Today’s WW story has a nice twist – usually, we post old photos and hope that, if we’re lucky, a few more recent ones turn up later. This time, it’s the other way around.
The 39’ RARANGI, a 1951 Lane Motor Boat Co. build, first appeared on WW back in December 2021, when a tme listing gave us a rare peek below decks and a look at her on her marina berth. Link here https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/12/12/rarangi-a-peek-down-below/
Fast-forward to last week – woody John Dawson sent in the photos above, finally completing the circle. Always great when a classic like RARANGI resurfaces to remind us how enduring these classic launches really are.
WOODEN CLASSICS TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT THE 2025 WHANGAREI MARITIME FESTIVAL
Early Saturday morning I pointed the car north and arrived in Whangārei just in time to catch the soft early light — perfect for photography and well before the dockside crowds arrived.
Whangārei’s Town Basin really is the ideal setting for a maritime festival — easy dock access, great viewing angles, and plenty of nearby cafés and attractions. Add in the buzz of the Saturday markets and you’ve got all the ingredients for a standout event.
Wooden boat numbers were a little down on last year, but a few visiting commercial vessels — including Customs, Pilot boats, fishing craft and a pair of Waka — helped round out the fleet. From a public point of view, it was still an impressive line-up. Given the number of classic boats that have migrated north in recent years, it would be great to see more of the region’s wooden heritage on display next time around.
It was great to catch up with so many familiar faces — clearly the new highway was busy with Aucklanders heading north for the weekend.
All up, a thoroughly enjoyable day. Hopefully today’s photo gallery will inspire a few more of you to make the trip in 2026.
And there is always a few foody pix – hands down the best two seafood fritters ever – one mussel and the star – one whitebait. And a free KOWHAI coffee because she liked my WW t-shirt.
FYI – when I’m at an event I point the camera at what catches my eye , sometimes I miss a few boats but I like to think the photos are more like someone strolling the docks rather than someone trying to capture the whole caboodle 🙂
LOOKING FOR INTEL ON THE CLASSIC LAUNCH GRAHAM JOHN > WLLIAM STEER > HIPPOCAMPUS
Back in Nov 2022 we ran a story on the the launch – WILLIAM STEER, via the WW comments section and numerous fb pages we have learnt that she was built by Don Clarke in the late 1950’s in Motueka and launched in c.1961. As launched she was 36’ in lengthened powered by a Ford 6 cyl. diesel engine. Shortly afterwards she was acquired by the Drummond family in Golden Bay, who changed her name to GRAHAM JOHN. The Drummonds extended her (6’) and repowered her. She ‘worked’ as a scallop boat.
Unsure of the dates but ownership changed to the McFedries family, father Don and son Brett had we in the Tasman Bay / Marlbourgh Sounds region.
In 2022 we learnt that the boat was owned by Hagar Parvin (purchased off Don McFedries)who had renamed her HIPPOCAMPUS and was undertaking refit.
Colin Starines (nephew of Don C) once commented that he has no record of the boating being named WILLIAM STEER, would be nice to clarify that.
Can anyone update WW on where the launch is now – Napier?
INPUT ex MIKE O’DWYER – Hippocampus is now owned by Mark Parvin, who, with the help of his father Peter, resheathed the hull in ply/glass. The rest of the boat was brought up to a weather-tight condition as well. The boat is currently moored on the piles by the Napier Sailing Club.
And FYI the ex- Greymouth Pilot boat William Steer was moored here in Napier a while back. The owner at the time was converting to live aboard. Up North somewhere last I heard.
WATERFRONT HAPPENINGS
News this week that the Auckland wooden boat festival is returning in 2026 to the viaduct. Dates are March 13 >15th. More details at the event web site https://www.aucklandwoodenboatfestival.co.nz/
Organisers are looking for suitable classic wooden craft for inclusion, application process / form on the website.
