113 YEAR-OLD CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH GETS SOME WELL DESERVED TLC– LEITNER
Back in September 2013, classic wooden launch – LEITNER made an appearance on WW and the story over the next couple of years generated a raft of intel on her past and photos. We learnt that she was built in 1913 by Harvey & Lang.
Forward motion these days is via a Perkins 6-354 diesel engine.
Robin Elliott commented re her restyling in a very kindly way saying – ‘at some time she was converted to a sort of bridge-decker type’. As seen in the above photos I took this week at DOCK5 in Whangarei.
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH VALMARIE – HOW DID IT COME TO THIS
I was mooching around the Whangarei waterfront during the week and spotted the launch VALMARIE hauled out at Dock5. I did not recognise her until up close and spotted her name board. Even then I had to do a count / location of port holes and cabin widows to confirm she was the same vessel that last featured on WW back in April 2014 https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/04/10/valmarie/
Back in 2014 VALMARIE was for sale on tme and looking very smart. Another example of how quickly these woodys can go downhill if they do not get any TLC The last photo above was from 2013.
And on the subject of classics going down hill – I am very happy to report that the classic wooden launch – TRINIDAD has a new owner and been moved closer to Auckland. Her days of neglect in the far north are over. I hear her new owner is already planning to restore the bright work ✔️
WHERE ARE THEY NOW -THE FATE OF THESE CLASSIC CRAFT
Todays classic wooden launch photos once more come to us from Robyn Kellian via Tobias Forsyth so we can safely assume the location is the Leigh region. The question today is what’s the background to this series of photos – we have a work (fishing) boat donating her wheelhouse to another classic woody that appears to be a recent pleasure boat refit.
So can any of the Leigh based readers enlighten us on what became of both vessels and put an approx. date to the photos.
INPUT ex GRAHAM ROWE – The first boat featured (fishing boat 3621) is La Vega. She was built by Millar and Tunnage using Totora planks on Pohutukawa ribs, launched 1965, and fished from Leigh until 25 November 2009 – the last entry in her Log. I know little about her ownership but on her last commercial fishing trip she was crewed by Nick and Jarrod, and hearsay suggests that her owners were two brothers nicknamed ‘Swampy’ and ‘The Animal’ Walker?
Sometime later she was bought to Helensville by Dave Cook and I purchased her from Dave after she had been sitting from 2016 with a non-functioning Mitsubishi 6D-14 engine in 2020. Since then, I have been restoring her. La Vega is 11m LOA, 3.9m beam and draws about 1.2m. She displaces about 11 Tonnes.
The doghouse being removed is possibly to enable an engine replacement. The doghouse shown is the one that was on her when I purchased her, but alas is no more, due to extensive rot. The sliding door however was salvageable and will go back on her in due course.
At the time she was looking for a new owner on tme. She sat on a marina berth at Westhaven for a longtime with a forsake sign on her. I past her whenever I was on-route to a couple of woody launches that the Wooden Boat Bureau were selling on the same dock.
She then disappeared so I assumed she sold. Fast forward to the weekend and we are doing the Sunday morning waterfront dog walk and I spotted TEIGENES hauled out at the Devonport Yacht Club.
At a glance she is overdue some TLC -fingers crossed thatswhy she is hauled out :-).
(2019 photos below)
MORE DEVONPORT NEWS
One of Aucklands coolest waterfront abodes is the Calliope Sea Scouts hall, the building is perched over the sea front and just like our craft is always in need of constant maintenance – the crew that look after the hall are seeking help via a fund raising campaign – see below for details.
In the last few weeks the WW inbox has been receiving a lot of photos of the Milford Creek aka Wairau Estuary (if you own a plastic boat berthed there) from days gone by.
The recent upgrades to the marina berths have transformed the area into a very swish place to keep your boat, aside from the draught and tidal access window issues.
As we can see in some of the photos – it really was a mangrove creek once.
(photos come to us from Ian McDonald and Glenn Martin)
AND HOME THIS WEEKEND TOTHE WOODYS BOAT BOOT SALE AT THE SLIPWAY MILFORD – IF YOU’RE WANTING SPACE TO SELL YOUR TREASURE – BOOK NOW. Emailwaitematawoodys@gmail.com
Back in October 2024 the 1895 Jack Logan built yacht – MAHAKI came onto the WW radar via a request from Chris Leech from the Devonport Yacht Club re the yachts current owners. DYC had received a gift of the ‘NZ Yachtsman Cup’ that MAHAKI won in 1910. (below b/w photos from her past)
Some history that we have learned – MAHAKI was owned by Harry Upton, and his friends Geoff Clark and Dick Wilson (later his brother in law) during the 1930s. Owned by Russell Going an Auckland architect in the early/mid 1980’s.
