RANUI BACK IN WORK While woody Glenn Martin was mooching around Northland, he came across the 32’ launch Ranui in Kohukohu on the Hokianga Harbour. Readers may recall that Ranui was originally from Lake Taupo and built as a boat to ferry post war veterans in recovery. Originally named El Alamein, she was built by McGeady in 1944/45.
These days she plies her trade as an inner harbour charter boat. Glenn commented she has been freshened up with new paint and a Volvo engine. Owned by the local flounder fisherman and builder she is in good hands with steady trade servicing people on a gravel bike tour.
And up pops another work boat conversation for sale on tme (thanks Ian McDonal). Virgo was built in 1963 from kauri by Jorgensen & Son in Picton and started life as a commercial fishing boat before being converted to pleasure use. Virgo is 39’3’ in length and powered by a 130hp Gardner 6LXB Diesel engine. Current home port is Waikawa marina, Picton, South Island.
Interested to learn when and who did the conversion and any other intel on the vessel.
REMEMBER WOODYS – CYA PATIO BAY PARTY THIS WEEKEND
Video below of Tawera at the Mahurangi Regatta – thanks Roger Mills for sharing
TAWERA 1935 LOGAN – A18
Tawera was launched on 30th December, 1935, designed by Arch Logan and built by Colin Wild – you do not get a better pedigree than that :-).
She was Arch Logan’s last big cutter, measuring almost 50 feet on deck and the culmination of a number of racing keelers built at that time. As the largest of the more modern keelers from Arch Logans drawing board she represented the very best in design development and to this day still epitomises all of the racing winning and wholesome sea keeping abilities of Arch Logans designs.
Tawera is a lucky classic in that she has had wonderful, passionate owners all her life and today is in immaculate condition. In 2003 she was extensively restored and is now considered one of the finest examples of the a keeler of the pre-WWII era. Her owner is one of the Classic Yacht Association’s most loyal members & has loved her as a Logan should be & spared nothing on her maintenance & restoration. Click on photos to enlarge.
Tawera’s owner has an armada of vessels – both sailing and power, some classic and some spirit of tradition – the hard decision has been made to pass Tawera onto a new owner, not any owner, you’ll have to share the passion for classic woodys to even get a peak aboard. Interested buyers should initially contact the Wooden Boat Bureau at waitematawoodys@gmail.com
A WOODY QUIZ – WIN A COPY OF: DES TOWNSON – A SAILING LEGACY All correct answers to the following question, go into the draw to win the book.
Q: Name (Christian & Surname) the first owner of Tawera.
Today’s story and photos comes to us from Little Jim’s skipper and owner James Mortimer and crew – Ash Smith, Rodrigo Salas, Janez Mikec, Max Goutard, Erwann Jooris.
I’ll let James share the story with you, as always – click on photos to enlarge. Enjoy 🙂
“After four long months out of the water at the Milford marina yard over winter, I know that Little Jim had been wanting to stretch her legs and get a good long sail up the coast. She feels fast with her newly reinforced decks, rebuilt rudder, and all over paint job. Or maybe it’s the long winter without any sailing that has made her crew push her along that little bit more.
The weather forecast for Labour weekend had been looking challenging, with light northerlies and rainy weather predicted. On Tuesday night we got together on the boat to go over safety and systems, not at all confident that we would even start the race. Over the next two days the forecast slowly got a little better, with the wind direction moving ever so slightly toward the east. On Thursday night, we made the call to go, knowing full well it was going to be tough.
Early Friday morning and with enough food and beer to supply a small army, we got ourselves into racing mode and set off for Devonport. There is something special about this race, with more than 150 yachts lining up across the harbour, a sense of anticipation building as the gun gets closer, an adventure ready to start.
We made an early call to cross the channel toward Rangitoto and escape the worst of the incoming tide. Little Jim made excellent ground on most of the fleet who were busy short tacking up Cheltenham Beach in very little wind. A long tack due east across the top of Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands allowed us to finally turn north and lay the outside of Tiri Island and and make some miles to the north. As it turned out, the short stretch between Tiri and Kawau Island was to be the best sailing we would get all day, with a perfect NE’er of 12 to 15 kts, and boat speed above 7 kts.
