Category Archives: 1950’s

Marline Gets A Top Chop

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MARLINE – Gets A Top Chop


Back in September 2019 I spotted the launch – Marline coming up Milford Creek on-route to The Slipway yard. As it turns out she was being hauled for a heart transplant – a wonderful new Yanmar 120hp was being installed. The top two photos above show here in the ‘creek’. At the time I thought – very nice woody, but ……….. pity about the low rise block of flats on top.

So you can image how pleased I was last Thursday to walk in to The Slipway shed and see a team in the process of demolishing the flats. Marline was built in 1950 by Leon Warne in St. Marys Bay, for his own use. Son Ken gave me a guided tour of the boat and detailed the work in-hand. And she will be returning to a more traditional configuration 🙂 Marline is approx 35’ x 11’ 4’ and draws 3’6”. She had a reputation as ’the party boat’ and once aboard its easy to see way – an 11’+ beam on a 35’ boat makes for a lot of living space.I love the original cabin lights – Leon Warne cast them, son Ken still has the mould……….. now that has got me thinking 😉


The gallery of photos below, ex Ken, give us a peek into her past, as you will see, she was successfully used for Game Fishing for many years, out of Tauranga

Around The Yards – The Slipway Milford

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L>R Marline, Connie V
Disturber
Lucinda
L>R Lucinda, Disturber
  • Gweneviere
  • Lonestar

Around The Yards – The Slipway Milford


I was passing thru Milford last week, so took the opportunity to drop in on the team at The Slipway (Geoff Bagnall’s yard in a previous life).I can report that I was pleasantly pleased to see so many woodys hauled out and in various stages of repair – from the annual bum clean right thru to major refits.The one that caught my eye the most was the 35’ Leone Warne built launch – Marline, more on her on Monday, I now have so many cool photos from her past.
The woodys below are at the yard, where possible I have included a WW link to see / read more on each one.


The Slipway yard is one of Auckland’s very few ‘railway’ hail out facilities and both deserves and needs the support of the wooden boating community. If we lose yards like this we will be forced to use yards that tend to have equipment designed for big while plastic boats and that are not wooden boat friendly in terms of planked boats. So woodys support the guys that support us. Contact Jason Prew for details on haul out rates and on-site services. jason@slipway.co.nz

Connie V – https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/12/23/connie-v-saved/
Lucinda – https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/09/30/lucinda-4sale/
Disturber – https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/19/disturber/
Marline – https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/16/marline/
Lonestar – a visitor from Hawkes Bay 😉 more on this project later.
Gweneviere – another visitor from Hawkes Bay and possibly a project.

Huia

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HUIA


Recently WW was contacted by Simon Truebridge the current custodian (Simon’s word) of the 48’ wooden ketch-rigged motor sailer – Huia. Huia was built / launched c.1951>1953 and was the first vessel built by the founders of Gough Engineering in Invercargill. Huia is planked with Australian tallow wood and apparently Joe Gough was friendly with the workers who had worked at the Prices’s Inlet Norwegian whale boat maintenance facility on Stewart Island, hence Huia’s strong Scandinavian influence. Powered by a Gardner 6lw that is rumoured to be perhaps 25 years older than the boat, the thinking is that it started life on standby genset duty in the basement of the British Admiralty Headquarters. The rumour goes on to say that two of these engines, along with transmissions, a hydraulic windlass that sounds remarkably similar to Huia’s, & various other equipment mysteriously arrived in Invercargill soon after the end of World War II, fortuitously just as Huia was taking shape….. 

Simon believes he is her 5th keeper, the Goughs having kept her in Bluff until 1972. The boat still raises great interest whenever she returns to Bluff.

Any woodys able to tell us more about Huia’s past?


