Category Archives: 1950’s

AOTEA – A Peek Down Below

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AOTEA – A Peek Down Below
 
Back in March 2014 Aotea appeared on WW when an ex owner, Paul Newell, was trying to track her down (WW link below)
Now thanks to trademe & Ian McDonald we get to have a peek-down-below.
 
Aotea was built in 1950, supposedly in the South Island to a ‘Alexander’ design, she is carvel planked & powered by a 120hp Ford 6cyl. diesel.
Her specs are 40’x 11’5”x 2’11”
Rumour has it that she was built for the N.Z. Government and taken to Lake Taupo for the Queens Coronation NZ tour 1953-54. Paul Drake has confirmed that she spent time on the lake in the 1950’s, as a Govt. vessel.
 
What more do we know about Aotea?

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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Lady Ellen Restoration Update

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LADY ELLEN  Restoration Update

Just had an update on Bruce Mitchinson’s Lady Ellen restoration project, I wish everyone was a s good as Bruce is in sending in work-in-progress reports 🙂

Bruces words – “Strut and rudder all back in place, below waterline fairing is going on at the moment.

Fairing done on the topsides, final fill and longboard, all over, will happen over the next few weeks.
Toe rails and beltings have been repaired and reinstalled.
Looking to undercoat topsides, deck, and below waterline early next month.
Inside we have stripped the paint off the underside of the cabin top and the decks, ready to be sprayed, along with the rest of the interior, as we move from aft, for’ard.
Cockpit complete with draining floor and seating, plenty of locker space, and gas bottle enclosure.
The existing rod steering, that used to be buried under the old water tanks, has been refurbished and can now be accessed through the new lockers.
Galley and saloon trim underway this week.
Painting inside the hull, to get ready for fitting out below deck.
Keeping the original layout apart from opening up the hanging locker into the for’ard cabin with a McGeady style window opening through the bulkhead.
No guesses as to what I will be doing this Labour weekend.”
Remember – click on photos to enlarge 😉

Lake Rotoiti 1953

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Lake Rotoiti 1953

Todays photo, ex Lew Redwood fb, is dated April 1953 & shows 2 launches moored at Okere on Lake Rotoiti, Rotorua.
Can we ID the boats, the nearest looks familiar but I can’t place it.
I’m sure the Drake Bros will solve it for us 🙂
And hows the photo below for a work place pic – this is the office for one of your family friends – Police Eagle chopper returning to base after the night shift.
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Could the photos below, ex Jason Prew, be the same boat as above? Location = Geoff Bagnall Boatbuilder, Milford yard.

Lady Mavis

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Lady Mavis

Ray Sutcliffe

LADY MAVIS
WW was recently contacted by Kathy Makan asking for help in her quest to track down the launch – ‘Lady Mavis’ for which she has been searching for some years now.
Lady Mavis was built by her grandfather Ray Sutcliffe and Kathy spent every moment of her childhood from the day she was born into her 20’s on her.
Lady Mavis started out at 32′ built in Ray’s back yard and was launched in 1954 at Browns Bay (North Shore, Auckland). In 1958 she was lengthened to 42′ at her grandfather’s factory at Barrys Point Road, Takapuna where he built flat bottom boats for flounder fishing and dingys for HC Kitchen Ltd.
Her radio number for calling Music Point was Z.M. 2117.  Kathy believes she was built of kauri with two six cylinder engines.  Ray was appointed an ‘Honorary Launch Warden’ in 1963 under the Harbours Act 1950 by the Minister of Marine.
During summer months she was moored at Waiake Beach in Torbay where they lived and would then be shifted to the Milford Marina during winter. The family cruised extensively to Rangitoto, Tiri, Rakino, Motutapu, Wade River, Kawau Island, Mahurangi River to Warkworth, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel and their favourite the Bay of Islands.
In the photos above we see Lady Mavis & Ray Sutcliffe. Ray’s family were friends with the Fullers from the Bay of Islands and used to go fishing with Mr Fuller on his first launch ‘Udine’.  From his late teens into his twenties Ray used to catch the steamer ‘Clansman’ from Auckland up to the Bay of Islands where he spent his holidays  out on the Fuller’s launch ‘Knoxie’ and going out on the ‘Cream Trip’ as well as other special trips.  He used to stay with the Bullen family who was Mrs Fuller’s sister. Below is a photo of Ray with a kingfish caught on Mr Fuller’s launch ‘Udine’, as well as photos of ‘Knoxie and the ‘Clansman’.
Greatgrandfather Sutchliffe

Seaway – A Peek Down Below

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SEAWAY – A Peek Down Below
Seaway was designed / built by Sam Ford & measures approx 31’, with a beam of 8’10” & drawing 5’6”. Zoom zoom is via a ^0hp Ford diesel.
She has appeared on WW before but now thanks to trademe & Ian McDonalds spotting, we get a better look at her interior.
There has been a lot of TLC applied in the last 2 years & she appears to be a good buy at $25k, a good entry into classic wooden boating 🙂
You can see & read more on Seaway on this WW link, check out the comments section – lots of chat there.