On any Coastal Classic, there is a decision to make off Takatu Point. Is the boat and the crew in good shape and ok to go on. In any adverse weather this is no small call to make. As all boaties know, crossing Bream Bay can be brutal, and there is no decent shelter until Tutukaka. An easy decision this time, and it was champagne sailing as we passed Cape Rodney. It didn’t last though, and as afternoon slid into evening the wind eased away and turned back north. A frustrating night of slow tacking between the Hen & Chick Islands and Whangarei Heads began, with not a lot of northward miles being made. What the wind failed to deliver the night sky made up for, with an impressive meteor shower, a crystal clear Milky Way, lots of phosphorescence, and an incredible sunrise.
At 8.30am, we made the difficult decision to pull the pin on the race just south of Elizabeth Reef. The forecast was light until afternoon and we had little hope of reaching Russell before cut off at 3pm.
Ending the race early wasn’t going to put a damper on the weekend though and we spent the next three days sailing downwind back to Auckland under spinnaker via the Poor Knights Islands, Tutukaka, the Hen & Chicks, and Kawau Island.
Little Jim, built in 1934, was the oldest boat to enter in this year’s race, and it is a fitting testament to the skill of New Zealand’s early boat builders and designers that we can often keep up with boats that are 60 or 70 years younger!
Can’t wait till 2021”
LITTLE JIM
A16 – bermudan rigged, she was designed & built in 1934 by Arch Logan & Bill Couldrey. LOA: 42’10”, LWL: 28′, BEAM: 9’1″, DRAFT: 6′
DEE 3 Today’s woody bridge-decker was built in the early 1960’s by Phil Lange for Roger Chamberlain of Chamberlains Island and comes to us via tme (thanks Ian McDonald).
Dee 3, surely not her original name?, measures 38’ in length, and is built from 1 & 1/4″ strip planked kauri. Powered by a 130hp 6 cyl. Perkins diesel.
Currently located in Napier, can anyone tell us more about Dee 3?
SS TUI – Kauri Clinker Steam Boat It thought that Tui’s 15’ kauri clinker hull was built c.1920, then as part of her transformation to a steam boat the hull was restored where necessary and the exterior was fully clad in f/glass.For the steam boys I have reproduced the mechanical specs below from her tme listing (thanks Ian McDonald):
The boiler is of the Ofeldt type with a 6mm thick steel central drum and has 12 1/2″ copper coils surrounding it. The boiler is fast steaming, reliable and safe. Stainless steel cladding and stainless steel funnel. The steel firebox with adjustable dampers runs on char, coal and wood.
The 2hp engine is by Wayne Larsen and is single cylinder double acting 2.5″‘bore x 2.75″ stroke. It has a balanced crankshaft and semi balanced slide valve, with Stephenson’s reversing gear, twin boiler water pumps and a vacuum pump with exhaust steam passing through a feed water heater and keel condenser to the stainless steel hot well. The propeller is 14.5″ x 23″
An auxiliary boiler hand pump and is fitted with an electric water pump as a backup. A Stainless steel top-up water tank is in the transom with a stainless steel hot well placed just in front of the Boiler. A Steam bilge ejector is fitted for removal of any bilge water.
She is fitted with a Windermere Kettle to allow the crew to make a hot cup of tea/coffee on the run.
Miller & Tunnage – Double Ender – Fisher Lassie If you spend as much time as I do stalking wooden boats on-line you will have noticed the growing trend for work boat conversions, you either love them or not – me I’m in the love them camp. We do not know a lot about todays woody, thanks Ian McDonald, other than she was built by Miller and Tunnage in 1922, out of kauri, is 40’ in length, has a 9’ 10” beam and draws 3’7”. A Gardner 3LW 150hp diesel pushes her along at a comfortable cruising speed of 7 knots. Appears to be very well fitted out.