REFLECTIONS ON THE 2025 PORT TOWNSEND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL– 80+ Photos / Videos
One of the bucket list classic wooden boating events is the annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. From all reports the 2025 event was outstanding. While its easy to go on-line and find a link to a professional overview, in my eye there is something special about viewing a festival attendees collection of boats – sure the light or camera angle isn’t alway perfect but you get a raw edge, which appeals.
Today thanks to kiwi John Oates we get to share what appealed to John’s eye.
One of the festival features that sets it apart from a lot of events is the ability to go aboard the boats and talk to the owners. There is something for everyone – food & drink, live music, kids activities, movie screening and lots of opportunities to get on the water.
One of this years ket themes was tagged – ‘A Gathering of Maritime Legends: Celebrating Shipwrights’. The festival brought together shipwrights from some of the world’s most iconic maritime institutions—craftspeople who keep the art of wooden boatbuilding alive with skill, heart, and tradition.Via a mix of talks, presentations and hands on gatherings where the public were able to rub up against the legends.
Enjoy the gallery – I did. As always click on photos to enlarge ;-
Ps John has promised another photo report featuring more classic sail boats ✔️
Todays gallery of classic Bay of Islands wooden boats was snapped by Dean Wright , owner of the majestic woody – ARETHUSA. Dean was un-route to hauling ARETHUSA out for her annual TLC.
For top to bottom we have – AQUARIUS (1955 Supreme Craft), MAHARATIA (1947 Roy Lidgard), POSEIDOM (1965 Owen Woolley), and the last boat, the bridge-decker, is MANU (1913 Bailey & Lowe) a mystery, but looks familiar , hopefully we can put a name to her.
Make sure you check out WW on Monday, we have an epic trip report from John Oates who recently attended the 2025 Port Townson Wooden Boat Festival.
CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT CLEVEDON SPRING CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS
A tad weary writing this story so it will be short and I’ll let the photos tell the story.The weekend just gone saw a fleet of classic wooden craft making the pilgrimage to the CLEVEDON CRUISING CLUB for the annual woodys overnight BBQ.
As always the tide wags the dogs tail so we were looking at a very early trip up the Wairoa River, by early try 6.15am. The smart woody skippers travelled down Friday afternoon and anchored overnight at the river mouth. A great sunset delivered some nice photos.
I took photos of the classic woodys moored on route, it is always interesting to view the deterioration of some craft and the new arrivals. Will do a story on the river trip tomorrow.
Most of Saturday was spent boat hoping and catching up on dockside gossip. Rest assured if you weren’t there you were talked about.Captain Giddens hosted late afternoon drinks on ALLERGY and then we moved onto the clubrooms for the evening.
If you haven’t been to a Woody gig at the CCC its an all-embracing old school night shindig – bbq’s, outdoor fires, karaoke with a professional singer that could make even the worst shower singer sound ok. There are raffles, which I have to report the woodys skippers did very well at – Captain Giddens collecting 4 prizes. Everything is BYO but the club very generously provide additional food and an impressive dessert table.
Departure home on Sunday was almost as early as Saturday and the forecast wasn’t flash eh N>30 knots. I can’t speak for the others but it wasn’t the very pleasant and if it wasn’t bolted down it ended up on the cabin floor 😦
A big shout out to the classic yachts that joined the flotilla this year, with access to the local knowledge of Barry Abel, the deeper draft yachts had an uneventful passage on the river . Special thanks to all the woodys that attended by car, your company added to the evening.
Enjoy the photos and start thinking about the Spring Splash At Kawau Island on Labour Weekend.
An unnamed woody recently sent me a link to a craft on tme with a one line note “wow check this out, you should buy it”.
Well woodys turns out the craft was a 1955 17’ speedboat . Bui;t by someone named ‘Lewis’ and repowered with a 350hp Mercury inboard V8, capable of 90 kph (50 knots).
Short answer – not for me.
Reading the listing it was all a little OTT eg “Rare vintage boats like this almost never come up for sale”, well thats not correct tme has mutable listings and then this line – “Trade-ins and finance welcome, and transport can be arranged nationwide.”
