Category Archives: CYA Boat

Big Wooden Launch Gets A Face Lift

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Big Woody Gets A Face Lift

The 1965 Salthouse built woody – Trinidad is currently tucked up in the Greg Lees Boatbuilder shed at Sandspit getting some botox i.e touch-up coats to the coamings and wheelhouse and a re-paint of the topsides.

Yesterday, the brains trust from the yard + Akzo Nobel (AWLWOOD MA & International Paints) + AWLWOOD MA Guru (Uroxsys founder) David Waddingham met to discuss the upcoming work on Trinidad, she is a bit like their in-house model. It was interesting to be a fly-on-the-wall and hear about the latest thinking on application / thinning / primer techniques and their newish line extensions eg the Multi-climate gloss finish. The product has come a very long way in the last few years.
You can see from the last two photos that the GL’s boys only just manage to get the doors closed when Trinidad visits, very cozy.

While there, foreman Dale Collins, flipped the covers on his recently completed clinker dinghy (photos below) – stunning and woodys its 4sale 🙂

WOODYS LUNCH CRUISE TO RIVERHEAD TAVERN – TIME TO RSVP

If you are planning on joining the fleet for the cruise up the Riverhead river to join fellow woodys for launch on Sunday November 8th – drop me a quick email with boat name and approx crew numbers waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Lady Gay Australian Holiday

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LADY GAY – Australian Holiday Postcard
Almost a year to the day we reported that the 1935, Colin Wilde designed and built launch – Lady Gay was holidaying in Australia. Recently LG’s current custodian (their words) Graeme Wilson, wrote in and advised that LG was tucked up safely at marina in Sydney. Graeme commented that she has seen a constant stream of onlookers since she arrived in Sydney with many intrigued to hear of her history and how she has come to be in Sydney, and that she is holding her own when alongside woodys in Australia. 

Graeme has been cruising her mainly in Port Jackson waters with COVID and politics having thwarted plans to head to Queensland for the foreseeable future.  Sadly with the Wooden boat show in Tasmania cancelled for 2021, for the same reasons, he is hopeful of taking LG south for the show in 2023.  

Graeme wrote that Lady Gay is particularly well suited to the upper reaches of Port Jackson, Pittwater and the Hawkesbury.  Two weeks ago they enjoyed a lovely spring cruise up in the Hawkesbury and Smiths Creek and plan to return in a few weeks to explore further upstream to Wisemans Ferry and Berowra Waters.

Classic Wooden Boats At Kawau Island

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Classic Wooden Boats At Kawau Island 

At Sundays Stillwater woodys picnic I was chatting to boat builder Greg Lees and he showed me the above photograph (in its frame) of Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island that a neighbour had given him. Interesting that for once the bay is almost bare of yachts – maybe they were off racing at the time.


Are we able to ID some of the launches? I have numbered the boats in the b/w photo below + included a couple of blow ups of the photo, which may help.

Classic Wooden Boat Picnic – 20 photos

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John Dory
Arohanui
Eileen Patrica
  • Kereru
John Dory
Lady Crossley
Centaurus

Classic Wooden Boat Picnic – 20 photos

Firstly I need to thank Predictwind for Saturdays forecast, 100% on the button, as usual. One woody at the picnic didn’t come by boat based on the forecast published in Saturdays NZ Herald newspaper……………….. I suspect they also believe the horoscopes in the same paper are factual.


The morning started off a tad eerie with a sea mist blanketing a lot of the sea area off the east coast – but this burned off late morning and we then enjoyed perfect weather. The NZH and coastguard weather forecasts saw the numbers of launches attending drop to 12 but great to see so many turning up by car. Also very fine to have 3 past CYA chairman in attendance – Steve Cranch, Rod Marler and Peter Mence.
The waterfront based Stillwater Motor Camp is an idyllic setting for a gathering of classic wooden boats – deep water wharf access to raft up to + a tree shaded lawn. After some interesting docking (too many dockside expects) we had the launches tied up and everyone then decamped to the lawn. Special thanks to Mark Edmonds (Monterey) for again coordinating the venue.
A lot of the group had not caught up since the CV-19 lock-downs so it was good to swap stories and boating plans for the upcoming summer.


There has always been good camaraderie on the water between boaties and its something that we foster at Woody Classics Weekends – proof of it in practice is seen below in the photo of Rod and Fiona aboard Arohanui taking Murray Deeble’s Waikiore under tow. Towed him all the way back to the entrance to Milford Creek, where another woody – Jason Prew had ventured out in rather unpleasant conditions to get Waikiore back on her Milford berth. Well done to everyone.

