Category Archives: 50’+

Cruise To The Riverhead Hotel

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CRUISE TO THE RIVERHEAD HOTEL
If you have not visited the Riverhead Hotel by water, its time you did. The Classic Yacht Association (CYA) has an afternoon cruise to the pub next Sunday (18th). These events are a lot of fun – we head up the river / creek on mass & anchor / raft-up before going ashore for a drink & a catch-up. If you have concerns about the route, just follow the boat in front of you & anchor with the others. There will be plenty of ‘old-hands’ to show you the ropes.
High tide is 16:24pm & so we aim to be heading up the ‘creek’ 2hrs b4 HW, its a small tide at 2.8m so I would imagine we will be meeting up in the Herald Island / Lucus Creek area around 2.00pm, so leaving Westhaven area around 1pm. ETA at pub is 2.30pm & departure from the pub approx 5.30pm.
If you are not a CYA member (yet) come along & see what you have been missing out on.
The photo gallery above is a snap shot of past trips – enjoy.
Ps – Wear your WW shirt 🙂
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Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

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If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
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Boat or Block of Flats?

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Boat or Block of Flats?
Its been a while since we had a contender for the ‘Boat that looks like a block of flats’ award – the above, shoots to the top of the list. And that is sad because someone has spent a lot of money on this spirit of tradition vessel, in all the wrong places.
Some details – build year is 2006, her specs are 52.5’ in length, with a 14’9” beam. And yes – she is wood. Her zoom zoom is via a Fiat Iveco Aifo 220 hp diesel that will see her cruising at 8.5 knots.

Leda A26

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LEDA A26
I was recently tipped off by the new CYA chairperson – James Mortimer, about a great tale that was unfolding on the CYA forum. It involves a gent by the name of Russ Senkovich, who owns the 54’ kiwi built, 1949, yacht Leda. Russ & his wife are thinking of bringing Leda back to NZ & ultimately selling her here. Leda left NZ in 1953 & has been off shore ever since – there is an amazing weblog on her travels & maintenance over the years, check it out here   svleda.com
You can also follow the story on the CYAF – link here    https://classicyacht.org.nz/cyaforum/topic/leda-a26/ 
But let me set the scene for you on Leda, it starts with a Christopher Gordon Wilson, better known as Dooley and his brother Alexander, better known as Sandy who were both home from WWII and had a dream of racing the Fastnet.  However, the war had left the NZ dollar devalued and buying a yacht was out of the question.  So, of course, they decided to build one.  They had in their possession a book by Uffa Fox of noteworthy yacht designs.  One of the boats featured in that book was Ragna R.
Ragna R, launched in 1938, was built by Gustav Plym in Stockholm for a British client.  She is a Knud Reimers a design. The Wilson brothers admired the yacht and showed the book to a fellow named Jack Taylor, whom its believed worked for Lidgards.  Jack Taylor developed a full set of construction plans, including the dimensions of all the timbers needed for the project.

So, Dooley and Sandy, had their plan.  Now they just needed to build their boat. The line drawings below are dated June, of 1947.  Sandy would have been 25 and Dooley, 27-years old.  Remarkably Leda would be sailing 29 months later. She is double-planked kauri over mangeao frames with pohutakawa knees and copper rivets.  Leda’s deck is double planked kauri, her cabin is Douglas fir (Oregon pine) and pine.

Thats all you’ll get here today on WW – use the link above to read / view the full story – its a great read.
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22-10-2018 Input from Neil Chalmers – Neil commented to me that the Leda post reminded Neil of a story Con Morley told him about his admiration of Knud Reimers yacht designs . 

Con owned and raced ‘Freya’, a 32 foot double ender built in the 1950’s. ‘Freya’ was very similar to  Reimers ‘Stor Tumlaren’ design made famous by the well known British yachtsman / author K Adlard Coles and his yacht ‘Cohoe’.
During a visit to Stockholm, Con called at  the Reimers design office and met the great man himself. Reimers was very polite and formal . He mentioned to Con that he was aware several of his designs had been built in NZ , however he had never sold any plans to NZ !

HMNZS Kuparu HDML

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HMNZS KUPARU HDML
I received an email the other day from Ken Ricketts which served to remind me I was overdue on a wee story on the ex ex Naval 22m patrol boat HDML Kuparu P3565. Her owner Scott Perry has been keeping me updated on the refit of this icon NZ Navy vessel. A fitting project as Scott is ex Navy.
Scott was at a T intersection in this life having recently lost his wife to cancer & thankfully a combination of Kuparu & his young family were the glue he needed to get thru a very traumatic period.
  
In Scott’s own words “Kuparu was a very big ugly mess of a job” but he rolled up the sleeves & with the help of some good friends (old & new) he re-launched her late last year.
Now the navy purists may not all agree on some of the mods but Scott is now the proud owner of a very large, comfortable woody cruiser. The ideal platform for the family to get out & about on the Waitemata Harbour & Outer Gulf & believe me they do, I have spotted them everywhere.
 
