Category Archives: 32′>34′

Woody Trip To The Riverhead Hotel – 30+ classic wooden boat photos

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Woody Trip To The Riverhead Hotel

Yesterday, 14 CYA Woody launches got together to visit the Riverhead Hotel, we had a fantastic turn-out with several ’new’ woodys joining in. Of course Jason Prew’s just relaunched – My Girl, had everyones attention, check out the zoom zoom photos above, that girl can move 🙂
A small tide made for some interesting manoeuvres at times, but no one came to grief (for long)
It was great to see the publican – Stephen Pepperell’s magnificently refitted woody – Volantis, alongside the wharf. She is a stunning ship, but the man does have very good taste.
The hotel was buzzing with a band in the garden bar & great food on offer – from those that I talked to, everyone had a great time. Several CYA members travelled by road, including Margaret & Bert Woolicott, our hosts in 2 weeks at Patio Bay for the Xmas weekend cruise / BBQ, which for me is the coolest event on the CYA calendar – see you there on December 1st.
ps if anyone picked up a small white & blue fender on a long rope, with brass clip – its mine – lost it overboard on the trip up, 1/2 way up the creek 😦
waitematawoodys t-shirts orders – don’t be slow in getting your order in, based on the sales to date I will probably close the order book early 😉

Helene

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HELENE

Today’s woody is Helene, a 33’8”, 1918 Miller & Tunnage ex workboat. Helene has a 9’10” beam & draws 3’3” & is built from solid kauri.

In her trademe listing (thanks Ian McDonald) there is no mention of an engine, I assume there is one………..?

In her past life as a commercial fishing boat she worked out of Akaroa. At some stage someone has done a smart conversation for pleasure use.

Can anyone fill in the gaps as to past & what engine she has?

Harold Kidd Input – The last time she was on Trade Me was in 2010 in Picton. She then had a 80hp Toyota diesel. No comment. 1918 is wrong as she was built in December 1913 for George Currie as a private launch (in fact as an “auxiliary yacht”). I’m not sure Miller & Tunnage were the builders but it’s possible. Miller Bros launched the big Sundstrum launch NORANA the same month (probably the same tide) so it wasn’t them. She was later in Lyttelton around the late 1920s.

Waitematawoodys T-shirts – Now On Sale

LR2016 ww shirts CM

In case you missed yesterdays story, scroll down to read how to ensure you will not be mistaken for a plastic boat person 😊

 

Lady Joan

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A Sad End to Lady Joan
Lady Joan has appeared on WW before (link below + photo at end of story), at the time it was hoped that she would be restored, unfortunately that didn’t happen & now she is looking like be a scrapped for parts. Thanks to T Foh who spotted her tucked away on trademe in the motors/boots-marine/parts-accessories/other section. How was anyone ever going to find her there 🙂
There is a lot of chat on the previous WW story as to her possible provenance, read & you decide.
So Woodys, if you are looking for some low cost fitting, check out the trademe listing

https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/29/lady-joan/

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Lady Joan below in WWII livery. Photo ex Ken Ricketts
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Make Sure You Check In On Monday – 2 Lovely Ladies Dip Their Toes In The Brinny

A tease below – from Friday night at Milford Cruising Club slip, before I got distracted in Geoff Bagnall’s ‘lunch’ room 😉

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Cruise To The Riverhead Hotel

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CRUISE TO THE RIVERHEAD HOTEL
If you have not visited the Riverhead Hotel by water, its time you did. The Classic Yacht Association (CYA) has an afternoon cruise to the pub next Sunday (18th). These events are a lot of fun – we head up the river / creek on mass & anchor / raft-up before going ashore for a drink & a catch-up. If you have concerns about the route, just follow the boat in front of you & anchor with the others. There will be plenty of ‘old-hands’ to show you the ropes.
High tide is 16:24pm & so we aim to be heading up the ‘creek’ 2hrs b4 HW, its a small tide at 2.8m so I would imagine we will be meeting up in the Herald Island / Lucus Creek area around 2.00pm, so leaving Westhaven area around 1pm. ETA at pub is 2.30pm & departure from the pub approx 5.30pm.
If you are not a CYA member (yet) come along & see what you have been missing out on.
The photo gallery above is a snap shot of past trips – enjoy.
Ps – Wear your WW shirt 🙂
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Folly III

