Category Archives: 1940’s

Woody Trip To The Riverhead Hotel – 30+ classic wooden boat photos

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Woody Trip To The Riverhead Hotel

Yesterday, 14 CYA Woody launches got together to visit the Riverhead Hotel, we had a fantastic turn-out with several ’new’ woodys joining in. Of course Jason Prew’s just relaunched – My Girl, had everyones attention, check out the zoom zoom photos above, that girl can move 🙂
A small tide made for some interesting manoeuvres at times, but no one came to grief (for long)
It was great to see the publican – Stephen Pepperell’s magnificently refitted woody – Volantis, alongside the wharf. She is a stunning ship, but the man does have very good taste.
The hotel was buzzing with a band in the garden bar & great food on offer – from those that I talked to, everyone had a great time. Several CYA members travelled by road, including Margaret & Bert Woolicott, our hosts in 2 weeks at Patio Bay for the Xmas weekend cruise / BBQ, which for me is the coolest event on the CYA calendar – see you there on December 1st.
ps if anyone picked up a small white & blue fender on a long rope, with brass clip – its mine – lost it overboard on the trip up, 1/2 way up the creek 😦
waitematawoodys t-shirts orders – don’t be slow in getting your order in, based on the sales to date I will probably close the order book early 😉

Lady Joan

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A Sad End to Lady Joan
Lady Joan has appeared on WW before (link below + photo at end of story), at the time it was hoped that she would be restored, unfortunately that didn’t happen & now she is looking like be a scrapped for parts. Thanks to T Foh who spotted her tucked away on trademe in the motors/boots-marine/parts-accessories/other section. How was anyone ever going to find her there 🙂
There is a lot of chat on the previous WW story as to her possible provenance, read & you decide.
So Woodys, if you are looking for some low cost fitting, check out the trademe listing

https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/29/lady-joan/

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Lady Joan below in WWII livery. Photo ex Ken Ricketts
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Make Sure You Check In On Monday – 2 Lovely Ladies Dip Their Toes In The Brinny

A tease below – from Friday night at Milford Cruising Club slip, before I got distracted in Geoff Bagnall’s ‘lunch’ room 😉

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Cruise To The Riverhead Hotel

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CRUISE TO THE RIVERHEAD HOTEL
If you have not visited the Riverhead Hotel by water, its time you did. The Classic Yacht Association (CYA) has an afternoon cruise to the pub next Sunday (18th). These events are a lot of fun – we head up the river / creek on mass & anchor / raft-up before going ashore for a drink & a catch-up. If you have concerns about the route, just follow the boat in front of you & anchor with the others. There will be plenty of ‘old-hands’ to show you the ropes.
High tide is 16:24pm & so we aim to be heading up the ‘creek’ 2hrs b4 HW, its a small tide at 2.8m so I would imagine we will be meeting up in the Herald Island / Lucus Creek area around 2.00pm, so leaving Westhaven area around 1pm. ETA at pub is 2.30pm & departure from the pub approx 5.30pm.
If you are not a CYA member (yet) come along & see what you have been missing out on.
The photo gallery above is a snap shot of past trips – enjoy.
Ps – Wear your WW shirt 🙂
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Pioneer – Work Boat Wednesday

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PIONEER – Work Boat Wednesday

Photo above ex Lew Redwood’s fb, is of Pioneer – the photo is dated 1941 & the venue is Akaroa, in the South Island.
Harold Kidd has commented that it was George Brasell’s boat.
Can any of the Work Boat group, tell us more about Pioneer.
Input from John Bullivant – Possibly designed by Joe Juke (Wellington ) as she looks very similar to Wild Duck (ex Wellington flying boat refueling vessel built by Juke Boat Builders (wellington 1937) and now restored and re modeled by the Tino Rawa Trust. Refer photo from Evans bay Wellington with Wild Duck and what looks like a sister ship along side. Quite a distinctive design. Wild Duck is 42ftx 12ft x 4ft 6″draught, Kauri carvel build.
Melbourne Cup Class Yacht Regatta – This Had To Be Ugly
The photo below was sent in by David Glen, who commented that the double-ender must have lost her rig & sustained serious damage in this incident. Anyone able to supply more details. Hopefully none of the listing kiwi contingent were aboard.
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The Workboat – Hauraki

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Work boat Hauraki

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HAURAKI

The above photos show the work boat – Hauraki, in the top photo dated 1947, she is tied up at the ‘Auckland Wharves’ & sandwiched between two other work boats – challenge to Baden Pascoe – name the other vessels?
This photo come to us from Lew Redwood’s fb page, where David Balderston commented that Hauraki was Captain Day’s first ferry & he ran her to the bottom end of Waiheke Island, before he purchased the Baroona.
In the 2nd photo, I suspect she is anchored somewhere around Waiheke Island. The photo comes to us from Sally Churchs family album via fb, it is captioned ‘O.L. Hauraki’ &  written on the back of the photo are the words – Hauraki, 40hp Johnston diesel. 8 knot. Licensed 25’
Do we know what became of her post her ‘ferry’ days?

