Category Archives: 28′>30′

Woodys Classic Beach Picnic Review + Open Boat

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Woodys Classic Beach Picnic Review

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 

2014  https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/09/30/boat-on-the-move-kiwa/

2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/09/10/what-happened-to-kiwa/

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.

More details on this immaculately presented, ready for immediate delivery craft – click here https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/06/13/katherine-a-peek-down-below/

To book a viewing time email waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys

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/

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)

Wairoa River / Clevedon Drive By Tour

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Wairoa River / Clevedon Drive By Tour

On the weekends Woodys Classic Weekend cruise to the Clevedon Cruising Club I had the services of a cabin boy (relax, he’s my neibour) so I handed the wheel to him for most of the trip up the river. This freed me up to snap some of the moored wooden craft, I’m sure a few might be f/glass or even steel – but still an amazing collection ’semi-hidden’ away, that us Auckland marina dwellers never see.

Enjoy the tour. AND make sure you check out the last photo below – seems the CYA A Class skippers have been playing bumper boats again.

Seems the CYA Classic A Class Fleet Are Playing Crash & Bash Again

One of the classic launch owners returning to their berth in Westhaven from the weekends Woodys Clevedon cruise – spotted a wee hole in Little Jim. Comment was it had the dimensions of a bow-sprite. 

Fingers crossed the culprit has good insurance………… A review of the RNZYS results page for Saturdays racing shows two classics with a DNF alongside their names – being Little Jim and Rawene, chances are that tells you the other vessel.

Things like this probably contribute to why only approx. 6% of the CYA classic yacht fleet race (outside of one-off events like the Mahurangi Regatta) their craft. Too much testosterone is a bad thing with a car steering wheel or yacht tiller in your hand – then again maybe it was too much oestrogen this time?

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

Alberta – A Peek Down Below

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ALBERTA – A Peek Down Below

During my annual jaunt to the Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade one of the woodys that always catches my eye is the 28’6” classic launch – Alberta, designed and built in 1913 by HN Burgess in Parnell, Auckland.

I have featured her on WW twice, WW links below, there is lots of older photos and details there.

Now thanks to Ian McDonald and a tme listing we get to see down below.

WW 2014 Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/05/30/alberta/

WW 2016 Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/08/28/kiakoa-alberta-1923-summer-cruise/

Like Varnish? – This Will Whet Your Appetite 

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Like Varnish? – This Will Whet Your Appetite 

Todays story is a photo essay from the recent Canadian CYA – Fleet Rendezvous at Ganges, Salt Spring Island and comes to us from the camera of Cecila Viktoria Rosell.

Enjoy – oh to have a marina like that. As always, click on photos to enlarge 😉

Sad and happy to see that Mike O’Brian has found a new custodian for Euphemia II, I had the pleasure of hosting Mike and Peggy in Auckland a few years ago. Special people and a special boat. The photo below records the transfer of ownership.

Check out the entire CYA Canada fleet here https://classicyacht.org/cya-register

Fingers crossed we get similar weather for the Woody Classic Weekend cruise to Clevedon on the 17>18th Sept

Colleen – Launch Day

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JAN

Boat builder Alan Craig (Craig Marine) sent in todays’ gallery of photos of the Brin Wilson designed launch – Colleen owned by Bill Stevenson. We see her being launched at Lake Tarawera where she still resides today. Appears that there were a few challenges with the lake level.

Colleen is a near sister ship to the other Stevenson family launch – Jan, refer photos below. Jan is maintained in an as new condition, some credit for this goes to Alan who has repainted and varnished the whole boat at different stages.

Also keen to ID the launch that is helping drag her off.

INPUT ex Hamish Moore “I have spoken with Mother on this, Jocelyn Stevenson. Seems you have amended some of the points already. – Typo, Spelling of the family name. ‘Stevenson’

Some info what what Jocelyn can recall;

Colleen was on Lake Rotoiti for a few years prior to been relocated to lake Tarawera, possibly up to 5yrs.

The launching of Colleen shown here could be at Lake Rotoiti and the little Tug boat could well be Sir Williams first boat on Lake Rotoiti, un-confirmed and details of the vessel unknown.

A notable mentioned needs to go to Norm Keane who was a local boat builder that Sir William employed to maintain all the boats, including Jocelyn in Auckland, and his property at Lake Rotoiti and I’d say Colleen while still in the family ownership. If I recall correctly one of your articles in the past may have mentioned Norm Keane.

Last I heard, Colleen has had some work done over the years and some of which was completed by Danny Pearce boatbuilding out of Rotorua. I’ve lost contact with Danny. However we had attempted to head down and cast an eye over Colleen but life just got to busy.

Jan remains in family ownership, by Sir Williams Grand daughter.

It would be fantastic to see some photos and and article on Colleen if you managed to shake down someone who has the knowledge and contact.”

Blue Seas

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BLUE SEAS

The above photo popped up in my ‘odds and sods’ file – it is dated late Jan 2022 so may have been from when I was helping deliver – Korawai to the BOI. But the photos code tells me it was taken on a Samsung device and I do not touch those, so maybe one of the other crew.

Anyway the launch is most likely named – Blue Seas, can anyone tell us if that is her name and any more intel about her.

INPUT ex Graham Hunter – She is still named BLUE SEAS Waiheke Island is also on the transom. She is now on a Mooring in Whakatakata Bay By OBC

25-07-2022 Input below from Chris Cotter (co-owner)

MY LIPS ARE SEALED – NO NAMES

If you need more proof on why not to bond your wooden boat and attach anodes – have a look below – luckily it was very localised. Very scary, the rudder shaft and surrounding area was VERY close to just not being there and you can guess what would have happened.

And if you need more read the most referenced story on the WW site – link below

https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/11/20/what-does-electrochemical-deterioration-in-a-wooden-boat-look-like/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/12/30/electro-chemical-damage-in-wooden-boats-update-revisited/

28-07-2022 UPDATE – Looking a lot healthier 🙂

30-07-2022 UPDATE – All fixed 🙂