Almost Had To Excommunicated My Daughter

Currently holidaying at Lake Como in Italy, they hired a runabout for the day, now you would think the woody DNA would kick in, but nope – they hire a plastic boat 😦 She saved herself by sporting a WW shirt 🙂

The white villa in the background is George Clooney’s – I’m told that sadly he wasn’t home 🙂
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Aotea

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C.1981 Far North
c.1981 Far North

AOTEA – Sailing Sunday 
The owner of the H28 Aotea, Peter Sporle, contacted WW recently seeking help uncovering information on her early history.What we know is that Aotea was built in 1954 in Mangonui Harbour, Northland, from kauri carvel planks. She has an iron keel and was originally ketch rigged.


In 1958 Aotea won the Balokovic Cup for her owner Brian O’Donaghue. Below is an article that BO’D wrote on H28’s and Aotea for the August 1962 issue of Sea Spray magazine.She was owned by Sir Keith Park. And a gentleman named Ian Miller owned for 7 years from approx. 1973>1980. Peter S bought her in Sept 1980 and still owns her – since 1990, she has been based at Tryphena, Great Barrier Island. Aotea was relaunched in October 2018 after a refit on the island.
Above also is a short video of Aotea afloat, post re-launching, looking very smart.

02-09-2020 Input From Robin Elliott –

Aotea has had the following Registered owners – as far as i know:
As D-11, ketch rigged.
B.C. Watson (Mangonui) 1953+?; B. O’Donohue (Whangarei) 1954?/61; Sir Keith Park 1961+?; T. O’Brien 1967+?
The date for B.C. Watson is the date he registered her, not necessarily the date she was launched.

In 1967 she appears to have been converted to single mast as she is re-registered in the E-Class as E-263.
T. O’Brien 1967/69+?; P.J. Cole (Matakana) 1970+? A. Wood 1971+? (Still Registered as Owner NZYF 1978); I.H. Miller 1976+?
You will note the overlap there. The registration lists are notorious for duff information and should always be viewed with caution; e.g. A. Wood appearing in 1971 and still shows as the registered owner in 1977/78 at the same time that Aotea is registered to I H. Miller with RAYC 1976/77 season where we know she did a lot of J.O.G. racing

In 1969 she took NZYF number 663

Trophies are:
RAYC: Balokovic Cup 1958
Onerahi YC: 100 miler 1960
Whangarei CC: Harbour Regatta Assn Auxilliary Cup 1960

UPDATE 03-10-2022 ex Tony Blake – “I am sure we raced (My brother Peter, friend Crawford Duncan and myself in the yacht “Bandit” that Peter built in my parents backyard) against her in the 1967 season of the Junior Offshore Group ( Royal Akarana YC). We won the 1967 season’s racing. We always had great tussles with ‘Aotea’. “

18-03-2024 INPUT EX PETER SPORLE –

My research indicates “Aotea” was built by Bernard Christian Watson then of Kohumaru road Mangonui on his farm and in the red woolshed that is still beside the road as of 2021. I spoke with a local Mangonui woman who as a young child was friends with Watsons daughters and would stay at the farm. She recalled Watson building “a boat” in the woolshed. 
Aotea was launched around 1953. 
The timber was reportedly sourced from the Totara North Mill. 
She was built as per Herreschoff’s specifications but with the added doghouse, an alteration that Herreschoff reportedly approved of. 
After launching she was hauled out and a second set of ribs added giving 6 inch centres. 
On official documents I’ve seen, Watson listed his occupation as farmer and then later as carpenter. 
It was suggested to me that Bernard Watson would have been related to the Whangarei boat building family of Watsons but I do not know if that is the case.

In 2020 I corresponded with and later also met Terry O’Brien who converted Aotea from ketch to sloop rig. In correspondence he offered. 

“J.O.G. Racing was just starting in 1967 and we ended up second overall the first year of racing, beaten by Peter Blake in a boat called “Bandit”.

