In the photos above we see Movarie in the 1953 welcome fleet for SS Gothic. To her left in the 2nd photo are two other launches, the closest I would pick to be Nor’West the Lane (Panmure) built c.1948>50. You can see/read more on Movarie here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/05/12/movarie/
The one on the hard left, is a mystery me – anyone able to ID her?
We do not score many wins in the game of ’spot the block of flats’ game but Kerin Owen deserves recognition – last week I received an email from Kerin and the subject line read “No Chainsaw Was Used”, opening it up I found before and after photos of Kerin’s Jorgenson built launch – Sharnda Leigh, they were taken during a recent haul out at Manganui. Now with a 1988 build date, she almost fits into the ’ spirit of tradion’ category, helped along by being triple skin diagonal planked. She is powered by a 135hp Ford Dover.
Well woodys – all I’ll say is – what a difference a haircut makes 🙂
Woody Classics Weekend BBQ Cruise to Clevedon Cruising Club – 60+ photos
Morning woodys, as you will see from the above photo gallery the weekend woodys cruise up the Wairau River to the Clevedon Cruising Club was a great trip – had the 3 F’s that always make for good times – Fun, Friendship & Fraternity.
To hit the right tide window it was a very early start for most i.e. 6am at the marina – the smart ones, left Friday night.
We assembled at the river mouth around 9.30am and were met / piloted up the river by Barrie Abel, and woodys I have to say – just as well Barrie volunteered, because if you believed Navionics at times we were traveling over dry land, when in fact we had 3m of water under us. So a big thank you Barrie. Barry owns the 1912 woody – Matira, I will do a WW story on her on Wednesday.
Several boats missed the rendezvous but still safely made their way up the river.
After arriving at the clubs jetty late morning, the group split up – some went walking, some snoozed, and the rest hopped in the dinghies and ventured to the upper reaches of the river. We got very close to the Clevedon township before the fuel starting running out. Luckily a few had spare fuel so it was passed around like a good wine and everyone took a slip. I was aboard Dave Gidden’s dinghy and we had about 1cm in the tank when we switched off. Spotted a few interesting woodys along the way – Nathan Herbert and I would love to hear more about the launch – Liberty (tagged below).
Some wowser decided that 5pm would be drinks time, so a few of us had to retire to Dave Giddens floating man bach – Allergy for a cup of tea…..
The evening centred around a BBQ at the CCC, which is a fantastic set up and the members hospitality was first rate.
As a thank you for hosting us, we presented a donation to the club and rewarded Barrie Adel for his services with a bottle of Appletons finest Jamaican Estate golden rum. Club Commodore – Bruce Robson also now sports a WW T-Shirt 🙂
In return we have a CCC burgee for our virtual clubhouse.
On a personal note I would like to thank all the woody boat owners for ‘opening’ your boats up for the club members to inspect thru-out the day. Good chat was had.
We must have behaved ourselves, as we have been invited back – so woodys, more details to follow, but we will be repeating the cruise early 2020 e.g. April.
🙂 a visit to the GENTS was amusing – the uninitiated were in for a foot wash – the system was good old kiwi DIY at its finest 🙂 I can report that the LADIES was Regent Hotel standard.
Photos: myself and Nathan Herbert
Now I’ll bore some of you with the below video of my Raindance, taken by Nathan Herbert aboard Jas Prew’s launch – My Girl. I think it’s the only time Jason has ever let me pass him 🙂
Todays woody speedboat was built by Richard Hall’s father and his best mate John Primrose in the late 1940’s. The zoom zoom came from a 1938 Cadillac V8.
The caption on the back of the photos says 35 knots – very impressive – refer the photo below for more more details.
Richard commented that John Primrose had a boatbuilding business in Gisborne, undertaking a lot of Govt. contract work.
Can anyone tell us the name of the speedboat and what became of her?
Woody Ian Gavin was travelling with family in July and included the Thames Traditional Boat Festival (Henley-on-Thames) in the itinerary.
Its an event on my bucket list, so I was a little envious when Ian handed me a USB stick with 100+ photos of the event. Special thanks to Ian for sharing.
Included in the Festival was a special Dunkirk Little Ships section. As you would expect it was a very civilised affair with the boats moored up to the river bank and they took turns at parading up and down the river.
The large rowing barge is an ex/retired Royal barge that has been recently restored.
Included on the day were a selection of old motorbikes and cars, including a few amphibious one.
The ex work boat (Waitemata Fisheries) Waipawa has made a brief appearance on WW back in 2016 (WW link below) Now thanks to Ian McDonald’s road trip in the Far North we get to have a look down below.
The photos above show her on the hard at Opua, in mid October. The 50’ Waipawa was built by Percy Vos and her owner Pete McIntyre, understands she was launched in 1940).
She gets around, having recently been up to Fiji & Tonga, And to Fiordland / Stewart Island.
Last month I did a quick trip to Thames and called into the ‘marina’. The tide was out in the estuary so you get to see the marina looking it finest.
Lots of old girls there, resting up, contemplating life.
If you’re down that way The Wharf bar and Thames Wholesale Fisheries shop are ace. Same owners, so they deliver your newspaper wrapped dinner to the bar – we like that. Worth a visit just for a cold one & the snapper & chips.
Off to check out another river today – the Wairau River, Clevedon – David Cooke and myself are doing a recky for the upcoming Woody Classics Weekend BBQ cruise (Nov 16>17th). Via car 🙂
The 20′ Andiamo was originally known as the ‘Yellow Boat’ on Lake Rotoiti near Rotorua. She was built by a farmer from Gisborne in 1949 and was reputedly the fastest boat on Rotoiti back then.
