Category Archives: 35′

Round Rangitoto Island Classic Race and BBQ

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ROUND RANGITOTO ISLAND CLASSIC RACE & BBQ

Saturday was a first (in a long time) on the classic launch scene – we had a launch race around Rangitoto (+ Motutapu) , now a race is not that unusual , but female skippers only (helms person) is – the winning skipper on Kumi would have failed a chromosome test but the race committee (Jason Prew) was swayed by the skippers attire 🙂

The post race BBQ at Islington Bay  proved more popular than the race and 11 woodys dropped anchor in the bay for the BBQ. We all tend to forget about this location, great sunsets and easy anchorage. Cool video of My Girl sliding back down the harbour at dusk. On route I caught the tail-end charlies in the yacht fleet who also raced around the island – photos below.

A question – if you’re a large A-Class gaffer (no names but its painted black) and you constantly finish at the back of the fleet, as you did again on Saturday, why would you sail so close to a mark that you hit it? The rules say you are out of the race for that – BUT what makes it worse is when the mark is a classic launch and it is the finish boat, and all the yacht crew do is laugh 😦  The invoice for repairs will be in the mail. Yachties wonder why launch owners do not put their hand up when asked to perform this task, I suspect they will struggle even more for ‘volunteers’ in the future 🙂

UPDATE– Combine the above with another A-Class yacht (no Prize for guessing which one it was) colliding (yacht in the wrong) with a very large classic launch at Mahurangi and the yacht skippers / crew post collision arrogance – the CYA maybe needs to have a wee chat re rules and manners. Just because your are a classic yacht you don’t get any special privileges 😉

2021 Lake Rotoiti Classic and Wooden Boat Parade – 175+ photos & videos

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PICNIC

24th LAKE ROTOITI CLASSIC & WOODEN BOAT PARADE – 175+ PHOTOS & VIDEOS


As promised todays WW story is a doozy, we travelled down to the lake very early on Saturday morning and were hosted by the clubs commodore Dave Wilson and wife Glenys, who own the magnificent 1947 Colin Wild built bridge-decker – Haumoana. The launch is kept at the end of the lawn at their lakeside property (photos below) – More details on Haumoana here https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/06/05/haumoana/

Dave lent me is ‘fishing boat’ – the f/glass runabout seen the photo below, to use as a photo boat for the parade – fingers crossed no one got a photo of me at the helm 😉


Close to 80 classic and wooden craft of all shapes and sizes – power, sail, oar and steam participated in the days events – starting with a parade that snakes around the waterfront properties and vantage points. Post parade every one heads off to Wairoa Bay for an old school boating picnic – being lake based, no issue with tides or anchoring, people just nudge up to the shore – perfect for checking out each others woody.

The afternoon activities had something for everyone – adults and kids activities (egg throwing, bucket diving for sweets etc) + lots of cool prizes to be won.Without a doubt its the best organised and executed boating event I have been to – very slick and the bonus – lots of nice friendly people – we like that 🙂


Enjoy the photos. As always – click photos to enlarge 😉 If I missed your boat, sorry but one boat and one camera can only be in so many places at one time  – next year.


Almaray

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ALMARAY
Over the last few years the name Almaray has popped up on WW, mainly in reference to being built alongside the Lidgard launch Monterey. The shed photos below c.1946-8 shows Monterey, Almaray and possibly Tangaroa. All three were fitted with 30hp Lister engines when launched. Almaray was built by Lidgard for Stanley Bell-Booth, whose son Nick Davenport recently contacted me last week after uncovering the photos above in an old family photo album.
Harold Kidd commented on a WW story last week on the launch Jean – that the Bell-Booth family name was linked to BERNICE (1922) Stan’s father perhaps?, ATAROA (ex SPEEDWELL II) 1930-34,LADY PATRICIA (1943-48) and ALMARAY (1946 onwards). Nick has commented that his father also owned the launch Jean, somewhere in this mix. 


Nick would like to know what became of Almaray post his fathers stewardship.

TOO MUCH SUN 🙂

I think I must have sun stroke –  I’m writing about a 1980 Vindex………. But despite what a certain debarred lawyer thinks, I’m actually a nice guy. So here goes – I have been contacted by 21 year old apprentice boat builder, Connor Sanderson, who has taken on a project – I’ll let Connor tell you the story”Late last year I was presented with an irresistible opportunity to purchase a very tired and rundown wooden vindex named “Vin Maree” The only information the seller was about to provide was a build year of 1980 and that it had been from Gulf Harbour prior to them moving it down to Whangamata. It is double diagonal kauri planked, resorcinol glued and coated with ample red lead. It is powered by a inline 6cyl ford I believe to be a “Dover” and had Lees marine manifolds, gearbox and V-drive. I have not yet seen another vindex in V-Drive configuration but I’m familiar with it and hope to retain the use of one. I’m eager to know more about this boat.”