SLOW LOADING OF WW SITE – IF YOU HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING VERY SLOW LOADING OF THE WW HOME PAGE – I APOLOGISE – ISSUE NOW FIXED. Thank you to Geoff Bagnall for alerting me to the issue 🙂

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Quest

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QUEST
Earlier in the week, we featured the ex work-boat Quest II, this prompted John Gander to send in the above photos of the 33’ Quest, built by Roger Carey in 1959, her beam is 9’9” and she draws 4’6”. 
Roger built Quest to be his families boat, but later sold her to a Southland farmer who then in 1964 sold her into commercial fishing. John understands that Quest fished the waters about Stewart Island. In the 1970’s > 1980’s period she also fished the waters off Southland.
 
Sometime in early 2000 she returned to Picton, where John took the photo’s of her in the marina at Waikawa in 2008. John commented that she looked to be well kept and in a tidy condition, her engine a 5LW Gardner. She was then lifted from the water onto the hardstand and as the photo taken in 2013 shows she has deteriorated with her hardwood planking drying out with considerable shrinkage. 
 
John remarked that doesn’t like to look at Quest now that she is in such a sad state, having been fitted with a tight fitting cover and John fears that with lack of ventilation her condition will deteriorate further.
(special thanks to Dean Wright for facilitating getting the story to WW)
 

Classic Wooden Boat Cruise – 72 photos

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S/S Romany

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Arohanui

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Trinidad

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Matira

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Raindance CCC trip Aug2020

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CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT WEEKEND CRUISE TO CLEVEDON  – 72 Photos 

Lets be honest, a large chunk of 2020 has been very average – locked marina’s, no on-the-water boating and cancelled events. After spending the weekend on-board Raindance, cruising up the Clevedon river and over-nighting with 12 other woody boats at the Clevedon Cruising Club, I realised what I had missed the most was the sense of fraternity that comes with being in a space shared with people who love the same things as I do – woody boats. 
 
The trip up the Wairoa River revolves around a tide window, so it was a very early start for some of us, helped by coffee on-route, the smart ones left on Friday and were enjoying breakfast in a bay as we were sliding down the Tamaki Strait. We were meet at the river entrance by CCC member Barrie Abel who ‘piloted’ us up the river – no opps, so thank you Barrie.
 
Awaiting for us at the CCC wharf was Russell Ward with his steam boat – Romany. The gent deserves a medal – all day Saturday and Sunday morning he was taking the CCC members and families + the woodys for rides. Romany is coal fired and as Russell tells everyone getting aboard – “if its metal – its hot, if its varnished – its dirty 🙂 . I’m a big fan of Romany, but the star was Cooper the English springer spaniel – I could have taken him home.
 
After some wonderful ‘air-traffic control’ we managed to get everyone either alongside the wharf or rafted to another boat that was alongside – soft bumper fenders along the entire wharf makes for very civilized berthing. However – no names, but one woody had to leave the Saturday night BBQ to check that their diesel fired on-board central heating outlet wasn’t roasting the fenders 😉
 
The day was very leisurely with most people enjoying a dockside lunch and CCC members dropping down to view the boats and people having steam boat rides. One woody took the opportunity to buy some fuel from the club’s dockside bowser, seems he forgot to check the level before departing, staring to become a habit……….
In addition to the activities afloat we were treated to some eye-candy in the car park – a stunning 1947 Ford Coupe and a replica 1945 Fairliner Torpedo speed boat.
 
Come 4pm we invaded the CCC club house for the main event – as always amazing hospitality from the club and to use that old saying “a good time was had by all”. It was announced that our visit will be a compulsory event on the club’s annual calendar – so woodys – no excuses for missing out next year. Date to be advised.
 
Check out the outdoor heater – a piece of kiwiana and it worked a treat.
 
Overnight it was a tad nippy, with several re-filling the boat water bottles in the early hours of the morning. But we woke to a stunning day and departed at 10am for the trip home.
 
