Glenlee

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MV GLENLEE

Glenlee is one of the historic Marlborough Sounds Launches, she was built around 1908 by Claude Wells for the McNabbs to service their Crail Bay guest house Glenlee.

In her time Glenlee has also been used as a mail boat and commercial fishing boat. Last two owners (approx 60 years) are both relations of the original builder
She is made from double skin kauri & measures 39’, with a beam of 9’. The zoom zoom comes from a 6 cyl. Ford diesel with pumps out approx. 120hp.

Currently moored at the Okiwi Bay South, Grove Arm, Queen Charlotte Sound, she is for sale on trademe. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the listing heads up.

Input & photos from Cameron Pollard– Glenlee had a Regal engine (see below) originally, followed by a Lister Blackstone, then a Detroit & a Ford

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Photina – Sailing Sunday

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PHOTINA –  Sailing Sunday

 On Friday as part of the post on the launch Luanda, there was a photo of Luanda with a yacht alongside, I ran a wee quiz to find out the name of the yacht, won by Martin Howson (does that man sleep?) – the yacht was the 39’ Photina built by Trevor Managh and Ces Watson for her owner Trevor Managh. In the photo below she’s still to have her mast stepped.

Tracing the history of Photina on the web is a little ‘misty’ as after Trevor sold her, a future owner took her to Mururoa in 1995 & certain ‘people/country’ have clouded (excuse the pun) the on-line media coverage of what happened up there. You can read more in the book ‘Mururoa Blues’ by John Simpson page 149.

Trevor also did a Noumea race in her before selling her. The boat went on to do 4 circumnavigations, so Ces Watson knew how to build a good boat.

Thanks to Mike Elliott for the photos & details.

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Classic Yacht Association – ANZAC DAY REGATTA 2018- 30+ photos

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CYA ANZAC DAY REGATTA 2018

Raindance was overdue a run so I decided to head out yesterday afternoon & catch the start of the CYA / PCC ANZAC Day Regatta. The photos are from the pre-start > start & a wee bit of racing. A used a long lens, as I wanted to stay out of the start area.

A stunning day for woody boating, but I have to say – excluding the A Division, the turn out was a little RS. 

The day had every thing going for it – late start, sun, wind & a good post race gig at PCC, seems some people most be suffering the boating equivalent of cabin fever.

Enjoy the photos – remember to click photos to enlarge 😉

The yacht below – Time, is a marina neibour of mine – a very salty vessel, & equally stunning down below.

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Classic Woody  Riverhead Hotel Cruise

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Nana

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Mahanui

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Volantis

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Korara

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Classic Woody  Riverhead Hotel Cruise

Not wanting to sound like a parrot but the CYA has an amazing track record of aceing the weather for its launch cruises to the waterfront Riverhead Hotel. 

The forecast was average, but it just never eventuated & subsequently the boats that made the trip had a great day.  

So cool to have one of our yachties make the trip, that center-board helped 😉

Highlight of the day for me was seeing John Wright’s recently restored launch – Nana. Nana was designed by C. Bailey Jun. &  built by C. Bailey & Sons in 1934. You can view more on Nana’s amazing journey, from rescue to re-launch at this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/02/01/nana-resuced-restored/ 

John has one of the best eyes for how a woody should look, the final details on Nana make her look perfect, in my eyes. John, you should have finished the trip & come up to the hotel, I have a WW tee-shirt for you – email me your postal address – waitematawoodys@gmail.com

 Also had a peek at the publican’s – Paula & Stephen Pepperell’s 1967 Jorgensen launch -Volantis, that is nearing the end of an extensive re-fit, Stephan is another woody with a great eye for detail.

Below are a collection of photos from the camera of Simon Smith who was perched on the Greenhithe Bridge – they give us another perspective on some of our classics. Pity Simon wasn’t there for the return trip – Raindance & the motor-sailer Korara, were just passing under the bridge, being good woodys, traveling to starboard of a large plastic yacht (a Hanse) that was approaching the bridge – when all of a sudden the yachts bow shot up out of the water & the yacht shot backwards. The reason – you guessed it – mast hit the bridge (photo of dent to the bridge, below) luckily they were travelling slow, any faster & they might have lost the mast. I suspect there was a change of undies needed for the crew.

