Just before Christmas I buddied up with Jamie Hudson to take Jamie’s classic launch – Lady Crossley to her summer home in the Bay of Islands.
Jamie and I have a great track record when it comes to long hauls and the weather, so once again we enjoyed perfect conditions. We were in no hurry so the trip was broken into – Kawau Island > Urquhart Bay (Whangarei Head) > BOI.
Above is a gallery of photos from the trip – as always food was a major component of the trip 🙂
Enjoy the photos – didn’t see a lot of other woodys, but there appears to be a good representation on the replica f/glass Logan 33 launches in the Bay.
Photo below of Russell’s waterfront – have not been there for a long time – I’ll be back, soon, its a great spot.
Todays woody story comes to us from Andrew Christie in Brisbane, Andrew filmed and edited the short film on the glorious launch – South Passage, built in 1952 in Brisbane by Percy Tripcony.
South Passage is 50’ in length with a beam of 13’4”, and she draws 4’6”. The sound and footage of her Gardner 6LX diesel will be music to Dick Fisher’s (Akarana) ear and hopefully inspiration to Jamie Hudson (Lady Crossley) to get the tooth brush and Brasso out 😉
WOODYS CRUISING THE BAY OF ISLANDS – SUMMER 2019/20 – Part 2
Yesterday we featured a gallery of classic wooden launches that photographer Dean Wright has snapped over the xmas / new year period in the Bay of Islands.
Today we get to view some magnificent examples of ex work boats, now enjoying their twilight years as leisure craft.
Meola steals hearts where ever she goes and has made numerous appearances on WW.
Donna Maree was built by Jorgensens at Waipawa, Picton for Charlie Hebberley for the Tory Channel- not sure of the date. Now owned by Cal Crook.
I’m in the dark on details on the other to boats – Liberator and the unnamed one.
All the boats featured yesterday and today are stunning examples of why we love classic boats – the photo below unfortunately is an example to what we see hanging out in the Bay of Islands at this time of the year – “a face only a mother could love” 😦
WOODYS CRUISING THE BAY OF ISLANDS – SUMMER 2019/20 – Part 1
Just got home yesterday from 10 days mooching around Waiheke and while clearing the in-box I spotted an email from Dean Wright, now Dean is a Bay of Islands based professional photographer with a passion for wooden boats. He even owns one – the 1917, Arethusa.
Now any email from Dean normally contains some stunning photos and yesterdays one was a cracker – too good to run all as one, so I will split them in two.
Today we have featured pleasure launches – the first being one of the smartest classic wooden launches in our fleet – Linda. She has appeared on WW many times so if you want o know more just enter Linda in the WW search box.
I love the photo above because its the personification of our classic wooden boating movement.
Below I have included a photo of the 2018/19 built ‘spirit of tradition’ launch – Grace, and with her beautiful lines, she could only ever be a Salthouse 🙂
I have captioned the Woodys that I have been able to ID. To read more on the boats featured, use the WW search box 😉
Whilst anchored at the bottom end of Waiheke Island I spotted the 1946 Shipbuilders Supacraft built, Tim Windsor designed – Mahara, looking very smart. I have waited a while to get a good photo of her.
Read and see more on this bridgedecker at the WW links below
This big girl was anchored near me in the western end of Onetangi. Pretty from a lot of angles but a tad ‘block of flats’ at the ass end. Still as Cameron Pollard would say ‘fit for purpose – beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ etc.
Can anyone tell as more about Lady Tana?
Cool Xmas Presents
I was given the wine cooler in the photo below by my kids + a few other goodies. Designed by a Kiwi company named Huski – packaging says it keeps wine cool for 6 hours and it does! Also has a non slip rubber base, perfect for on the boat.
The above photo of the 1966 Roger Carey designed ex work boat – Kaheno. 45’9″ in length, she is built by Sinclair and Melbourne using plank kauri on steam bent frames (ribs) & powered by a 135hp Gardner 6LS engine. She has been converted to a live-aboard
This photo was sent in by Baden Pascoe. Taken just after just after relaunching in the upper Tamaki river last week.
You can read / view more on Kaheno at the WW link below
After 2 days of cooking, entertaining, drinking and the hardest job – being nice to everyone – we have survived the Christmas / Boxing Day festivities and can now go boating.