Input from David Balderston

I am very much afraid those pictures of the HAURAKI are two different boats. The stern on the first is square and the other one is counter. The sheer on the first is non existent while that on the lower certainly is. 
I believe the bottom one is the real Waiheke ferry launch HAURAKI. 
The thing is with research, as I have found, its like looking through a key hole and then you see something. Like the above launch HAURAKI, I thought, at last! there she is as a fishing boat… Anyway a positive outcome is that it moved Sally Church to look through her family album to produce the second photo – this time the real boat. 
Input from Harold Kidd – There were several HAURAKIs. The pic below is of an old HAURAKI fishing boat being relaunched in 1932 as AK119. There was another fishing boat HAURAKI AK46 owned by Waitemata Fisheries in 1942, considered for war work, possibly the same boat as the AK numbers were re-shuffled during the 1930s for some reason. Another (or the same) HAURAKI was reckoned by Andy Turnwald to have been built by Merv Strongman. Then you’ve got the ex REHUTAI steamer and another on the Kaipara owned by G. Constable!
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Input from Dave Stanaway –  The photo below is Chris Rabey’s photo of Miss Hauraki c1980 at the Hokianga. Looks to me as if O L Hauraki in your second photo is the same vessel. I think Ray Morey will agree. I sailed on the vessel 1963.
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Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

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If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
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Aurora – Sailing Sunday

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Aurora

Waiheke Island, March 2018

 

AURORA – Sailing Sunday

The other day I received a note from Bill Brown, the owner of the lovely yacht – Susan Jane, that featured on WW when she was being restored at Colin Brown’s Omaha yard.
Bill is a kiwi but works overseas & was delighted to see that his uncle’s old yacht – Aurora appear on WW (link below) recently. Aurora is a 22′ Harrison Butler design, built & owned by his uncle, Neil Brown c.1940’s.
Bill’s father, James Brown, a salty old dog who spent most of his time going up and down the Whangarei Harbour, in various craft, including Woodys; Sarina, (currently for sale, and whom mum and dad had their honeymoon on) Temptress and Yvonne. James passed away last April, just a few days shy of 90, having sailed his entire life, and selling his last boat at the grand old age of 80.
The timing of the WW story on Aurora was very opportune as Bill had recently been canvassing the extended family for  details – with Bill’s permission I have published below the email he sent out – its an great read. Enjoy.
“I saw Aurora for sale on Trademe yesterday and I thought you might be interested in seeing these pictures of her. As far as I know Uncle Neil built her himself in Dunedin to a Norwegian design. Dad used to tell me she was built like a brick outhouse and you can see that even though she is clearly neglected, she is still a tight wee ship! The photos and advertisement make her seem much bigger than she is. I think she is only 21 feet long, making her essentially the size of a trailer sailor!
Most of you know that Uncle Neil sailed her in the famous Wellington to Lyttelton yacht race that was at the time one of New Zealand’s worst sailing tragedies. That was perhaps the first, but not the last time, that old Gran thought Uncle Neil had been lost at sea!
If I remember correctly, dad used to say that Uncle Neil ran before the storm with bare poles and with a spare anchor warp streaming out the stern. As it states in the article he eventually ended up in clear skies up off the coast of the Hawkes Bay.
The other great story I remember about Aurora that was more directly connected to dad, was that Uncle Neil asked if dad wanted to go on a summer cruise from Dunedin to Auckland to coincide with the Queen’s visit in 1953-1954. Dad said yes and that was the plan they told Gran, however when they cleared the Otago Heads Uncle Neil kept heading east! It wasn’t till then that he told dad that they were aiming to be the first pleasure yacht to visit the Chatham Islands post WW2! Uncle Neil figured that if he had told dad the truth he wouldn’t have said yes and Gran would have worried too much. I remember dad had a handwritten log of the voyage, boasting of the huge crayfish they ate when they finally arrived at Waitangi, Chatham Islands. After a few days socialising with the locals they then set a course for Auckland to visit the Queen!
I have seen her only twice in the real flesh. Once she was waiting outside the Kissing Point Boatshed that we kept the launch Yvonne in. We were returning from a weekend down the Whangarei Harbour and the owner had tracked dad down to have a chat with him about her history. I think she was then based in Tauranga. The second time I spied her she was on a swing mooring in the Tamaki River.  I was at University and I had been out windsurfing and noticed her and that there was a guy in the cockpit. I stopped at her stern and explained that my uncle had built her and found out that the guy in the cockpit was readying her for sale, as her owner had been in some trouble picking up the mooring, bouncing off a few boats in the tide and had suffered a heart attack!
Uncle Neil’s second major build was the modified Woollacott – Katherine Anne, Maraval (photo below), which he built in Whangarei, at Smiths boatyard and sailed around the South Pacific and the east coast of Australia, ending up back in Dunedin. I heard that he received a RNZYS Blue Water Cruising Award for this effort, but I can’t seem to find much evidence of that. An interesting aside to this cruise was when I sailed in the Farr 9.2 Interdominion series in Perth Australia, there was a crew from Wellington, who recounted a story of Uncle Neil on Maraval being in Hobart at the same time as the finish of the Sydney- Hobart Yacht Race that they had just competed in a fully powered up ocean racing yacht. Apparently as the story goes, they left Hobart together and Uncle Neil beat them back across the Tasman!
Back in Dunedin, for summer holidays Uncle Neil would head around to Fiordland, down to Stewart Island, even on one occasion venturing to the Campbell and Auckland islands.  Sometimes just for the heck of it he would throw in a circumnavigation of the South Island. On one occasion he lost Maraval, when she was washed out to see by a flood, after sheltering in Port Jackson, Jackson Bay, West Coast, only for Maraval to float out into the Tasman and a few weeks later return on to a piece of sandy West Coast beach up by Greymouth! The only reported damage to her was the broken mast and the front bollard that the farmer had tied his tow rope to as he hauled her up the beach! He re-floated her, had her towed by a fishing boat to Greymouth, built a new mast and went on his way back to Dunedin.”
Link to previous WW story on Aurora, below
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Maraval at Takamatua, Banks Peninsula

