Category Archives: 50’+

Woody Classics Weekend BBQ Cruise to Clevedon Cruising Club – 60+ photos

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Liberty

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Impressive Haul Out Area

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Heading Home

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
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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 🙂

NIGHTINGALE + waitematawoodys hits 5,000,000 Views

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NIGHTINGALE + waitematawoodys hits 5,000,000 Views
The 55’ trawler cruiser started life in 1925, in Invercargill as a sailing ship, Later owned by the Leask family (Stewart Island) who strengthened and converted her to a trawler ‘ fright ship in the area for many years. In 1987 she was taken to Nelson and converted to a pleasure cruiser. In recent years (last 10) she has seen timber replacements and modernising too systems.
Her trademe listing (thanks Ian MacDonald) describes her as a floating bach and that is a good description of the life she has had in the Marlborough Sounds. Sleeping for 8 people and all the home comforts aboard (42” TV) would make for enjoyable Sounds cruising.
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Her beam is 11’5” and she draws 5’5”. Power is via a Detroit 671, that has her cruising at 7 knots.
Any one able to tell us the designer / builder?
Waitematawoodys Gets 5 Million Views
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At some stage last night or early this morning the waitematawoodys.com site clock clicked over the 5 million views mark – I got the biggest buzz when it hit 5,000 and then 1,000,000 – these days its a freight train – just keeps on rolling 24/7.
Why do I do it? – the #1 reason is to motivate people to use their wooden boats more and to enjoy the classic wooden boating lifestyle.
Some of you have been around since day one and stayed the distance, some are what I call ‘flirters’ you come and go and that’s all good.
The back library is very impressive – over 1/2 the daily views these days are people using the site as a reference tool eg searching for details on a particular boat. Sometimes the odd story  might be a bit lame but it gets into the WW system and over time can grow e.g. someone searches the boats name and next thing we have a new (better) story on the same boat and it kick starts the old story.
It is always try to be to be entertaining and informative. I also try very hard to be factual but if we get it wrong – tell us and if you are in fact right, we will correct it.
I never started out to create an encyclopaedia of classic wooden boats – the idea was to create some good chat around what’s happening in the classic wooden boating community.
I also never intended for the stories to be daily, but the appetite was there and I soon discovered there was no shortage of content out there.
Sometimes, not often, after some moron has sent me a nasty email, I question why I do it, but then I have some chat (on-line) with cool people that make it worthwhile e.g there are a lot of blokes that have spent their life in and around wooden boats and these days reading WW is a highpoint in their day. I like that 🙂
I encourage you to use the comments section.
To those of you working on woody projects – send us updates / photos, we love projects. Send to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Thank you for your support ‘flying the WW flag’ via wearing the WW t-shirts – they pop up all over the world.
Best Regards
alan houghton – waitematawoodys founder
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Waipawa – A Peek Down Below

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WAIPAWA AK83 – A Peek Down Below
 

The ex work boat (Waitemata Fisheries) Waipawa has made a brief appearance on WW back in 2016 (WW link below) Now thanks to Ian McDonald’s road trip in the Far North we get to have a look down below.

The photos above show her on the hard at Opua, in mid October.  The 50’ Waipawa was built by Percy Vos and her owner Pete McIntyre, understands she was launched in 1940).

She gets around, having recently been up to Fiji & Tonga, And to Fiordland / Stewart Island.
 

Woody Classics Weekend – Stillwater Picnic – 26 Classic Wooden Boat Photos 

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Woody Classics Weekend – Stillwater Picnic – 26 Classic Wooden Boat Photos 

All week, the weather gods have been saying that Sunday was going to be the best day for boating – well folks that it was 🙂
Barbara Cooke summed it up perfectly in an email  – “Great day today team! Great to see people enjoying the good weather, relaxing and lolling about on picnic rugs, some with pooches. Interesting bikies! Nice boats too! “
 
Today’s story is just really a photo gallery of the day – the boats and bikes, the venue and the people + a few woodys I spotted along the way. 
A hell of a lot of work goes into organising these events – and I would like to acknowledge the team that bring it all together, without their help and input there would be no Woody Classics Weekend events. Barbara & David Cooke, Sue & Mark Edmonds, Nathan Herbert, Jason Prew and lastly yours truely.
 
Lots of chat about the next event in November – just working thru the logistics, more details ASAP.
 
The day was made extra special by the inclusion of a display of classic motorcycles ( see below) and their owners were big admirers of our classic woodys.
 
