Category Archives: Boat Sheds

A Call For Help

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CAN ANYONE HELP

Woody Bruce Ryrie has taken on a project – a c.1960’s Couldrey classic launch that he acquired from the Firth of Thames. Unfortunately no name, so the first ask is does anyone know more about the boat?

The second ask is a little bigger, as you can see in the above photos there are a few planks that need replacing and Bruce would really appreciate a hand with the work, or even some guidance.

The launch is hauled out at Clevedon.

WE ARE LOSING OUR WATERFRONT – Okahu Bay Haul Out

It has recently been brought to my attention that our friends at Auckland Council are very anti boating – read below a summary of what’s been happening –

It’s not only the government that thinks it knows best.  Auckland City has determined that the Haulout at Okahu bay, known as the Orakei Landing, will be shut down and the area will become a park reserve!  The local board, despite overwhelming submissions against any change, decided in its woke way that the Landing haulout facilities, which have been a part of Auckland since the year dot, should be closed to provide another park.  The haulout has and is being used by many owners of traditional wooden boats where owners as well as professionals work on them near to their homes.  With the closure of this there will be no inner harbour haulouts on the Southern side of the harbour.  There are also a number of professionals who will be out of a job or whose businesses will be reduced because of losing this facility.  Auckland once touted itself as the city of sails.  It seems it no longer thinks this is part of its makeup.In credibly the committee of the RAYC sent out an email to its members encouraging them to vote to close the Landing.  That was done in a way which unless you read it carefully and understood what was happening would have led to many members completing the form supplied to submit for closure!  It all smells a bit.

If you are even slightly motivated to voice your concern re the closure of the Okahu Bay haul out area – I suggest to use the channel I find works best with local politicians – they hate negative publicity – contact the chairman of the  Orakei Local Board – Scott Milne direct via Facebook and leave a message – link here https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007006489029

AND TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU TO VOICE YOUR CONCERNS SEE BELOW

Local Board members that voted in favour of closing the hardstand*: 

· Scott Milne: scott.milne@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz / 021 876 326 

· Sarah Powrie: sarah.powrie@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz / 021 142 2913 

· Margaret Voyce: margaret.voyce@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz / 029 880 9900 

· Troy Elliott: troy.elliott@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz / 021 658 769

Waihou > Ngapuhi

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WAIHOU > NGAPUHI 

The 1953 Lane built woody – Ngapuhi started life as a towing launch for Lane & Sons (Timber Millers) at their premises in Totara North, Whangaoa Harbour. Originally named Waihou. Purchased by Northland Port Corporation in 1963 her name was changed to Ngapuhi & she served as the pilot boat for the Whangarei Harbour  Board for 35 years. 

She last appeared on WW in December 2020 when she was offered for sale – lots of history, details and photos at this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/12/18/ngapuhi-waihou/

Brief over view – 45’5″ in length, 12’ beam and draws 3’6”. Kauri carvel planked. Powered by twin Gardner 6LXBM52- 127hp that has her governed at 11 knots max speed.

Given her ex commercial work and being in survey Ngapuhi is very well spec’ed.

Other than the occasional cruise to Auckland and the outer islands, home has been the Far North.

Fast forward to mid 2022, sees Ngapuhi residing in Auckland and getting a birthday – like a lot of ex work boats there was a degree of deferred maintenance that her new owners are addressing. The new paint job is rather swish. Looking forward to her joining in on some of the woody events coming up this summer.

Photos below per-purchase at Opua

UPDATE 18-08-2022 – Ex Ray Morey – Ngapuhi ex Waihoa was designed and built by Brian Lane himself at the old Lane property in Totara North. Original engines were a handed pair of GM 4-71 @ 115 hp. N.H.B replaced these with Detroit 4-71N series engines after several years of service.

Marlin Munroe

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MARLIN MONROE

The 19’ Sutton and Mason 1966 built Marlin Marauder – Marlin Monroe made a very brief appearance recently on tme, probably brief because the asking price was $10k.

On face value that is a lot of classic boat for the money.

Built with double diagonal kauri and powered by Mercruiser inboard + stern leg that sees her topping out at 35mph.

The matching dinghy is a nice touch.

