Category Archives: 1940’s

Northern Star

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NORTHERN STAR
Its not often we see an Australian designed / built Halvorsen in NZ waters, they are the darlings of Sydney Harbour. Its even rarer to see an ex WW II one.
Northern Star was built in 1944 by Lars Halvorsen & Sons for the Royal Australian Air Force as a air-sea rescue boat.
She measures 38’x10’x4’. Current power is from a 306hp Volvo TAMD61A diesel that gets her along at 12>13 knots.
Her owner has had her for 45 years and she is  now 4sale on tme – a few rot issues to her plywood stern area and fore deck but I’m sure easily fixed. Rather a smart boat for the current price ($20+k)
Anyone know how she came to be in NZ ?
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2020 New Zealand Classic Yacht Regatta Photo Gallery – 100+ photos and videos

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A7 – Thelma / A2 – Rawhiti

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2020 New Zealand Classic Yacht Regatta Photo Gallery – 100+ photos and videos

As I have mentioned in the last two WW stories, the Classic Yacht Association of New Zealand have over the last 3 days been running its annual classic yachting event on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour.
The near perfect conditions on all three days made for happy skippers and a relieved race organisers. I was on the water for two of the three days and had a blast. The gallery above is a mix of Races 1/2/3. If your boat doesn’t make an appearance, I apologize, I was only a passenger, so captured those that were within range.
On the second day, James Dreyer and myself hosted the world acclaimed marine photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz onboard Jame’s motorboat – Laughing Lady, the perfect platform for recording the on the water activities.
For me it was a master class in boat positioning and photography angles, I tried to keep out of Ben’s way and took the above photos / videos when I could without being in Ben’s line of sight.
These days the CYA run the regatta using the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron as Race HQ and entertainment hub, it is the perfect venue and as always the service and staff were 10/10.
 Scroll down for the official regatta results below
As always – click on photos to enlarge.
Race Course Videos Below (Races 2/3)
RANGER

PRIZE

A DIVISION

ARIKI

RAWHITI

CORONA

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 Classic Wooden Launches + Classic Sailing Regatta Photos

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Help Needed Identifying Classic Wooden Launches

The above photo shows three launches (+ a peek on a 4th on the far left) moored in Hobson Bay, Auckland. The photo is from the Edward Double Collection (1930-1940), and comes to us via Maurice Sharp’s fb.
Can we ID the boats?
2020 CYA Classic Yacht Regatta
The annual 3 day sailing regatta is in progress and yesterday I crewed on Jason Prew’s 1904, Logan built gaffer – Wairiki in Race 1.
Now I have always heard dock chat that Wairiki was a wet boat, well folks I can confirm thats an understatement,
I think you would be dryer on a sail board 🙂 Water aside (it was warm) it was a great afternoon with nice people – Jason Prew, Steve Horsley, Micheal O’Dwyer and Joyce Talbot.
In-between waves and spray I managed to snap a few photos – a taste below – more tomorrow. Enjoy.
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Ariki – 1904 Logan

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Windhaven II – Colin Wild

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Wairiki – Onboard foot spa

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Jason Prew & Steve Horsley (L>R)

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Race HQ @ RNZYS

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Mike O’Dywer, Steve Horsley, Alan Houghton

Kotare – 4sale

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KOTARE
 
Over the Xmas / NY (2020) period Barbara and David Cooke were cruising aboard their launch – Trinidad and anchored near the ex work boat Kotare and as you do, introduced themselves to her owner, Laurence Ryan.
The photo gallery is a mix of photos from Barbara Cooke and her owners.  
The story below was sent to Barbara by Laurence and is reproduced unedited.
 
“Kotare was designed and built by John Miller who was a boat builder who worked for Miller and Tunnage in Dunedin. However, I am told he is not one of the Millers, as such. She was built in 1940. Solid oregon plank construction, hull and decks. 15 m OA, 13.8 m on the waterline, 2 m draft, 31 tonnes fully laden. Beam 3.66 m. She was built as a trawler and fished out of Dunedin and possibly Lyttleton. She fished at the Chathams and features in the book “Shipwrecks of New Zealand”. She was in a convoy of some six fishing boats making the trip to the Chathams in extremely bad weather. Two of the vessels were lost with all hands – Kotare made it!
 
She was first converted into a pleasure boat in 1987 by the owner, John Liddell, from whom I bought her. The conversion was undertaken by Careys in Picton. A further variation was completed in 2000 where the final configuration occured.  John Liddell had her in SSM and she spent most of her new life in the Marlborough Sounds doing some fishing charters. John took her to the Chathams, Stewart Island, Fiordland and she circumnavigated NZ twice.
 
She is powered by a Detroit GM 6/71 2 stroke diesel, 225 hp de-rated to 195 hp, Alison 3:1 gearbox.  The whole engine was rebuilt in 2006.
 
I purchased her in September 2016 and we sailed her up the east coast from Mana that Labour weekend, 72 hours non-stop!”
 
