Category Archives: 36′>38′

OMOKOROA – APRIL 2024 UPDATE

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OMOKOROA – APRIL 2024 UPDATE

Following on from yesterdays story on the launch – Omokoroa where we got a peek back to her earlier days, today thanks to a nudge we gave her current custodian – Lyndon Chambers we get to see some to the work thats gone into refitting the boat.

First up is a video from early 2023 of Omokoroa being hauled out to commence the project. Lyndon commented that they used Omokoroa for a while before haulout and he has worked on her reasonably solidly since then. The topsides were repaired and glassed before haul out and he has screwed and glassed plywood over 100% of the hull so hopefully a dry boat now. Not too much left to do and she will be back on the water soon depending on what Lyndon decides to do to the interior.

View previous Omokoroa WW story here https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/04/24/omokoroa-in-former-times/

06-05-2024 INPUT EX ROB HARRIS – below photos from when Rob owned ( many years ago) the launch, location – Beachlands 

NOR-EAST A Peek Down Below

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NOR-EAST A Peek Down Below

Back in February we did a story on the 38’,  1959 Fred Wilkins designed, Allen Williams built launch – Nor-East. That story was a great comparison of her as launched and with the help of a Feb 2019 photo of the craft moored in the Tamaki River we were able to see the ‘additions’ (I’m being polite) check out that story here, lots of great photos  https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/02/18/nor-east-before-and-now/

Current forward propulsion is via twin Ford 80hp Diesel engine that get her along at 8 > 10 knots. There were two almost sister ships – Sou East and Nor West

Now thanks to Ian McDonald and a recent tme listing we get to have a gander down belo

OUTSTANDING IN A PADDOCK – Duke of Marlborough

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OUTSTANDING IN A PADDOCK – Duke of Marlborough

When I received the photos above the first thoughts were ………… where and why. 

Chatting with the sender, Ant Smit, I learned that the location was the MacKenzie Basin, which is situated approx. 1/2 way between Christchurch and Queenstown in the South Island. The area is almost the dead centre of the island.

Ant advised that a friend was on a motorcycle tour and spotted the boat and couldn’t not stop and snap a few photos.

I quick chat to my WW steam guru – Russell Ward and we learn she was purchased ex Picton and should currently be viewed as ‘art’. Lets hope there is a long term plan to restore her.

Her back story is a good read and she appeared on WW in May 2020 – link below. We learned then she was made of steel in 1987 and was originally named – James Torrey, and was used for trout fishing tours on Lake Tarawera –  lots of details in the story. In the photo below we see her at Picton when she was running as a commercial passenger vessel.     https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/05/17/ss-duke-of-marlborough/

Anyone able to enlighten us more on her future 

INPUT ex DAN CONAGH (owner) – I can confirm that I’ve purchased and moved the Duke to a section of land I own in Twizel. Our intention is to restore, repaint and return to service on one of the lakes in the MacKenzie District.

Unfortunately the boat is showing the signs of having been stored next to the ocean in Picton. The hull has some rust that requires attention. The wooden topside has some sun damage. New varnish required, and the PVC roll up sides are beyond repair. The photos in this article are very recent as I was up there on Saturday cleaning up all the coal spread across the floor inside.

VENTURE – A Peek Down Below

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Russell Wharf – B.O.I.

VENTURE – A Peek Down Below

I last saw the launch – Venture, back in June 2021 when she was berthed at Hobsonville marina. Link below to that story + a Aug 2017 story that has some wonderful photos from her days big game fishing in the Bay of Islands.

Venture was built by Morrie Palmer in c.1964 and while several people have made reference to being designed by Colin Wilde, at best, probably safe to say ‘influenced by’ 😉

36 in length, 12’1” beam and draft of 3’7”. Forward motion is via 6cyl Ford 90hp Diesel engine.

Today thanks to a recent tme listing (ex Ian McDonald) we get to have a gender down below.

WW Aug 2017 https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/08/26/venture-2/ WW June 2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/06/23/can-we-id-this-launch-2/

KIRIKIRIROA – A Peek Down Below

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KIRIKIRIROA – A Peek Down Below

Well after two days of ‘wall2wall’ classic woody porn it was always going to be a big challenge to back up with a run-of-the-mill story, so I thought its Wednesday so must be time for a Work Boat Wednesday story.

