Pacific – 105 Year Old Woody Get A New Heart

Pacific – The 105 Year Old Woody Get A New Heart

The 1917 Joe Slattery designed and built launch – Pacific, is a special boat – 105 years of one family ownership puts her into a very elite league.Now in the care of of Nathan Herbert, Pacific has sent the last 5 months hauled out getting a heart transplant i.e. a brand new FPT/ Iveco N45A 100hp diesel engine. The old green Lister sadly just didn’t provide the reliability and safety for a vessel that does the cruising miles that Pacific does.

Late yesterday afternoon Pacific had a ‘Claytons’ relaunch at the Milford Cruising Club’s slip. Not surprisingly after 5 months on the hard she had a big thirst, Jason Prew from The Slipway Milford was on hand with a large capacity extra bilge pump, but it wasn’t required. Fingers crossed the flow will abate when she goes back in again later today.

Whilst hauled out there was a serious dose of TLC done to Pacific, I’m looking forward to a better peek down below at the Mahurangi Regatta this weekend. Search PACIFIC in the WW Search Box to view / read more about Pacific past.

12-01-2021 Update – Pacific has been hauled out recently at The Slipway Milford, for a dose of annual maintenance + a new decks – looking very sharp. And these days do donr escape the yard without a Jason Prew paint job 🙂

16-10-2021 Ready to splash


I spotted Fleetwing, below,  at The Slipway Milford yard getting prepped for Mondays Auckland Anniversary Day regatta launch race. 

Kahu – A Peek Down Below

KAHU – A Peek Down Below
Kahu made a brief WW appearance on WW back in 2016 and 2018 (link below), back then in the chat section, it was suggest she may have been built by either of these two possible yards – Strongman of Coromandel and Pearson of Golden Bay, Nelson.

Now thanks to a tme listing and Ian McDonald we get to have a peek down below. She is powered by a 120hp Ford diesel.
Anyone care to add there view of the builder?


Previous WW story   https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/08/26/kahu/

Input from Phil Vining –  The good ship Kahu brought back some
memories for me including an old photo that was taken around 50 years ago.
It shows a young Phil Vining in college uniform on the foredeck of Kahu when
my father Dick Vining travelled to see the boat in Mapua which is not far
from Nelson. Kahu was for sale at the time and dad was looking at buying
her. For whatever reason he did not go ahead but being a mad keen boatie
from an early age I have kept a selection of photos over the years. Probably
around 10 years later I started Vining Shipbrokers Ltd which kept me very
busy for the next 35 years … now retired but still messing around in boats
and helping people out where I can. During my time selling boats we had Kahu
listed twice. The middle photo shows her following a major refit which was
carried out during the early 1980’s when she was refastened, a new 120hp
Ford diesel motor installed, rewired plus new galley, squabs etc. The third
photo taken during 2009 shows her in a run down condition in Havelock – at
that time we sold her to to an Auckland buyer and she was trucked North. I
can see from the latest photos that she has been refitted again and looks in
good nick. Our detail sheets from that period show her as being design &
built by Golden Bay boatbuilder J Pearson. She was launched around 1958/1960
and the hull is planked white pine. Hope this is of interest to you and your
readers. Love your site and the great work you do keeping the history &
interest going around wooden boats. 

Helena

HELENA
This 1960 36′ Shipbuilders launch just popped up on tme. Built with single skin kauri planks, she is powered by a 120hp Ford diesel, that comfortably pushes her along at 7.5 knots. From the photos she appears to be presented in good condition.


Do we know anything about Helena’s past and what she has been up to for the last 60 years?

HELP WANT – A Slow Boat To China

Well not quite – but the ‘Waiheke Working Sail’ group are planning on taking – Kate, their 1898 trading cutter to next weekends Mahurangi Regatta and at the moment she is sans an engine so subject to wind and tide, would be most open to a tow. So any woodys that have a a few share hp, and would like to help out – contact Bernard Rhodes –  mob. 027 228 1334 or email bernard.rhodes@gmail.com. Pick up would be from Rakino Island 🙂

Viveen – Update

VIVEEN – Update


I first bumped into the 1924 Colin Wild launch – Viveen, back in 2014 at one of the first Classic Launch & Yacht Exhibitions at Auckland’s viaduct harbour. Back then she had recently moved to a new home, in Thames, where she still resides to this day. Prior to this she was berthed at Milford Marina from a number of years.