The nostrils started to twitch , smells like a car dealer…… well reading on turns out it was being sold by a car yard. And with a $40>45k price tag someones been sniffing the fuel tank.
So what’s the real story today – well this listing just illustrates the current divide between classic wooden motorboats and zoom zoom recreational trailer craft.
For the same $$ you could own the 40’ Miller & Tunnage classic woody below and do laps of NZ.
Todays woody story comes to us from Denis O’Callahan via the November 1958 edition of Sea Spray magazine.One of the craft featured was the 34’ motor launch KALAMERA, built c.1958 by Alan (Snow) Water in Takapuna, Auckland. She was built for a gent named Jack Bennent of Paeroa. Her intended home port/s was listed as Coromandel /Whangamata, where she was to be used primarily for sport fishing.
Built of single skin (full length) 1″ kauri carvel planks, her specs were 34 x 10’6” x 3’6”.
When launched a 40hp Ford diesel powered her and given her size, gave a respectable 9 knots.
The question today woodys is what became of her post launching – did she get to Coromandel, and where has she been since. Maybe a name change. Keen to learn more.
AHEADS UP ON THE POPULARITY OF WAITEMATAWOODYS.COM
Just received the latest report on the visitation / viewing numbers for the month of August.
VISITORS – UP 13%
VIEWS – UP 84% – The highest month ever, a WW record.
Great growth with Australian readers – has been climbing for the last 3 months – 385%+ growth and maintaining the new readers. Still can’t crack the UK market 😦 get better numbers out of Italy ✓
Thanks for logging in each day. And as always please send in any woody related content.
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH QUANDO AGROUND – What Happened Here
Recently woody John Dawson contacted WW regarding the top two photos of a launch named QUANDO, as we see in the (oldish photo) photos the vessel has ‘come ashore’.
On face value it appears to be not* a major mishap , maybe skipper miscalculated the tide when anchoring or dragged anchor. *(Unless the port-side tarpaulin and dinghy is covering up a major oops.)
Can anyone enlighten us as to what happened, the date and location.
A search on WW popped up the 3rd and 4th photos above ex Jason Prew and Nathan Herbert , who spotted QUANDO berthed at Sulphur Point Marina, Tauranga, in February 2015.
Sadly she has acquired a second story and lost the varnished coamings.
In the WW search the name QUANDO also popped up on a story on the launch KARINA (photo below & story link), where Adam Jane-Rashleigh commented that KARINA was a sister ship to his launch QUANDO.
Todays woody photo comes to us from Ross Dawson and is dated c.1957 and the location is Coromandel. The image is from a postcard and that woodys is all we know – so we throw this open for input – can we ID the wooden craft – L>R.
I’m not too sure about the aqua section on the workboat looking vessel, an unusual colour for 1957 and also doesn’t quite look kosher eg added to the photo at a later date.
INPUT ex MURRAY McGEHAN – The boat in the right hand side of the postcard picture is LADY WYN LADY WINN designed built and owned by the strongman family, moored outside their workshop. I last saw Lady Wyn in the Havelock marina about 1974.
INPUT ex JACKIE CAREY – The vessel is named the Lady Winn was built by my Uncle Sam Strongman and my father Harold Carey in the Strongman boat building sheds in Coromandel owned by Sam Strongman, my father’s brother in law. She was built as a family launch and we had many lovely adventures on her going to great barrier, Port Charles and around the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. Including coming out of Port Charles straight into some huge waves that were crashing over the bow and my father kept going until we got back to coromandel harbour. My grandmother was praying in the cabin while us kids were enjoying the ride in the stern not having any idea of the seriousness of the situation. She did have a mast.
INPUT ex Dave Giddens – In the mod 1960’s she was the support vessel on one of the Auckland to Suva yacht races.
INPUT ex LEW REDWOOD – Could the front launch outside Strongman’s in the Coromandel be TWYLIGHT built by Strongmans – photos below.
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