Wooden Boating VIP On The Waitemata

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Wooden Boating VIP On The Waitemata

Today I hosted Ben Mendlowitz on Raindance, Ben is the number one wooden boat photographer in the world & shoots for just about every boating magazine there is & produces the world famous “Calendar of WoodenBoats’ + has authored dozens of books on the subject.
While in New Zealand Ben was keen to photograph some of our classic fleet, so we headed out yesterday to catch the classic division of the RNZYS Winter Series race.
Ben will have some stunning photos, I was just the driver today so only took a few, very average photos – I did however capture 2 rare events:
1. Thelma going a ground off Stanley Point – some very red faces
2. Jason Prew venturing forward of the mast on Rawene – he didn’t look comfortable 🙂
Photos below – enjoy
THE NEW ZEALAND SAILING DINGHY EXHIBITION
In case you missed it – in 2 weeks (Oct 5>7th) is the annual Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition at the Viaduct – this year the theme is ‘The New Zealand Sailing Dinghy’ – I’ll post more on the event during the week – but right now Tony Stevenson is doing a call out to anybody interested in displaying their classic NZ designed and built sailing dinghy, yacht class information or memorabilia.
Please contact Tony Stevenson tonys@nwv.co.nz  or 021 977 456
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Whitianga Mystery Launch + Akarana Launch Day ‘Home’ Movie

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Whitianga 1950

Whitianga Mystery Launch + Akarana Launch Day ‘Home’ Movie
Great photo above dated December 1950 of a lot of pleasure craft at Whitianga – the question is can we ID the white launch in the middle of the photo? Baden Pascoe will chip in, I’m sure 🙂
The Launching of Akarana
I was sent the above 2 minute ‘home’ movie by Ngairene Rogers of the launching of the 1960 Auckland pilot boat Akarana, designed by A.J. Collings & built by W.G. Lowe. Ngairene promised me the a copy of the movie approx. 8 months ago & I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived in the post. I’m sure Dick & Colleen Fisher, owners of Akarana, will be rapt to view it. So thank you Ngarene for sharing it with us.
(sorry about the ‘tattoo’s the middle off the screen – the price you pay for free hosting)
Ngairene’s brother Wade worked on Akarana when he was an apprentice in the early 1960s. He also did all the interior and detail work on Deodar (the harbour police launch), Ngairene commented that Wade was such a good boatbuilder that all the wealthy “yachties” used to ask that he be the one to work on their precious yachts, even though he was an apprentice.
The movie is in two parts, one section in black and white and the other in colour. There are also a few of bits of the boatbuilders clowning around (or working?), such as putting a plank of wood into a steamer.
Ngairene occasionally is in contact with one of the apprentices (Ross MacIntosh) featured in the movie, Ross lives in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill. In the movie Ross is the one wearing a pale short sleeved shirt and (short) brown shorts with a hammer sticking out of the belt on the left side – he walks away from the camera at one point then looks back over his shoulder and bends his left arm backwards as if waving.
You can view/read more on Dick Fisher’s restoration of Akarana here

Looking for a Woody + Stop Auckland Council Stealing More of OUR Harbour

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Looking For A Woody?

Two classic woodys have recently come on the market – one best described as a ‘rolling restoration’ & the other a ‘turn-key’ craft. The asking prices reflect their for presentation.

Lady Noeleen is a 32’, 1952 Dick Lang built bridge decker that now sports a small-is flying bridge. I nice boat for someone looking for a not to hard project. If I bought her I’d be borrowing Jason Prew’s tungsten tipped chainsaw & removing you know what 😉

You can view more on her at this WW link.

Lady Noelene

Waiari is a 36’, 1962 Owen Woolley seden cruiser, just screaming out for someone looking to go classic boating – now ! Her owner has moved up to a much bigger woody.

Again more on her at this WW link.

Waiari – Gets A Top Chop

Auckland Council Stealing More Of OUR Harbour

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Woodys – read below & please take the time to send a submission, we all need to record our concern at this intrusion of our water space – its very simple – see blue section below. Submissions close 8 October 2018,

In accordance with the Resource Management Act 1991 the above-mentioned application will be advertised in the New Zealand Herald on Monday 10 September 2018 and the submission period closing on Monday 8 October 2018.

For full details of the resource consent application, including plans and supporting documents, please refer to the Council webpage: www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/resourceconsentsubmissions.

How to lodge a submission:

Should you wish, you may lodge a submission in support, neutral or opposition to any part of the application. If you make a submission, you must serve a copy of it, as soon as reasonably practical, on the applicant at the address for service stated above.

The submission must be dated, signed by you and include the following information:

  1. Your name, contact address, telephone number and email address (if applicable);
  2. Details of the application in respect of which you are making the submission, including location and consent application numbers;
  3. Your reasons for your submission;
  4. The decision you wish the consent authority to make; and
  5. Whether you wish to be heard in support of your submission.

Viewing the full application:

For full details of the resource consent application, including plans showing the exact location of the work may be viewed:

  • on the Auckland Council website: www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz in search field type in ‘notified resource consent applications open for submission’ and in results select this heading and then look through list which is by location.
  • at Auckland Council Service Centre, 35 Graham Street, Auckland Central
  • at Auckland Central Library at 44-46 Lorne Street, Auckland City

If you have any queries regarding these applications, please contact 09 353 9356 (planning helpdesk number) or email mooringdolphin@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

 

 

Flying Boats

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FLYING BOATS

I have been sent the above collection of b/w photos that John Bullivant found on a British seaplane site, it appears a lot of the photos are from our national library or similar.  They give a snap shot into the Teal flying boat history in Wellington. In them we see a large clinker launch, a work boat (Wild Duck which has an identical sister), a Civil Aviation flarepath launch (the dark stepped cabin launch to right of jetty) two different Teal launches (one from Auckland for some reason) Len Southwards Red Head racing one of the planes and a few views of the larger Teal launch.

The Teal launch appears to have the engine box towards the stern so may have had a v-drive (more room in the cabin / safety / noise perhaps?) The group of fine gentlemen in the Teal launch (pipes and all) are some of the 1951 All Blacks departing for the test in Australia.