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FOLLY III

Today’s woody story features a 5’10” video on Folly III, a 33’ cruiser designed by W. Holmes & built by his sons, Reginald & William, c.1920 in Sydney, Australia. Her beam is 9′ & she draws 3′.
I understand Holmes senior was a kiwi builder that moved to Sydney to build bridges & later turned his talents to wooden boats, of all shapes & sizes.
I’m sure HDK will be able to enlighten us on the man.
The Folly III design follows the look of the popular American Lake Union Dream Boats.
The video is beautifully shot in Moreton Bay, Queensland & has a ‘colourful’ commentary from the Folly III owner, Stephen Lake 🙂 Enjoy
Thanks to woody John Sloane for the heads up on the video.

Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

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If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
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Nevada

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NEVADA

Nevada was built in 1942, measures 32’ & is built with split strip kauri planking. Her first role was as a cargo boat for Tauranga Ports, later on she was converted for commercial long line fishing, before being retired for pleasure fishing.
Her zoom zoom is a 135hp Ford Lees diesel.
Home these days is Helensville on the Kaipara & her owner according to the trademe listing (thnx Ian McDonald) was also born in 1942 & the up keep on Nevada is just too much, thence the sale.
Her interior is crying out for some love – for the right price this has the bones of a goof project.
Had a stunning Labour weekend cruise around Waiheke Island, very few woodys out & about, I suspect with the greta forecast, a lot would have headed further north e.g. Kawau Island.
Had the misfortune to get rammed by a rather large vessel that drifted anchor in Man O War Bay on Saturday afternoon – observers say he had very little chain out. A few bumps & scratches, he did come over later on & supplied contact details. Not major damage, just a pain-in-the-ass to have to fix.
Unbelievably I did not take the camera out of its bag the whole weekend. Enjoyed some great hospitality, afloat & ashore. Sunday nights dinners (at the family of good boating friends waterfront island house, was to die for – multiple bbq’s + a smoker = slow cooked beef, chicken & smoked beef spare-rib brisket. Carnivore heaven 🙂
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Champion / Iona

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CHAMPION / Iona

This Wellington woody, is a little the worse for wear – 2 options – bite the bullet & bring her back to life, there is a pretty workboat hull there & she looks like she wouldn’t be afraid of the open sea. 2nd option – as a donor for someone looking for 40hp Gardner L3W to restore. 
 
She started life helping to build flood gates in Taupo for a power station.  
I have had 4 people bring her trademe list to my attention, so there is some interest already. Asking price is $2k.
Her 32’8” hull is kauri & its claimed she is around 100 years old. Not 100% sure her name is Champion, anyone able to confirm?
 
So woodys – project or donor ?

Input ex Tony Brown – I bought the boat as a wreck in 1985 and re-ribbed it and replaced about a third of the planks. Also fitted the 3LW engine. I shifted to Kapiti on 2003 and sold the boat to John Luke. Before Taupo, the boat was at Napier and got stranded on the flats in the 1929 earthquake (where the airport is now) and then got taken to Taupo. There is info in both Napier and Taupo museums. 

John, the present owner has all the historic info as I gave it to him.
I have a spare 3LW and 2UC g/box if any one is interested.. never used in the boat as the installed one was too reliable.
Input from Paul Drake – Built as IONA by Bailey and Lowe for J A McFarlane of Napier (year not known). Named after the island off the West Coast of Scotland where his family came from. Relocated to Taupo after the 1931 Napier earthquake. Name changed to CHAMPION in 1944 when bought by Jack Taylor and put into survey. Left Taupo in late 1950’s. At Porirua harbour in 1970’s and re modeled over a long period of time to her current configuration. Located at Even’s Bay Wellington for some time. Re-named but pleased to see she has reverted to CHAMPION. Unrecognizable now from early days.
Update2 from Paul Drake – photos below of CHAMPION ex IONA. The1st one (b/w) shows her as a charter boat at Taupo under Jack Taylor’s ownership. She was of course built as a flush decker, Paul thinks about 1912, when the raised focsle was becoming the thing. Jack raised the cabin. Later, a wheelhouse was added.
The 2 colour photos show her at the early stage of her long 1980’s transformation when owned by Tony Brown.
Paul also commented that the Taupo Museum has a great photo of IONA being launched at Taupo c.1935, as evidenced by the steamer shed on he Government Wharf in the background of the photo. This shed was replaced by the present wharf offices in 1937. IONA sported the large letter ‘I’ on each side of the bow and a quirky and distinctive gable roofed ‘conning tower’ for the helmsman, which could have passed for a fish safe.
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Harold Kidd Input –  Macfarlane bought her from H H Tocker of Napier and had her trucked to Taupo in April 1935. He changed her name to IONA. The photo below is of IONA on the truck from the NZ Herald on 16/4/1935. She certainly looks very Bailey & Lowe of the period 1912. They built a couple of launches for Napier around this time, one for Davis & Boyd of Hastings in April 1911 and a 30 footer for an unknown owner which was in frame in July 1912.
Most of the Hawkes Bay newspapers’ archives perished in the 1931 earthquake so you have to rely on secondary sources for the period before that. Makes it hard.
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Katie Didit