Nevada

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NEVADA

Nevada was built in 1942, measures 32’ & is built with split strip kauri planking. Her first role was as a cargo boat for Tauranga Ports, later on she was converted for commercial long line fishing, before being retired for pleasure fishing.
Her zoom zoom is a 135hp Ford Lees diesel.
Home these days is Helensville on the Kaipara & her owner according to the trademe listing (thnx Ian McDonald) was also born in 1942 & the up keep on Nevada is just too much, thence the sale.
Her interior is crying out for some love – for the right price this has the bones of a goof project.
Had a stunning Labour weekend cruise around Waiheke Island, very few woodys out & about, I suspect with the greta forecast, a lot would have headed further north e.g. Kawau Island.
Had the misfortune to get rammed by a rather large vessel that drifted anchor in Man O War Bay on Saturday afternoon – observers say he had very little chain out. A few bumps & scratches, he did come over later on & supplied contact details. Not major damage, just a pain-in-the-ass to have to fix.
Unbelievably I did not take the camera out of its bag the whole weekend. Enjoyed some great hospitality, afloat & ashore. Sunday nights dinners (at the family of good boating friends waterfront island house, was to die for – multiple bbq’s + a smoker = slow cooked beef, chicken & smoked beef spare-rib brisket. Carnivore heaven 🙂
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Leda A26

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LEDA A26
I was recently tipped off by the new CYA chairperson – James Mortimer, about a great tale that was unfolding on the CYA forum. It involves a gent by the name of Russ Senkovich, who owns the 54’ kiwi built, 1949, yacht Leda. Russ & his wife are thinking of bringing Leda back to NZ & ultimately selling her here. Leda left NZ in 1953 & has been off shore ever since – there is an amazing weblog on her travels & maintenance over the years, check it out here   svleda.com
You can also follow the story on the CYAF – link here    https://classicyacht.org.nz/cyaforum/topic/leda-a26/ 
But let me set the scene for you on Leda, it starts with a Christopher Gordon Wilson, better known as Dooley and his brother Alexander, better known as Sandy who were both home from WWII and had a dream of racing the Fastnet.  However, the war had left the NZ dollar devalued and buying a yacht was out of the question.  So, of course, they decided to build one.  They had in their possession a book by Uffa Fox of noteworthy yacht designs.  One of the boats featured in that book was Ragna R.
Ragna R, launched in 1938, was built by Gustav Plym in Stockholm for a British client.  She is a Knud Reimers a design. The Wilson brothers admired the yacht and showed the book to a fellow named Jack Taylor, whom its believed worked for Lidgards.  Jack Taylor developed a full set of construction plans, including the dimensions of all the timbers needed for the project.