Mahurangi Regatta – Woody Weekend – 196 photos

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MAHURANGI 2021 REGATTA –  196 WOODEN BOATING PHOTOS & VIDEOS

WoW what a weekend – perfect weather, perfect location and as always stunning boats. We saw a record turn out for the classic wooden boat parade on Saturday morning – the crowd ashore at Sullivans was a little thin on the ground, but if we are honest, we do not do it for them – its all about us 🙂 , a little like going for a motorbike rumble. We need more events where we just ‘hang-out’ together.

The regatta’s main event – the yacht race appeared to be a big success, the A-Class Logan –  Rawhiti, in the hands of her new owner – Peter Brookes, cleaned up all the major trophies. As has become the norm at Mahurangi races, the results process was a total balls up, it was very dark and late into the night before the final, final results were announced – fingers crossed its all kosher, last year it took days and numerous oops lets try that again announcements 🙂


The big band beach BBQ, was a hit, perfect on all fronts – weather, tide, the band, bbq’s and the people. Given the number of boats in Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island, most people headed there on Sunday. The Kawau Boating Boat was bursting at the seams but handed it well. I have split the photos into 4 galleries – Classic Wooden Boat Parade – Yacht Race – Beach BBQ – More (includes Kawau). If I missed your boat, you were somewhere I wasn’t, or in the wrong light , or your’e boats ugly (joking – sort off).
Enjoy a peak at the weekend., click individual photos to enlarge. Next weekend I’m off to the Lake Rotoiti Classic and Wooden Boat Parade –  its a biggie – they have 70+ entries  

CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT PARADE

YACHT RACE

BEACH BBQ

MORE + KAWAU ISLAND

waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Stewart Island Woodys

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Stewart Island Woodys


Olaf Wilg has just returned from the deepest south and commented to me that the main bay in Oban was full of lovely looking brave little work boats. Olaf liked the look of Tequila and Rawhiti and the lovely Ranui is the ferry to Ulva Island. 

A woody that has relocated South and these days calls Stewart Island home is – Wairangi. She is one of Olaf’s favourite boats of all time. A loss to the Waitemata but certainly adding to the Southern woody fleet. You can see / read more on her at the WW links below – you will see she started life south of the border.

https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/04/18/wairangi-4/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/03/05/wairangi-3/

Would be nice if a southern woody could tell us more about these woodys 🙂

(Olaf, ever the perfectionist – apologises for the picture quality – all shot on an older mobile phone) 

Colin Wild Launches

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Colin Wild Launches 
Angus Rogers sent in the photos above of two of the smartest looking Colin Wild launches afloat, at anchor in Chamberlin Bay, Ponui Island in early January.

The top photo is of the 1927 built Tasman, for many years owned by Doc O’Callahan. In December 2020 she changed hands and is now in the care of Theresa & Stephen Cashmore, who have been on the hunt for a woody for a while – excellent pick 🙂

The bottom photo is Peter Loughlin’s 1928 built Lady Margaret – Peter never stops working on LM and every time I see her she is looking better and better – given the rain in parts of the gulf over the break, that canopy at the stern looks very practically. 

Photo below of LM sent in by Peter Laughlin this morning – he is still cruising – well done 😉

And trolling thru me holiday emails – I found two more of LM from Angus Rogers 🙂

Bay of Islands – 2021 Tall Ships Regatta

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BAY OF ISLANDS – 2021 TALL SHIPS TROPHY RACE

The above photo essay from the 2021 (Jan 9th) Russell Boating Club’s Tall Ships regatta were sent in by Dean Wright, as always stunning camera work. Dean commented that there wasn’t much breeze on race day so it was a bit of a dawdle. I’m sure that didn’t dampen the legendary post race festivities ashore.

Dean is a good lad and always tries to include a few launches in the mix, even if its a sailing event. #e like that
The photos of the Colin Wild launch – Wirihana, just go to show that if you are a looker, no matter what you hang off her (SUP/Sailing Dinghy/RIB) – you’ll always be a looker 😉
As always – click on the smaller photos to enlarge.

