Back in late October 2022 Dean Wright was in Blenheim attending John Gander’s significant birthday, all birthdays are significant but the ones with ‘0’s’ in them are more significant.
While down south Dean did some marina mooching and todays photo gallery comes to us from the Havelock marina. Nice to see a couple of our bigger northern woodys now safely tucked way down south – Turongo and Durville. Sad to lose them from the Waitemata but if we were keeping score I think we win more than we lose 🙂
A lot of craft unknown to WW and will probably morph into WW stories in their own right. As always click on photos to enlarge.
One of my southern woody spies – John Burland, has just has returned to NZ after summering over in Germany (he lives there, well at least in the northern summer).
Not long after unpacking the bags he was heading down to the Riwaka riverside marina, close to Motueka, Tasman. As the photos show the area is seriously tidal and John’s visit was at low water.
While John commented that the photos were of the usual suspects, it always good to see what’s normally hidden.
In the photos we see Varlene getting some TLC, as an aside looking at the finish on Varlene’s rail and the tin – it looks like at last Cetol is an ok finish – used to be a horrendous orange/yellow colour, similar to what actor George Hamilton used to use as fake tan (photo below)
13-12-2022 UPDATE – ex John Burland – more photos below, and yes the tides still out 🙂
Todays woody has just popped up on tme, thanks Ian McDonald, and no design / builder is mentioned – what we do know is that Puffin is 28’ in length, built in 1960 from kauri and powered by a Ford (Lees) 72hp diesel that gives her a 5>6 knot cruising speed.
Would be nice if we could ID the builder, the hull shape is quite ‘unique’.
Chatting last week with Mark Sorrenson, owner of the 43’ launch – Manapouri, that was built by Hector Parks, and he mentioned that he was part way thru a major refit of Manapouri. Obviously the request went out for photos, so today we get to have a peek at the work-in-progress.
In the gallery above we see Manapouri wrapped up in a tent / shelter that Mark helped build. A summary of the TO DO / DONE LIST below:
• New fuel tanks and lines • Complete engine room paint • New bridge sole and beams • Reconfigured engine hatches• New sound proofing • Full rewire • New dash • New gauges and chart plotter • New auto pilot• Fibreglass decks • Extend cockpit roof • Full exterior repaint • new dorade boxes • new name plates • strip, repair & varnish bridge doors
Marks words – “Needless to say, I’m poor, tired and won’t be boating at Xmas” 🙂
UPDATE 27-11-23 – Mark commented that another Xmas will slide by before the refit is completed – but the very talent man is making a very samrt helm seat – photos below
The above 1969 photo popped up on fb back in June of this year – it would appear that the photographer is G Riethmaier and its ’saved’ in Archives NZ.
Quite a few woody yachts hauled out at the long gone area thats now board-walk – to me the stand out is the Rolls Royce casually parked amongst the cradles and trestles.
Any guesses as to the owner and which yacht it was linked to?
THIS SATURDAY – 26TH NOV – WOODY BOAT BOOT SALE – 10AM – DETAILS BELOW CASH ONLY + $2 GOLD COIN SAUSAGE BBQ
Many moons ago (2010ish) when the CYA launch fleet was alive and active, one of the more successful events was a cruise up the Mahurangi Harbour / river to the Warkworth town dock. Very much a follow the leader trip, but we all got there and rafted up for a few hours ashore. Sadly most of the photos from that trip died when the CYA pulled the pin of what was the CYA FORUM, but a few survived (the last two above)
The above photos above from ex Mitchell Hutchings fb ex the Parsonson Family collection c.1980’s reminded me very much of the river trip .
The photo below ex Ken Ricketts dated c.1961 also shows how popular the destination was with launches.
So – woodys once the final dredging of the river is complete, I promise a woodys weekend trip up the river – it will be a doozie 🙂
The 35’ launch Lourena was built c.1963 by Watson Brothers in Wellington to an Athol Burns design, using 1 1/8” kauri carvel planks. With a 11’6” beam she has a healthy interior for a 35’ boat, the draft is 3’6”. Forward motion is via a 70hp D series 4 cylinder Ford that gives her a 7 knot cruising speed.
Lourena is a well traveled woody having spent time in Wellington > Marlborough Sounds (15 yrs) > Opua (20 yrs),
Thanks to Ian McDonald’s heads up re the tme listing, today we get to have a peek down below.
On Sunday we held a woodys gathering ashore on Motuihe Island – trip down was commonly described as ‘lumpy’, except for the large woodys skippers who just smiled.
The bonus of a lumpy passage was almost zero trailer craft or pwc’s, so had the beach to ourselves. Very sheltered and sunny afternoon – always good to catch up with other woody owners and swap tales. Trip home was perfect with wind and tide assisting.
Nice to see both Lady Crossley and Pirate after there winter hibernation / haul outs.
My boat of the day was John Wright’s latest project the uber cool double-ender – Kiwa. That man has a wonderful eye for bringing the best out of any classic craft. Photo below when she was at Te Atatu Boating Club + links to previous WW stories on her
KATHERINE ON DISPLAY @ WESTHAVEN – THIS WEEKEND – INVITATION ONLY
Considering an upgrade or a boat for summer – the 38’ Conrad Robertson designed classic – KATHERINE, has been relocated to Westhaven Marina for one weekend only – inspection by invitation.
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
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/
