Category Archives: 1950’s

ALPHA A90 ( Arrow Class) – Sailing Sunday

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ALPHA A90 ( Arrow Class) – Sailing Sunday
I have been contacted by Adam Akehurst who is Interested in what us woodys knows about the Arrow class sailing dinghy. Adam is currently restoring A90 – Alpha. Progress photos attached. Wood working done, interior nearly done, soon time to turn it over and sort the outside ready for summer.

All Adam can find on the class is that they are a Jack Logan design from circa 1950 and that until recently the class seems to have been based at Glendowie but interest seems to have died out a few years ago in favour of the Mistral. Also interested in what else Jack Logan designed. I have heard he had a boatshed at Mangawhai at some stage.

The historic photo of Alpha above on the beach (date unknown) shows her rigged for a gennaker on a fairly long prod. Adam assumes this is a later class development and that they originally flew a symmetrical kite.

Adam hasn’t been able to find many photos of the class online, so is interested in seeing anything ww have.

07-08-2017 Update from Adam. Project finished – see below. Stunning

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Check The Video Link Below Out – If you thought the commute to work was bad, these guys are mad 🙂

Kaikoura in the B.O.I.

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Kaikoura in the B.O.I.
The above launch is pictured above anchored in the Bay of Islands, Dean Wright scanned the image from ‘old’ film but is unaware of the boats name.
Anyone able to ID her & provide some history on the vessel ?

Update: Vessel has been ID’ed as the 1952 built launch Kaikoura. Lots of chat in the WW Comments section & photos at the link below

Kaikoura

03-09-2017 – Updated photos below ex owner of 25 years – Peter Jones, via Ken Ricketts. Peter bought her off the Bridgeford family & this would make him only her 3rd owner.
She still has her 2 x 510 cu. in. 165 h.p .V8 Perkins diesels.

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Unknown / Mystery Boat 20-07-2017 + Woody Homes

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Unknown / Mystery Boat 20-07-2017

I was sent the above photo by Ray Morey, Ray is hoping to be able to ID the vessel.  It was on the Waikato River in the mid 1950’s operated by ‘Henry’s Sand Co.’, until being replaced by the steel tug “S.P.”  – Ray has no idea where she came from nor where she went.

Can any of the woodys help out with any details?

Woody Homes

Woody Brett Evans sent me a link to a feature on a sleepy seaside village in France with a small fishing port, a population of less than 3,000 and some very peculiar-looking houses. At a moment’s glance, they could almost appear to be an unfortunate pod of beached orcas, but look again carefully at those unusual roofs. Yes, those are boats … upside down! Local fishermen of Équihen-Plage have lived under scavenged boat hulls here for over a century and today, many of these upturned vessels now serve as a unique holiday accommodation for travelers visiting the French coast. Very cool idea. You can see more at the link below.

Postcards from a Seaside Village of Upturned Boat Homes

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Lady Ellen Restoration

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LADY ELLEN RESTORATION

The plight of Lady Ellen has been documented on ww in the past (link below). We were able to happily report that she had been purchased by Bruce Mitchinson & 6 weeks ago transported north to Russell in the Bay of Islands.

Lady Ellen

A few days ago Bruce gave me an update on the restoration – read below.
“Restoration work underway with removal of rotten timber around cabin, decks and bulkheads. Much of the interior has gone to the tip. Under the foredeck canvas, near perfect Totara decking, which is drying out ready for a sand and some fibreglass.
Next up, replacing the rotten timbers with old kauri before new side and aft decks go down.
Engine is back together, almost, and Ken Jaspers is sorting out new mounts, gearbox seals and couplings down in Whangaparoa”
Bruce has promised to keep us updated on the project.

27-09-2017 Project Update ex Bruce M

Starting to look like herself again.

Glassed plywood cores for  cabin sides ready for timber finish inside and out.
Slight adjustment made to the rear windows, which always looked a bit odd, but still trying to retain that McGeady look.
Rebuilt coachroof over the aft cockpit to remove the v-shape combing and modified structure so that corner posts are no longer required.
Narrower aft deck now provides enough room for continuous seating around 3 sides of the cockpit and storage.
Galley has gone, including the floor, to make way for a new under floor water tank, raised floor and new galley fit out.
As you can see there is still a lot of work to do.
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Update Jan 2018 – The focus over the last few weeks is to get topsides ready for finishing by the end of the month. A lot of work has gone in to re-fastening and frame repairs to pull everything back into shape, and as you can see the Lady Ellen has plenty of shape. Thanks to our boatbuilder, Brett Avery, we now have a very sound vessel. Main saloon is now completely stripped out, including the old steel diesel tanks and de-greasing the bilge and engine bay is next up, while removing the last of the antifoul underneath and cleaning up the diesel soaked planking. New rudder tube is in and Brett has made a start on framing up the floors so that we have some work space inside to start on the interior work next month.
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UPDATE 24-02-2018 More restoration photos here https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/02/23/an-update-on-the-lady-ellen-restoration/

Arima

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ARIMA

The above photos of Arima were emailed to me by Ken Ricketts & according to info attributed to her owner, she measures 36′ & was built in 1955 of planked kauri by Salthouse to a Colin Wild design.
Arima has a 110 hp. 6 cyl., Ford diesel that sees her cruising at 8.5 knots. with a top speed of 10 knots. Home port is Whangarei.