Message for Murray – “should have bought a Yamaha” 🙂

Next Woodys on the water event – November 8th – Riverhead Tavern Lunch Cruise

Centaurus Has A Birthday

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Centaurus Has A Birthday

WW readers will recall that in late 2019 Angus Rogers purchased the 1967 1968 Bailey & Sons built bridge-decker Centaurus. After an extended summer cruise she was hauled out at Okahu Bay for a serious overhaul of her systems and to bring her presentation up to the Rogers standard. Last Friday she was eased back into the water (got to love that tractor unit) looking very sharp. One of the additions was a bow and stern water jet thruster set-up, very impressive piece of kits and remarkably quiet. More photos of the project soon.

It will be a shoes off inspection for those woodys doing the Stillwater Woody picnic cruise next Saturday (26th) – I’d better ensure she gets a prime spot on the wharf 😉

Out With The Old – In With The New

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Out With The Old In With The New

Nathan Herbert’s 1917 Joe Slattery built launch – Pacific, had a serious Jenny Craig session yesterday at Milford – out came the 2758 Ib. Lister (Freedom range) diesel engine, to be replaced with a brand new 992 Ib. 100hp FPT / Iveco (Italian) 4 cylinder diesel. That is a saving of over 800kg, thats like asking the All Black forward pack to get off your boat. I suspect the waterline will need an adjustment 🙂 

As always Jason Prew and The Slipway gang were on hand to help, with expertise and the loan of their Hiab truck to collect the new engine. We look forward to seeing the completed installation and relaid wheelhouse. I suspect we will not see Pacific at the Woody Stillwater picnic next Saturday (26th).

Around The Yards – The Slipway Milford

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L>R Marline, Connie V
Disturber
Lucinda
L>R Lucinda, Disturber
  • Gweneviere
  • Lonestar

Around The Yards – The Slipway Milford


I was passing thru Milford last week, so took the opportunity to drop in on the team at The Slipway (Geoff Bagnall’s yard in a previous life).I can report that I was pleasantly pleased to see so many woodys hauled out and in various stages of repair – from the annual bum clean right thru to major refits.The one that caught my eye the most was the 35’ Leone Warne built launch – Marline, more on her on Monday, I now have so many cool photos from her past.
The woodys below are at the yard, where possible I have included a WW link to see / read more on each one.


The Slipway yard is one of Auckland’s very few ‘railway’ hail out facilities and both deserves and needs the support of the wooden boating community. If we lose yards like this we will be forced to use yards that tend to have equipment designed for big while plastic boats and that are not wooden boat friendly in terms of planked boats. So woodys support the guys that support us. Contact Jason Prew for details on haul out rates and on-site services. jason@slipway.co.nz

Connie V – https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/12/23/connie-v-saved/
Lucinda – https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/09/30/lucinda-4sale/
Disturber – https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/19/disturber/
Marline – https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/16/marline/
Lonestar – a visitor from Hawkes Bay 😉 more on this project later.
Gweneviere – another visitor from Hawkes Bay and possibly a project.

Menai

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MENAI – A Peek Down Below


Menai is one of those launches that no matter what angle you approach her from, she looks stunning. She’s a superb example of her type from a boat builder, Sam Ford, at the peak of their craft, restored by an owner with an exacting attitude to authenticity and originality. Menai was built in 1937 from full length since skin kauri, overall length is 38’, with a beam of 10’, drawing 3’.

She underwent a refit in 1983 and then got very lucky when she was purchased in 2007 by the late Peter Smith, who undertook an extensive restoration that returned her to her former glory of one of Auckland’s smartest classic wooden launches. She looks bigger than 38’ and whilst a bridge-decker, her configuration makes her a very relaxing vessel. The wheelhouse even has a wine cellar 🙂 Powered by a very economical 60hp Lees Marine Ford.

1940’s

Building Lady Beryl > Kailua

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Building Lady Beryl > Kailua


During the recent sale process for Kailua we uncovered the above collection of photos when Lady Beryl, as she was named then, in the shed at Salthouse Boatbuilders.

The one thing that stood out was how original she is today under the name Kailua (photos below)Very happy that the new owner is Auckland based and a very good classic wooden boat family.

RSVP waitematawoodys@gmail.com

28 Days On Board Waitangi – Auckland > Sydney

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28 Days On Board Waitangi – Auckland > Sydney


Hopefully today will be the last day of lockdown at L3 for Aucklanders, so should therefore be the last day of ‘staying-close-to-home’.

A perfect excuse to view this great video from the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, the club are approaching their 125th anniversary and have come up with a cool idea, under the umbrella ‘Club Conversations – Unplugged’- today we get to meet club member Peter Oldham QSM, and hear the story of his passage aboard the classic yacht Waitangi, on her 28 day journey from Auckland to Sydney in 1949 + a peek into his life story.
Enjoy 🙂

Peter Oldham QSM

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