Can anyone put a name to this woody ?
18-11-2020 Input from Mark Erskine – I was interested to read about the above Miller & Tunnage Double Ender. I agree it’s a real nice boat and was interested to read about her Gardner 3LW engine.
Depending on the fuel and governor / rpm settings, the 3LW engines produce between 36 to 53.5HP from their 4.184 litre capacity.
The “Gardner 150” badge on the Miller & Tunnage control panel is for a 6-cylinder 6LXB Gardner (127 to 150HP) or possibly the 8-cylinder 8LXB (150 to 200)
Gardners are great engines and although the whole range are all low on HP for their considerable size, capacity and weight, they all produce a lot of torque at low rpm and are very reliable.
Although 36 to 54 HP seems a bit low for the size of the boat, I’m guessing the 3LW is a good match for a double ender hull because torque turns the prop rather than HP and the 3LW should also be very economical to operate at 7 knots.
24-11-2022 UPDATE ex Steve’s Coffee Cart – Steve sent in the photos below of Fisher Lassie below, hauled out at the Waikawa hard stand. Check out the new look, it is not often we see people ’taking away’ as compared to adding on. Well done to the owner.
RAWENE When I was catching up with lan Craig re yesterdays story I gave him a wind up re how hopeless he was at keep us updated on the work in his Lake Rotoiti boat yard. Seems the dig in the ribs worked as a few hours later I received the photos above of Rawene, taken from Waikeremoana when Alan went down in February 2020 for some repairs on Rawene. The boat was hit on her mooring and broke a few ribs.The old photos below are on the wall in the store there.
SEA SPRAY During the week I was chatting to Lake Rotoiti boat builder Alan Craig and he mentioned that he was scoping out a 1956 built, 17’ kauri clinker run-about on tme for a client. The boat had a J. Logan builders plate and we both wondered if it was ’the-real-deal’. On these matters there is only one go to guru – so a quick email to Harold Kidd confirmed that Sea Spray was indeed built by Jack Logan, and HDK had had a lot to do with Jack Logan and the Chappies, who had a twin to his boat on Lake Okareka. That intel was enough for Alan to buy the boat.
Alan understands that for a lot of the boats life, it was north of Tutakaka. The new owner has x2 Arona 10hp engines and gearboxes, which fingers crossed, one will go into the boat.Having witnessed the work of Alan’s yard – Sea Spray will emerge as an awesome addition to the woody lake fleet. Alan has promised to keep us updated with work-in-progres photos 🙂
HAUNUI – RESTORATION In between the CV-19 lock-downs one of Auckland’s most beautiful classic wooden motor launches changed ownership – the Colin Wild designed and built 1948 launch – Haunui was sold by Owen Cashmore. In a previous life Haunui was owned by Harry Julian. Haunui was almost immediately hauled out at a private yard and master wooden boat builder Paul Tingey was engaged to return Haunui to her glory days. I showed her new owners over her ‘cousin’- Trinidad and they accepted the challenge to equal her presentation.
As can happen when dealing with 72 year old wooden artifacts, on close (pulling boards off) inspection the old girl had a few issues, so the decision was made to undertake a total refit, including engine. Haunui is single screw, but has a smaller auxiliary engine > shaft > prop on the starboard side. I believe an electric unit will replace the small diesel. The Gardner sadly is coming out, fyi – prior to going into Haunui, rumour is it came out of a Sydney Harbour > Manly ferry, so was very run in ;-). Her owner has told me they will restore the engine over time but the process involves utilizing a foundry that will have to custom cast the parts that are needed. In the meantime Haunui will receive a new heart transplant.
As you can see from my photos above, the refit is on a rather grand scale, but Mr Tingey is the man for the job. We will follow this project and keep you updated. As always, click on photos to enlarge 😉
The photos below are dated 2014, ex Rod Marler, and show Haunui hauled out at Orams yard in Westhaven.
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