Todays woody is the Terry Bailey built 1983, 36′ ex workboat – Kirikiriroa , a woody thats been on my top 10 list ever since I first spotted her at Gulf Harbour marina many years ago. Built from strip plank kauri.

She was originally built for the mussel industry on Great Barrier Island and later used for various fright and cargo transportation. While not currently in survey (on hold), she is still capable of carrying 5 ton of cargo.

AND – down below is a 70hp 4LW Gardner…………….

Kirikiriroa recently popped up on tm , thanks Ian McDonald. I could own her but I’d have to stop churning out WW everyday, I’d be too busy polishing that engine 🙂

Link here to the previous WW story  April 2016 Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/04/15/kirikiriroa/

2016 photo ex K Ricketts

07-03-2024 Input ex Russell Ward – Kirikiriroa was ashore at Gulf Harbour for a tidy up when I had Hinemoa’s Boat up for the same several years back.
The sign in the wheelhouse appealed to me somehow.
She was looking a bit tidier back then, but she’s an appealing wee boat for a real man.

HAVE YOU RSVP’ed FOR THE WOODY CRUISE TO RIVERHEAD TAVERN – SATURDAY 16 MARCH

RSVP > waitematawoodys@gmail.com

AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL – Dockside Gallery – 75+ Classic Woody Photos – Part 1

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AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL – Dockside Gallery – 75+ Classic Woody Photos

Slight change of format today. Normally we do one big gallery of event photos, but the 2024 Auckland Wooden Boat Festival deserves two stories – why? Well in the eyes os of the woodys I spoke to, the off-the-water (in the shed) exhibition was on equal footing to the exhibition afloat. So woodys come back tomorrow to see the off-the-water gallery, you won’t be disappointed.

From my mooching the #1 feedback I got was ‘where do they all come from’ i.e. people have never seen this number of classic wooden boats together #2 (from owners) was ‘it is so great to meet all the owners / caretakers’. I think a lot of people were quietly hoping their partners were thinking “there are other zany people out there, my partner isn’t the only eccentric old boat nut in town”.

For a three day outdoor event in Auckland we were gifted to have two (Fri/Sat) days of amazing weather, Sunday was a on/off rain day but it didn’t seem to slow down the people. I believe over 8,000 people were counted thru the dock-gate (it was free entry).

The photos tell the story today – its takes a lot of people to pull something like this off, so well done to all those that rubbed up against the show and well done Tony and team for pulling it all together.

PART TWO – THE OFF-THE-WATER SECTION – LINK BELOW https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/03/05/auckland-wooden-boat-festival-off-the-water-gallery/

AS ALWAYS – CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

AND YES I DID BUY THE T-SHIRT 🙂

RSVP – waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Probably The Best Classic Cruising Story Ever

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Probably The Best Classic Cruising Story Ever

Over the last 2+ years I have religiously followed a YouTube series put out by Madison Boatworks. Sounds very corporate but its the total opposite – a youngish couple named Jonathan & Whitney who refurbished a 1960 37’5” (on deck) ‘Ingrid’ ketch designed by William Atkin named Julia. After 4 years of working on the boat they left Seattle, Washington, USA and pointed the bow towards Mexico. After this the big call was made and they were off to the Pacific. There are 21 videos in the series that have clocked up over six million views and each one is gold. 

The cinematography and narrative is just outstanding. Jonathan is a wonderful storyteller and one follower commented that his voice is semi tranquillising – it is, the man should do sleep videos 🙂

I have featured their latest – ‘Exploring the islands of Fiji, Vanua Levu and Taveuni’ below. And also a link to the master YouTube collection

LINK TO MASTER LIBARAY COLLECTION https://www.youtube.com/c/MadisonBoatworks

RSVP > waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Affordable Classic Boating – 1/4 The Cost

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Affordable Classic Boating – 1/4 The Cost

Today I want to touch base on an newish trend in the classic boating world – fractional ownership. Sure there are lots of two owner eg 2 buddies  or 2 linked family partnerships, but with the raising cost of marina berths more and more boats are having multiple owners. And thats a good thing, maintenance and berth-age costs are affordable, new owners are entering the classic community at a younger age  and best of all – the boats are being used more.

