CLEONE – A Peek Down Below
The Jim Young built, Couldrey design launch – Cleone, has appeared on WW before – link below, lots of details and photos. Now thanks to Ian McDonald and tme we get to have a peek down below.
Quick over view- built c.1950, triple skin kauri, 30’ in length, 10’ x 5” beam. Powered by a Ford 72hp diesel. Previous WW Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/06/11/cleone-2/
MYSTERY NAPIER LAUNCH
Todays woody is what appears to be a very smart sub 30’ double-ender launch, seen in the above photo anchored in Napier’s Inner Harbour.
The photo comes to us from a late 2022 Maurice Sharp fb post.
Would love to put a name to the launch and an approximate date to the photo.
Tall Ships At The 2023 Australian Wooden Boat Festival Short video to given you a quick overview of the Tall Ship eye candy at the festival – all earning their keep doing inner harbour cruises. Enjoy 🙂
MAORI LASS – Who Can Enlighten Us On Her Name
Master woody boat builder Colin Brown dropped me a note re the yacht Maori Lass at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, so off I went to find her.
What we know is that Maori Lass is 30’, was built in 1950 by Ron Andrewartha to a H. E. Cox design from Celery Top Pine, using carvel construction. She was built as a club racer in Hobart, her show card stated that “ Maori Lass reflects post WWII optimism in Australia’.
So woodys the question today is – what’s the significance of the name. Has to be a good story there 🙂
GOOD BUGGERS
During Auckland’s recent cyclone I was quite concerned about my woody in her marina berth – on the night of the big storm (13/14th) at 2am NZ time I received the below txt message from woody Dan Renall who keeps his Herreshoff yacht on the same pier – and then an update later in the morning.
Thank you Dan – I owe you 🙂
Woodys On Tour – Hobart – Australian Wooden Boat Festival – Day 5
Hello Again Woodys Felt slightly guilty this morning when I called home to advise Air NZ had cancelled my Hobart > AKL flight. Next available – 7 days away…. A little bit of online work and I found a flight out of Sydney on Thursday night. So 2 more days in Hobart 🙂
One big plus – I get to see the very cool kiwi singer- Marlon Williams live in concert.
Anyway back to the boats – today is an extension of yesterdays gallery – there is just so many woodys to see.
FYI – WW viewing numbers spike when the weather is bad and people are at home, so yesterdays numbers were approaching an all time high. Today (Tuesday will be another bumper day)
Boat Of The Day – HEATHER BELLE, a 24’6” gaff rigged pilot cutter, built in 1990 by Andrew Wilson to a Lyle Hess design. She is a sister-ship to Larry Pardey’s – SERAFFYN.
And compulsory food shot – lunch = seafood chowder 🙂
LAKE ROTOITI 2023 PARADE OF CLASSIC & WOODEN BOATS – 150+ PHOTOS
As has become my norm for Waitangi holiday weekend early on Saturday morning I pointed the car south and made my way to Lake Rotoiti in the middle of NZ’s North Island.
2023 marked the 26th anniversary of the event and after a horror week of ‘once in a 100 years’ rain storms I had concerns that the parade might be postponed or cancelled. Well woodys as you’ll see from the above photo gallery, my fears were redundant.
The day started overcast with some light drizzle but this passed thru before the parade kicked off at 11am. Numbers were down a little from last year but conditions were perfect on the lake.
Enjoy the gallery above – if you’re craft is featured above and you want a high res copy of the photo, drop me an email at the address below. Apologise if I missed your boat or if the odd photo is a little out of focus – just me in a run-about jiggling the throttle, looking out for other boats and holding the camera 🙂
My pick of the boat I’d most like tied up at my imaginary lake jetty is – ELLEN (#14), 26’ in length, built in 2004 in strip planked cedar from a plug taken off an old abandoned hull found in Kopu. Thought to be a ‘Milkmaid’ design by Bailey & Lowe. Powered by a 29hp diesel. In my eyes just perfect. Photo below
Special thanks again to Dave and Glenys Wilson for the loan of a boat to get me out on the lake.
