Todays photos were sent in by Mike Mulligan and are of his families old launch Patina which his father sold to buy the launch Ngaranui (tomorrows story) in the 1970’s
The 39’ Patina was built by Erine Lane at Picton in 1913, from double planked kauri. Lane built her for C.W. Philpotts of the Sounds Motor Launch Co. as a passenger vessel. Originally named La Reine (The Queen).
As launched she was fitted with a 20hp Bolinder semi-diesel reversing engine. Late she went fishing out of New Plymouth with a Fairbanks- Morse and also spent time in Tauranga. Around this time she was converted to pleasure use.
In Sept 2019 she was for sale at Chaffers marina, Wellington.In Feb 2020 she was still for sale – photos below and here – https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/02/29/patina-2/
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?
6.45am – The StartThe 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 🙂
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.
The 40’ launch Norana was designed by Joseph Gillanders and built in 1913 by Miller Bros at Port Chalmers for Charles William Sundstrum. She had a beam of 9’ and draw 3’6″.
Sundstrum was a Dunedin dentist who was a key figure in Dunedin yachting circles for many years. His first launch was the 31’ clinker double-ender Valmai of 1910 which had a Dunedin-built 5hp Viking engine. He raced her with the Otago Yacht Club including one of their Ocean races to Timaru.
He replaced Valmai in 1913 with Norana, which had a 16-18hp Jersey Standard marine engine, that gave Norma a cruising speed of 8 3/4 knots. He sold her to Arthur Brett of Auckland in 1927. During WWII she was taken over by the RNZAF and sent to Fiji for towing work.
In the top photo that appeared in a supplement to The NZ Yachtsman, June 5th, 1915, ex Lew Redwood fb, Sundstrum was the then Rear Commodore of the Otago Yacht & Motor Boat Club.
In the bottom photo which appeared on WW back in Sept 2015 as part of a story on the launch Thetis. Sundstrum sold Norana and had J McPherson, Dunedin, build Thetis for him. Thetis measured 35’1” x 8’1” x 2’9” and was launched in 1929. A serious speed machine – as launched she was good for 18 knots. During the war years with a bigger engine, that speed increased to 26+ knots – read / see more at this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/09/07/thetis/
Back in May 2020 we ran a story on the spirit of tradition classic launch – Caravel (link below), at the time the story would have broken the WW record for the number of people emailing me about a boat. Seems she ticked all the boxes for people considering doing laps of NZ in their retirement 🙂 Stunning photos ex Dean Wright at the link + the photo today is Deans also. https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/11/30/caravel/
We subsequently learnt that Caravel was built c.2004 in Picton, strip planked but using an unusual boat building timber – poplar. Fast forward 10 years and she was hauled out at Tauranga being re-skinned with double diagonal kauri and glassed, boat builder Alan Craig commented that she was now built like a brick-out-house.
Some details – designed by Bob Salthouse, 42’ in length, beam of 14’6” and draws 5’. Built by Miller and Tunnage, Picton.
Forward motion is from a John Deere 135hp diesel that gives her a comfortable cruising speed of 8 knots.
The 43’ 1920’s built launch – Estrela has made a few appearances on tme over the areas and has sadly slipped into the ‘Live-Aboard’ category these days. Its being promoted as the cheapest home you can buy in Auckland.
She was built by Joe Fell, is a double-ender built from triple skin kauri and powered by a Hino H07C 158hp diesel.
Her Panmure River berth is available for rent – so woodys – a waterfront home or rescue her and set her free on the Waitemata again 🙂
(Thanks Ian McDonald for the listing heads up)
She appeared on WW back in 2018 and there was some discussion re her provenance – possibly not a 1920 Joe Fell boat, read this link for more info. Remember to also read the comments section 😉 https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/10/03/estrela/
Back in May 2018 when I was loitering around the waterfront at Sandspit I was taken by the 40′ canoe stern 1904 launch – Tamahere. She must have changed hands around the same time and at some stage relocated to Kerikeri, Northland.
Sadly she has suffered a mishap due to deferred maintenance and has taken of a lot of water, but didn’t sink. There is a long list of required work to get her sea worthy again but her current tme price / bid is sub $600. Auction closes this Sunday at 9.52am. (thanks Ian McDonald for the listing heads up)
As the owner states ‘definitely a project not for the faint-hearted’ – but a bargain entry into the wooden boating movement.
The 40’ carvel planked – Heather was built in 1965 by Doug Robb and spent her first 35 years as a commercial fishing boat. In 2000 Miller & Tunnage converted Heather to pleasure boat and installed the 1996 Gardner 6LXB, which was brand new at the time. Like all good Gardners she is very efficient e.g. at 5.5 knots, running at 800rpm, she sips 1L pnm. Normal cruise speed is 7.5 knots, but can be taken up to 9.5 knots max.
To use the old car dealer term – Heather comes with all the fruit, incredibly spec’ed and all set for some serious cruising.
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up
04-10-2022 INPUT FROM Philip Trow
“Hi, Philip here….the present owner of Heather (2022). It is great to see a correct and largely accurate report on Heather. A couple of things to add: MV Heather was originally built by the Heberley family of the Marlborough sounds. She is named Heather after Heather Heberley (NZ author of some note).
Heather has been a particularly reliable and forgiving vessel for myself and previous owners. I have taken her around most of the South Is and I know previous owners have also used her for some great trips around the North is. She is very economical to run (1l/nm @ 800rpm/5.8kts exactly and circa 9l/hour at 1050rpm/ 7kts average.) Large 1200l+ tanks give her a very usable range. She also has a 6kw gen set and 800watt+ solar panels to handle long periods at mooring or unattended. As of writing she has less than 3600 hours from new on the Gardner 6lxb. That is very few hours on a Gardner.
Heather was rebuilt around 2000 and a great deal of heavy duty good quality equipment was installed. All of the fittings and equipment are much more robust than you would typically find on a pleasure vessel.
MV Heather has benefited from myself and previous owners who have maintained her to a good standard and also spent significant amounts keeping her up to date with features like AIS, drip free shaft seal and Blackwater.
I have retired from aviation, and now have a larger “Bluewater boat”, hence Heather is somewhat regrettably on the market.”
WOODY CLASSIC BOATING 2022 – 2023 CALENDAR Time to get the pencil out and circle a few dates in the calendar. Our 2022 > 2023 classic woody events focus equally on the boats and the people – its all about getting off the marina and meeting up with like minded people. As always, some dates may change and the weather is always a factor – but as the dates approach we will be in touch with more details.
Please feel free to share the calendar with your classic friendly boating enthusiasts. Where tide and draft permits – woody cruising yachts are always welcome to join in, so also share with the stick and rag woodys 🙂
AND TO ENSURE YOU GET A WOODY FIX TODAY – CLICK THE LINK BELOW Video footage from the 2022 Moreton Bay Classic (thank you Andrew Christie)
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