Woody Summer Boating Cruise

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Rakino Island (West Bay on left – Woody Bay on right)
Raindance & Morgana
West Bay, Rakino Island
Marise
Woody Bay Pizzeria – Rakino Island

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT ON RAKINO ISLAND – click to play – the singer, Jennie Cruse is Auckland based and available for hire – 021 266 4330

Liberty
Windhaven II
Marise
Manuroa
Waiari
Raindance @ Garden Cove

GARDEN COVE – 360 deg Video – click to play

WOODY SUMMER BOATING CRUISE
The WW story today is a photo gallery from the 2020/21 holiday period cruise on Raindance, the photos are not always that sharp, it was more like “look there’s one” and I would grab the camera and snap a photo. Click on the smaller photos to enlarge 😉


We mostly mooched around Waiheke and Rakino Islands – had 11 great days afloat, a little blowie at times but tucking away in the right spot with a good book was just what the doctor ordered. Only had 2 hours rain on one day, so can not complain. General observation was that it was quiet in most of the bays. I understand Great Barrier Island was very popular.As always there are a few food pix to break things up. The discovery of a pop-up pizzeria in Woody Bay, Rakino was the culinary highlight of the cruise 🙂


Thanks to help from several woodys sending in photos, we were able to continue the WW stories everyday over the holiday period and the viewing / reading numbers were strong thru-out. I think that one of the few positives from CV-19 is that a lot more people have either upgraded their digital devices or are now more tech savvy and are on-line more often.

Enjoy the photos – the next big woody event will be the Auckland Anniversary long weekend at Mahurangi.

https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/12/01/wooden-boat-bureau-advice-for-buyers-and-sellers/

Summer Boating in the Bay of Islands – Part 2

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Marline
Galerina
Orari II
Serene
Active

Summer Boating in the Bay of Islands – Part 2


Our resident B.O.I. woody – Dean Wright is a star, above is another batch of photos from the Bay of Islands. I was especially rapped to get the top two of Marline, WW readers will know that she spent several months at the end of last year I the shed at The Slipway Milford getting a top-chop. You can read / see more on that at the WW link below. Wonderful to see her back in the bay and with Ken Warne at the helm.

https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/09/14/marline-gets-a-top-chop/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/11/25/marline-back-in-the-water/

The very large – Galerina, is looking the sharpest in many a year – well done to whoever is caring for her. Can anyone put a name to the last photo, the launch with the game poles – its something like ‘Hattele’

I have been getting weather reports from back in the city that its been very wet – my garden will be very happy. But I can report that other than 2 hours of light rain on 01-01-2021, its as dry as a crisp. Photo below from Rakino – West Bay on the left and Woody Bay on the right. 
As always if you spot anyone or thing that might appeal to the WW readers, pull the phone out and snap a photo and send in to waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Classic Woody Weekend At Patio Bay – 60+ Classic Wooden Boat Photos

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The Big Winner On The Day – the Duder Family on Spray – 1st Across the Line
A visitor from Hawkes Bay

Classic Woody Weekend At Patio Bay – 60+ Classic Wooden Boat Photos


As you will have come to expect, the first weekend in December sees the CYA hosting the annual Patio Bay weekend, for some reason in recent years its morphed into a potpourri of events – these days its – the CYA Xmas party, a cake competition, a motor boat poker rally and what it always was – a yacht race down to the bay for a old school waterfront BBQ. A little busy these days but it seems to work 🙂

This year was the first visit since the ownership of the property changed hands from the Woolicott family (100+ years) to Mike Mahoney. It was comforting to hear Mike talk of their feature plans that include continuing the event.


New to the programme this year was a poker run rally for the CYA launches. Skippers collect a playing card from 5 collection on route and then play a round of poker ashore to determine the winner. The event was sponsored by The Slipway Milford. Winners below:

First Across The Line – Gay Dawn – Mark & Pricilla MacDuff – Burnsco voucher + wine

Poker Run Winner- Kumi – Hayden & Linda Afford – COMPLIMENTARY SLIPWAY MILFORD HAULOUT + 4L ANTIFOUL PAINT + WW T-SHIRT

Biggest Oops (involuntary swim) – Lucinda – Jason Davies – WW T-shirt

Shoddy Boat Handling Skills – Lucille – Alan Good (wife name withheld as she was innocent) WW T-shirt
A great time was had by all and special thanks must go to everyone that helps pull the weekend together. To me it always signals the start of summer boating.

Yacht Race Results https://classicyacht.org.nz/patio-bay-mark-foy-race-results-2020/


Mahurangi Cruising Club Year Book

Most WW readers will be very familiar with the annual Mahurangi Regatta – the biggest gathering of wooden boats in NZ. The MCC also put together a year book that is a one of the best boating reads each year and perfect for on the boat over xmas. So woodys, if your looking for a self present (always the best) or being asked what you want from the kids – at $20 for 108 pages it’s a steal.

Pre-order a copy here  ngairehopwood@gmail.com Or pick up a copy in store or on-line at BoatBooks