As always – click on photos to enlarge.
Lastly I never tire of the sound of big V8 (5.7L) water exhausts. Shawn Vennell, the owner of Judy H, was lining me up for a prop shower – a few words of warning as to what my reaction would be, made him change his mind 😉
Mystery Launch On The Waitemata – TAMAKI
Another photo from Brian Peet, the craft was designed and built by Jim Young. Brian commented that he assumes the piece of hardware on the cabin top is the exhaust muffler and if so, then that’s a maritime engineering feature thankfully consigned to the ‘no longer a good idea’ rubbish bin. 🙂
So woodys – what’s the name of the launch, who was it built for and what became of her?
Input ex Brian Peet – It’s the Tamaki Yacht Clubs patrol boat, imaginatively called ‘Tamaki’. Designed and built by Jim Young. My father John Peet was Secretary of the TYC, so became the go-between for the club and Jim to get the project underway.
Input ex Neil Chalmers – I found the below extract from ‘’ The Tamaki Yacht Club : A brief history of its 75 years ‘’ by Frank Davis 13 April 2002.By the way ‘Tamaki’ is moored at OBC and has a blue engine. I think Brian Peet and I should share the cigar 🙂
25-01-2023 INPUT ex ROBIN ELLIOTT – Neil’s input is correct. Jim Young built her but did not design the Tamaki.
Sea Spray November 1952 page 11. ” At J.H. Young’s yard was the new rescue boat for the Tamaki Yacht Club. She is built to a design by P.W. Willetts and will be finished off by club members.”
I’m not sure when she was actually launched but the second photo appeared in Sea Spray October 1953 page 38. The caption also states that she was a Peter Willetts design.
As to the exhaust, it is there because she was to rescue and retrieve crews from capsized centreboarders. Most centreboarders of the time could not right themselves (although that was quickly changing) and had to be towed to shore, partly submerged.
“Note the low freeboard and narrow decks aft, ample cockpit and the exhaust above the cabin top, out of the way of the people being rescued. …. Power comes from an Austin Skipper.”
WW doesn’t do death notices so you have to have been a good bugger to get one. Well Alan was more than a good bugger he was one of the best. He rubbed up against so many classic boat owners and admirers that I’m sure it will be standing room only at his funeral – 10.30am, Feb 1st, Davis Funeral Home, Henderson.
Our thoughts go out to his partner – Nicky and family.
Mystery Launch + Competition (Posiedon > Bontia)
Yesterday I was contacted by Brian Peet regarding the above photo. I’ll let Brian tell the story-
“My late father’s cousin Graham Hamblin gave me a photo of a launch owned by another long departed family member, Percy Hewitt. We don’t have a name or any other details for the boat, but to my untrained eye, it looks under 30ft long, 1950s with possibly American influences. The bow looks most unusual and not a styling that got picked up by NZ designers to any extent. Percy lived at Bucklands Beach and apparently raced the launch a few times in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta”.
INPUT EX KEN RICKETTS – well that was easier than expected, KR advised the boat was named Posiedon, later changed to Bonita – details here in her 2013 WW story https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/21/posiedon/
So woodys has anyone ever seen this launch before? Might be hard to confirm the accuracy of suggestions, so how does this sound – the most believable / entertaining suggestion will get a WW t-shirt and Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat calendar. Suggestions in the WW comments section please. Closes off midnight 21/01/23.