If you see Kuparu, give them a wave or if in a bay, row over for a chat & to admire the scale of the project Scott took on. Like all woodys, it never ends, so occasionally Scott posts on facebook looking for anyone keen on helping out with some maintenance – she is a rather large craft to do anything to e.g. clean, sand, paint etc.
 
Kuparu was very lucky to find an owner like Scott but the flip side is Scott was equally lucky with Kupara. Well done Scott.
 
(note below is a gallery of images that Ken Ricketts uplifted from a video on Lew Redwood’s fb page, I apologise for the quality – most often video > still photos = out of focus, I have tried to digitally enhance them but they are low quality, but from them you get a peek into the project  
 
 
As I was writing this story I received an email from a gent named Zaps Zander, who for the past 3 years has been running, compiling and administering a blog on  anything ML related i.e. from day 1 in 1943 to this month (the recent Black Watch sinking). Check out his weblog below – there are over 150 photos

Details below from the RNZN Communicators Association via Ken Ricketts.

LOA:  76′ Beam: 16′, LWL: 72′, Draft: 5′
Design or Class: W J Holt Admiralty World War II anti-submarine patrol craft
Former Name: HMNZS Pegasus P3563 > HMNZS Kuparu P3563  Q1348 WW2 number
Home Port: Auckland
Designer: W J Holt Admiralty
Boat Type: HDML, Gross Displacement: 54-ton
Number of Engines: 2, Engine Model: Mark 6 two-stroke Fodens, Total Engine Horsepower:  180-hp (each)
Builder Name: Ackerman Boat Company, Location Built: Lido Island, California, Year Built: 1943
Hull or Design No.: Q1348
Owner Name: Scott Perry, Owner Country: New Zealand
07-10-2018 Input from John Bullivant – just dug out a photo (below) of Kuparu I took probably about 15yrs ago when she was out the back of the Devonport navy base, by the Ngataringa Bay sports field. I was being watched closely as I was taking the photo by a couple of WRENS who probably thought I was after secret HDML information.
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Whitianga Mystery Launch + Akarana Launch Day ‘Home’ Movie

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Whitianga Mystery Launch + Akarana Launch Day ‘Home’ Movie
Great photo above dated December 1950 of a lot of pleasure craft at Whitianga – the question is can we ID the white launch in the middle of the photo? Baden Pascoe will chip in, I’m sure 🙂
The Launching of Akarana
I was sent the above 2 minute ‘home’ movie by Ngairene Rogers of the launching of the 1960 Auckland pilot boat Akarana, designed by A.J. Collings & built by W.G. Lowe. Ngairene promised me the a copy of the movie approx. 8 months ago & I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived in the post. I’m sure Dick & Colleen Fisher, owners of Akarana, will be rapt to view it. So thank you Ngarene for sharing it with us.
(sorry about the ‘tattoo’s the middle off the screen – the price you pay for free hosting)
Ngairene’s brother Wade worked on Akarana when he was an apprentice in the early 1960s. He also did all the interior and detail work on Deodar (the harbour police launch), Ngairene commented that Wade was such a good boatbuilder that all the wealthy “yachties” used to ask that he be the one to work on their precious yachts, even though he was an apprentice.
The movie is in two parts, one section in black and white and the other in colour. There are also a few of bits of the boatbuilders clowning around (or working?), such as putting a plank of wood into a steamer.
Ngairene occasionally is in contact with one of the apprentices (Ross MacIntosh) featured in the movie, Ross lives in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill. In the movie Ross is the one wearing a pale short sleeved shirt and (short) brown shorts with a hammer sticking out of the belt on the left side – he walks away from the camera at one point then looks back over his shoulder and bends his left arm backwards as if waving.
You can view/read more on Dick Fisher’s restoration of Akarana here

Black Watch Sinks off Bayswater this morning

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Just received the photo below of the 72′ HDML sinking of Bayswater marine, early this morning. She has been moored there for the last 10+ years. Will not be an easy salvage, & sadly I suspect this will be the end of her. (photo ex T Foh)

Earlier (2014) photo included.

Remember to scroll down to see todays main story.

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BLACK WATCH NEEDS SOME URGENT HELP TO SAVE HER
This HDML is about to go under the axe tomorrow at the hands of the Auckland Council. This was recently confirmed by the Harbour Master.
This sort of destruction of maritime heritage has to stop. The loss of HDMLs is becoming exponential.
Please get in touch with the Harbour Master, email address below, to at least delay this wanton act while we can at least try to do something.
 