Enjoy and as always, click on photos to enlarge – alan houghton

Marnine

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MARNINE

Must be the week for the big girls, yesterday we had a feature on the 56’ Turongo coming onto the market and today we see the 1961 Lane built – Marnine.
Marnine measures 50’ and has a 15’ beam and weighs 25 tonnes so very similar in size to Turongo.
Marnine has made numerous appearances on WW – links below. The first one contain a great insight into her past from Terry Porter, son of her original owner Fred Porter.
Today we see her hauled out in Auckland for some TLC.

 

MULLET BOAT MAST SOS
The boys at The Slipway Milford have a 22’ mullety hauled out which given her existing masts is in 3 pieces and looks like a shark has had a chew, there is an urgent need for a suitable replacement.
Not fussy if its wood or alloy – anyone got one up in the rafters? Contact Jason Prew jason@slipway.co.nz

TURONGO – Once In A Lifetime Opportunity 

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TURONGO – Once In A Lifetime Opportunity 

Turongo has had a very low profile on the classic boating scene, as she spends most summers in the Bay of Islands.
Turongo is the biggest of the 5 Colin Wild inspired, John Salthouse built motor-yachts. The term ‘launch’ just doesn’t fit a vessel of her elegance and bearing, she is the Bentley of the wooden boating world.
Her vital specs are – built 1966, one year after Trinidad, 56’ in length with a 14’6” beam, she draws 5′ but unlike Trinidad and the earlier launched Lady Crossley, she was the recipient of at the time, some radical design which sees her only drawing 18”at the stern, this along with her twin CAT 3208 diesels results in Turongo being able to do up to 18 knots under power.
Turongo is a very lucky boat, she has been in the same family for the last 25+ years and been very well maintained thru-out this period. She was originally built for JR Butcher and after launching sat on a mooring for a period of time waiting for her two 200hp Cummins V8’s to arrive from the States both of which had been extracted from a tractor unit. They were installed and fitted out by John Butcher and his son Tony,  both gents were in the engineering business. Even back then with the smaller motors, she had an impressive turn of speed..
In recent times she has received the Uroxsys ‘varnish’ finish.
Well woodys, the headline kind of gave the game away – Turongo is for sale and it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to own one of the best classic motor-yachts in NZ. Her owner has made the decision to hand the keys to the next custodian – so who will it be?
Whoever it is had better act quickly, her owner is very realistic in terms of price and after making the difficult decision to let her go, wants a sale. Take my word for it, Turongo will not be on the market for long.
Initially expressions of interest should be directed to  waitematawoodys@gmail.com
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Woody Classics Weekend Riverhead Trip Report

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Woody Classics Weekend Riverhead Trip Report

We had 23 classic launches confirm for Sundays Riverhead cruise but folks I can report that the weather at times was a little evil. Not too bad for the big girls but the sub 30’ crowd were rocking & rolling. Lots of white water over the top. But it was only for a short time, after Herald Island things improved 🙂
On the day, 15 launches travelled to the Riverhead Tavern and had a ball, neat people , stunning boats, lots of good chat. Big ups to those that came by car to join the gathering, nice gesture.
Now – confession time – on the email I to sent the skippers that had RSVP’ed I gave everyone a big wind up about behaving e.g. Indian File, follow the leader, no over taking etc etc and bugger me – Raindance went aground. Last bend before the hotel & I’m up on deck laying out the lines & fenders and  the ‘duty’ skipper puts us in the mud. No amount of forward / reverse would move her. Thank goodness for my boatbuilder Geoff Bagnall and his wife Theresa on board Achillies, who came to our aid and pulled us off. Not before 1/2 the fleet passed us – very embarrassed. Hopefully the oops cleaned off some Baywater sludge. But I was not alone………. 2 others parked up as well 😉
Not a great day for photos, overcast and drizzle but the sun shone thru at the important times 🙂
Remember to put a big circle in your diary for the weekend of 19/20th of October for the next Woodys Classics Weekend. Its a picnic cruise to Still Water motor camp – Master of ceremonies / Officer of the day / Rear commodore / Chief Poo-bar / Mark Edmonds (who like titles) is finalising dates and details but there could be a band, classic cars / motorbikes and vehicle access for the boat less Woodys – more details soon.
Special thanks to Brendon Gardiner, Margo Hudson, Jason Prew and Alan Houghton for the photos.
Photos below from Michelle Maitland onboard Cleone

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And more ex David Plummer and Geoff Steven

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B/W photo below ex Mike Mahoney

WCW Riverhead ex McH

Great view of Jason Prew’s – My Girl below. taken by Angus Rogers. Really shows off her lines, no wonder she is so quick 😉

My Girl @ Riverhead Sept2019