The 47’ motor sailer Nukutere last appeared on WW in Dec 2017 – link below. https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/12/18/nukutere-part-2/ This story was following up on a previous story where her owner was seeking information about the vessels past – the request hit the jackpot when Bernie Warmington contacted WW and sent in extensive details and photos – of the bridge-decker built 1939 > 1941 by Arthur Sang for Bernie’s grandfather- Foster Warmington. Check out the link above to that story, it is an amazing insight into the history of Nukutere, from felling the tree > approx. 2016 when Gavin Warminton authored a family journal on the vessel.
Today thanks to John Dawson sending in the above photos we get to have look at her as of 2023. ENJOY 🙂
Prolific model boat builder John Bullivant sent in the above photo of the motorsailer – Yvalda, seen here last week on her mooring at Lake Wakatipu, South Island. The photo was sent to John by a modelling friend who was visiting NZ for a wedding.
Wonderful to see Yvalda in such magnificent condition. She was built in 1936 in Scotland by Mc Gruers – click the link below to read full details on how she got to NZ and Lake Wakatipu, don’t forget to read the comments section , lots of chat there.
Todays woody is Rangimarie, a 45’ motor sailer built in Paremata in 1959 by Saunders boatbuilders.
Construction is heart matai (black pine).
Forward propulsion is from a Gardner 6LX diesel. She appears to be very well spec’ed , as are most serious southern woodys.
Rangimarie has called Riverton home for the last 18 years and thanks to a tme listing (ex Lan McDonald) we get to have peek onboard. On face value good buying at $100k.
Slight change of format today. Normally we do one big gallery of event photos, but the 2024 Auckland Wooden Boat Festival deserves two stories – why? Well in the eyes os of the woodys I spoke to, the off-the-water (in the shed) exhibition was on equal footing to the exhibition afloat. So woodys come back tomorrow to see the off-the-water gallery, you won’t be disappointed.
From my mooching the #1 feedback I got was ‘where do they all come from’ i.e. people have never seen this number of classic wooden boats together #2 (from owners) was ‘it is so great to meet all the owners / caretakers’. I think a lot of people were quietly hoping their partners were thinking “there are other zany people out there, my partner isn’t the only eccentric old boat nut in town”.
For a three day outdoor event in Auckland we were gifted to have two (Fri/Sat) days of amazing weather, Sunday was a on/off rain day but it didn’t seem to slow down the people. I believe over 8,000 people were counted thru the dock-gate (it was free entry).
The photos tell the story today – its takes a lot of people to pull something like this off, so well done to all those that rubbed up against the show and well done Tony and team for pulling it all together.
The above photos of the 43′ launch Dolphin V were sent in by Bruce Ryrie, who had recently been aboard her in Westhaven.
Designed and built in 1963 by K.E. Swanson, Queen Charlotte Sounds, South Island. She is carvel kauri construction and powered by a Detroit 6v53. And thats all WW knows about her.
The size and location of the exhaust stack indicates a sizeable engine and possible work boat pedigree.
Hopefully someone can enlighten us as to how she ended up in Auckland.
Has been a few weeks of back to back woody boating activity, so today is a case of slowing down – So when the WW email inbox pinged with a note from Bay of Islands woody photographer – Dean Wright, my eyes lit up. As always Dean was sending in some great photos from mooching around the Bay of Islands aboard his magnificent woody – Arethusa .
Todays are from Deans weekend trip to Mimiwhangata and starting at the top we see one of my favourite workboat woodys – the Roger Carey designed (1954), built by Curnow & West Nelson Boatbuilders craft – Souvenir in Deep Water Cove.
Today I’ll doing something very un-boating related – but to me very chilling out – 1st one to guess what that is, its an inside project – wins a WW burgee – entries via email only to waitematawoodys@gmail.com . Closes off at 6pm.
During the week I was sent the above photos of the 49’ launch – Jocelyn by Robert Ross. The photos date back to c.early1970’s and are from when Jocelyn was owned by Sir Willian Stevenson.
Robert commented that he went fishing a number of times with Sir William out of Whitianga. Robert thought then the boat was ahead of its time and she always attracted a lot of attention.
Jocelyn was reputedly a Hacker USA design, built / launched in 1967/68 by the boatbuilder Brin Wilson. In the photos below – the ist three photos sees her at the 2016 Mahurangi Regatta. The last photo is more recent and was taken in August 2023 when she was hauled out at Half Moon Bay marina for some TLC. Link here to a 2017 WW story where Hamish Moore (great grandson of Sir William) provided a wonderful insight into the history of Jocelyn. https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/01/28/the-history-of-mv-jocelyn/
Back in June 2016 Steve Horsley was on the verge of selling his 1904 Charles Bailey Jnr built 49’ B-Class gaffer – Ngatira, link below to that story. Thankfully he didn’t and not long after he hauled her home onto the front lawn for a few wee jobs. June 2016 https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/06/14/20032/
As so often happens the To Do list kept growing and next thing Steve’s into a total refit. Long term WW readers will remember Steve previously rebuilt Ngatira almost single handed. He is a seriously talent man and puts a lot of ’tradesman’ to shame.
I caught up with Steve over the weekend at the Mahurangi Regatta, Steve is a past commodore of the Mahurangi Cruising Club and produces their stunning year book.
I asked Steve how the few wee jobs were coming along and he shared the above photos. Ngatira is now closed in and the varnish (Uroxsys) is getting applied.
Steves gifted with a very considerate wife – Jo, not many would up up with a 1904 collection of kauri planks to remain at the front door for several years 🙂
I was brave and asked for an ETA back in the water – all I could get was soon Houghty, soon 🙂
On Monday of Auckland’s Anniversary Weekend I joined a very small club – boaties that have legally exceeded 20 knots in Auckland’s inner harbour. Probably only Deodar (police launch), Coastguard and the Harbour Master would be in the club. As part of the anniversary day regatta Jason Prew organises an around the buoys race for classic launches. The event has the most entrants of any event on the day. The Harbour Master waves the normal 12 knot speed limit and even provides an escort around the course.
This year I was invited aboard Jason Prew’s xxxx launch – MY GIRL for the race. The conditions were very average SW18>23 knots , gusting 28 knots, bad enough to keep most of the classic yacht fleet tucked up in her berths for the day.
At the bang of the start gun My Girl took the lead and we never looked back – at the 1st mark we were 58 sec ahead of the next boat (Paikea) and just kept pulling away. Crossed the finish line doing 22.9 knots, that woodys is very fast. The foiling kite surfer that miscalculated our speed probably needed a change of wet suit pants 🙂
My Girl is powered by a Volvo 150hp 4cyl. turbo diesel engine that in another life powered a Queenstown jet boat . Mr Prew has tweaked it ‘a little’ – video of engine at idle and proof of speed 🙂 Note – there is no engine box /cover 🙂
Results
Across the line – 1. My Girl, 2. Paikea, 3. Lucinda
Handicap – 1.Waikaro, 2. Lucinda, 3. St Clair
Entrants – My Girl, Paikea, Lucinda, Rehia, Ngaio, Waikaro, St Clair, Juanita, Meola, Marihi, Vanessa, Jeunesse
TUG/WORK BOAT RACING
The 2nd biggest event in terms of numbers is the highly popular tug/work boat race. Photos below.
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