One such partnership centres around the 36′ 1953 Billy Rogers built classic sedan launch – Margaret-Anne. There is a link below to a 2017 WW story on the launch. Some boats are lucky in their owners – Margaret Anne has had two very passionate classic friendly owners who have restored her to a better than new condition  – then moved on to bigger craft.

Margaret Anne is now in the hands of 4 parters and one of the ’shares’ is now available to purchase, the buy in includes access to a Westhaven marina.

So woodys if you and your family are looking to get afloat in a stunning classic wooden boat – contact Sonia Garica for more details songarcia@yahoo.com

WW April 2017 storyhttps://waitematawoodys.com/2017/10/23/30737/

RSVP – waitematawoodys@gmail.com

OPANUI – A Peek Down Below + Woody Lunch Cruise Details

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OPANUI – A Peek Down Below + Woody Lunch Cruise Details

Todays woody sedan launch – Opanui, was designed and built in 1964 by Phil Lang for Robert Chamberlain of Chamberlain Island (now Ponui } , Built to tow barges up to 70′ long around the Hauraki gulf she is an incredibly strong boat, made from 1 1/4 inch strip planked kauri.She is approx 38′ long with a 10’6″ beam & 3’6” draft. Her original 6 cylinder 130 HP Perkins diesel 6354 still powers her and cruises at a comfortable 6>7 knots.
Thanks to Ian McDonald spotting a tme listing we get to have good look at Opanui. From the listing she appears to be well maintained and well fitted out for cruising.Current home is the Bay of Islands.

CLASSIC WOODY LAUNCH CRUISE & CATCH UP AT RIVERHEAD HOTEL
After the brilliant (but long over due) summer we have had so far this season it will be great to get together to a catch up and swap cruising tales. So its time for a lunch cruise to the Riverhead Tavern – Saturday 16th March. Details below –

RSVP to waitematawoodys@gmail.com with boat name and approx. crew numbers.
DATE: Saturday 16th March TIME: Meeting at Lucas Creek area at 11am. Arriving hotel at 11.30am TIDE:  HW @ 1pm – 3.3m  Looking forward to catching up 🙂

NOR EAST – Before and Now

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NOR EAST – Before and Now

Recently Robert Ross sent in the colour photo above of the launch – Nor East. Robert commented that his father bought Nor East around 1960ish and that’s Robert on the bow in the photo. Robert doesn’t know much about her except she was 37’ in length and was bought from an estate associated with McAlpine Industries. Needless to say Nor East had a great fridge/freezer on board 🙂
In the 2nd b/w photo from a WW story from March 2018 ex Lew Redwood we see Nor East leaving the Milford Creek. The photo was reproduced on the cover of Sea Spray magazine.

In the WW story we learnt from Robin Elliott that according to a Sea Spray Aug 1959 issue, she had twin BMC commodores developing 52 bhp max each.  Designed by Fred Wilkins of Tauranga and is the same hull design as his well known sword fishing launch Sou East. Built by Allen Williams of Milford for James S. McAlpine and launched ‘late last season’. 

McAlpine was owner of McAlpine Refigeration, who assembled British Prestcold refrigerators and American designed supermarket chillers and display cabinets in Penrose. Much was made in the Sea Spray article of her refrigeration system – 3 of them, one for food, one for drinks and a third for frozen foods and freezing caught fish.

Back in February 2019 John Bullivant pulled together a great WW story on the Tamaki River and included was the photo below of Nor East moored in the river.  Another example of how a woody can lose its mojo when the varnish disappears .

INPUT ex Ken Ricketts – Full Sea Spray article below + a number of photos of her in the Jim McAlpine era & 1 or 2 later ones. Makes a great sister ship for the lovely Nor West (by Lane Motor Boat Co), & Sou East both with Ford V8 petrol Vee drives in the stern, as original). SOU EAST was the first of the 3 of them, to be built.