newsham has advised that Rangi was originally named ‘Schopolo’ and was built as a ‘schnapper’ boat for the inshore fishing trade – see photos below (ex Little Ships) . She was driven ashore at Cascade Bay, Norfolk Island when the crew was ashore after a wind change (1951)

UPDATE: Photo below, ex John Newsham, of Ngataki and te Raupunga at the state of the 1934 race. Ngataki (photo ex Century of sail) was sailed to Tahiti in the 1930s – John’s father’s cousin – Nip Colebrook was in the crew. John often used to see Wray cruising around Waiheke in his pre-war launch. He would always gave him a big wave  – mid 1960s.  

Thames Traditional Boat Festival – 2021

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Thames Traditional Boat Festival – 2021

The Thames Traditional Boat Festival is one of the woody events on my bucket list and today thanks to Olaf Wiig we get to vicariously check out last weekends event. 

Olaf commented that as long as it is made of wood or riveted steel it is welcome at the festival. No 1950 cut off here 🙂

Olaf’s highlight was – Islanda, see spec sheet on her below.
Enjoy the varnish 🙂

Classic Wooden Boats on the Broads

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THE PROJECT

Classic Wooden Boats on the Broads

Mooching around the wooden boat on-line world I recently came a across a small group of woodys in the UK that host a fb group titled ‘Classic Wooden Boats on the Broads’. Its a private group so you have to request membership.They are very active posters and have great content.

A recent story by member Nick Rainbird feature the boat yard – Abbey Boat Builders and restored (rebuilt) 1932 Broads cabin cruiser – Queen of Light. She was designed and built by Herbert Woods of Potter Heigham, Norfolk, in answer to, back then, the growing demand for luxury inland waterway hire craft. 

The team at Abbey Boat Builders is led by traditional boatbuilder Abbey Moyneux (photo below) – read more about Abbey here  http://abbeyboatbuilder.co.uk
Wonderfully to see these craft being given a second life and even better that Queen of Light will be going into charter on the Broads.

And surprize surprize no CYA Tui’s billboard today – hopefully some good news tomorrow and maybe an email later today 😉

Woodys Clevedon River Overnight BBQ Cruise – 35+ photos & video’s

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Meloa’s 60th Birthday

Photos below ex MV Buccaneer (Michelle Bostock & Tim Ord

Woodys Clevedon River Overnight BBQ Cruise

The weekend forecast for the woodys classic cruise up the Wairoa River to the Clevedon Cruising Club was a mixed bag, but as almost always is the case with woody events, it all came good and other a few light showers the 15 launches and one yacht had a ball. We were meet by CCC member Barrie Abel in his classic Sea Craft run-about who piloted the fleet up the river, only one oops that I know of, they were following Raindance and clipped a maker pole, but blamed me as I was taking photos and ‘diverting’ a tad.

Big thanks to all the CCC members that turn out to lend a hand with the berthing, no easy task with a mix of craft and ’skills’ 😉

The afternoon was spent catching up with old and new friends via a spot of boat hopping, followed by a BBQ dinner at our hosts club house.The chef, Bazza was the best, how he remembers which food on the BBQ belongs to who and how you want it cooked is beyond me. A few of us watched the All Black v Australia rugby test (on an iPhone) so the AB’s big win capped of a great night.

Sunday dawned with a perfect day, but the sun might have been a little too bright for one of two of the revellers but conditions were agreeable for the trip home.

Again many thanks to the CCC members for the hospitality and friendship extended to us – we will be back.
(Make sure you view the videos, some great dockside footage + thank you those that emailed in photos from the weekend – and as always click on photos to enlarge)

READ THE BACK STORY HERE https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/08/04/why-you-should-hold-off-paying-your-classic-yacht-association-subscription/

Pot of Gold

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POT OF GOLD

Uncovered today a treasure trove of b/w photos of Waitemata classic woodys. Happy as a dog with two tails (I do learn Murray D) .They will take a while to ID, less than 1/3 are tagged.

Today’s photo is of Royal Falcon the 1934 Cox & Fimer built launch. These days owned by Collette & Steve Pople and just relaunch after an extensive refit – see below links for details.The back of the photo has the RF name, a 4sale price of £3150, and her specs – 38’ x 10’6” x 3′
Lots of history and photos here https://waitematawoodys.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=33345&action=edit&calypsoify=1
Almost ready for relaunch https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/05/31/royal-falcon-restoration-2021-update/

for sale £3150
July 2021
READ MORE https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/08/04/why-you-should-hold-off-paying-your-classic-yacht-association-subscription/

Australian Wooden Boat Festival – Boat Folk Video Series

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Australian Wooden Boat Festival – Folk Boat Video Series


The good folks behind the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart have like a lot of people and events been cruelly affected by CV19 but unlike a lot that just rolled over – AWBF has been hosted some innovative channels to keep their festival top of mind with woodys around the world. One of the gigs is tagged – Boat Folk, a video series that profiles the characters and wooden boats the festival attracts. Behind each of these unique vessels is a unique person (or group of people) with a wealth of knowledge, fascinating stories, and a novel perspective on life.

