The 1946 Lidgard built 32’ classic wooden launch MONTEREY has been a regular member of my boating inner circle over the last 20 years of classic boating.
MONTEREY changed hands last year and over winter has been getting a refresh down below. Relax the above photos may appear a tad ‘refrigerator’ in colour but most of the timber trim and furnishing have been removed so the next photos we share she will look smarter.
Monterey is currently hauled out at the Slipway Milford for a Jason Prew Paint Job (JPPJ) and removing the decades of built up antifoam from her bottom. While out some of the systems and thru-hulls will be upgraded.
Very happy to see MONTEREY getting the TLC she deserves and hopefully more photos soon.
Two of my favourite MONTERY photos from the past below ❤️ (The stern signage was ex me having a quiet day in the studio)
Back in July 2018 we ran a story on the 1910 classic wooden launch – PONTIAC, at the time we generated an enormous amount of intel on the vessel – link belowJul 2018 – https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/07/09/pontiac/
Now thanks to Ian McDonald’s eagle eye spotting a tme listing we get a greater look at PONTIAC. What we have learnt is PONTIAC was built by McPhersons, Frederick St, Dunedin, for a publican in Pt Chalmers. She was originally named REREMOANA. Built of single skin carvel kauri, 33′ long and with a 8’3″ beam.The current engine is a BMC Commander 4 cylinder diesel that gets her along at8 knots.
Amazing only 2 owners in that last 90 year – one 30 years and the other 60 years.
2025 KAWAU ISLAND SPRING SPLASH REGATTA – A WOODY WEEKEND TO REMEMBER – 50+ PHOTOS
Pleased to report that the long weekend’s woody action at Kawau Island was an absolute triumph. Now in its second year, the Spring Splash Regatta — a joint venture between the Kawau Boating Club, Ponsonby Cruising Club, and Waitematawoodys — continues to grow in both size and spirit.
It’s still early days for what’s shaping up to be a great annual tradition, but this year’s event had an unmistakably upbeat, jaunty vibe. Everywhere you looked, people were smiling, swapping yarns, and clearly having a great time afloat and ashore.
I’ll apologise up front for being light on the yacht racing and prize-giving coverage — for reasons I won’t bore you with — but rest assured, the competition and camaraderie were both in full swing.
Sunday’s Woodys Classic Parade was the visual highlight of the weekend, showcasing a handsome flotilla of 17 classic launches for all those anchored in Bon Accord Harbour and watching from waterfront properties. Aside from a brief 10-minute burst of H₂O at the start, the weather came right and the parade looked spectacular.
A big thank you to the classic skippers and crews who took part — your efforts made for a great show.
Helming a boat among moored craft while trying to take photos is a fine line between “challenging” and “slightly reckless,” so I’m especially grateful to Dean Watchlin, Murray Deeble and Richard Bicknell for sharing their superb photos from the weekend.
Enjoy today’s gallery — loosely divided into two parts: the weekend’s happenings and the Sunday Parade. Sorry if the cameras missed your boat – some joined the parade midway and some departed midway. The crew of KAIKOURA below, correctly attired for the occasion 🙂
Leaving the Whangārei Maritime Festival on Saturday, I made the rookie mistake of thinking, “I know a shortcut.” I didn’t. Instead, I found myself deep in the industrial maze of Port Whangārei.
The upside? I stumbled across a couple of woodys hauled out at Oceania Marine — home to the biggest travel-lift I’ve ever laid eyes on.
Tucked away among a line-up of serious commercial tonnage was today’s mystery classic wooden launch. She’d clearly had some recent TLC and looked about ready to be splashed again.
I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the generous helping of zinc hanging off her stern gear… seems the message about no / over-zincing hasn’t quite made it this far north yet! 😅
So, woodys — what do we know about this mystery craft? Any sharp-eyed locals able to share her name and history?
15-10-2025 UPDATE ex owner – Launches name is VALIENT, once called PLAY-BOY, Possibly built by Bailey & Lowe. 32′ in length. Has spent several extend stints as a long-line fishing boat. Once owned by the RSA Fishing Club in Whangarei, they did the name change. In a previous life was moored in the Waitangi river. Currently powered by a Nissan diesel.Has undergone a rolling restoration with lots of structural work, which included over 800 new copper rivets.
