Category Archives: A Peek Down Below

Malolo

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MALOLO

I have been invited to some very swish boat launchings over the years but the best invite award would have to go to Max Cumming & R Tangaroa for the invite to the  re-splash of their c.1929 speed boat Malaolo.
Malolo was originally built in Russell, Bay of Island by Francis ‘Nipper’ Arlidge & that is where she will be officially re-launched after a 5 year restoration. The work looks amazing & she has already won the Jens Hansen trophy for best vessel overall at the 2017 NZ Antique & Classic Boat Show at Lake Rotoiti, South Island.
The 5.7m Malolo was originally built to act as a ‘water taxi’ for game fishermen in the B.O.I. There are no photos of the original boat, so the restoration was based on the memories of four old boaties who could remember going out on Malolo.
So woodys has anyone got an old photo album / collection from the B.O.I. that might contain a photo of Malolo?
Well done guys & good luck with the big day. Make sure someone has a camera handy & snaps some photos to share with the woodys.

Malolo 1

 

Malolo 3

Malolo 2

Malolo 4

Alwyn – A peek down below

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ALWYN – A Peek Down Below
I’m told Alwyn was built by Arch Logan in c.1911/12. These days she is moored in Picton & owned by Derek Stocks, who bought her about 6 months ago at Taupo, & took her to Wellington by road, & sailed her to Picton. She may have spent less than 2 years on the lake. (photos were sourced by ken ricketts)

You can see more of her exterior / read more about her provenance at the link below  – unlike a lot of classics that claim Logan DNA , this one is the real deal 🙂   https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/11/23/severn/

Amazing Maroro Sequel

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Maroro - launching day 01, 27 Dec 1957

Amazing Maroro Sequel

Sometimes ww struggles with a story & then other times she rocks. Yesterday as part of the Sailing Sunday story we profiled Russell Ward’s H28 woody Maroro & the fact that she was reluctantly for sale. The story flushed out a connection to one Kenrick Mitchell, son of the late Stuart (John) Mitchell – the builder of Maroro.
Kenrick emailed Russell a treasure trove of historical photos on the building, launch & sailing of Maroro. There are even photos of her on Sydney Harbour post winning the 1961 Trans Tasman race.

I have taken the liability to reproduce the email that Kenrick sent to Russell & also below is a link to Stuart Mitchell’s biography –  both excellent reads 🙂    Mitchell, Stuart – excerpt from Mitchell family biographies by Kenrick Mitchell and Shona Wright

“Hi Russell,
Fascinating who one bumps into occasionally in life! It was my cousin who mentioned he’d seen Maroro for sale and as he has a yacht of his own at Stillwater I might bring him along when I visit.

Dad built Maroro beside his parents’ house in Rust Ave in Whangarei while he was in his early 20’s. He worked on farms and on the wharves at Whangarei to raise the money. He did some coastal cruising in her, including a fruit picking trip to Marlborough with some mates. The 1961 trans-Tasman race was won on handicap (I have the trophy) with a crew of four and was followed by a cruise up as far as New Caledonia. In 1963 he set off with Mum on their honeymoon which was to have been a more extensive cruise. However legend has it that Mum threw a wobbly of significant magnitude when the first decent seas were encountered and they returned to leave Maroro in the hands of friends in Whangarei while they took a ship to the U.K. for their OE. Dad worked in a boatyard during his time away. When they returned and built the family home in Ngunguru (I turned up on the scene in 1965) it was with the ambition of establishing a boatbuilding business. Des Townson was Dad’s best man and it was a Townson 32 that first took shape under our house. This was followed by commercial wood turning to fund a crayfishing launch which, after several seasons of fishing, funded a decent shed next to the house – just in time for the infamous 40% luxury tax on boats and caravans to kill the industry. He went on to build numerous boats over his lifetime, ranging from metre long dinghies for my infant brother and I, to the 40’ dive charter cat ‘Pacific Hideaway’. Interestingly, the Townson 34 ‘Slice of Lemon’ is currently also on TradeMe being sold by her original owner at Pine Harbour.

