CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – ARIKI
Todays classic wooden boating photo comes to us from John Dawson and shows the launch – ARIKI. At the time of the photo (1946) the launch was located in Napier. At the time of the photo the launch was owned by B. R. Menzies.
And that woodys is all we know.
Interested in learning more about the craft.
AND ONE FOR THE WTF FILE
A recent arrival on tme. I’m sure she will find a home, someone, somewhere must need a floating porte-loo. (thanks Ian McDonald for the photo)
CLASSIC SOUTHERN WOODEN LAUNCH – MANDALAY
Yesterdays deluge of emails to the WW inbox contained a gem – todays top photo (2013) and a note from Janet & Bob Heart the owners of the 36’, 1940 built classic launch MANDALAY. Over the years MANDALAY has appeared on WW – first in Sept 2016 as a mystery launch seen at anchor in Jacobs Bay in Pelorus Sound, (second photo above).
Next appearance was in May 2023 when Dean Wright was mooching around Havelock Marina (third photo above). This story prompted WW reader Phil Vining to recall the vessels broker listing from c.1980’s when she was 4sale – see below.
Janet has commented that MANDALAY was built in Auckland by Lanes in 1940, this has been questioned on WW previously because she certainly has the look (and paint scheme) of Lanes Picton.
Janet has kindly written a brief review of the craft.
“We ( Bob and Janet Hart ) have owned Mandalay for 39 years since 1987. She’s been based in Havelock Marina and has been a regular sight around Pelorus Sound over these years. Her original design has been faithfully maintained. She’s been much loved and cared for.
She has a cockpit with seats. With full headroom, there’s a saloon with table and seating for captain and passenger facing forward. A separate bunkroom sleeps 4 people and a separate bathroom has the rope and chain locker.
With a Ford 75Hp engine, Mandalay uses approx. 1 gallon of diesel an hour.”
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – MAKURA – A Peek Down Below
The classic wooden bridge-decker MAKURA was designed and built in 1949 by Collings & Bell, and is approx. 40’ in length.
Forwar motion is from a 115hp 6 cyl. Ford diesel engine.
Back in January 2025 we shared some photos of MAKURA from her past – lots of intel in that story on her ownership and re-powers over the years.
Link below https://waitematawoodys.com/2025/01/18/classic-wooden-launch-makura/
The b/w photo above is from Sea Spray magazine July 1951 edition and shows her as built.
IF YOU THOUGHT CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCHES WERE LOW PRICED – Check out OMICRON
The 20’ classic sloop OMICRON was built in 1945 to a Harrison Butler design at the Percy Vos yard in Auckland. She made a cameo appearance on WW back in November 2019.
Full length 1” kauri planking, kauri deck and teak cabin and cockpit coamings + all the proper metals in the bolts and rivets.
As testament to her build and easy of sailing this 20’ has even been offshore.
And the added bonus is a purpose built road trailer.
Her tme listing mentions she needs some TLC so its safe to assume todays photos are not recent.
OMICRON is one of those classics that look perfect from any angle.
At sub $30k someone needs to buy this woody, its so much boat and drop did gorgeous 🙂
RESTORATION OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN EX WORKBOAT – CLYDE GS 28
WW has been contacted by Mark McLaughlin regarding the 25’ Roger Carey built (1949) ex workboat – CLYDE GS28. Mark’s notes below –
“I have been following the Facebook page of Doug Johnson who is a traditional boatbuilder in Picton documenting his restoration of the lovely little Roger Carey 25ft fishing boat “Clyde”. Originally built in 1949, Doug has rescued Clyde and spent the last three and a half years on a thorough restoration which is nearing completion with launching planned for Labour Weekend. Clyde features in the book “By Boats We Live” by Roger’s daughter, Joan Clark, which recorded all of her father’s designs & builds and designs built by others. The watercolour image is by Joan from her book and shows Clyde’s original working boat configuration”
Mark also sent in the selection of photos above from Doug’s Facebook page, and commented that there are many more photos and videos of the restoration there, link below https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084924609149 Mark tracked down a copy of the story on CLYDE in the “By Boats We Live” book from his mother down in Marlborough. Photos below.
