CLASSIC WOODY CRUISING AT WHANGAROA
Recently Bay of Islands woody Dean Wright had headed up the coast to Whangaroa Harbour and being a professional photographer by trade his camera was never far from hand. So today we get to enjoy more of the B.O.I.’s woody fleet at play.
The ex workboat looking craft has done a few laps, anyone know her name / history.
And of course the magnificent 1920 built LUANA………the best looking boat to come out of the MT Lane shed 🙂
WHAT DO ALL THESE CLASSIC WOODEN CRAFT HAVE IN COMMON
As I have noted recently on WW the classic wooden boating scene in the Bay of Islands is experiencing a re-birth. Seems one in three woodys the Wooden Boat Bureau has sold in the last 2 years has headed north. And recently the woody skippers have been organising events to show case the woody movement in the B.O.I. – we like that.
At the recent Russell Tall Ships Regatta on the Friday prior to the sailing regatta there was a Classic Launch Parade that had 13 woodys participating. Post the parade one of the skippers pointed out the % of woody craft that owed their good looks to time spent at the CMC Design – Boatbuilders Opua yard. So I did a count and in recent times and in no particular order the following woodys have been under the care of the talented crew at CMC Design – LADY CROSSLEY, KORAWAI, OTEHEI, MARLINE and ALMA G II.
Now they aren’t the only boatbuilders up north but they seem to get the cream of the work. When you factor in haul-out yard costs in the greater Auckland area, a wee road trip on one of the specialist boat haulage trucks isn’t the budget stumbling block it once was.
If todays WW story reads like an ad, I suppose it is, I’m passionate about seeing our classic fleet get the TLC they deserve.
Check out the CMC website – some great work-in-process photos on their work + its not all boats, some stunning architectural and commercial wood work. https://www.cmcdesign.co.nz/marine
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH NGAHI GETS SOME TLC
Dropped into the Slipway Milford earlier in the week and the timing was perfect – the Dick Lang built launch NGAHI was being hauled out for some TLC and system improvements.
In previous WW stories there has been a lot of debate re the boats provenance, would be nice to confirm the builder and put a year to launching.
The Slipway Milford had a full quota of woodys on the yard – the JB Brooke designed and built yacht – GLEAM, now back in the Brooke family armada.
Along side NGAHI is the 35’6” Lane Motor Boat Co. 1945 launch – HANI (Wanda II) getting some serious TLC.
Both GLEAM and HANI are on display at next months Auckland Wooden Boat Festival, no doubt the marine chandlers are doing a good trade in varnish at the moment 🙂
SERIOUSLY……………… During a peek down below on NGAHI I spotted some VERY dodgy fittings – refer below. No seacocks and single jubilee clips the only thing between floating and joining the submariners club……………. you’d like to think this wasn’t a ‘professional’ installation.
UPDATE – That was quick, looking more fitting of an ocean going craft 😉
BAY of ISLANDS CLASSIC WOODYS – KERIKERI INLET RAID
Last weekend a few of the B.O.I.’s classic launch skippers gathered for a cruise up the Kerikeri Inlet to raft up at the Stone Store for a catch up. The real reason was a session at the Plough & Feather waterfront pub.
One of the WW cub reporters – Grant Gibbs was aboard KORAWAI to record the event.
I note from the photos that a couple of ‘visitors from Hawkes Bay’ managed to tag along, but we will turn a blind eye to that.
I’ll comment more on the Bay of Islands woody scene in Mondays upcoming story.
PARADE 🔻
PICNIC 🔻
2026 LAKE ROTOITI CLASSIC & WOODEN BOAT PARADE + PICNIC – Report. 140 photos
As the photos will quickly confirm, Saturday 7 February delivered near-perfect conditions for the Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Association’s annual gathering. While the event unfolds over four days, it’s the Saturday on-the-water get-together that remains the undisputed highlight.
From a photographer’s point of view, wall-to-wall sunshine and tricky angles don’t always play nicely with timber and varnish. So, if I’ve missed your boat or the images aren’t quite showroom-perfect, my apologies — I was doing my best to keep up with a lot of very good-looking boats.
The day naturally divides into two acts: the Parade, followed by the Picnic. A few familiar regulars were absent this year, but they were more than ably replaced by some truly stunning “new” additions to the fleet, making for an impressive and varied lineup on the water.
Sit back, enjoy the gallery, and soak up a little Lake Rotoiti magic. As always click photos to enlarge.
Special thanks to David & Glenys Wilson for the generous loan of a boat for the day 🙂
PERFECT WEATHER, PERFECT WEEKEND FOR WOODEN BOATING
Today’s story is a potpourri from the weekend. A good forecast had a lot of woodys slipping the dock lines and heading out. Some were at Kawau for the sailing activity there and a lot dropped anchor at Rakino Island.
