Todays photos are from my wife’s side of the family, who had a higher % of salt in their veins than my side. Her grandfather John (Jack) Bonner was a co-owner of the yacht ALEXA C7 colourised photo below), built by T. Le Huquet in 1904. Later in life he was a very accomplished painter, several of his works grace my walls. When you factor in that he had (medical records speak) an ‘arm removed via field amputation i.e. no general anaesthesia in France WW!, the paintings were well done.
There were 3 random photos in the album , as seen above but no names, dates, or captions.
The top photo, carries the sale # A8 is VICTORY the 1907 Logan built A-Class yacht. Last I heard she was tucked away in boatbuilder Marco Scuderi’s shed in Helensville.
Second photo has the sail # A3, making her ARIKI – Ariki the 1904 yacht designed by Arch Logan and built by the Logan Brothers.
In the last photo the yacht centre stage has sail # A13, now I could be very know but my search has come up with this intel – HEARTSEASE (A13) was a historic 51-foot classic wooden cutter designed in Auckland by J.G. Trevithick, which raced locally before embarking on an international world cruise in 1932.
Just realised there has been a little too much B/W photos this week so promise some colour on Monday 😉
COMMENT ex ANGUS ROGERS – Angus has pointed out the spelling of the yachy above – blowning the photo up it appears to read ALXER. Every piece of intel I have seen on the boathas her named ALEXA, so I’m confused – anyone able to help out.
INPUT ex OWEN ASPDEN – I saw Heartsease posted on WW today below is a photo of her with sail number 141. According to my grandmothers diary Tom Aspden bought the Ida in 1921 and the Heartsease in 1919. FYI she now for sale in Sydney for $450k.
INPUT ex ROBIN ELLIOTT – HEARTSEASE carried number 141 in the 1913 Anniversary Regatta
Dropped into the working end of the Milford Creek / Marina yesterday and caught up on the woodys getting some late winter TLC
MY GIRL – the 1925 Dick Lang built (to a W H Hand design) was out at the Slipway Milford for an application of a new go fast bottom paint. All hush hush trial but I can tell you it wasn’t around in the 1920’s. Note to handicappers – alter MY GIRLS handicap 😉
Todays woody is a recent addition on tme, thanks Ian McDonald. The 47’ Sang designed motorsailer NAMELESS was built in 1953 in Miramar, Wellington. Powered by a 65hp Albion Albatross diesel engine (1947).
Her owners of 25 years say she needs a tidy and some maintenance, but at sub 100k NAMELESS is a lot of boat and she has the X factor ie a looker. A great selection of photos from her build / launching.
Todays classic wooden boat story is a great example of the ‘power’ of WW. We run a story an a craft and most of the time get fast feedback / input from people that have rubbed up against the vessel – however sometimes it takes a tad longer.
Back in September 2022 we ran a story on the 48’ ketch rigged motor sailer – HUIA https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/09/08/huia-2/ We learnt then that she was built / launched in 1951>53 and was the first vessel built by the founders of Gough Engineering in Invercargill. Powered by a Garner 6LW – great story on the engine in the 2022 story.
Fast forward to last week when WW was contacted by Cameron Gough, the great grandson of Joe Cough, who is mentioned on the 2022 story. Cameron ‘found’ the WW story when he was scanning some old family photos, some of which were of HUIA, he then did an on-line search trying to learn more about the boat’s history. Jackpot – there she was on WW, so long story short – Cameron sent in todays photos of HUIA , location being Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island , c.1950.
CLASSIC WOODYS AT ANCHOR – HAURAKI GULF OUTER ISLANDS
Todays photos come to us from Kent Forsyth, via his brother Tobias.
Tobias told us that Kent found the old photos of boats at the market on Waiheke Island.In Tobias’s eyes the cove looks like Arid Island (Little Barrier) and the raft up is in Smokehouse Bay, Great Barrier Island. Do we agree?
Can we ID the launch at anchor in the cove. I think I’ve let my QC guard down with the Smokehouse Bay photo – there could be a vindex/s hiding in that raft up 🙂
Then in December 2023 we had a note from Mark with some photos of a rather smart helm chat he was building and advice that the project was still underway but any boating in the summer of 2023/24 was not a happening thing.
Back in June 2025 after chatting with Mark he sent in todays photos with the promise of some ‘almost finished’ ones, so I held off. Sadly the promised photos never arrived so after a year I post the above and fingers crossed this bumps Mark into an update 🙂
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT – WELLINGTON’S CLASSIC WOODEN CRAFT
I’m guilty of a lapse that a lot of us northern woodys fall into – that being, we forget about NZ’s capital city Wellington as a home to some of our best classic wooden craft.
Auckland, the Bay of Islands and the top of the South Island tend to dominate WW content. So it was so good to receive a trip report from Auckland based woody Geoff Fiebig (SV CAPLIN) from Chaffers marina in Wellington.
The next woody is the 26’ 1925 Colin Wild built launch – LITTLE TASMAN, another woody that slipped thru our hands and headed south. Not before an amazing restoration at the hands of Colin Brown and Josh Hawkw at their Omaha yard. Check out this WW link and view the video of the project. https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/06/17/little-tasman-restoration/
Lastly we have the 1964 Ben Hipkins built 50’ bridge decker – RANGIORA looking the best she has in a long time – well done to her owners.
Back in 2024 the 44’ classic wooden workboat TENACITY was for sale in Nelson as a commercial fishing boat , but the suggestion was she had the bones to make a good recreational cruiser.
At the time we learnt she was a Jack Guard design, built in 1988 from kauri and was powered by a 150hp Gardner 6L3B engine.
Todays woody question is did she sell, and if so did she remain in commercial work or get converted to recreational use.
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