A ROAD TRIP TO WARKWORTH + CEMENT WORKS BOAT YARD
I had a good reason last week to head north and so took the chance to mooch around the woodys berthed or hauled out in the upper reaches of the Mahurangi / Warkworth River.
The excuse for the trip was to delivery a model of the coastal cruiser VANESSA to the vessel before she heads south to her new Wellinton owner.
VANESSA was out for a serious service before the delivery crew headed away down south.
Sad to see such a salty looking woody leaving our area but we tend to win more than we lose eg more coming north ✔️
In varying stages of repair were – NEPTUNE, LADY JANE AND WAIONE. The yard was very busy but I started to itch as I got close to most of the other craft hauled out.
I also popped down to the river and spotted – RIPPLE,JANE GIFFORD, ANAM CARA (L33), and NOW .
150 YEARS OF NZ SHIPBUILDING – Reference Guide
Released in 2012 as a compact disc (CD), by Miles Hughes and covering the period 1795 > 1945, this booklet is of epic proportions – topping out at 837 pages. For easy of reading in todays digital world the ‘book’ is below in PDF format.
The publication contains more than 1,200 NZ shipbuilders, shipwrights and boatbuilders and includes their biographies and the names, specs and first owners of over 5,600 craft.
HEADS UP: WW can not vouch for the accuracy of the content and when reviewing the list of contributors , several stood out as ‘being fond of interviewing their typewriter’ i.e. they make up what they either do not know or are unsure of. So woodys best treat it as a guide 😉
WW would be interested in feed back on this guide – maybe chose a designer/builder well known to you and review the content.
As an example below is the listing on my boat RAINDANCE, some of the content is correct and some unknown or speculation that I have been told over the last 18 years of ownership, but it is very close her provenance.
So the question of the day – is this an amazing reference tool or to use that old school english saying ‘A Load Of Pants’ ?
UPDATE – Still available in print version at Boat Books in Westhaven, Auckland.
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH WYNONA – RESTORATION UPDATE WANTED
The classic wooden launch WYNONA made a brief appearance on WW back in Nov 2023, at the time we learnt from Harold Kidd that WYNONA was built in 1948 by Sam Ford for the Rotorua Lake Service Ltd., who used her for tourist trips to Mokoia Island in the middle of Lake Rotorua.
Later a comment was made on WW that WYNONA was being restored at Tarakohe Marina, in Golden Bay – unfortunately we learnt no more on the vessel, so today is a shout out to see if we can get an update.
The photo above came to us from Sharron French who uncovered the photo when reviewing her fathers photo album.
EASTER ON THE WATER – Classic Wooden Boat Cruising
Just back from three days on RD , Friday was one out of the box, simply stunning. Saturday was another goody and Sunday a tad overcast but still warm. Very happy with the number of classic woodys at Rakino Island over the weekend. I managed to catch up with a lot of the skippers, general consensus was ‘grabbing a few days afloat before winter kicks in’.
The white bridge-decker above was a mystery to me, short 4 letter name – Nathan what say you?
On Saturday I caught up with Bill Brown whose family (Corrine & James Brown) owned my launch in the late 1960’s. Back then she was named LADY GAY. Bill works off shore but keeps a very smart woody yacht (SusanJane) at Westhaven for when back in NZ.
We meet a few years ago via a mutual friend and the WW site, the penny dropped re the boat link and Bill sent me a great album of b/w photos from back in the late 1960’s.
I spend a lot of time matching other people and boats from the past so it was extra special to have an ‘own goal’.
One of Bill’s photos below of LADY GAY (RAINDANCE). For those interested more on RD’s past here https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/04/23/lady-gay/
22ft MULLET BOAT – Sailing Sunday
Todays we get to view a design interruption for the 22’ Mullet Boat, as designed by R. T. Hartley.
The design drawings appeared in Sea Spray magazine – Vol 2, No 2, January 1st, 1947.
I’m probably showing my ignorance of things without an engine – but did the design make it off the drawing board?
I’m sure Jason Prew with embarrass me 🙂
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