WOODYS AFLOAT
Classic Woody Summer Cruising – A Game Of Two Halves
Happy New Year Woodys – WW is back ‘live’ so no more oops boating photos 🙂
On Saturday when I was reviewing and editing the above photos I struggled to believe that we had a xmas/ny cruise, but as they say the truth is in the photos 🙂
I decided to break todays story into two parts:
1. Raindance related
2. Woodys Out & About
Mostly from my camera but assisted by Barbara Cooke (Bay of Islands), Mark Edmonds (Waiheke), Russell Ward, Jason Prew (upper harbour) and Alan Gilder (Woody Bay Rakino)
Raindance’s cruise / tiki tour mainly consisted of bouncing between Rakino Island and Waiheke Island. Left on 27 Dec and the weather was just stunning with crystal clear, warm water. On 01 Jan the forecast was starting to look very average and most concerning was all 3 weather platforms that I follow were saying the same thing. So early morning on 02 Jan we made the call to up anchor and head home. Turns out that was a good call because for the next 5+ days if it wasn’t raining it was drizzling non-stop + ugly seas and high winds.
So woodys the second half of our planned cruise was sent at home enjoying good food, wine, movies and watching almost every wooden / classic boating video on YouTube.
Very grateful we had 6 days of great weather before we pulled the pin. As an old salt told me once – when it comes to happy family boating – better to have a handful of fabulous days than an abundance of average days – very sage advise.
Enjoy the gallery.
UPCOMING ON-THE-WATER WOODY EVENTS
Circle the calendar:
28 January – Mahurangi Regatta launch parade – more details closer to the day
25 February – Stillwater Picnic + Dockside Raft-Up – more details closer to the day
EASTER 2022
DECEMBER 2022 – Expensive ‘Undercoat’
DECEMBER 2022 – Ready To Launch
DIVINE INTERVENTION
Sometimes its faith based, sometimes its via loved ones and other times its from friends – what ever activated the aha moment, let’s just be grateful it happened.
The 1930, LC Coulthard built launch Lucinda was recently hauled out at the Slipway Milford for some annual TLC, which included a new paint colour for the coamings. I was asked by the owner last week for my view of the colour – I was honest and polite and relied
1. It’s your boat, paint it what ever colour you want
2. Its only paint, change it next time if you go off it
3. Are you prepared to be that boat e.g. when someone asks another boatie where in the bay they are moored , the answer will always be ‘ to the left of that red boat and 2 back’.
Well there was an intervention and we have another colour scheme – each to their own opinion but it gets my tick 😉
Well done Jason D for making the decision to order more paint 🙂
The ports even got some TLC.
Classic Wooden Boats At Waikawa Marina
Following on from last Mondays story where we shared Dean Wright’s recent Southern trip and a gallery of photos from the Havelock marina todays photo gallery comes to us from the Waikawa marina. Some stunning woodys and remember – click on photos to enlarge 😉
A lot of woodys that are new to WW and they will morph into WW stories in their own right.
Enjoy 🙂
13-12-2022 INPUT EX MARK MCLAUGHLIN
The big bridgedecker with 4 ports is RAHEMO (launched as Strathmore), built by Dick Lang.
Others I can positively identify are (from the top):
VECA (Arthur Sang)
VAGABOND (Joe Jukes)
?
?
?
RAHEMO/STRATHMORE (Dick Lang)
HUNTRESS (possibly McManaway designed/built?)
VARUA (Bob Swanson)
OSPREY (Harold Saunders)
PALOMINO (Bob Swanson)
TOANUI (Roger Carey)
Yacht ANNA JANE (?)
NUKUMEA (American “Bartender” design by George Calkins)
YVONNE (Bob Swanson)
PEARL (?)
Unknown fishing boat
KATOOMBA (Dorman Engineering, Nelson – not wood, built in Corten Steel!!)
Unknown (possibly Bruce Askew?)
CORYLUS (Bruce Askew)
TAREPO (launched TAREPA)
ARCTURUS (McGeady)
? (looks like a McManaway or Morgan fishing boat design?)
? (under the covers)
CRISTINA (Athol Burns)
PURUATANGA (launched as MARIANJO)
Most of these have featured previously on WW, so a quick look in the search bar will glean more details if interested.
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