And the Clevedon Coast Oysters were divine – photo below was my lunch – another set were dispatched as a appetizer – 8.5/10 – not Bluff but on the day as good 🙂
Special note of thanks to David Cook (Trinidad) who is my sidekick pulling these events together 🙂
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Tides Out 🙂  (photo ex Alan Good)

CCC tide out

Southern Woodys – Work Boat Wednesday

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Southern Woodys – Work Boat Wednesday
 

Iain Forsyth, owner of the 1961, 42’6″’, Miller & Tunnage built ex work boat – Meola, has recently returned from a trip to the other island. Ian commented that he stopped off at Carey’s Bay and saw Pakeha (recently featured on WW) on the slips after a large refit by Carey’s Marine and ready to launch.


Iain snapped the above gallery of workboats. It was opportune timing as the Bluff fleet were in port and getting ready for the season. Now I’m sure they aren’t all woodys but as per the NZ Classic Yacht Association rules (see below) metal is all good 🙂 
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Magic

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PRE – RESTORATION

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THE RESTORATION

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JOB DONE

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MAGIC

Recently I was contacted by Phil Shaw who has completed an amazing restoration on his Healey speed boat – Magic. Like many I’m sure, I was not aware that the founder of the Austin Healy sports car marque – Donald Healey (British racing car driver and engineering guru), back in 1956 had also founded a subsidiary company – Healey Marine. The company produced approximately 1750 craft, with Phil’s 1956, 14’6″ boat, a Healey Ski-master, being the first model built.
When Phil acquired the boat she was crying out for a restoration and as you can see in the photos above, that she received 🙂
 
These days Magic is pushed along by a 50hp outboard that sees her with a top speed of 30 knots, and that woodys is very fast for a sub 15’ mahogany run-about.
 
My biggest challenge with this story was deciding which photos made the cut – Phil photo documented every step of the project, and has a wonderful photo gallery of the restoration.
 
I will let the photos tell the story. Below is a an article in the April 2002 issue of the Healey Marque Magazine.

REMEMBER TO RSVP FOR THE WOODY CLEVEDON TRIP – 15 BOATS ALREADY ON THE LIST + FRESH CLEVEDON COAST OYSTERS

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Woody Lake Taupo Boat Tour + Woody Event Details

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WOODY LAKE TAUPO BOAT TOUR + WOODY EVENT DETAILS
One of WW’s most local supporters is Bay of Islands woody, Dean Wright – today Dean takes us on a recent mooch around Lake Taupo’s shoreline, click photos to enlarge –  Enjoy 🙂
WAIROA RIVER – WOODY OVERNIGHT CRUISE
Back in November 2019 we had an amazing woody weekend at the Clevedon Cruising Club. At the time everyone expressed a desire to repeat the trip up the Wairoa River asap, then CV-19 popped up, so we pulled the hand-brake.
Well folks the cruise is back on and for now there are two things to do:
1. Circle August 8-9 in the diary
The CCC is a brilliant venue, with dock-side berthing, undercover BBQ / dining facilities and a great group of members that make the trip so special.
And its dog friendly ! – so fido gets to come along.
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Classic Wooden Boat Riverhead Cruise

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Classic Wooden Boat Riverhead Cruise

Yesterday’s creek (river) cruise to the Riverhead Tavern was another successful gig on the Woodys Classics Weekend calendar. 14 boats made the trip up the creek and with no ferries working, we had the wharf to ourselves. Always nice to be greeted at the wharf by the publican and woody boater – Stephen Pepperell. We enjoyed brilliant support and service from the rest of the team at the tavern insured the day went like clockwork and 85+people enjoyed a great catch up, chat and lunch. The sun shone at the right times (most of the day) so a good times was had by all. Wonderful to see the support from the people that made the trip by car.
Details on the next event soon 🙂
MORE PHOTO’S @ link below
My crew for the day Chris Miller has posted some great photos on his weblog, I was concentrating on helming the ship and given CM is a pro photographer I left the camera work to Chris. Enjoy 🙂