Anyone get any cool boating related presents ? – I’ll share a few with you in the next few days 🙂
Classic Wooden Boat – Waiheke Island Party – 50 Woody Photos
At the weekend anyone thats serious about classic wooden boats headed to Patio Bay, Waiheke Island for the best event on the calendar – the Classic Yacht Association yacht race + Xmas party BBQ at Margaret and Bert Woolicott’s waterfront bach. Last year was cancelled due to bad weather, so we were all way overdue for this years gig.
As is almost always the case with woody events – the sun shone, the wind blow at the right time and everyone had a blast.
The race down saw an impressive mix of yachts – the numbers boosted by great support from the Townson fleet.
Lots of new faces and a healthy mix of ages. To those that think Patio Bay weekend is a ‘boys weekend’ – check out the photos, the movement is in good health 🙂
If someone could bottle the smell / taste of the Pohutukawa fired BBQ’s – I’d buy it – whether its bangers or venison steaks, everything gets equal status on the BBQ’s.
CLASSIC WOODY LAUNCHES IN THE BAY
YACHT RACE FINISH
PARTY TIME
MORNING CHAT
HOME TIME
See below another stunning video of the race / passage down by master camera man Roger Mills
Todays 45’ launch was built in 1957 by Owen Woolley. She is built from twin planked kauri and powered by 120hp Ford diesel engines that push her along at 8>10 knots.
She is big old girl – with a 14’ beam.
The photos probably do not do the boat justice, on face value – she appears to be very well appointed.
Thanks to Ian MacDonald for the tme heads up.
Can anyone put a name to the boat – she calls Gulf Harbour name.
Woody Classics Weekend BBQ Cruise to Clevedon Cruising Club – 60+ photos
Morning woodys, as you will see from the above photo gallery the weekend woodys cruise up the Wairau River to the Clevedon Cruising Club was a great trip – had the 3 F’s that always make for good times – Fun, Friendship & Fraternity.
To hit the right tide window it was a very early start for most i.e. 6am at the marina – the smart ones, left Friday night.
We assembled at the river mouth around 9.30am and were met / piloted up the river by Barrie Abel, and woodys I have to say – just as well Barrie volunteered, because if you believed Navionics at times we were traveling over dry land, when in fact we had 3m of water under us. So a big thank you Barrie. Barry owns the 1912 woody – Matira, I will do a WW story on her on Wednesday.
Several boats missed the rendezvous but still safely made their way up the river.
After arriving at the clubs jetty late morning, the group split up – some went walking, some snoozed, and the rest hopped in the dinghies and ventured to the upper reaches of the river. We got very close to the Clevedon township before the fuel starting running out. Luckily a few had spare fuel so it was passed around like a good wine and everyone took a slip. I was aboard Dave Gidden’s dinghy and we had about 1cm in the tank when we switched off. Spotted a few interesting woodys along the way – Nathan Herbert and I would love to hear more about the launch – Liberty (tagged below).
Some wowser decided that 5pm would be drinks time, so a few of us had to retire to Dave Giddens floating man bach – Allergy for a cup of tea…..
The evening centred around a BBQ at the CCC, which is a fantastic set up and the members hospitality was first rate.
As a thank you for hosting us, we presented a donation to the club and rewarded Barrie Adel for his services with a bottle of Appletons finest Jamaican Estate golden rum. Club Commodore – Bruce Robson also now sports a WW T-Shirt 🙂
In return we have a CCC burgee for our virtual clubhouse.
On a personal note I would like to thank all the woody boat owners for ‘opening’ your boats up for the club members to inspect thru-out the day. Good chat was had.
We must have behaved ourselves, as we have been invited back – so woodys, more details to follow, but we will be repeating the cruise early 2020 e.g. April.
🙂 a visit to the GENTS was amusing – the uninitiated were in for a foot wash – the system was good old kiwi DIY at its finest 🙂 I can report that the LADIES was Regent Hotel standard.
Photos: myself and Nathan Herbert
Now I’ll bore some of you with the below video of my Raindance, taken by Nathan Herbert aboard Jas Prew’s launch – My Girl. I think it’s the only time Jason has ever let me pass him 🙂
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