Because I’m sure I was spotted – I’ll own up to my worst anchoring exhibition in Woody Bay, just couldn’t get it to dig in. Made worse by the number of craft. Gave up and retreated to West Bay- less boats and a better % of woodys at anchor. BUT – I made a novice mistake – anchored close to a large plastic US import with a petrol genset. I quote the owner “everyone tells me it sounds like a Massey Ferguson tractor “ – IT DID 😦
Experienced a stunning Rakino sunset on Saturday night.
VISITING USA WOODY
Over the last 2 weeks we have had one of the USA’s nicest wooden boating ambassadors – Bob Yaro visiting NZ Aside from being a great guy, Bob has some serious tags to his name – Chairman of the Herreshoff Marine Museum & America’s Cup Hall of Fame in Bristol, Rhode Island.
We had big plans to host Bob and friends aboard Angus Rogers – CENTAURUS for the Mahurangi Regatta but the weather gods dealt to that plan – so Bob’s been lunched on CENTAURUS in Auckland and had a day cruise on Margo and Jamie Hudson’s – LADY CROSSLEY up in the Bay of Island. The woody web is world wide 🙂
THE PARADE
CLASSIC WOODEN MOTORBOAT RACING ON THE WAITEMATA HARBOUR – Auckland Anniversary Regatta
After the disappointment of a cancelled Mahurangi Regatta weekend I was chafing at the bit to get out on the water.
Being Auckland Anniversary Day yesterday , I secured a spot aboard Jason Prew’s classic launch MY GIRL – WW readers will be aware that MY GIRL holds the title of fastest classic wooden launch on the Waitemata.
So at 11am we were on the start line for the classic launch inner harbour race – start off RNZYS > down to Orakei Bouy > across to Devonport area > back up the harbour to the finish line (aka the start line). Conditions were best described as ok, certainly better than the previous 4 days, overcast, the occasional shower and westerly >20 knots.
This year we were lacking a few of real quick woodys so Mr Prew had the race in hand after 10 seconds. Some close racing with the ‘recently’ re-powered woodies – NGAIO and LUCINDA. Do not have the handicap results but line honours went to MY GIRL / NGAIO / LUCINDA. All serviced at The Slipway Milford yard so a nice trifecta.
Earlier in the morning the tug/workboats put on their normal spectacular performance – see below.
The parade of sail was bolstered by several classic woodys that did not race – parade photos second group above.
Enjoy the photo gallery, light on the winning boat, always is when the bloke with the camera is aboard the favourite 😉
As always – photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
RACE RESULTS – MY GIRL collects line and handicap honours
TUGBOAT RACE
WHERE IS THE MOTOR-SAILER SOUTHERN BELLE TODAY
Todays woody story features the 35’ ketch rigged motorsailer- SOUTHERN BELLA, launched in 1960. She featured in the August 1961 edition of Sea Spray magazine.
In the top photo we see her preparing for launching at the Devonport Yacht Club. In the Sea Spray article , below, they described her as amateur designed and built by Barney and Peter Soljak (father & Son), alongside they Devonport home.
When launched she was powered by a 50hp BMC Commodore Diesel engine + a 4.5hp Lister auxiliary engine.
(Story and photos ex Sea Spray magazine via Ken Ricketts)
Back in 2019 in another story, DYC related, Chris Leech commented at SOUTHERN BELLE had suffered fire damage and been restored. Chris supplied to photos , the first hauled out at DYC and afloat post repairs. Can we learn more about what happened and what became of SOUTHERN BELLE after this.
2026 RUSSELL CLASSIC TALL SHIPS SAILING REGATTA
Following on from the weekends story on the Russell Boating Club’s classic wooden launch parade (link below), today thanks to BOI photographer – Dean Wright we get to enjoy some stunning photos from the race.
Classic launch parade https://waitematawoodys.com/2026/01/10/bay-of-island-russell-classic-launch-parade/
Later in the week you will be able to view the just of the race fleet here https://russellboatingclub.org.nz/tall-ships.html
To view the full race results click here https://russellboatingclub.org.nz/results/tall_ships_2026.htm
Below is the recently re-launched – MARLINE, the 1949/50’s Leon Warne built classic launch – out following the fleet.
A few of the zoom zommers watching the yacht race
CHRISTMAS 2025 – NEW YEAR 2026 CLASSIC WOODYS CRUISE
I have talked previously about the weather that we all experienced at the start of the annual cruise, so I’ll skip that other than to quote Billy Connolly – “ There’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes”.
Life on a small launch with a wife, dog and a paddle board can be challenging – normally takes us 2>3 days to get used to living in close proximity, but we have managed this for 18+ years. The bad weather days / nights that include having to take the pooch ashore for a pee in 40+ knots at 6am are quickly replaced with good food, good books and good booze 🙂 One of the positives of evil weather forecasts is low boat numbers, when things improved and we moved to Oneroa for a supply stop, the only other craft in the bay was a yacht and that was ‘washed up’ on the beach.
Today is a bit of a photo bomb from the 10 days – anchorages visited, food, boats we saw, boats we nearly bumped into and general good times afloat.
Hopefully the lucky ones are still out there enjoying the weather.
ps check out the woody champagne flute in the last photo – I have the bug bad 🙂
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