Category Archives: 1960’s

Kawau Island Woodys c.1960’s

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Kawau Island Woodys c.1960’s

Following on from last Sundays story on the launch Sobrine at Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island – today we have another woody photo from the same bay. Again from the Parsonson family collection via Mitchell Hutchings fb.

In the background we see the ‘CeeBee  Air’ Grumman Widgeon, most likely piloted by Fred Ladd taxiing into the bay – a common sight back then.

So woodys – can we put a name on the launch?

REFRIGERATION ON BOATS

A blatant commercial plug today – I recently had the frig/freezer serviced on Raindance, the difference is staggering – ice cold beer and I was in the dog box for freezing the wine….

I use Extremely Cool – run by Darrin Kennedy, all frig work but a whiz on compressor driven set ups. Not long to Xmas so book a service asap at Darrin.excool@xtra.co.nz

And a blonde question – why do Heineken bottles freeze much faster than Corona bottles? I asked that question at KBC on Saturday night and was told that it was due to what the Mexican brewers do in the tanks before being exporting to the USA …. Hopefully an urban legend 🙂

NEW WOODY EVENT – THE WOODY BOOT SALE IS BACK ON AGAIN – SATURDAY 26TH NOVEMBER – VENUE = THE SLIPWAY MILFORD – FULL DETAILS THIS SUNDAY ON WW

Classic Woody Boating Long Weekend Cruise

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Moturekareka Island
Sunset – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Sunrise – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Lady Adelaide
Vivian Bay, Kawau Island
Ngaio
Meola & Whio

Classic Woody Boating Cruise

For all the wrong reasons I didn’t do a lot of boating (on my boat) this past winter, so the looming long Labour weekend was always going to see me leaving the dock even if the weather was ‘inclement’. Luckily it wasn’t and I slid away early Friday afternoon with the ultimate destination being Kawau Island. The boredom of mostly straight line motoring was broken up by Team NZ cutting up the gulf in their AC40, so so quick.

Decided to spend Friday night anchored at Moturekareka Island, the resting place of the wreck REWA (unsuccessfully scuttled as a breakwater) , not the most settled of spots but the sunset and the bird song made up for it.

Moved on earlier Saturday to Smelting House Bay and picked up a pre-booked mooring, now before you all call me a softy, we had the new dog onboard for its 1st trip and wanted to be close to shore – didn’t want an oops on board. I can report she was an angel – woke me at 5.30am for a row ashore. Sadly she also seems to think the #1 bunk is hers 🙂 The bonus of the dog pee row ashore is catching the sunrise, almost as fine as the sunset.

Mostly just relaxed mooching around, had a drink and dinner catch up with the crews off Meloa, Ngaio, Lady Adelaide and Golandrina at the Kawau Boating Club, which had just taken the shutters down after the annual winter hibernation. Food and service was first rate – if you are not a member – join, they need good support to keep doing what they do so well. The next day we dropped the pick in Vivian Bay – very quiet and later in the day several woodys arrived – seems to be the go-to destination for the Sandspit marina crowd.

I spied a stunning villa on the waterfront in Vivian Bay – photos below, will need to keep buying Lotto 🙂

Trip home on Monday was just about perfect for a straight stemmer e.g. wind and tide on the nose – 3 hours 45 min from KBC > Bayswater, that’s a good clip for my 94 year old girl.

UPDATE 03-11-2022 – Photo below of Rewa as scuttled (incorrectly). Comes to us from Auckland War Memorial Museum libray via Maurice Sharp fb.

SUNDAYS MYSTERY LAUNCH QUIZ WINNER

Well done Ken Ricketts, the winner from the many woodys that correctly ID’ed the launch as Sobrine. The pool was reduced significantly by a large number spelling the boats name – Sabrine. Link to a previous WW Sobrine story below https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/05/31/sobrine/

How Not To Sell Your Wooden Classic 

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How Not To Sell Your Wooden Classic 

In the opening line the seller says “whole boat made from kauri, no rot!”, well I think rot would be the least of your worries. The major features promoted are the brass bits – “steering wheel, anchor winch, prop – the value of these bits probably dictates a fair starting price for bids….

Vender says -“Opportunity not to be missed” , I suspect it will be a miss.