What else do we know about her & is this provenance correct?

Sirius – A Peek Down Below

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SIRIUS – A Peek Down Below

The 1956, 32′, Owen Woolley built launch, Sirius, has appeared before on ww, you can read all about her at this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/03/23/sirius/
Now thanks to a trademe listing we get a peek below. Quite a smart classic, just not too sure about the mast > main > jib set up (there is a photo of her motor sailing in the link above). Not what you would expect, but I’m sure they do the trick, because its been like that for a long time. Again thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads up.

Michelangleo

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MICHELANGLEO

Michelangleo is a 15’, twin cockpit classic lake boat, built in 1950 & fully restored approx. 10 years ago. Current home is the South Island, Nelson Lakes area.

Powered by a fully rebuilt 272 wide block Ford V8. She is direct drive (so no gearbox or reverse). Sitting top of the V8 is a 350 2 barrel Holley carb + electronic ignition, heat exchanger and a stainless fuel tank.

I love the stern photo, a pretty backside & the noise from those exhausts would be music to my eyes – ok I’m a petrol head 😉

She is for sale on trademe if anyone is looking for a zoom zoomer 🙂

 

Old Timer

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OLD TIMER

The above before & after photos of the Kinloch, Lake Taupo, launch Old Timer were sent to me by Larry Grigg. I’m not sure if its Larry’s boat, maybe if he reads this story he can let us know & a few more details on the restoration.
I understand was built at Taupo by local boat builder and charter boat skipper Jack Taylor.
I’m sure the Drake brothers will be able to help us out 🙂

03-07-2017 Input from Paul Drake

OLD TIMER is one of four sisters built at Taupo by Godfrey Taylor, son of Jack Taylor, in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s. They measure 18 feet, are round bilged and built of totara. OLD TIMER (not her name in those days) was bought by the boatyard when Don Norton owned it, and re configured as the yard work boat. They re-named her DULCIE TAYLOR. Her engine at that time was a Universal Utility Four (now in our SIR FRANCIS, where it has been for many years). One of the sisters, TAURUS, lives in Wellington (photos below). Another was named LADY GRACE (photo below). One was twin screw and quite fast. As kids, we knew these four sisters as “The Godfrey Taylor Boats”.

Lady Grace

 

Voyageur – A Very Big Woody

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Voyageur – A Very Big Woody

Voyageur was built in 1953 to a Chris Craft design, she measures 60′ with a beam of 14’5″ & draft of 5’6″ – so is a rather large old girl.
She is D/D kauri that has been glassed over, with a teak interior. A recent refurbishment included new Volvo engines. For sale at $750K, a lot of money for a 60′ woody but its a lot of boat & being set up for game fishing & in MOSS survey, I assume its a business venture as well.

Any one able to advise the builder?
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the trademe heads up.

UPDATE

Ken Ricketts has advised she was built in 1958 by T K Atkinson at Browns Bay, at 40 feet, for Takapuna Ford dealer Jack Lewis, (Lewis Motors), who extended her in 1965 to 48 feet, the work once again being done by T K Atkinson. —
Lewis took & a friend & me to Browns Bay one day, to see the extension in progress. He was considering a 3rd centre engine for her at that time.
She has obviously been extended again.
What a shame all her lovely exterior varnish has gone — it was such a special part of her beauty & character.
View photos from her early days as a 40 footer here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/03/18/voyaguer/

04-03-2026 UPDATE ex DEAN WRIGHT – photo below of Voyageur, in Whangaruru

Hirere & Poaka

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Hirere

HIRERE & POAKA

I have had the above photos that are both taggged ‘Hirere’ in my ‘upcoming ww stories’ file for a long time, hoping that at some stage I would uncover more (some) details on the name & determine if they are the same launch & if not which one is Hirere. To date nothing – so I put her out there today to she if we can answer my mystery.

Input from John Blundell

“The photos today came to you from a group I sent to Harold Kidd a couple of years back. The top photo is Poaka which was built about 1959 for my father Stan Blundell by Snow Waters. She was featured by Sea Spray magazine not long after as a”quart in a pint pot”.He sold her to Athol Mellars a couple of years later and his son John later took her to Gt Barrier where he lives.
The other photo is the 29foot Vindex built also for my father about 1963 by Jim Young in his shed at Birkenhead wharf.Dad wanted to keep the engine out of the main cabin so it was installed further aft and fitted with a vee drive.
Re the dinghy it was one of Phil Bartons 8footers and was the best of the bunch that were around at that time. The wooden one in the photo was used as a mould to produce fibreglass versions not long after.That is another story.”