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KATIE DIDIT

I was mooching around the Milford Cruising Club yard yesterday afternoon checking out the process of Pacific & My Girl.
The answer is Pacific should splash in 2 weeks & My Girl, in early November.
While there I spotted the Grand Banks woody – Katie Didit, from the presentation of her bottom I would say that the x-foul-e-8 team have done the business to below the waterline. An amazing process, smooth as the proverbial ‘babies b_m’
Her teak / mahogany? planking can’t be faulted.
Interesting that she is single screw, I thought most of them were twin screw.
Her stern says Gulf Harbour, what more do me know about her & when she arrived in NZ? There must be an interesting tale behind her name?
19-10-2018 – Input from Brett , the owner.

The came from the American wife of a past owner. The husband was away in the Navy & each week/month when his pay cheque was sent to her she squirrelled some away into a secret bank account.
When hubby came home he told her he wanted to buy a ‘yacht’ & pointed out his dream being a 36’ Grand Banks. While Katie dipped into the fund & bought it for him. Hence the name.
Brett advised that Katie is still alive, in her mid 90’s in San Diego & he has meet her – its a small world 🙂
A couple of Pacific / My Girl photos below – in one we see what really happens down there, Mr Herbert, Prew & Deeble in a deep philosophical chat about what colour anti-fouling 🙂
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Lady Mavis

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Lady Mavis

Ray Sutcliffe

LADY MAVIS
WW was recently contacted by Kathy Makan asking for help in her quest to track down the launch – ‘Lady Mavis’ for which she has been searching for some years now.
Lady Mavis was built by her grandfather Ray Sutcliffe and Kathy spent every moment of her childhood from the day she was born into her 20’s on her.
Lady Mavis started out at 32′ built in Ray’s back yard and was launched in 1954 at Browns Bay (North Shore, Auckland). In 1958 she was lengthened to 42′ at her grandfather’s factory at Barrys Point Road, Takapuna where he built flat bottom boats for flounder fishing and dingys for HC Kitchen Ltd.
Her radio number for calling Music Point was Z.M. 2117.  Kathy believes she was built of kauri with two six cylinder engines.  Ray was appointed an ‘Honorary Launch Warden’ in 1963 under the Harbours Act 1950 by the Minister of Marine.
During summer months she was moored at Waiake Beach in Torbay where they lived and would then be shifted to the Milford Marina during winter. The family cruised extensively to Rangitoto, Tiri, Rakino, Motutapu, Wade River, Kawau Island, Mahurangi River to Warkworth, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel and their favourite the Bay of Islands.
In the photos above we see Lady Mavis & Ray Sutcliffe. Ray’s family were friends with the Fullers from the Bay of Islands and used to go fishing with Mr Fuller on his first launch ‘Udine’.  From his late teens into his twenties Ray used to catch the steamer ‘Clansman’ from Auckland up to the Bay of Islands where he spent his holidays  out on the Fuller’s launch ‘Knoxie’ and going out on the ‘Cream Trip’ as well as other special trips.  He used to stay with the Bullen family who was Mrs Fuller’s sister. Below is a photo of Ray with a kingfish caught on Mr Fuller’s launch ‘Udine’, as well as photos of ‘Knoxie and the ‘Clansman’.
Greatgrandfather Sutchliffe