Colleen – Launch Day

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JAN

Boat builder Alan Craig (Craig Marine) sent in todays’ gallery of photos of the Brin Wilson designed launch – Colleen owned by Bill Stevenson. We see her being launched at Lake Tarawera where she still resides today. Appears that there were a few challenges with the lake level.

Colleen is a near sister ship to the other Stevenson family launch – Jan, refer photos below. Jan is maintained in an as new condition, some credit for this goes to Alan who has repainted and varnished the whole boat at different stages.

Also keen to ID the launch that is helping drag her off.

INPUT ex Hamish Moore “I have spoken with Mother on this, Jocelyn Stevenson. Seems you have amended some of the points already. – Typo, Spelling of the family name. ‘Stevenson’

Some info what what Jocelyn can recall;

Colleen was on Lake Rotoiti for a few years prior to been relocated to lake Tarawera, possibly up to 5yrs.

The launching of Colleen shown here could be at Lake Rotoiti and the little Tug boat could well be Sir Williams first boat on Lake Rotoiti, un-confirmed and details of the vessel unknown.

A notable mentioned needs to go to Norm Keane who was a local boat builder that Sir William employed to maintain all the boats, including Jocelyn in Auckland, and his property at Lake Rotoiti and I’d say Colleen while still in the family ownership. If I recall correctly one of your articles in the past may have mentioned Norm Keane.

Last I heard, Colleen has had some work done over the years and some of which was completed by Danny Pearce boatbuilding out of Rotorua. I’ve lost contact with Danny. However we had attempted to head down and cast an eye over Colleen but life just got to busy.

Jan remains in family ownership, by Sir Williams Grand daughter.

It would be fantastic to see some photos and and article on Colleen if you managed to shake down someone who has the knowledge and contact.”

Sandspit Yacht Club Yard Visit

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Sandspit Yacht Club Yard Visit

Following on from yesterdays semi Sandspit story, I was there again during the week and did a quick loop of the SYC yard – nice collection of both traditional classics and spirit of tradition old hauled for some TLC.

If any of you are around any boat yards – get the phone out and take > send in some photo 🙂

Nereides Makes A Splash

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NEREIDES MAKES A SPLASH

In between lock-downs in June 2021 I had cause to do a trip to Tauranga and took up Doug Owens invitation to visit the yard to get a peek at the refit of his 1937 Colin Wild built 55’ yacht – Nereides. The project was well underway and the commitment to best in class and standard of workmanship was already on display.

Yesterday Doug made contact to let me know that Nereides was back in the water and aside from some final interior work the refit was complete.

The gallery of photos above says it all, the pilot house just glows – well done to Doug and son Mohi. We will keep you updated as the final items are ticked off the to-do list. 

Link to 2021 story https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/06/13/nereides-gets-a-facelift/

Photo below at haul out – post refit

The Relaunch of Frances

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THE RELAUNCH of FRANCES 

 The 44’, 1906 Arch Logan designed / Logan Brothers built yacht – Frances is one of the lucky classic woody yachts on the Waitemata Harbour, in 2004 she came into the Classic Yacht Charitable Trust fleet and became one of the most regularly sailed yachts in New Zealand. But as we all know wooden boats need regular TCL and Frances returned to the water on Friday after a visit to Wayne Olsen’s yard – Horizon Boats ready for the next 100 years.

Todays’ photos come to us from Angus Rogers, a trustee of CYCT

Link below to the CYCT website where you can read and see more of Frances and the rest of the CYCT fleet.

http://classicyachtcharitabletrust.org.nz/trust_boats.htm?boat_id=6

Lady Bev + CYA Heritage Basin Marina Poll Results Revisited

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LADY BEV

During the week I was up Warkworth way and did a fleeting visit to the Sandspit Yacht Club yard. As always lots of activity happening but one boat that took my eye was – Lady Bev.

I know very little about her other than in November 2018 she joined us on one of the Woody trips up to the Riverhead Tavern (on the water photo above).

Hopefully we can learn more about Lady Bev.

INPUT ex Nathan Herbert & ‘tao38’ – Lady Bev was built in 1957 by Dave Jackson for his father. Later extended by 4′.