WOODEN CLASSICS TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT THE 2025 WHANGAREI MARITIME FESTIVAL
Early Saturday morning I pointed the car north and arrived in Whangārei just in time to catch the soft early light — perfect for photography and well before the dockside crowds arrived.
Whangārei’s Town Basin really is the ideal setting for a maritime festival — easy dock access, great viewing angles, and plenty of nearby cafés and attractions. Add in the buzz of the Saturday markets and you’ve got all the ingredients for a standout event.
Wooden boat numbers were a little down on last year, but a few visiting commercial vessels — including Customs, Pilot boats, fishing craft and a pair of Waka — helped round out the fleet. From a public point of view, it was still an impressive line-up. Given the number of classic boats that have migrated north in recent years, it would be great to see more of the region’s wooden heritage on display next time around.
It was great to catch up with so many familiar faces — clearly the new highway was busy with Aucklanders heading north for the weekend.
All up, a thoroughly enjoyable day. Hopefully today’s photo gallery will inspire a few more of you to make the trip in 2026.
And there is always a few foody pix – hands down the best two seafood fritters ever – one mussel and the star – one whitebait. And a free KOWHAI coffee because she liked my WW t-shirt.
FYI – when I’m at an event I point the camera at what catches my eye , sometimes I miss a few boats but I like to think the photos are more like someone strolling the docks rather than someone trying to capture the whole caboodle 🙂
MYSTERY AT LAKE TAUPO – IS MOTORBOAT SUSIE BELLE COMING OR GOING+ Labour Weekend Classic Wooden Boating Info
On a recent trip to Taupo to check out his flotilla of lake boats, Jason Prew spotted SUSIE BELLE on the back of a transporter. Given the heavy rain, JP wasn’t able to ascertain whether the launch was arriving or leaving Taupo. Anyone able to confirm if there is a new owner and where she calls home these days.
From the 2024 story we learnt that SUSIE BELLE is 34’ in length, designed by Don Brooke and built by Gary Wheeler. The built year is 1986 and whilst we understand built from wood, , plywood + there is a very thick layer of paint aka f/glass. Power is via a 60hp Isuzu diesel.
INPUT ex TREVOR COPPOCK – I spotted Susie Belle passing Wynyard Point on 17 September with a “For Sale” sign on her rails.
INPUT ex PAUL DRAKE – Photo is at Motuoapa. Not previously seen at Taupo, so she is either coming or simply passing through.
03-10-2025 UPDATE ex Jay Brosnahan (Jays Towing & Boat Haulage) has advised SUSIE BELLE is sitting on his transport trailer atm and she will be getting dropped into Motuoapa Marina (Taupo/Turangi) next week to live.
04-10-20225 update ex JAY BROSNAHAN – Haul Out
07-10-2025 Splash day at Motuoapa
BOATING THIS LABOUR WEEKEND – Join Us At Kawau Island
Labour Weekend (Oct 24>27) is fast approaching so time to lock away cruising plans. After the success of last years inaugural Waitematawoodys Classic Boat Parade at the Kawau Boating Club Spring Splash Regatta weekend, WW is pleased to confirm that we are again partnering with KBC and the Ponsonby Cruising Club to make the holiday weekend extra special.
We encourage all skippers to take part in the weekend – whether entering your yacht in the weekends races or cruising to Kawau to enjoy the Island / KBC vibes.
If you haven’t visited the KBC in recent years you’re in for a treat, it is truely a stunning waterfront venue with hospitality + food and beverages unmatched in NZ.
Full weekend details in the downloadable PDF file below, which includes the entry (free) form for the sailing events.
REFLECTIONS ON THE 2025 PORT TOWNSEND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL– 80+ Photos / Videos
One of the bucket list classic wooden boating events is the annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. From all reports the 2025 event was outstanding. While its easy to go on-line and find a link to a professional overview, in my eye there is something special about viewing a festival attendees collection of boats – sure the light or camera angle isn’t alway perfect but you get a raw edge, which appeals.
Today thanks to kiwi John Oates we get to share what appealed to John’s eye.
One of the festival features that sets it apart from a lot of events is the ability to go aboard the boats and talk to the owners. There is something for everyone – food & drink, live music, kids activities, movie screening and lots of opportunities to get on the water.
