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
Todays trawler style woody is the 42’ 1955 ex workboat – Santa Marie, built in Nelson by Curnow and Wilton for the ‘Italians’, fishing hapuka and crays in Cook Strait. She subsequently worked various roles around much of the rest of the country. Powered by a Gardner 127hp engine she was converted to leisure use around 20 years ago.
I was aboard a couple of years ago in Kerikeri and she truely is a magnificent craft. One could easily spend extended periods aboard.
Thanks Ian McDonald for the heads up on this woody.
INPUT ex Brian Kidson – Santa Maria was launched 7th Sept 1949, Curnow and Wilton’s, Nelson. Built for Mr Basile of Island Bay, Wellington for fishing around Cook Strait.
Full details on this Saturdays woodys picnic at Stillwater have been emailed out – if you didn’t get the email let me know and I’ll add you to the mailing list. (email link below)
Woodys On Tour – Hobart – Australian Wooden Boat Festival – 50’ HALVORSEN MOTOR LAUNCH
Hello Woodys
While the Australian Wooden Boat Festival is done and dusted the woody camera is loaded with photos – today we feature the 1947 built, 50’ Halvorsen motor launch – Minocqua. Designed and built by famous Australian boat builder Lars Halvorsen, she was one of seven built in the late 1940’s. If my memory is working, the Australian Americas Cup legend – Ian Murray owns one (possibly this one).
76 years later she is still a very imposing vessel and stands out anywhere.
Something for the petrol heads – check out the video below of a 1945 Tasman Marine engine, two stroke, 3hp, single cylinder. Built by the Tasman Engineering Company.
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 – the 32’ Belfast was built by Jack Guard in 1940 and has spent time in survey, based on her presentation that would have to have been a while ago. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up.
The owners are pushing a sale with the suggestion that she be hauled out and re-purposed as a ’tiny home’.
WoW – double WoW – Luckily WW has spies everywhere – one of the team was walking the docks yesterday and spotted the 1948 Colin Wild built Haunui afloat in one of Auckland’s marinas.
WW has been covering the rebuild / restoration of the woody for several years, links below, click on the headline of each panel to see the full story.
Seems the owner chose to do a sneaky splash, I’m told there is still work to be finished and system testing etc – but woodys I assure you there will be more photos soon 😉
Sorry for low res images – spy needs to upgrade their tools 🙂
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
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