Category Archives: 32′>34′

Korawai

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KORAWAI
Yesterday we ran a story on Jim Greenaway. Jim & wife Lesley owned Korawai in Tauranga from about 1973 to 1981 / 82.
Jim’s main trade was a cabinet maker but he was also a semi-pro boat builder and did a lot of work on Korawai – new galley, teak deck, etc. The family spent many weeks aboard her – including five weeks or so at a stretch every summer at Mercury Island.
Korawai was built by Owen Woolley in 1962 for a F. Niel of Bridge St, Panmure. She is a sister ship tp Taree. Previous owners include Beau Farrell. I photo below I took in January, 2010, anchored off Oneroa, Waiheke Island. (details ex Harold Kidd & Colin Pawson)
Do we know where she is now?
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Pontiac

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PONTIAC
I have been sent the above brilliant collection of photos by Paul and Valerie Somerville of their 1910 launch Pontiac, built by McPhersons, Frederick St, Dunedin, for a publican in Pt Chalmers. She was originally named Reremoana. Family history says in the 1920’s it passed on to a farmer at Moeraki who used it as a fishing vessel.
In the 1930’s the Gillies family of Oamaru took ownership and it remained with them for 3 generations, and was very well maintained, until the mid 1990’s when the Somerville’s purchased her and put it on it’s present mooring in Church Bay, Lyttelton Harbour.
At some early stage the Gilles changed the name to Pontiac. Maybe they had the Pontiac dealership and had installed a Pontiac engine. Still on the boat are other Pontiac marine fittings such as navigation lights cast in the shape of an Indian Chiefs head.
The boat is of single skin kauri, 10 metres long and with a 2.5m beam. The cabin structure and auxillary gaff rig seem to be original and there are many original fittings. The current engine is a BMC Commander 4 cylinder diesel.
Paul has no information whatever about McPherson the builder or of any other McPherson boats still existing.  He has seen similar looking hulls around the Otago Peninsular and further south, but that’s about it.
Paul commented that Pontiac is a wonderful sea going vessel and has given him family a lot of pleasure over the last 25 years, as he’s sure it did for the Gillies over their 60 years of ownership.
From top to bottom (L>R) the photo captions are:
1. Up the Lords River Stewart Island  c.1950’s/1960’s?
2. Helping out at “Scotts Own” sea scout regatta Oamaru. c.1960’s/1970’s?
3. In the Lyttelton haulout area 2017.
4.Pontiacs control panel.
5. The engineroom.
6. Heading down the harbour with the grandkids.
Paul & Valerie would love to hear any more historical information or anecdotes about Pontiac. Any Woodys able to contribute ?
Input from Harold Kidd – E.A.Gillies was indeed the Pontiac agent in Oamaru at the time when GM built them as one step up from the Chevrolet (even though they had a side-valve 6 or 8). McPherson was the foremost yacht and launch builder in Dunedin (not Port Chalmers) for many years. Pontiac did several offshore trips, for example to Akaroa in January 1939 and, in January 1940, to Stewart Island, which was probably when the top pic was taken..
10-07-2018 More input: Reremoana was at Moeraki in 1936; broke down, got blown out to sea but rescued. Gillies bought her shortly after. He had just got the Pontiac agency so was shouting it to the rooftops. (see dealer ad from paper past below)
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The Gall Of Some People
On Saturday I took Raindance for a jaunt to the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour – the John Wellsford Small Craft group were having a rally to the Riverhead Hotel & wanted to get some photos of the event for WW. 
One of the meeting points was the new public wharf alongside the Salthouse Yard, & while waiting for the JW boats to turn up > launch, I sat off the wharf in Lucas Creek. A gent with a camera walked down the wharf & took a few photos of Raindance.
Last night via a facebook post on the JW fb page I realised the person taking the photos was Paul Gilbert.
I sent him a private message & asked if it was him & if so I could have a photo of Raindance. I said I took 1000’s of photos of classic Woodys but had very few of my own boat.
His answer is below – I have never meet him but all his reply did was confirm everything I have heard about the man………………….
For the record I have never refused or charged any boat owner for a photo I have taken of their boat. But then, I’m a nice guy 😉
And if you read this Paul Gilbert, fyi – another 15,000+ people will have read it today as well 🙂
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Waitoa