I recall Dad being approached by an owner of Maroro in the 90’s to see if he’d be interested in either looking after her or doing some work on her, but the state she was in served to extinguish his curiosity.

Dad passed away in 2004 at the age of 70 of mesothelioma (asbestosis). I have many photos of his boats and the cruise in Maroro which I’ll put on a stick for you. I the meantime I’ll attach a few teasers here for you. You might be interested to learn that Dad built Maroro II in his retirement and I’ll attach a photo of that too as it really was a flying fish.

Sadly, after a childhood and youth spent helping Dad on boats and playing around in centreboarders and surfcats, I drifted out of boating. However the boating never drifted out of me and for the last few years I’ve been fortunate to score a place as crew on the 1897 Logan classic ‘Thelma’ which is skippered by Tony Blake. There are more albums on Thelma and Maroro II on my Facebook page if you happen to frequent this corner of the cyberverse.

Will look forward to meeting you, though it may take a couple of weekends to make it up your way as my wife and I have recently belatedly taken an interest in the breeding game and it takes a couple of weeks’ of accumulated brownie points to earn a leave pass from a couple of three month old kids and their shattered mother.

Kind regards, Kenrick Mitchell”

Maroro II

Slice of Lemon

Slice of Lemon - on launching day, 1976

Sailing Sunday x3

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CYA Classic Yacht Regatta Oops
If you ever thought classic yacht racing was a little ‘soft’ i.e.  “let them thru, they are nice chaps” think again, its serious racing – proof? During race one of last weeks regatta the 1898 Arch Logan Rainbow was involved in a wee incident that resulted in her samson post snapping, it takes a lot of force to break a 5” square piece of kauri. The main player in the incident was the bowsprit that compressed under impact and combined with the ‘dead’ force of the backside from the deck, something had to give & fortunately the Samson post took all the load. Effectively became a safety valve, and halted any collateral damage to the deck or bowsprit.
End of the race for Rainbow & potentially end of the regatta – but in steps master boatbuilder Paul Tingey who worked around the clock and did an outstanding job, gluing up, turning and re-installing the new Samson post to get Rainbow on the start line for Sundays racing.

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Ngatiawa
Ngatiawa, below, is a A class keeler that was  owned by Nathan Ross for many years, from the 1940s on wards. Later ownership passed to his son Clive, a school mate & young R.A.Y.C. associate of Ken Ricketts .
Ken’s photo was taken at Christmas 1952 in Mansion House.  Do any of the woodys know more about Ngatiawa – designer / builder / year of launch & what became of her?

NGATIAWA TAKEN BY KR CHRISTMAS 1952 AT KAWAU

H28 Classic Wooden Ketch 4sale

Maroro was professionally built in 1957 in Whangarei & proved herself by winning the 1961 Trans Tasman race and is featured in the NZ book ‘proper NZ yachts’ by Richard Endean.
Maroro is a traditional sailing man or woman’s boat, set up with jib and staysail self furling + spinnaker. She has a near new Yanmar 10hp engine with 60 hours on clock & F & R gearbox. Three berths, toilet in separate compartment. Force 10 diesel heater. Simon Lawrence anchor winch. All ground tackle.  Her mooring at Mahurangi is also available long term.
Owner Russell Ward commented that at the asking price of $18,500 she is would provide a lot of fun for a real sailor.

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Galatea

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GALATEA

Galatea is a 1926, 36′ kauri tram topper that for the last 10 years has cruised & fished from Sulphur Point to Mayor island, Whangamata and further. Home has been a mooring is just in front of the Omokoroa club house. The zoom zoom comes from a 120hp Ford diesel. Her trademe listing is very light on details so hopefully we can expand on her – designer/builder & what she has been up to for the last 90 years. She looks a very solid old girl so maybe strated life as a work boat?
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads-up.

Update – Photos below ex classicboats nz via Ian McDonald

 

Jean 7314

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JEAN 7314

Jean started life as a Jack Guard fishing trawler, launched c1953. She was converted at Havelock in 2005 for pleasure use. She measures 45′ & is powered by a rebuilt 125hp Gardner 6LX that sees her cruise at around 8 knts. 4sale on trademe, she has the makings of a nice live aboard. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads up.

