Category Archives: 36′>38′

Classic Woody Boating Long Weekend Cruise

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Moturekareka Island
Sunset – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Sunrise – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Lady Adelaide
Vivian Bay, Kawau Island
Ngaio
Meola & Whio

Classic Woody Boating Cruise

For all the wrong reasons I didn’t do a lot of boating (on my boat) this past winter, so the looming long Labour weekend was always going to see me leaving the dock even if the weather was ‘inclement’. Luckily it wasn’t and I slid away early Friday afternoon with the ultimate destination being Kawau Island. The boredom of mostly straight line motoring was broken up by Team NZ cutting up the gulf in their AC40, so so quick.

Decided to spend Friday night anchored at Moturekareka Island, the resting place of the wreck REWA (unsuccessfully scuttled as a breakwater) , not the most settled of spots but the sunset and the bird song made up for it.

Moved on earlier Saturday to Smelting House Bay and picked up a pre-booked mooring, now before you all call me a softy, we had the new dog onboard for its 1st trip and wanted to be close to shore – didn’t want an oops on board. I can report she was an angel – woke me at 5.30am for a row ashore. Sadly she also seems to think the #1 bunk is hers 🙂 The bonus of the dog pee row ashore is catching the sunrise, almost as fine as the sunset.

Mostly just relaxed mooching around, had a drink and dinner catch up with the crews off Meloa, Ngaio, Lady Adelaide and Golandrina at the Kawau Boating Club, which had just taken the shutters down after the annual winter hibernation. Food and service was first rate – if you are not a member – join, they need good support to keep doing what they do so well. The next day we dropped the pick in Vivian Bay – very quiet and later in the day several woodys arrived – seems to be the go-to destination for the Sandspit marina crowd.

I spied a stunning villa on the waterfront in Vivian Bay – photos below, will need to keep buying Lotto 🙂

Trip home on Monday was just about perfect for a straight stemmer e.g. wind and tide on the nose – 3 hours 45 min from KBC > Bayswater, that’s a good clip for my 94 year old girl.

UPDATE 03-11-2022 – Photo below of Rewa as scuttled (incorrectly). Comes to us from Auckland War Memorial Museum libray via Maurice Sharp fb.

SUNDAYS MYSTERY LAUNCH QUIZ WINNER

Well done Ken Ricketts, the winner from the many woodys that correctly ID’ed the launch as Sobrine. The pool was reduced significantly by a large number spelling the boats name – Sabrine. Link to a previous WW Sobrine story below https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/05/31/sobrine/

Lazy Days > Amokura

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LAZY DAYS > AMOKURA

Have had a request from Jackson Lidgard for intel on the 38’ 1955 Lidgard built motor-sailer he and his father are currently doing a major refit/restoration on.

Jackson commented that she was originally named Lazy Days but renamed to Amokura sometime in the 1970’s or 80’s by the second owner. The story goes that the second owner was a Safe Air pilot from Picton who sailed her down from Auckland.

Jackson’s  family bought her 2 years ago after she had deteriorated living on a swing mooring in Havelock Sound for the last 20 years or so. When purchased they were told it was a John Alden design but have been unable to confirm this. 

Currently 4 months or so into her restoration in a shrink wrap shed on the Waikawa handstand. The top photo above was before the current project commenced.

Any information on the yacht would be greatly appreciated. For those woodys using Instagram there are regularly updates under the blog handle of  @todothingsblog A random selection of photos from the blog below.

And for those wondering around the surnames of the builder and the restorer – yes there is a link but very distant.

RSVP waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Challenger

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CHALLENGER 

Today’s story is another example of the effectiveness of WW – Grant Parker yesterday posted a comment on a WW story that appeared back in Oct 2014 – the 2014 story was on the c.1962 McGeady built launch – Challenger. 

I have reproduced Grant’s comments below, 

“The 38ft ” Challenger built by McGeady. was owned by my family in Tauranga in the late 1970’s > early 1980’s. After the Bradshaw family of Rotorua owned her  she was sold to the Finn family also  from Rotorua.

My father Bert Parker from Rotorua purchased the Challenger from Ray Finn. When he sold her she went to Havelock in the Marlborough Sounds where an older couple lived on her for a number of years.

The next owner was the owner of a trucking company in Nelson, he went bankrupt and she was sold again. The last I heard was she ended up North, maybe Bay of Islands, possibly the Opua area.

Our family had some great memories, the photos above of – Challenger, show her in her former glory with varnished coamings etc.