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WAITOA – The Real Deal 
Back in March 2017, I run a story on a yacht that according to Ken Ricketts was Waitoa, it all got a little complicated & I won’t even attempt to sort it out. If your interested you can see / read it here (remember to read the comments section)
Yesterday Murray McGehan sent me he great photo above of Waitoa which Murray states (correctly) is the real , Seen in this photo c.1948-49 at Okahu Bay. Owners Merv (cockpit) and Ron McGehan (companion way).
The boats cabin top remained in this configuration until at least 1972 when the cabin coaming height was increased about two and a half inches. The eliptical cabin windows remained untouched and probably HDK can confirm that this did look a little unbalanced. After Murray talked to  subesequent owners it was felt that the current dog house was added c.1977, probably under Mike Vinning’s (Picton Shipbroker) ownership. Waitoa has had at least two owners since Mike, one was Andre Ludwig who Murray kept in contact with.
Waitoa was built by Charlie Hardman in St Mary’s Bay (not Phil Barton who Murray believes had a yard at Bayswater). Alan has some photo’s of the original launch day with the boat alongside the St Mary’s Bay Wharf. When he recovers them from storage & scans (Box Brownie) them I will add them to this story.
Ron was Murray’s father and he was lucky enough to sail on the boat in the seventies under Gordon Reynolds ownership, so Murray can confirm that at that time the basic configuration of Waitoa was unchanged from launch in 1947 even still having the original Stewart Turner petrol auxilary, this has now been changed to a Droffin diesel.
09-07-2018 Harold Kidd Input – Phil Barton, and his father Henry before him, had a yard in St Mary’s Bay to the west of Jas Clare’s/Collings & Bell’s yard since 1900 except for a period around 1916-24 when they were in the US and Leon Warne rented the shed. When the yard was closed in 1955 during the construction of the Harbour Bridge approaches Phil moved to his big shed on the water at the foot of his property at Beachhaven. He was never at Bayswater. Phil built some fine keel yachts until 1955 at St Mary’s Bay and his handsome motor sailer WOODWIND at Beachhaven.
Charlie Hardman was a noted centreboard builder, 18 footers in the main.
If he built WAITOA at St Mary’s Bay it had to be at Phil Barton’s yard.
She was for sale at Picton in 1990 as designed by Bob Stewart and built by Phil Barton. I think Phil had a hand in her building at least.
A Wasted Day
I took Raindance for a run up to Herald Island yesterday to grab some photos of the John Wellsford Small Craft Design owners club day out to the Riverhead Hotel – don’t know what happened but there was no one at the meeting spot / time they published on facebook – bloody yachties 😦
The St Ayles Skiff rowing group were at the Riverhead, photo below of the fleet tied up at the pub wharf. Would have been a fun trip rowing back after a few hydraulic sandwiches 😉
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1926 N. Herreshoff designed NY40 MARILEE – 2 Year Restoration + Insights into the Herreshoff world
I posted this link last Sunday but only 386 of you viewed it – I would encourage you to check it out, its a 10/10 in my book & Chris McMullen watched it twice so its a goody.
A Sad Day
Woody Greg Schultz contacted me to say he had a good mate die and now has the sad task of finding new owners for his fleet one of which is a wooden 18ft John Wellsford Pilgrim, decked in cutter, photo below. Looks in excellent condition and only about 4 years old. Includes a brand new galvanised trailer, outboard and very reasonably priced at $9999. These are great yachts & at this price it won’t hang around long. Wouldn’t surprise me given John W’s international following if an Aussie / American doesn’t buy it & ship it off shore.
More photo’s & details ex Greg via email.      itzgreg@xtra.co.nz
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Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

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Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

As I’ve send many times before, if your want a stunning day weather wise, schedule a Classic Yacht Association event – the hit rate must be 9/10.

Over 100 CYA members & friends made the trip north to Lees Boatbuilders at Sandspit – our host for the day, Greg Lees, turned on a brilliant woody event – we had everything – woody projects underway, the best collection of 1/2 models I seen outside of the RNZYS walls, a photo montage recording the history of the yard & the vessels built over the years.

 Center stage was Jenny & Angus Rogers – Mahanui, in the shed for a new deck, alongside her was a very original Chris Craft that was getting a restoration. 

The varnish guru Dale has already applied 23 coats, with 6 more to come. Compared to our old girls, these American woodys are very lightly built, amazing that so many have survived.