Number 2 in the Boat Folks series features Ben Marris, owner of Saona , Ben Marris was Chair of the AWBF for many years. Saona was the last boat built by Charles Lucas in his yard in 1936. Ben and wife Jane purchased Saona in 1993 and have since sailed her in the 1998 Tall Ships race from Sydney to Hobart, circumnavigated Tasmania. As members of the Kettering Yacht Club, the couple now cruise the waters surrounding Bruny Island on her and enjoy Wednesday night races with family. Saona is one of a small number of wooden boats that have attended every festival since its inception in 1994. 

Movarie

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MOVARIE
Movarie the 1938, W & G Lowe built bridge decker has just popped up on tme, she is a very well built woody with an amazing pedigree.

One of the better woodys around – Russel Ward, once owned her – RW has a good eye and nose for great boats – BUT, she will sit on tme for a long time, because the seller hasn’t posted any photos and the only details are as below.

Worth checking out, a buyer could get a bargain with the current listing details. Previous WW story here (lots of photos & chat) https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/05/12/movarie/

Taioma SOS

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TAIOMA SOS

Over the last 48 hours I have had a lot of calls from woodys that spotted the 30’ Lidgard built yacht – Taioma on trademe as an abandoned vessel. Current bid is $10.50 and the reserve has been meet. The auction closes on July 19th. You are bidding on the hull only, and the motor is unknown condition. But the wooden mast and boom + a mainsail have been located and will go with the boat, if wanted (stored in a different location).

Woodys, someone will ’steal’ this boat and as a last resort that hatch has to be worth what ever the purchase price the boat ends up at. I do not do this often – but here is the tme link

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/boats-marine/yachts/keeler/listing/3164872276?bof=GUPg30qb

Bill Brown commented to me that Taioma was restored in the 1990’s by Gary Underwood and pointed me in the direction of Gary’s blog, details and photos below:

“Taioma is a 1936 Fred Lidgard kauri sloop of 28 ft. We bought her for  $5000 in 1995 and did a 60 day full refit at the ‘Bolthole’ in Auckland. She was a great live-aboard for a year alongside our boat shed in Whangarei while we were building ‘BOOTSTRAP’. Note the full bulkhead at the mast which gives an end to the saloon and provides support for the table, which lowers to give us a full double bunk athwartships. Its like a kind of ‘dresser’. The f’csle has a portapotti and bosubs store, access thru the fore hatch. Also stiffens the boat up as she had a big rig.”

Royal Falcon Re-launched

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ROYAL FALCON RE-LAUNCHED 
We have followed the restoration / refit of Collette & Steve Pople’s 1934 Cox & Fimer built woody – Royal Falcon on WW and been blown away with the quality of the workmanship happening in the Leader Boatbuilders shed.

Today thanks to Mark McLaughlin taking his launch Mapuna for a run on Sunday we get to she Royal Falcon afloat again. Boat shed photos here https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/05/31/royal-falcon-restoration-2021-update/
We understand all that is required is the final interior finishing, which we will update you on shortly.

LADY JANET / POCO LENTO NEEDS A NEW HOME – All Offers Considered

A quick heads up, Poco Lento (Lady Janet) has appeared on WW several times and is currently for sale, the vendors are retiring from boating and moving into a retirement village, so woodys as they say in the real estate game – make an offer, you may be surprised at the prize…………. See more here    https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/08/07/poco-lento-lady-janet/
Contact via waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Woodys Riverhead Tavern – Winter Cruise 

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Te Hauraki
Dancer
Ngarimu
My Girl

Woodys Riverhead Tavern – Winter Cruise 
Yesterday was one of those days where the weather forecasters got it wrong -big time. Took the dog for an early morning waterfront walk between the showers and the ferries on the harbour were sounding their fog horns – fast forward 2 hours and the suns out, water glassy flat and we are going boating. Quick side trip to collect our quests – Margo & Jamie (MV Lady Crossley) from Westhaven and we are off.

A great turn out for mid-winter, saw 60+ woodys gathering at the historic waterside Riverhead Tavern for lunch – special thanks to those that came by car and helped with berthing the boats at the wharf. As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉

Nice to meet some new faces and if there was an award for most travelled attendee, woody Bruce Rowe on board – Ngarimu would be the winner. Bruce and his ‘decky’ mate – travelled from Thames to attend.  The boys left Thames on Friday, stayed at bottom end of Waiheke, then off Stanly Point / Bayswater on Saturday night and  will be heading home today. Talking to Bruce,  Saturday night sounded heaven – tucked up in their warm bunks, rain on the cabin top, listening to the Auckland Blues rugby game, then the NZ v India cricket test – not a lot of sleep was had 🙂

We were also graced with the company of John and Diana Olsen on their steam boat – Dancer, The Olsen’s towed Dancer from Cambridge and launched her at the old Salthouse yard to make the trip up the creek.

Check out the Woodys Classic Weekends Event Calendar at the link below, for upcoming outings – our next one is an overnight BBQ cruise up the Clevedon River on the weekend of 14 > 15th August – a heads up – numbers will be restricted due to berthing / anchoring limits -so RSVP early.

https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/06/15/woodys-classic-boating-calendar/


The poster below greeted us at the door to the tavern – has a nice ring to it………….  maybe someone is sending me a message 🙂