Do we know any more about her past?

And at the risk of boring everyone – REMEMBER the Classic Launch Parade & Riverhead Hotel lunch cruise on Sunday 😉

09-02-2020 Input from Paddy Gerard – Built by Jack Guard in Pukatea Bay, French Pass for Merle Rayner of Kaikoura. Jean is presumably named after Merle’s late niece Jean Brooks (daughter of Keith and Wikitoria Rayner), who passed away in 1942 in her mid twenties. Merle died in 1959 and his son, Russell, took Jean to Timaru and continued fishing until he sold Jean in 1978. I understand she later worked out of Lyttleton, Oamaru and Bluff. Vince Armstong from Havelock bought her in about 2007/2008 and spent 18 months stripping her out- new ribs, new deck beams, engine overhaul, recaulking, and a brand new wheelhouse fitted. I coincidentally bumped into the chap who did the caulking a few months back – he mentioned that when they pulled the Gardner out they found the bilge had been filled with concrete! I think Vince sold Jean in about 2012 and she has had four owners since then. One of those owners tragically lost his life in the Platino yacht accident in 2016. I am now living on her in Wellington and look forward to giving her plenty of TLC and learning more about her past.

Mananui

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MANANUI

I was contacted recently by Greg McNabb looking for info / photos on his & wife Maria’s ex pilot boat Mananui. From what Greg knows / has been told – she was built in 1913 by Harvey & Lang. Greg’s grandfather & father bought her (ex Whitianga) in 1973. She is powered by a 120hp D series Ford and has been for the last 50 years or so, although rebuilt.
The ‘old’ photo of her sitting on the grid was taken in Whitianga on the day the family purchased her. She was originally commissioned by Edward Parish and back then named ‘Heare Mai’.

From the above photos we can see that Greg has done a wonderful  refit on her. These days her home port is Tauranga.
So woodys can we shed any light on her life pre. 1973?

Photo below at Sulphur Point Marina, Tauranga ex Paul Drake

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Hope

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HOPE

I was approached last year by a wooden boat admirer who was looking to purchase a Mason Clipper & with the help of several woodys reviewed several potential candidates.
This gent has impeccable taste so it was always going to be a big ask to find a Mason that ticked all the boxes. During the search he came a cross a 19′, 1968 Marlin Marauder which had the WoW factor. Again with some woody help the boat passed the pre-purchase ‘survey’ & now as a new very happy owner.

Hope is rather special & as I have predicated (talked up) in the past, is a perfect example of the rise in popularity of trailer-able woodys. With the cost of marina space for even a 10.5m berth averaging out at $650 a month, one of these is a no-brainer + the ability to keep it at home or in storage makes maintenance so do-able.

I will feature more on Hope on ww soon 😉

marauder

My Girl Restoration Update

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My Girl Restoration Update
Work on Jason Prew’s launch ‘My Girl’ is processing along well – but not at the speed indicated by the above photos. Jason remembers to take photos, but he is a bit slack with telling / showing people 🙂 In fairness, he does keep his weblog up to date, you can see & read more on the project at the link below.
http://www.my-girl.co.nz/mygirl/Restoration/Restoration.html

TAURIMA

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TAURIMA

I was contacted recently by Alice Morrison with the news that she had just bought a 1960 (circa) Billy Rogers sedan launch named Taurima. She is 36′ & constructed of double diagonal kauri. Unfortunately the previous owner didn’t know much history about her so Alice is hoping that some of the woodys out there can shed some light on her?
She is obviously a sister ship to Margaret Anne  https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/10/03/margaret-anne-2/ , both very lucky boats as they both have lady owners 🙂

So woodys can we help Alice?

14-02-2017 Update ex Alice M – She has a 110hp Lees Marine Ford. The previous owners were Kevin & Bryce Thorne from Whangarei but the vessel has been moored in Opua or Jacks Bay in the Bay of Islands. I have asked Bryce to find the contact details of the owners before him. All he knew was that it used to be in Auckland where the owner used it to take him from the city to Waiheke all the time.