Back in 2018 her owners gave her a birthday and under took an extensive refit. Angus Rogers snapped the above photos of her over the holiday period moored at Waiheke Island, looking very smart with her new paint job. Being a Colin Wild launch, her past has been well documented on WW – a couple of stories are linked below

https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/05/22/7368/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/14/viveen/

Woodys Enjoying Their Boats

Korowai
Silens

Woodys Enjoying Their Boats

We ran a story on the Owen Woolley designed and built launch – Korowai earlier in the week, then ping the inbox sends an alert and Angus Rogers has ‘found’ another photo – its a stunner – great angle, well done Mr Rogers.

Also above from Angus is a photo of the 1912 Harvey & Lang built launch – Silens on route to Te Kouma. Read / see more on Silens here https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/04/22/the-evolution-of-silens/

Lastly we see Manuroa already at Te Kouma – doing what we would all like to do – just hanging out doing nothing. A previous owner of Manuroa believed it may have been built by Bailey & Lowe c.1912, is anyone able to confirm ?

Scotts Landing – photo ex Roger Mills


UPCOMING LONG WOODY WEEKEND

It is less than 2 weeks until Mahurangi weekend – the biggest on-the-water woody event in New Zealand – just check out Rogers Mills drone photo above to get an idea of the turn-out. Almost all of those dinghies are from a wooden boat anchored in the bay. The occasion is the regatta prize giving / BBQ on the Saturday night at Scotts Landing – all welcome, remember to bring a $20 note to buy a copy of the Mahurangi Cruising Club’s brilliant year book – its one of the best boating reads and great value.

On Saturday (30th) morning we have the classic launch parade – more details re times etc closer to the day but please make life easy for the organisers by emailing your name, boat name, and brief description your woody – design, age, length etc to  admin@classicyacht.org.nz
If you’re in Auckland on the Monday (1st) – as part of the Anniversary Day Regatta there will be a classic launch race. Entries for this are now open and you can enter at www.regatta.org.nz It is a handicapped race so everyone has a fair chance of winning some of the great regatta prizes 

Lady Rae

LADY RAE
If you trolled back thru the CYA’s archives one of the classic launches that regularly made an appearance was the 1948, Chas Bailey Jnr designed launch – Lady Rae. Built by Chas Bailey & Sons.She last appeared on WW back in March 2014, so is long overdue for an appearance.

Todays photos come to us via the camera (iPhone) of Angus Rogers and see Lady Rae in Chamberlin Bay, Ponui Island. Keen to learn who owns her these days and what’s been done to her over the years.

There is a lot of chat in the comments section of the 2014 story – link below, I’d view K Rickett’s numerous comments lightly – back then I believed most things he said, these days there is a very fine filter applied 😉https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/03/12/lady-rae-3/

Bay of Islands – 2021 Tall Ships Regatta

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

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

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
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.

Freedom

FREEDOM
Today’s boat is named Freedom and is a recent purchase by Neil Hammond. Neil bought Freedom off a gent named Murray Davies in Havelock, Marlborough Sounds, who owned her for 9 years. Her construction is double diagonal kauri (then glassed ) and is 36’ in length and powered by a Detroit 6-71 diesel. From her early service records it appears Freedom was based in Auckland from new.

When advertised for sale, she was described as ‘vindex style’, hopefully not 🙂 you will struggle to find any vindex’s on WW.
So woodys – can anyone help Neil in his quest to learn more about his boat?

09-03-2021 More input from owner – Graeme Mossman appears to have owned and sold the boat in 1988.  I have this name off an old letter in the file, and this name is deciphered from a signature so may be completely wrong.  However, I am thinking that he is the original owner as I am told that the boat was built in 1979/80.  This letter is an introduction of the boat to the new owner who has purchased the boat off Mossman in December 1988.  It also refers to a Doug Walley who is described as an experienced engineer who works as a Tutor at the Auckland Technical Institute and who can do some maintenance on the boat after the new owner has completed the “Christmas Cruise”, before the boat is transported to Wellington.  So, from here it appears to have spent time in Wellington before ending up in the Marlborough Sounds.


Photo below of last nights sunset and still no rain 🙂

Summer Boating in the Bay of Islands – Part 2

Marline
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