Bought by Eric Wing (McMullan & Wing) in the mid 1980’s. Partially restored by Wing and then on his passing in 1994 was purchased by Peter Blundell who finished the project in Clevedon.
Todays photos are in three parts – firstly photos from the 1980’s restoration, then as seen at her relaunching after Peter completed the restoration project And lastly as MAHAKI is today, back in Peter’s shed part way thru a refresh.
Aside from showcasing this wonderful 130 year old artefact, the purpose of todays WW story is to help Peter Blundell secure MAHAKI’s next chapter. A very common thread in my conversations with owners is that who the next custodian is and their commitment to the vessel is more important than the sale price. I do not want to scare people off but if you think you or someone you know are fitting of adding their name to the list of people that have rubbed up against MAHAKI, be prepared for a robust ‘interview’
CLASSIC WOODEN FROSTBITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION AT THE NZ TRADITIONAL BOATBUILDING SCHOOL
The long term WW followers will be familiar with The New Zealand Traditional Boat Building School, I have attended several courses over the years and it was a sad day when it went into hibernation. After YEARS! of procrastination around getting access to the Vos Shed on Auckland’s waterfront its so good that the school has a permanent home and is up and running again.
Some background, NZTBS is a volunteer run charitable trust started in 2005 that has been providing education, skills development, personal growth, community support, youth development and plays an active part in maintaining New Zealand’s valuable maritime history. Check out the website and learn how you can help this worthy group survive. Money is always nice – https://givealittle.co.nz/org/nztbs but how about you or a couple of friends enrolling in one of the many hands on courses –https://nztbs.org.nz/
Currently the NZTBS team have been commissioned to build a classic wooden Frostbite sailing dinghy(hull #313) as seen above in todays gallery.
Frostbite History and Design
Designed by Jack Brooke in 1937 as a stable, versatile father-and-son boat that could handle general use and fishing.
Became the premier class for the Wakatere Boating Club and achieved national status in 1946.
Served as the official secondary school sailing trainer in New Zealand from 1951 until 1975.
Built with traditional clinker (lapstrake) wooden construction.
Today again thanks for Robyn Kellian and Tobias Forsyth we get to see another launch from the Leigh region. No name is visible but the photo is tagged – Gav Perry. The photo was taken on 31-01-1994.
The shed / yard appears to be at Whangateau, back when it was a public facility controlled by Russell Ward and used by the local boating community.
Can we learn more about the vessel, has a slight workboat look to her.
There have been several magic bullet moments in the history of waitematawoodys, actions that had significant impacts on the readership numbers. The most significant was an international phone call, now I tend to ignore these calls as normally it is some self titled investment guru wanting to share a once in a lifetime investment opportunity with me. For some unknown reason I took the call and it was a gent named Carl Cramer, who introduced himself as the Publisher of WoodenBoat magazine in the USA, that got my attention pretty quick.
Carl told me he and the founding publisher / owner of WB – Jon Wilson, had been chatting on the phone, bored senseless after being snowed in for 3 days. As they were talking Jon Wilson was trolling the web looking for sunny wooden boating content – bingo Jon hit on the waitematawoodys site and the story of the day was my coverage of the 3 day Mahurangi Regatta weekend. Over 200 photos and videos, Carl told me Jon suggested he make contact – which led to our telephone call. Back then WB was print only and a very popular on-line forum, so he was impressed with this new-ish blog format. Carl used to send a short, chatty weekly email out to the WB magazine subscribers, we talking 50,000+ – he asked if he could do a story on waitematawoodys. The story was a cracker and started with being snowed in and getting an infusion of summer boating that cured his cabin fever. He finished by saying.“This website is truely great” Overnight the WW viewing numbers went into orbit, from around the world and we still retain a high % of them. In fact the USA is number 2 on the readers list.
Sorry for the long lead in to todays WW story. Over the years I have read several features on how Jon Wilson founded the WB group but over the weekend I stumbled on a YouTube channel named ‘LIFE ON THE WATER’ – one of the featured videos is titled ‘Jon Wilson – The Restorer’s Journey’. In their words it is is a cinematic portrait of the man who took on a monumental task to change the course of wooden boat history. I haven’t come across a better insight, explanation on this bug we all suffer from. Read it, I promise afterwards you’ll feel better about life and your classic wooden boat.
Today thanks for Robyn Kellian and Tobias Forsyth we get to see another launch from the Leigh region. The name on the helm seat reads – EAGLE RAY, and the photos are tagged – Wayne Collings. Given the bunting and ‘crowd’ we can assume this was launch day.
The shed / yard could possibly be at Whangateau, back when it was a public facility, available to the wider boating community.
Can we learn more about EAGLE RAY.
INPUT ex NATHAN HERBERT – A strip plank Greenwood so far as I know,. Photos below (as of today) ex Jason Prew
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