It is not a bad looking craft, but presented like it is, and with a an engine that doesn’t run – it should be – Free To A Good Home. Way too many negative photos that showcase how neglected she is, then again maybe the woody folks down south like a major project 🙂

KOTARE Restoration – Boat Shed Tour

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KOTARE Restoration – Boat Shed Tour

Back in June 2014 WW was approached with a request for intel on the 28’ kauri planked classic launch – Kotare, that is a poplar name for boats, so I was surprised at what we uncovered. 

At the time Harold Kidd was able to tell us that she was designed by Bill Couldrey in 1960 for Frank Wilkins of Church St., Northcote to build for himself.  Wilkins launched her in October 1961 with a 45hp BMC diesel.

We struck gold when Richard Farrar sent in a copy of an interview, dated 8th Oct 1996 with her builder Frank Wilkins – its a great read – link to story here: https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/08/21/kotare-builder-interview/

Fast forward to May 2020 and we ran another story on Kotare with more recent photos and details – link here: https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/05/12/kotare-4/

Fast forward again to the present day and as you will observe in the above photos – Kotare is being restored / refitted by sage boat builder Alan Craig and his team at Craig Marine.

Photos below post launching and c.2014

Nerrida

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NERRIDA

The 30’ kauri launch – Nerrida was built in1969 by Shipbuilders. Forward motion is via reconditioned Ford 110hp 6 cyl. diesel Ford 110hp 6cyl diesel As per a lot Shipbuilders craft she has a semi workboat look to her.

While the interior fit out looks like they used the same people that do the Fullers ferries, there has been a lot of recent work done. From the number and size of all the chilly bins, the seller must be a serious fisher-person.
(Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up)

Challenger

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CHALLENGER 

Today’s story is another example of the effectiveness of WW – Grant Parker yesterday posted a comment on a WW story that appeared back in Oct 2014 – the 2014 story was on the c.1962 McGeady built launch – Challenger. 

I have reproduced Grant’s comments below, 

“The 38ft ” Challenger built by McGeady. was owned by my family in Tauranga in the late 1970’s > early 1980’s. After the Bradshaw family of Rotorua owned her  she was sold to the Finn family also  from Rotorua.

My father Bert Parker from Rotorua purchased the Challenger from Ray Finn. When he sold her she went to Havelock in the Marlborough Sounds where an older couple lived on her for a number of years.

The next owner was the owner of a trucking company in Nelson, he went bankrupt and she was sold again. The last I heard was she ended up North, maybe Bay of Islands, possibly the Opua area.

Our family had some great memories, the photos above of – Challenger, show her in her former glory with varnished coamings etc.

The photos show Challenger in :  downtown Tauranga, Whale Island off Whakatane and South East Bay Mayor Island.”

Grant maintained an interest in the whereabouts of Challenger and once tracked her down in Havelock, then the ship broker in Nelson supplied the copy of her 4sale listing.  

Purely from reference as to how our classics can morph over time and owners – I know which one I’d like to own 🙂

Link here to the 2014 WW story – lots of photos and chat there https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/10/25/challenger/

Update from a woody – photo below is captioned Onerahi Whangārei / February 2022. This is very sad……. 😦

Woodys Classic Clevedon Cruise Report – Sept 2022 – 50+ Photos

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6.45am – The Start
The magic hour for boat photography
Heading up the river
Dave Giddens – Auctioneer Supremo

WOODYS CLASSIC CLEVEDON CRUISE REPORT – Sept 2022

Just back from a near perfect weekend cruising with a great bunch of classic wooden boat enthusiasts, up the Wairoa River to the Clevedon Cruising Club for an overnight shindig. 

The weekend had all the right ingredients – great weather, cool boats, nice people + mouth-watering food, that always = a winner. Todays photo gallery comes to us from my cameras and Jason Prew’s new out of the box iPhone 14 Pro (I need one, I’m buying one).

By now regular WW readers will be familiar with the format of the weekend – we meet off the entrance to the Wairoa River and then weave our way up river to the Clevedon Cruising Club. The flotilla berths at the CCC dock, in front of their clubhouse, then we ‘open’ the boats for club member to view. Happy hour tends to start early up the river, and this weekend it was even earlier. Later in the day we retire to the clubrooms for a shared BBQ dinner, and live music.