Outside we had Anna & Nic Davidson’s – Juanita, on one slip & Barbara & David Cooke’s woody flagship – Trinidad, alongside the wharf. In midstream was Yvonne, waiting her turn in the shed.

On the hard was a selection of small craft built by either Greg, his father Tim or other local craftsman. Not woodys but certainly classic were Greg’s two English built, aluminium Albatross runabouts – the very rare 4 seater is next on Greg’s to-do list. Included are a few photos of other woodys in or out of the water.

Greg gave an articulate talk on his families boatbuilding history & how they came to be situated on the Sandspit foreshore. At the end he announced the official launch of the 2018 Rudder Cup launch race to be run on Friday 14th December to Sail Rock & back. See flyer below, I encourage all woody owners to consider participating. At this stage we (I’m on the race committee, along with Jason Prew, Nathan Herbert, Baden Pascoe & Barbara & David Cooke) are calling for expressions of interest in racing – entry to the race is by invitation, as per the original race format in 1908.

 Big ups to Greg & family + staff for turning on the day, including BBQ. Special thanks also to the CYA committee members that pulled it all together. 

Lastly a little something below for the petrol heads – Greg had on display his Jesser BSA 500cc twin, hill climb racer. Built in 1962 by Les Jesser, she is a 2 time Australian  class champion. 

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CYA Rudder Cup 2018 flyer

Doreen > Haku > Coquette

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DOREEN > HAKU > COQUETTE

The top photo above (ex Lew Redwood fb > Winkeman – Akl Museum) shows the 1912 Arch Logan built launch Doreen, named after Arch’s sister, later to became Haku & then Coquette (as she is today).

Coquette was the ‘base’ for the Logan 33 f/glass production boats.  In the second photo (ex Alan Good), we see her c.1945, sporting her WWII reporting number – 201. Also of interest in this photo is the addition of the dodger fitted in the summer of 1926/27 during Fred Cooper’s ownership period. Fred also installed a 25/40 sleeve-valve Loew-Knight engine at the same time. (details ex Harold Kidd)

You can see & read more at the links below

https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/15/coquette/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/03/29/coquette-4-sale/

Kingfish

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KINGFISH

Anyone looking for a bargain classic woody? Kingfish is listed on trademe (thanks Ian McDonald) with a $1 reserve & an oh to familiar tale “its leaking and sinking and due to a marriage breakup its not getting the love it needs” 

I can tell you she was built in 1914, is double skinned kauri, measures approx. 33’ in length, & powered by a 120hp diesel.

The owner is after a quick sale as the bilge pumps are shot. Listing details here https://touch.trademe.co.nz/motors/listing/view/1639329557

Sorry about the quality of the interior photos – but thats all that was available.

Interested to learn more about Kingfish – anyone able to help?

Input from Harold Kidd & photos below from Cameron Pollard

I’m certain KINGFISH has been on here before. She was built by H.N. Burgess at Judges Bay in 1914 as a hybrid yacht/launch, expressly for game fishing and spent her early life based in Gisborne and Tauranga. Unrecognizable from her original configuration with quite a big rig.

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27-05-2018 Input from Dave Butler – Kingfish was owned by Jack Peat from Te Puna who had it moored in Tauranga harbour in the 60’s. He was a member of the Tauranga game fishing club and I have numerous photos of him and crew with marlin, makos, and threshers caught near mayor island. Kingfish was powered by a Gadyver engine? which Jack replaced. He gave me the old prop because the new engine revolved the drive shaft in the opposite direction. Jack sold her in 1972 and she was moored at the new marina in Tauranga harbour for several years after that.

11-06-2018 – Update. I can report that Kingfish has joined the Pollard fleet & has already been given some TLC , refer photos below hauled out + photos of her being retrieved for the trip ‘home’.

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Moata & Caprice

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MOATA & CAPRICE

Todays photos are from Bruno Redwood’s facebook page & show the 1937 Moata anchored in the Clevedon River c.1965, the river was ‘in flood’ at the time. The 2nd photo also shows the 34’ launch Caprice, built in 1916 by the Grandisin Bros. 

The last photo, just of Caprice c.1966, again on the Clevedon. 

You can view / read more on Caprice here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/29/the-launch-caprice-silver-bay-waiheke-island/

And Moata here https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/04/04/moata/