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Raindance & Nana

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Lucinda

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Mahanui

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Korara

Upper Harbour ‘V’s’ Yacht Oops

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HDML – Kuparu – P3563 Looking Rather Smart

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Kupara

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Duchess

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DUCHESS

The photos above of Duchess, appeared back in 2013, by mistake on a previous WW story on the Joe Slattery launch – Raiona. I have updated the Raiona story & included below details ex Harold Kidd & Nathan Herbert (who ID’ed the mix-up)

 DUCHESS and RAIONA were remarkably similar, or rather MOLLIE/ALCESTIS/RAIONA was lengthened to 44ft and altered to look like remarkably like DUCHESS by Colin Wild in 1928.
The 40 footer DUCHESS was built in late 1920 by Bailey & Lowe for R.L. Stewart Sr.
The pic above shows DUCHESS on Eel Rock off Cowes Bay on 1st January 1934.  She ran on the rock just after high tide and was refloated the next day with slight damage (2 planks stove in).
Stewart sold her to the Government in August 1935 as a tourist launch. In the Auckland Star of 10th August 1935 there’s a full description of her in the photos below, confirms her configuration is very close to RAIONA’s. She had a 3cylinder heavy duty Twigg engine.
I’m not terribly sure what happened to her after the Crown/PWD bought her.

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Tutanekai

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TUTANEKAI

While down South on my Trinidad cruise I spotted Tutanekai dropping off people at the Bay of Many Coves resort in Queen Charlotte Sound. Tutanekai was built by E.R. Lane in Picton in 1930 & measures 42’x10’x3’6”. The zoom zoom comes from a 115hp GM 471 diesel.

She started life as a mothership that towed harpooned whales back to the whaling station. Post those days, she was a mail boat for 30 years, then a fishing boat, & then worked in & around the mussel farming industry for 20 years. When retired she was very run down & her current owner Pete, restored her to what we see today.

These days Tutanekai is the backbone of Pete & wife Takutai’s tourism business – ‘Myths & Legend Eco-Tours’

In the last photo, we see Trinidad at anchor, while we were brunching 🙂

Can any southern woodys tell us any more about Tutanekai?

Harold Kidd Input – E.R. Lane built TUTANEKAI for Charley Perano and K. Sutherland in 1930. Her original engine was a 2 cylinder 18hp Regal. Peranos sold her to M T H Steele in 1936, he sold her to Kennys in 1942, later Queen Charlotte Transport in 1948. Peter Beech owned her in 2002. The Regal was replaced with a 4 cylinder Sterling then a 6 cylinder Hercules in 1935 and a 471 GM in 1946. In 1940 a Government report stated that she had a maximum speed of 10 knots and a range of 180 nm at 8 kn.

 

Tuarangi > Silver Fin – Update

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TUARANGI > SILVER FIN – Update

I was recently sent the above photo of Silver Fin (Tuarangi) by Brian Wagstaff & Bryan was able to supply some background on her below –  from past WW stories we know that Tuarangi was built by Lidgard Bros for a H.S White & launched in 1950. White sold her in 1951 to Bruce Winstone. She was 42’x40’x12’x4’3″ and originally had twin 90hp 6-cylinder Redwing petrol engines. During Whites ownership, she blew up while refueling at Whitianga. You can read the story in detail here   https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/06/13/wairangi-2/

Eric details the post incident recovery, sale & rebuild below. By 1959 she was renamed Silver Fin. I’ll let Eric tell the story.

“My father Eric Wagstaff purchased the boat from the Bruce Winstone. I would assume some insurance company might have been involved . The boat was collected from Whitianga and towed to Tauranga by a boat called “Rainbow” which was old bridge decker owned by Eric. The Rainbow had a marinised Rolls Royce engine and was built for the Mills Bros who I believe were Bay of Plenty farmers. The roof section from Silver Fin was basically upside down and pretty much in place on collection. The boat was beached at Beach Road, Otumoetai.