This year the club organised a number of raffles and a mystery auction – the club and Woodys collectively raised over $3,500 for the new fuel jetty. Well done to everyone involved – I indirectly won a new bilge pump (my cabin boy, bid on a mystery package and one of the included items was the pump – and my bonus – he doesn’t own a boat)

Boats participating in the cruise were – Allergy, Awariki, Lady Clare, Lady Ellen, Merita, Mokoia, My Girl, Ngaio, Ngarimu, Raindance, Smooth Operator, Trinidad, Waikaro.

I’ll let the photos tell the story. Below are two videos which highlight the two extremes of classic wooden craft – Raindance at 7.5 knots and Jason Prew’s – My Girl, doing est. 24 knots 🙂 Thanks to Jason and Ant Smit for the footage.

As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉 ENJOY. Details on more Woodys Classic events below.

Ps that dessert plate wasn’t mine and I’m too nice a person to name the owner…… and equally no story as to why there is a photo of a skipper dipping wet on his duck board 🙂

Raindance
My Girl

San Costanzo

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SAN COSTANZO

One can only assume the San Costanzo, built in 1969 by Curnow & Wilton started life as a work-boat and was then, date unknown, converted to pleasure use.

She is an impressive woody – built from kauri planks and 49’ in length, with a beam of 14’9″and draws 5’4” – that canoe stern gets a big tick from me.

A Cummins 250hp engine sips only 8>9 L of diesel per hour when cruising. Add to that the 2200L fuel tanks and that is a long time between trips to the fuel dock.

Very well spec’ed, with a good survey result you could doing laps of NZ. Recently for sale on tme – thank you Ian McDonald for the heads up.

INPUT BELOW ex Brian Kidson –

“While doing some background into Curnow and Wilton boats I found this out from various sources…

This Jack Guard designed double ender was launched at the end of July 1965 for Mr Salvi Rocco of Wellington. It was built for crayfishing and longlining out of Island Bay. St Costanzo is the patron saint of Capri from where the Rocco family come from.
While Rocco’s had her, they took the aft wheel house off and had a new one built forward by a Wellington boat builder.
Rocco’s sold her to a Chinese chap in Auckland who used her for catching blind eels out of Tauranga. He only owned her for approximately two years before selling her to Tom Fishburn who then set her up for trawling. He fished her for ten to twelve years with his nephew Marcus Fishburn. By the time Tom bought her she had had an engine change from a Gardiner to a Cummins NH250 which is still in her.
It is said that she is a good sea boat and fairly dry on deck which is a credit to her designer. Guard’s of Nelson were unable to build her at the time. Her stern is very tight and bluff double ended, almost a ‘transom’ a credit to her builders. Not the only Guard design like it. The Marconi being another that comes to mind.
At some stage the ‘St’ in her name was changed to San Costanzo.
There was an article in the local newspaper, Nelson Evening Mail, at the time of launching.
Other names San Costanzo

Length 50ft

Beam 15ft

Draught 6ft

Date launched 31st July 1965

For Salvi Rocco, Wellington

Subsequent Owners Name unknown, Tom Fishburn, Marcus Fishburn, Sean Reichardt, Robert Lynds,

Engine(s) Gardiner, Cummins NH 250″

EVERYTHING GOING WELL TOMORROW WILL BE A GOOD STORY WITH LOTS OF PHOTOS FROM THE WOODYS CLASSIC WEEKEND CRUISE TO CLEVEDON.

Marlin Waters 1960

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MARLIN WATER 1960

The above 12 minute film just popped up on YouTube – a recently reedited (enhanced) film from the old New Zealand National Film Unit and comes to us via Archives NZ and Snooks Fuller.

The film – ‘Marlin Waters 1960’ was filmed in the 1960’s in the Bay of Islands New Zealand and features classic big game fishing in the Bay Of islands. 

We see very early footage of Snooks Fuller and the Lady Doreen and his regular client from America “Poppy”. Also featured is the launch – Margaret Joy. Lots of old footage of Otehei Bay, early Kingfish Lodge and Poor Knights Islands.

While personally I’m not a fan of targeting these beautiful creatures, the film is wonderful insight into the glory days of big game fishing in the far north. If you look closely there are many other classic wooden launches caught on the film.

A QUICK QUESTION RE THE LAUNCH RANGIORA (refer photo below)

Does anyone know if Rangiora is still kept in Wellington and also contact details for the owner – email to waitematawoodys@gmail.com