So, Dooley and Sandy, had their plan.  Now they just needed to build their boat. The line drawings below are dated June, of 1947.  Sandy would have been 25 and Dooley, 27-years old.  Remarkably Leda would be sailing 29 months later. She is double-planked kauri over mangeao frames with pohutakawa knees and copper rivets.  Leda’s deck is double planked kauri, her cabin is Douglas fir (Oregon pine) and pine.

Thats all you’ll get here today on WW – use the link above to read / view the full story – its a great read.
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22-10-2018 Input from Neil Chalmers – Neil commented to me that the Leda post reminded Neil of a story Con Morley told him about his admiration of Knud Reimers yacht designs . 

Con owned and raced ‘Freya’, a 32 foot double ender built in the 1950’s. ‘Freya’ was very similar to  Reimers ‘Stor Tumlaren’ design made famous by the well known British yachtsman / author K Adlard Coles and his yacht ‘Cohoe’.
During a visit to Stockholm, Con called at  the Reimers design office and met the great man himself. Reimers was very polite and formal . He mentioned to Con that he was aware several of his designs had been built in NZ , however he had never sold any plans to NZ !

Alert

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Yesterday as part of the story on the HDML – Kuparu, I ran a link to Zaps Zander’s impressive blog on Navy vessels. Zaps has asked for some help from the WW readers, in the above photo we see a large white vessel rafted alongside the ferries, now some people think it is an ML (Alert Q1189) and some say not? The question of the day is – is it Alert? Zaps is pretty sure she would have been in Dunedin around the time of this photo, as the road construction behind is before 1959 when the Auckland Harbour Bridge opened.
Any one able to help out, & if its not Alert, who is it?
The photo also is a sad reminder of the fleet of awesome harbour ferries we lost, just imagine the tourist attraction if they were around these days…………….

Update from John Bullivant – below is a selection of photos of ‘Alert’. The colour photo with the ferries looks to have been  taken from a similar spot as the one you put up. Think they buried them in the early 1970’s, they were mostly cut up when I rescued some Kauri off them for wood turning.

Input from Russell Ward – more photos below, Russell believes she was used by the sea scouts in Dunedin. Later owned by Ernie Davis Mayor of Auckland. Chiseled out of him on some deal and there was a memorable photo of her on a rock in the Gulf at an impossible angle – Russell will try & find it. Russell thinks she has been updated and sold for a pittance in Dunedin and was also heard of up in Auckland (confirmed by Cameron Pollard) on offer for a lot more. Two Isuzu diesels for the zoom zoom.

 

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Input from Linus Flemin – the current skipper of the ML Alert. (Q1189)
The research I have done would also suggest that this is Alert alongside the ferries and at this time belonged to Sir Ernie Davis. Alert was one of the first HDMLs to be sold by the Navy post war 1947. Alec Black of Dunedin was the first owner who converted her for charter work.( I think Ernie purchased her around 1959) We Know she went south again around 1980 for deer recovery in Fiordland owned by Jim Kane, and has been in Bluff and Fiordland for the past 30 years. Anymore history would be greatly appreciated.
Alert is currently receiving much needed love at Kopu Marine. Photo below.
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07-10-2018 Update from owner Linus Fleming – the new photos below, in his eyes confirm that the vessel is Alert.
Alert at baileys 1961
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Interested in reading more on all things Motor Launch, be they serving in the Navy or in civvy hands. (over 250 photo’s and 50+ stories and tech data / links to other ML pages) Check out the link below
 

http://rednaz1958.blogspot.com/2016/03/composite-list-of-hdmls-still-active.html

 
And if you are looking for eye candy – check out the link below to the 2018 Victoria Classic Boat Festival in British Columbia – stunning.
 
DON’T FORGET THE NZ SAILING DINGHY EXHIBITION IS ON THIS WEEKEND – I WENT YESTERDAY, VERY IMPRESSIVE – DETAILS BELOW
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