The photos show Challenger in :  downtown Tauranga, Whale Island off Whakatane and South East Bay Mayor Island.”

Grant maintained an interest in the whereabouts of Challenger and once tracked her down in Havelock, then the ship broker in Nelson supplied the copy of her 4sale listing.  

Purely from reference as to how our classics can morph over time and owners – I know which one I’d like to own 🙂

Link here to the 2014 WW story – lots of photos and chat there https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/10/25/challenger/

Update from a woody – photo below is captioned Onerahi Whangārei / February 2022. This is very sad……. 😦

Wairoa River / Clevedon Drive By Tour

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Wairoa River / Clevedon Drive By Tour

On the weekends Woodys Classic Weekend cruise to the Clevedon Cruising Club I had the services of a cabin boy (relax, he’s my neibour) so I handed the wheel to him for most of the trip up the river. This freed me up to snap some of the moored wooden craft, I’m sure a few might be f/glass or even steel – but still an amazing collection ’semi-hidden’ away, that us Auckland marina dwellers never see.

Enjoy the tour. AND make sure you check out the last photo below – seems the CYA A Class skippers have been playing bumper boats again.

Seems the CYA Classic A Class Fleet Are Playing Crash & Bash Again

One of the classic launch owners returning to their berth in Westhaven from the weekends Woodys Clevedon cruise – spotted a wee hole in Little Jim. Comment was it had the dimensions of a bow-sprite. 

Fingers crossed the culprit has good insurance………… A review of the RNZYS results page for Saturdays racing shows two classics with a DNF alongside their names – being Little Jim and Rawene, chances are that tells you the other vessel.

Things like this probably contribute to why only approx. 6% of the CYA classic yacht fleet race (outside of one-off events like the Mahurangi Regatta) their craft. Too much testosterone is a bad thing with a car steering wheel or yacht tiller in your hand – then again maybe it was too much oestrogen this time?

Woodys Classic Clevedon Cruise Report – Sept 2022 – 50+ Photos

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6.45am – The Start
The magic hour for boat photography
Heading up the river
Dave Giddens – Auctioneer Supremo

WOODYS CLASSIC CLEVEDON CRUISE REPORT – Sept 2022

Just back from a near perfect weekend cruising with a great bunch of classic wooden boat enthusiasts, up the Wairoa River to the Clevedon Cruising Club for an overnight shindig. 

The weekend had all the right ingredients – great weather, cool boats, nice people + mouth-watering food, that always = a winner. Todays photo gallery comes to us from my cameras and Jason Prew’s new out of the box iPhone 14 Pro (I need one, I’m buying one).

By now regular WW readers will be familiar with the format of the weekend – we meet off the entrance to the Wairoa River and then weave our way up river to the Clevedon Cruising Club. The flotilla berths at the CCC dock, in front of their clubhouse, then we ‘open’ the boats for club member to view. Happy hour tends to start early up the river, and this weekend it was even earlier. Later in the day we retire to the clubrooms for a shared BBQ dinner, and live music.

This year the club organised a number of raffles and a mystery auction – the club and Woodys collectively raised over $3,500 for the new fuel jetty. Well done to everyone involved – I indirectly won a new bilge pump (my cabin boy, bid on a mystery package and one of the included items was the pump – and my bonus – he doesn’t own a boat)

Boats participating in the cruise were – Allergy, Awariki, Lady Clare, Lady Ellen, Merita, Mokoia, My Girl, Ngaio, Ngarimu, Raindance, Smooth Operator, Trinidad, Waikaro.

I’ll let the photos tell the story. Below are two videos which highlight the two extremes of classic wooden craft – Raindance at 7.5 knots and Jason Prew’s – My Girl, doing est. 24 knots 🙂 Thanks to Jason and Ant Smit for the footage.

As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉 ENJOY. Details on more Woodys Classic events below.

Ps that dessert plate wasn’t mine and I’m too nice a person to name the owner…… and equally no story as to why there is a photo of a skipper dipping wet on his duck board 🙂

Raindance
My Girl

KOROWAI (Korawai) – Getting The Treatment – Updates

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KOROWAI (KORAWAI) – An Update

In late January 2022 I help relocate the 1962 Owen Woolley built 36′ sedan launch – Korawai to her new home in the Bay of Islands. Her new owners had big plans for her and it’s great to see that a refurbishment program is now under way. 

Korawai has recently been hauled and now tucked away in the shed at Ashby Boatbuilders in Opua. First item was to remove all the glass (to be replaced) and restore the varnished coamings. The owners have very good taste so I’m sure there will be more on the list 🙂 

We will keep you updated.

