Category Archives: 32′>34′

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/

Spindrift – The Build & Launching

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Spindrift – The Build & Launching

On Friday we featured the launch – Spindrift and asked for more details – well as you can see from the above photo gallery we certainly got an answer 🙂
Firstly Spindrift is a new build, launched in early December 2021 – designed by Gary Underwood (design #71) and owner built by Hilton and Melva Ward. 
To quote Hilton she is a 10 metre, multi-chine ply passage maker powered by a 35hp Beta (Kubota) engine.

Hilton has a very informative blog on the whole back story from design to first cruise, link below. I have just ‘cherry picked’ a selection of photos for todays story.  https://thenewspindrift.blogspot.com/?m=1

Spindrift calls Ngunguru Estuary, Northland home, but there are plans for some serious cruising this summer. The build commenced in early 2016, but Underwood did the design work two years prior  – see sketches below + model Hilton made to see how it would look in real life.

As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉

01-06-2024 – photo below ex Natalie Collinson fb anchored at Ngunguru

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 🙂

MANOWAI – Gets A Visit To The Beauty Shop

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MANOWAI – Gets A Visit To The Beauty Shop

The 32’ Lake Rotoiti based launch –  Manowai has been owned by a string of owners that have lavished time and $$ on her. That we know of, this started around 2003 when boat builder Colin Brown undertook major refit, including new interior. Fast forward to 2015 and Manowai has been relocated to Lake Rotoiti (Nth Island) and spends a year in Craig Marines shed where boat builder Alan Craig undertakes a 12 month refurbishment of her interior & exterior. At the same time she was re-powered with a 4 cyl. 40 hp Lombardini diesel.

Now in 2022 she has just emerged from Alan Craig’s shed after some serious TLC and addressed some issues with the steel screws used in her construction. Links below to previous WW stories – lots of photos and chat.

Manowai’s past is a little cloudy but she was possibly built in 1921 by Bailey & Lowe – would be nice to be able to confirm her provenance. 

2013 WW Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/19/manowai/

2015 WW Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/09/14/manowai-2/

Iona II

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IONA II

Todays woody hauled out at the Slipway Milford was a bit of a mystery to me, but a quick google search and – jackpot.

Designed by Bruce Askew and built in 1994 from strip planked wood (+ f/glass’ed) – 36’ x 9’2” x 3’3”. Powered by a 60hp Nissan TD23.

The teak wheelhouse is crying out for some love, I assume it was once oiled.

Calls Milford Creek marina home but a recent arrival from Nelson.

Classic Boating Fallacy

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Classic Boating Fallacy 

I have been meaning to write this story for a long time – one of my biggest frustrations with the classic wooden boating movement is that a lot of classic boat owners have this line on auto play when invited to a classic woody gathering –  “I’ll attend when I have finished doing up the boat” – FACT: 95% of us never finish ‘doing up the boat’ – its a rolling project. 

In the mean time woodys are missing out on catching up with other like minded human beings to – socialise, get advice, swap ideas and most importantly – using their boat.

A couple of weekends ago at Clevedon I was reminded of why we come together when one of the boat owners commented to me how much they appreciated that everyone opened up their boats and invited people on board for a chat. This allowed them to gathering ideas for their own project.

It’s not just dock-side blather – at Clevedon we had woody boat owners there that had the following industry experience – boat building, sail maker, rigger, canopy fabricator, marine insurance consultant and marine brokerage. You can’t access / buy that resource in one place anywhere.

Todays woody is the launch Ngarimu from Thames, been owned by Bruce Rowe for 10+ years and soon to be hauled out and taken home for some serious TLC. Bruce has made the long haul from Thames marina to attend several Woodys events – Riverhead, Clevedon and Paeroa. Each trip the experience helps him get closer to starting the big project. 

UPDATE – In Thames today – photo below very ‘fresh’, first time I’vee been there with the tide in 🙂

So woodys – ditch the Woody events are a beauty pageant attitude and just join in – you won’t regret it 🙂

Below I talk about why I started the WW weblog and the spirit behind it.

Whats the waitematawoodys website all about

Dedicated to the study and appreciation of classic wooden boats. WW was founded upon a desire to tell the stories and a need to the archive history of our classic wooden boats, the craftsman who built them & characters that owned and crewed on them. Visiting this blog is like a bunch of people in the boat club bar, there will be stuff discussed you know, stuff you know nothing about and stuff you want to know more about. That’s what waitematawoodys is about – gathering stories, photos, history, reminiscences.

Seaforth

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SEAFORTH

The launch Seaforth has made a couple of appearances on WW, links below to those stories – the 2015 one has lots of chat and photos.

Woody John Dawson sent in the above photos ex Gareth Dawson and commented that Seaforth had been recently hauled out at Stillwater Boating Club. Fingers crossed she receives the attention she deserves, having spent the last decade looking very sad, either hanging off a Orakei swing mooring or on the hard at Clevedon. Rumour has it she is also a member of the sub mariners club i.e. she sank once on her mooring 😦

Do we know what the plan is? SBC isn’t a yard that allows the ‘parking’ of old boats so she may have changes owners. The photo below is c.1986

Whakatakataka Bay (Orakei) 2015 https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/07/11/mystery-launch-11-07-2015/

Clevedon 2020  https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/08/13/mystery-clevedon-launch/

C.1986

09-04-2023 – Update ec Mikaela Thwaites (owner) – I am the new owner of Seaforth, I am 22 years old and have gotten into boating since my dad introduced me to the lifestyle. I saw her on Marketplace in early September looking a bit sad sitting on the hard in Clevedon. Something about her intrigued me and I knew I just had to have her. My father and I picked her up in Clevedon and took her to be worked on in Stillwater. We have put months of work into her and my dad re-did the caulking, antifouling and we re-did the painting too. We started from scratch. I chose a blue colour for her that really stands out. She has been stripped on the inside as I am planning on revamping the entire exterior and putting the same love into the inside too. She was put back into the water in March and is hardly taking in any water after all the work has been put into her. She absolutely comes to life in the water and she is admired by many.

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