The boat was lifted onto a transport trailer by Bert Godfrey, the founder of the NZ Lumber Company and moved to Eric’s joinery factory in Judea.  We enjoyed many a trip on the Silver Fin. She was chartered for game fishing for a while in the days of Bob Gray etc. The top was replaced with what you see and Eric consulted with Willy Oliver, who was a friend, on the design of the new cabin. Eric was born in Wellington to a well-known yachting and boat building family and had it not been for the 2nd World War (he was a fighter pilot) and returned to Maunganui at the end of the war were he meet my mother (now 96 and still alive) in Tauranga where he stayed and established a joinery business. The motors were replaced with 60hp Fordson diesels converted by Lees marine, I believe. The boat was sold to Dr. Kennedy the family doctor (who delivered me in 1949). He for some reason painted the boat green which I remember clearly. The rest of it you pretty much have on record. I will try to find some old photos of the rebuild.”

 

 

 

Yachts at Kawau Island – Sailing Sunday – Win A WW T-Shirt

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Yachts at Kawau Island – Sailing Sunday – Win A WW T-Shirt

This Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island photo from the ‘NZ Car, Boats, >>> Utes Pre’75’ FB page shows a great collection of classic yachts (& a few launches).

I’ll put up a WW t-shirt to the woody that can ID the most yachts – given my launch angle – I’ll get a yachty to verify the answers. To stop copy-catting, entries ONLY via email to

waitematawoodys@gmail.com

LIPTON CUP RACE – SATURDAY – MARCH 17th

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The 97th Lipton Cup race is set to take place on the 17th of March. 22 miles of blood, sweat and tears is to be raced by the 22ft L Class ‘mullet boats’ to see who will triumph as the winner of the esteemed Lipton Cup trophy. This is a highlight of the yachting calendar and this year it appears there will be fierce competition with a number of the mullet boats performing exceptionally well in recent racing. With only 3 years to go until the 100th you can expect there to be a lot more competition and boats coming out of the wood work to compete in following years. Previous crew and owners are always welcome to come down and watch with the club open all day with food and refreshments (with a lift for the weathered yachties).

The days events are as follows:

7am – Hot cooked breakfast (Prebooked)

9am – Race briefing

11am – Race commences

3pm approx – Race finishes

6pm approx – Prize giving and after party

Watch Video footage from last years race here https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=LAZotynoqiA

 

Woodys at Kawau Island

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Woodys at Kawau Island

The above photo of Kawau Island is ex Lew Redwoood via the facebook page ’New Zealand Cars,Boats,Motorbikes,Trucks,Vans,Utes,Pre 1975′  -the photo is tagged ‘ Pleasure craft at anchor in Mansion House Bay. 

How many woodys can we ID?, I know Nathan Herbert was a little excited to see the family launch Pacific in the shot (top right).

If you are on facebook – you should ‘follow’ this page, there are some very cool old woody photos that pop up from time to time.

Aussie Boat Porn

I have featured several times The Australian Wooden Boat Festival that happens very 2 years in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The video below is a 100% publicity video for Tasmania & the event – but dam its good. Have look, you’ll be blown away by the number of stunning woodys. Thanks to the USA based on-line membership only video website –  offcenterharbour.com for making the video available. Its a great site, I’m a member.

https://www.offcenterharbor.com/videos/australian-wooden-boat-festival-tasmanias-warm-embrace/

CYA Classic Yacht Regatta 2018 – 50+ Photos

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CYA Classic Yacht Regatta 2018 – Day Two – Race 2 – 50+ Photos

Popped out early on Raindance to catch the start of the regatta – not much of a day for photos, overcast………. but the stick & rag boys would have been happy with the breeze.

If there appears to be a high degree of repetition with the photos – thats because there were not a lot of classics competing. A-division had a good turn out but you could count the rest with out having to take our shoes & socks off.

Maybe everyone sleep in & they turned up for the afternoons race ?

Numbers aside – bloody impressive sight when they are all powered up. Things got a little tense at the start – some very un- corthinthian yachting language was heard, more often then not, the worst culprits always seem to flying a small blue burgee…… 😦

Below – My Pick For Best Photo (not mine, ex Jason Prew’s FB page)

When you arrive 5 mins late for the start you have to do whatever it takes to get into the race – it’s not often you see Jason out of the cockpit, let alone on Wairiki’s rail 🙂

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