10-03-2023 NAME SPELLING CORRECTION -input ex Harold Kidd

Relocation trip https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/01/25/korawai-heads-north/

A Peek Down Below Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/01/24/korawai-a-peek-down-below/

UPDATE 14-09-2022 Say goodbye to the old varnish

UPDATE 15-09-2022

UPDATE 24-09-2022 Primer & one coat.  7>9 to go 🙂

Happy Owner

UPDATE 16-10-2022 lots of progress, new glass is in – varnish 97% done – just 3 more coats on the beading.

UPDATE 18-10-2022 Less than 24hrs from re-launching

RE-LAUNCHED TODAY 19-10-2022 – WoW

04-11-2022 Back in her happy place

19-12-2024 UPDATE – The rolling refit continues, latest work has seen a new bathroom / head and gallery added. Her owner, Matt is a very talent man with his hands and partner, Tania adds the good taste / styling – well done ✔️

Like Varnish? – This Will Whet Your Appetite 

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Like Varnish? – This Will Whet Your Appetite 

Todays story is a photo essay from the recent Canadian CYA – Fleet Rendezvous at Ganges, Salt Spring Island and comes to us from the camera of Cecila Viktoria Rosell.

Enjoy – oh to have a marina like that. As always, click on photos to enlarge 😉

Sad and happy to see that Mike O’Brian has found a new custodian for Euphemia II, I had the pleasure of hosting Mike and Peggy in Auckland a few years ago. Special people and a special boat. The photo below records the transfer of ownership.

Check out the entire CYA Canada fleet here https://classicyacht.org/cya-register

Fingers crossed we get similar weather for the Woody Classic Weekend cruise to Clevedon on the 17>18th Sept

Help Needed Identifying This Launch

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HELP NEEDED IDENTIFYING THIS LAUNCH

Recently WW received an email from Colin Davies in regard to the launch featured above. I’ll let Colin tell the story :- 

“Back in the 1930’s my late father Laurie Davies of Miramar, Wellington owned the above launch. Photo taken in Marlborough Sounds. Except for the photo I knew nothing and I have been trying to piece together the puzzle.
Based on the design of the wheelhouse, rectangular windows, stem and stern – I think Joe Jukes designed her and possibly built her, or Rex Rix built her. Similar but smaller than the ex work boat – Wild Duck. On WW there is a photo of Wild Duck attending the Flying Boat with a smaller sister ship (refer #1 below).

I also found several photos on the National Library website taken by Whites Aviation.  The key photo is the one looking south, Kilbirnie hills in the right background. The flying boat in the lower right, centre Wild Duck stern on and another launch on starboard side tied up alongside (refer #2 below). There is also a  bow on photo of Wild Duck on the left showing the side of another launch on the very left edge of the photo (refer #3 below). I am interested to know the name and whereabouts of the second launch and if it is still afloat. Based on all these photos I think it is my late fathers launch.

I estimate the length at 38 feet,  almost the same as Saint Antonio 40 feet, again similar above waterline hull shape. (refer #4 & 5 below) of St Antonio)”. 

Can we help Colin with his search to ID the launch and possibly uncover what became of her ?

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

Balaena – 110 Year Old Ex Whale Chaser

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Balaena – 110 Year Old Ex Whale Chaser

Last Sundays Country Calendar programme on TV1 featured an amazing Marlborough family that have owned the 1912 built – Balaena for 62 years. These days Balaena has two lives – family cruiser and work boat servicing the families mussel farm. It is a great story going back to when they farmed Forsyth Island and then almost by default became mussel farmers. 

Enjoy the programme, amazing scenery and inspirational people – thanks to John Burland for sending in the video.

LAST CALL FOR WOODYS WANTING TO ATTEND THE CLEVEDON OVERNIGHT CRUISE ON SEET 17>18 – Limit On Numbers – Details below RSVP TO waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Dundonald > Tranquila

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DUNDONALD > TRANQUILA 

Early last week we ran a story on a launch named – Tranquila (link to that story below) at the time hawk-eye Nathan Herbert commented that it appeared to be the Don Brooke designed – Dundonald post a name change.

Fast forward one week and woody John Dawson confirmed that Nathan was correct and sent in the gallery of photos above. John commented that the launch was for sale back in April 2021. 

Tranquila is 37’ in length, built from DD kauri (f/glassed) and powered by a Ford 120hp Otsan 6.2L 6 cyl. diesel that gives her a cruising speed of 9.5 knots- top speed is approx. 13 knots. https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/08/02/tranquila/