One of this years ket themes was tagged – ‘A Gathering of Maritime Legends: Celebrating Shipwrights’. The festival brought together shipwrights from some of the world’s most iconic maritime institutions—craftspeople who keep the art of wooden boatbuilding alive with skill, heart, and tradition.Via a mix of talks, presentations and hands on gatherings where the public were able to rub up against the legends.
Enjoy the gallery – I did. As always click on photos to enlarge ;-
Ps John has promised another photo report featuring more classic sail boats ✔️
TRADITIONAL CLASSIC BOATS MOORED ON THE WAIROA RIVER
Following on from yesterday’s story on the annual Classic Wooden Boat Cruise to the Clevedon Cruising Club, as promised today we share the wooden craft passed moored on the Wairoa River.
Many are semi permanent residents and its interesting to see what (if any) work has been undertaken in the previous 12 months. All too often these back waters can become parking lots for owners that object to lining the back pockets of the Auckland marina owner fat cats. So it was nice to see most skippers are keeping up the maintenance on their craft, and pleasing to see a lot of ’new’ arrivals.
Enjoy the gallery – photo quality varies as the first click was at 6.30am and the light improved as the journey progressed up river. As always click on photos to enlarge.
CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT CLEVEDON SPRING CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS
A tad weary writing this story so it will be short and I’ll let the photos tell the story.The weekend just gone saw a fleet of classic wooden craft making the pilgrimage to the CLEVEDON CRUISING CLUB for the annual woodys overnight BBQ.
As always the tide wags the dogs tail so we were looking at a very early trip up the Wairoa River, by early try 6.15am. The smart woody skippers travelled down Friday afternoon and anchored overnight at the river mouth. A great sunset delivered some nice photos.
I took photos of the classic woodys moored on route, it is always interesting to view the deterioration of some craft and the new arrivals. Will do a story on the river trip tomorrow.
Most of Saturday was spent boat hoping and catching up on dockside gossip. Rest assured if you weren’t there you were talked about.Captain Giddens hosted late afternoon drinks on ALLERGY and then we moved onto the clubrooms for the evening.
If you haven’t been to a Woody gig at the CCC its an all-embracing old school night shindig – bbq’s, outdoor fires, karaoke with a professional singer that could make even the worst shower singer sound ok. There are raffles, which I have to report the woodys skippers did very well at – Captain Giddens collecting 4 prizes. Everything is BYO but the club very generously provide additional food and an impressive dessert table.
Departure home on Sunday was almost as early as Saturday and the forecast wasn’t flash eh N>30 knots. I can’t speak for the others but it wasn’t the very pleasant and if it wasn’t bolted down it ended up on the cabin floor 😦
A big shout out to the classic yachts that joined the flotilla this year, with access to the local knowledge of Barry Abel, the deeper draft yachts had an uneventful passage on the river . Special thanks to all the woodys that attended by car, your company added to the evening.
Enjoy the photos and start thinking about the Spring Splash At Kawau Island on Labour Weekend.
Todays woody story comes to us from Denis O’Callahan via the November 1958 edition of Sea Spray magazine.One of the craft featured was the 34’ motor launch KALAMERA, built c.1958 by Alan (Snow) Water in Takapuna, Auckland. She was built for a gent named Jack Bennent of Paeroa. Her intended home port/s was listed as Coromandel /Whangamata, where she was to be used primarily for sport fishing.
Built of single skin (full length) 1″ kauri carvel planks, her specs were 34 x 10’6” x 3’6”.
When launched a 40hp Ford diesel powered her and given her size, gave a respectable 9 knots.
The question today woodys is what became of her post launching – did she get to Coromandel, and where has she been since. Maybe a name change. Keen to learn more.
AHEADS UP ON THE POPULARITY OF WAITEMATAWOODYS.COM
Just received the latest report on the visitation / viewing numbers for the month of August.
VISITORS – UP 13%
VIEWS – UP 84% – The highest month ever, a WW record.
Great growth with Australian readers – has been climbing for the last 3 months – 385%+ growth and maintaining the new readers. Still can’t crack the UK market 😦 get better numbers out of Italy ✓
Thanks for logging in each day. And as always please send in any woody related content.
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