Below is a photo of Kotare, before the alterations – trolling off the Otago coast.
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Mystery Launch At Waiheke Island

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Mystery Launch At Waiheke Island

Mooching around Sandy Bay I spotted the above woody – it looks familiar. Not anchored, on a mooring so maybe she is an Island boat.
I’m sure someone smarter than me can ID her.
Woodys Classics Waiheke BBQ & Pizza Lunch – Trip Report
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Another great turn out for Saturdays gathering at Little Oneroa – I counted 16 woodys in the bay, rowing past a couple I may have detected a whiff of PVC but they were lookers and all had a healthy mix of timber and bronze. Attending boats tagged in the story.
Most people decided to order lunch from the wood-fired pizza caravan and were not disappointed – very yum.
The timing seemed to work for everyone – several boat travelled long distances to participate and 1/2 the fleet were just there for the day. Also dog friendly venues are appreciated – again 1/2 the boats had pooches aboard. Perfect weather and very low numbers of what the islanders call ‘day trippers’.
As proof that all you need to be welcomed at a Woody Classics event, is a passion for wooden boats – my boat of the day was Allan and Pam Hooper’s – Katherine. Her dinghy (built by Allan) gets her a 10/10 tick in my book.   You can read more about Katherine here https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/02/03/katherine/
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Katherine

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Little Oneroa – Waiheke Island

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I spotted Allan’s dinghy ashore on Sunday morning  at Oneroa – now Allan is a perfectionist, so his score drops to 9.9/10 – he left the stickers on the oars 🙂
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2020 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade – 150+ photos

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THE PARADE

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THE PICNIC

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2020 LAKE ROTOITI CLASSIC & WOODEN BOAT PARADE – 150+ Photos

From my eyes, this years parade was the best I have been to – brilliant on-the-water marshalling in terms of herding the ducklings into the right order and the skippers kept the boats moving thru at the right speed + an entertaining and informative commentary from ex commodore Grant Cossey. As always the event would grind to a halt without the services of Rachel Jamieson, to call her the club secretary would be a joke, everyone one involved with the parade that excels in their individual roles does so because of Rachel – well done again.
For most of the parade the sun and the clouds behaved, so only a few ‘average’ photos.
Several new boats and a lot had been given some TLC over winter.
Enjoy the gallery of photos from the day, it was a cracker and made the 7 hours of driving yesterday worth while.
As always, if you like on a photo, click on it and it will enlarge, if you are a boat owner and would like a high res copy of your boat photo, just drop me an email and I’ll send it to you.   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Below are the links that allows you to view a summary of the boats participating in this years parade – check out the number card displayed on the boat and look it up for details 😉

 

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MYSTERY WHITIANGA LAUNCH

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MYSTERY WHITIANGA LAUNCH

Have not had a mystery / ID the boat story in a while. Photo taken Whitianga – late 1940’s > early 1950’s.
First woody to correctly name the boat – wins a waitematawoodys cap. Entries via email only to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
As you read this I’ll be at the Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade – lots of cool photos on Monday.
WW Caps copy
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Woody Waitangi Day Picnic – Photos

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Scott Colville

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My Girl & Pacific

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Monterey

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Centaurus

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Mana

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Ann Michelle

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Trinidad

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Arohanui

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Eileen Patricia

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Sybil Frances

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Tusk

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Shango (Ani)

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Awatere

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Sea Fever

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Ngaio

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Silvery Main

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Tuna

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Wirihana

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Very smart new mast on Pacific 🙂

WOODY CLASSICS WAITANGI DAY PICNIC  PHOTOS

Another great Woody Classics Woody event yesterday, we had 20+ classic woodys anchored  in Wakalabubu Bay, Motutapu Island. Most came ashore for the picnic and while the camera stayed in the bag, I can report that these casual events are a winner, so nice to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Youngest age would have been around 6/7 years and the oldest was 92 !
If I missed getting a photo of your woody, I apologise, but with people coming and going all afternoon I suspect someone missed out.
 
The breeze picked up later in the day and so most had the old wind against the tide coming home – but it was worth it.
Big thanks to everyone the rocked up – see you all at our next event – details soon 😉
Off to Lake Rotoiti (Nth Island) on Saturday  for the Classic & Wooden Boat Parade – Monday’s WW story should be a goody 🙂
 
Oops nearly forgot anyone know the launch below, we crossed paths of Rangitoto – terrible photo, grab the phone and unfortunately had it set on some weird setting. Name is something like Tautai ??
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Riwaka Woodys

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RIWAKA WOODYS
 
My woody spotter in the Nelson area, John Burland, recently sent in the above photos from the Riwaka Inlet.
The top photo is of the 36’ Varlene, built by Supreme Craft c.1940’s. She has made several appearance on WW and I last saw her in Torrent Bay, Abel Tasman National Park in early March 2019 (photo below)
 
Can anyone ID the very smart launch alongside her in the 3rd photo?
 
The work-boat it Tina, built in Wellinton to service the Flying Boats, but never did. Spent a chunk of her life pushing logs around the Sounds. Has called Riwaka home for the last 8 years.
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Auckland Anniversary Day – Classic Launch Race – 26 Wooden Boat Photos

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RUNNER UP – STERLING
THIRD PLACE – FANCY FREE
WINNER – NGAIO

Auckland Anniversary Day – Classic Launch Race

Over the long weekend we had a smorgasbord of boating events to chose from, one being a ‘classic’ launch race on the Monday, as part of the 2020 Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta. The format is a handicapped race around a set inner harbour course, effectively a drag race. Handicapping for these races is a challenge, there are so many variables that come into play.
Reviewing the results, the handicapping appears to have done a good job.
The day was near perfect and a delayed start meant that I was able to take the above photos. I was heading back for Mahurangi and was not planning to be at the event.
As you would expect, there were numerous mechanical problems and a few DNF’s.
Photos a little ‘hairy’ – long lens.
Results:
1st:   Ngaio
2nd: Sterling
3rd:  Fancy Free
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WINNER – NGAIO

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RUNNER UP – STERLING

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THIRD PLACE – FANCY FREE

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