She came to her current owners 10 years ago, who undertook a 4 year restoration project to bring her back to her former glory. The work included partial hull replacement, structural framework enhancement and strengthening using marine grade ply, kauri and stainless steel fixings. All timber used was locally milled kauri in keeping with the original construction, and came from a single tree thus the beautiful consistency in the decking – handcrafted piece by piece using kauri with a kahikitea accent and mahogany surround.
The original Dodge 6 was replaced with a 275ci alloy V8 producing 280hp, running through a Borg Warner gearbox to the bespoke brass prop. The engine is computer controlled, inter-cooled and muffled, providing amazingly smooth, quiet and reliable power.
Andiamo is an iconic piece of New Zealand maritime history that has been preserved and is now offered for sale. Her owners want her to go on to her next adventure with a new family – and are selling well below value. to make that happen.
Andiamo will be available for viewing at Lake Tarawera over Labour Weekend.
All week, the weather gods have been saying that Sunday was going to be the best day for boating – well folks that it was 🙂
Barbara Cooke summed it up perfectly in an email – “Great day today team! Great to see people enjoying the good weather, relaxing and lolling about on picnic rugs, some with pooches. Interesting bikies! Nice boats too! “
Today’s story is just really a photo gallery of the day – the boats and bikes, the venue and the people + a few woodys I spotted along the way.
A hell of a lot of work goes into organising these events – and I would like to acknowledge the team that bring it all together, without their help and input there would be no Woody Classics Weekend events. Barbara & David Cooke, Sue & Mark Edmonds, Nathan Herbert, Jason Prew and lastly yours truely.
Lots of chat about the next event in November – just working thru the logistics, more details ASAP.
The day was made extra special by the inclusion of a display of classic motorcycles ( see below) and their owners were big admirers of our classic woodys.
Enjoy and as always, click on photos to enlarge – alan houghton
Photo below taken when Happy Hours was collected ready to transport to Alan Craig’s shed.
HAPPY HOURS V13
I have been contacted by Alan Craig from Craig Marine looking for he next owner of the18’ mullet boat – Happy Hours V13.
Built by Billy Rogers in 1949 to an earlier Logan design, she was a copy of Secret (V3) but is a much fuller boat so must have been modified during building. She was first owned by Billy Rogers’ brother in-law and then by Lieutenant Commander J. Lennox-King.
Happy Hours is currently sitting in one of Alan’s sheds waiting to be finished. But Alan commented that he has not been near it in a couple of years, he is a very in demand wooden boat builder and the current work schedule is very motor-boat focussed.
The yacht was acquired from the NZ Traditional Boatbuilding School before being passed on to Alan.
I understand that Alan’s exceptions in terms of a price are not great, he is more interested in Happy Hours going to a good home.
Alan has the mast and rudder plus fittings etc for it too.
So woodys – anyone looking for a classic wooden boat project?
23-09-2019 Input from Robin Elliott
Owners:
N.C. Wensor 1949?/52+?; F. Simkins 1955?/56+?; Peter & Frederick Boyle 1958+?; R.D. Wood 1959?/60+?; Lt.Cdr J. Lennox-King 1961?/68+? ; Dean Herbison 2007/16+?; Alan Craig ?/2019+?
Happy Hours was built for Noel Wensor (billy’s Bro’ in law) in 1949. Lennox-King did not own her until the early 1960’s. Dean Herbison bought her in 2007 when she was hauled out at Okahu Bay.
Back in July Brian Peet contacted me about his latest book publishing project, Des Townson – A Sailing Legacy. Brian asked if I would like to attend the launch night, a smallish gathering in the dinghy locker at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron – of course I said yes and a few days later an advance copy of the book arrived via courier. Well that buggered my plans for that day 🙂
I later asked Brian if I could sneak a couple more onto the invite list, which happened. Then Brian lets me know that things have snow balled and the launch was now in the main ballroom at the RNZYS, things had stepped up a few notches.
Fast forward to last night and the who’s who of yachting is crammed into the Squadron. My guess would be 400+ people. Speakers were the Squadron Commodore Ian Cook, Des’s younger brother – Bill Townson and Brian Peet. Ian built six Zephyrs under Des Townson’s supervision, won the National Champs in 1980. Bill Townson is a skilled boatbuilder, yacht designer and amphibian aircraft designer/builder.
I sneaked in early any took a few photos and videos of some of the exhibits, which included a Starling, Zephyr, Mistral and a 1956 replica of Des Townson’s first commercial design Nimble. What most caught my eye, was the Townson 2.4m dinghy on display that had just been built by Allan Hooper at the NZ Traditional Boatbuilding School. Its for his own use, but if you ask me it should be should be on display somewhere. Talking to Allan I understand the school will have ‘build your own’ kits and how to classes – perfect opportunity to own a Townson.
I later filmed Brian’s talk / presentation, see below – it is a wonderful insight into how the book came about and challenges Brian had over the 10 years it took to complete it.
As I have said before – its a great read, buy it, you won’t be sorry – as Brian said last night – it is a “sailing book, about a sailor, written by a sailor”.
Enjoy the video, then buy the book – either via the website https://destownson.co.nz or if you prefer to do a bank transfer, email Brian with your name and postal address and he will reply with bank account details – its that easy info@destownson.co.nz
Oops nearly forgot – Details on how to win a copy of the book on WW, later in the week.
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