HERITAGE BASIN MARINA ACCESS POLL

Back in Dec 2021 we ran a poll across the WW readers asking whether they supported access to the new Heritage Basin marina area being open to all CYA classic vessels or just pre-selected yachts. At the time 85% of people voted for all classic vessels e.g. yachts of all sizes and ages, work boats, launches. I suspect at Tuesday nights CYA AGM we will learn that the grey headed ones have paid no attention to what the classic boating movement wants and are continuing to pursue the Heritage Basin marina to be a yacht only area.

2022 Thames Traditional Boat Festival

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2022 Thames Traditional Boat Festival

Always an amazing collection of traditional craft on display at the Thames Traditional Boat Festival, from the electric Slipper launches to a fleet of Little Ships of Dunkirk.

Today we have David from the blog – Cruising the Cut, taking us on a tour of the festival at Henley-on-Thames. Enjoy Thanks to Colin Pawson for the link

THE NZ CLASSIC YACHT ASSOCIATION – IT’S NOT JUST ME – The WW comment below is from someone that should/ could have been one of the next generation of CYA leading lights – sub 50 in age and very talented and most importantly – a seriously good guy – BUT – LOST

“I started to write a long comment about this and gave up. I withdrew my 10+ year CYA membership in protest last year and my 2 other family members will be following as none of our boats qualify and because of the way applications (invites) have been handled.

Unfortunately this means I won’t have an opportunity to comment, listen or vote on something that has forced a large number away from the CYA.

The vessels at heritage landing have reaped benefit for many years – many hardly getting any use. When previous sub-committee members suggest a change or review of criteria – they end up giving up and resigning due to the way things are handled.

No transparency, nepotism and a committee that rolls over too easily despite nervously agreeing off record that it’s a farce.”

HEADS-UP CLASSIC LAUNCH, WORK BOAT & CRUISING YACHT OWNERS

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HEADS-UP CLASSIC LAUNCH, WORK BOAT & CRUISING YACHT OWNERS (shared with the entire WW community as it should be of interest to all)

Next Tuesday (2nd August) the Classic Yacht Association of NZ will hold its 2022 AGM – 7pm @ RNZYS

On the meeting agenda the only item under general business is ‘Report on the status of the expanded classic vessel marina / dock’, while on face value this might be seen as a positive sign – it will not be – let me give my view of the probable gist of the  report.

1. Given the agenda item is after the election of a new committee – the previous committee will have already pushed flush on this e.g. ‘’it will be up to the incoming committee to…….”

2. The report should be dubbed the toffee apple report i.e. it will have layers of sugar coating on / around it

3. The report will be a test of the genuiness (I made that word up as I need to be careful what I say) of the situation i.e. what’s not said rather than what is. 

4. There will be mention around everything still in negotiations etc etc but the reality is that a small group of CYA members have been working on a new waterfront marina for the exclusive, long term use of classic yachts i.e. primarily A Class, ideally gaff rigged. This goes against what has been ’shared’ with the other stake holders (Panuku and Maritime Museum) – fyi one of positives of living in an open society is that almost anything tabled in / around the Auckland Council can be viewed – below is taken from a report published in a late 2021. 

5. The new Heritage Basin discussion will be verbally rolled into an umbrella waterfront discussion – that we will be told will cover all classic vessels – I’m only interested in the Heritage Basin area – what should be New Zealand’s waterfront home  of our vibrant , traditional classic wooden boating movement. The real loser in all this is the New Zealand public who will miss the opportunity to experience our classic boating heritage. Instead they will see a classic yacht ‘car’ park.

IF THE FUTURE OF NZ’s TRADITIONAL MARITIME MOVEMENT / FLEET INTERESTS YOU (and you’re a CYA member) PLEASE COME ALONG NEXT TUESDAY AND WITNESS WHAT WE WILL BE TOLD.

SIDE ISSUE – I believe there won’t even be a need to vote on the election of a new committee – there are only enough people standing to fill the available positions. A little sad that the role/s have so little appeal. Personally I think it Is actually a strategy to keep the fiefdom functioning.

RELAX – There is always a woody story

Today’s woody is Delmar, that when I first got involved in the classic boating movement was very much on the scene and participated in some of launch events.

While mooching around East Tamaki last week I spotted Delmar fresh from a visit to the beauty parlour – looking very smart.

Can anyone give us an update on Delmar.