Harbour Master        Gareth.Williams@at.govt.nz
 
She was named Black Watch when the City Missioner had her in the ‘50s and the name was resurrected when she was finally sold out.
Bob McDougall has all the details in “NZ Naval Vessels”
As noted on WW she sank on her moorings off Bayswater Marina – dockside chat is that she was evidently sunk deliberately because she apparently needed no further pumping once re-floated – see video attached.
Russell Ward saw her on the Saturday a day before she sank and she was apparently OK then.
She is hauled out & will be vandalised pretty quick where she is by the looks.

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22-08-2018 Update – Donna Lewis sent in the 2 photos below of Blackwatch. She took the photos of Blackwatch from our then home when her home was also Schoolhouse Bay, Kawau Island and she was in immaculate condition from a very attentive owner.

They are photos of photos so excuse the quality.
The photo bow in is taken in 1997 and photo bow out is taken in year 2000.
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Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

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Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

As I’ve send many times before, if your want a stunning day weather wise, schedule a Classic Yacht Association event – the hit rate must be 9/10.

Over 100 CYA members & friends made the trip north to Lees Boatbuilders at Sandspit – our host for the day, Greg Lees, turned on a brilliant woody event – we had everything – woody projects underway, the best collection of 1/2 models I seen outside of the RNZYS walls, a photo montage recording the history of the yard & the vessels built over the years.

 Center stage was Jenny & Angus Rogers – Mahanui, in the shed for a new deck, alongside her was a very original Chris Craft that was getting a restoration. 

The varnish guru Dale has already applied 23 coats, with 6 more to come. Compared to our old girls, these American woodys are very lightly built, amazing that so many have survived.

Outside we had Anna & Nic Davidson’s – Juanita, on one slip & Barbara & David Cooke’s woody flagship – Trinidad, alongside the wharf. In midstream was Yvonne, waiting her turn in the shed.

On the hard was a selection of small craft built by either Greg, his father Tim or other local craftsman. Not woodys but certainly classic were Greg’s two English built, aluminium Albatross runabouts – the very rare 4 seater is next on Greg’s to-do list. Included are a few photos of other woodys in or out of the water.

Greg gave an articulate talk on his families boatbuilding history & how they came to be situated on the Sandspit foreshore. At the end he announced the official launch of the 2018 Rudder Cup launch race to be run on Friday 14th December to Sail Rock & back. See flyer below, I encourage all woody owners to consider participating. At this stage we (I’m on the race committee, along with Jason Prew, Nathan Herbert, Baden Pascoe & Barbara & David Cooke) are calling for expressions of interest in racing – entry to the race is by invitation, as per the original race format in 1908.

 Big ups to Greg & family + staff for turning on the day, including BBQ. Special thanks also to the CYA committee members that pulled it all together. 

Lastly a little something below for the petrol heads – Greg had on display his Jesser BSA 500cc twin, hill climb racer. Built in 1962 by Les Jesser, she is a 2 time Australian  class champion. 

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CYA Rudder Cup 2018 flyer

Fifer

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FIFER

I’m hoping today is a wet, rainy day – why?  todays story on the restoration of the 67’ Canadian motor yacht – Fifer, is such a great read.

Fifer was built in 1928 by the Hoffa- Beeching Shipyard in Vancouver BC, the company went on to merge with the Boeing Company in 1929.

Her owners are passionate woody boaters with a long history of classic wooden boat ownership. She is powered by twin 102hp Gardener 6L3, which are over 40 years old & still going strong.

The owners & Fife’s story is told on their weblog – link below.  You will see from some of the photos above she has had a few ‘adventures’ – read her story it’s very addictive reading – Enjoy.

https://www.yachtfifer1928.com/blog/

 

 

Te Anau

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TE ANAU

I was recently contacted by Mike O’Dwyer in regard to boat that is currently visiting Napier, Mike’s home town.

It is called Te Anau, currently owned by Mike and Julie Trewern from Port Chalmers.

Designed by Henry Miller (Miller and Tunnage) originally as a trawler, Te Anau has been converted to a  now a very comfortable live-aboard measuring just over 50’ with a 13’ beam and a 6’ 6” draft.

Te Anau was launched in 1956 after being built at Scotts boatyard in Invercargill from Tallowood, an Australian native timber belonging to the Ucalypt species. It is a naturally oily timber with a high tannin content.

Scotts boatyard mainly used Tallowwood for their boat construction.

The vessel is powered by a 170hp DAF 6 cylinder diesel motor. Originally powered by a GM this engine was replaced by a DAF which after 55,000 hours was replaced by the current engine.

Forty-eight of theses motors were imported in the sixties to power the Chatham Island crayfish boats.

Mike and Julie are currently on a prolonged cruise and after leaving NZ in Sept 2016 have visited Queensland, New Caladonia, Vanuatu and Fiji returning to NZ in November last year.

They plan to cruise for another 18 months which may include another offshore stint.