Category Archives: CYA Boat

A Woody 100th Birthday

Posted on by
10

IMG_2811

A Woody 100th Birthday

I mentioned last Friday that on Sunday, Sierra the 1917 Joseph Fell designed & built motorboat would be celebrating her 100th birthday at the Panmure Motor Boat & Yacht Club.
Sierra’s owner Dennis Christopher (photo above) must have bribed the weather gods because the weekend was probably the best this year for classic motor boats. We made the decision to head to the Waiheke Island area on Saturday & then head over to Panmure on Sunday afternoon for the birthday party. Never made the party – see below.
Thanks to Baden Pascoe for the above photos & after speaking with Baden I can report that nearly 100 people turned up to celebrate the occasion, including members of the Fell family & the Andrews family (previous owners).
Its great to see these old work boats still being actively used & presented so well – I love the ‘beard’ on Sierra in the photo above.

Now the reason I didn’t make the party was Raindance had a mechanical oops, the 1st in 10 years that I have not been able to fix & we had to call Coast Guard for a tow. Hats off to the CC crew from Matiatia, Waiheke Island – they were on the scene pronto & had us back at Bayswater faster than I could have under her on steam 🙂 In fact the bottom probably got a good clean 😉
I spent Sunday morning cleaning 10+L of oil from the bilge – not my idea of a fun day.
A call to James Mobberley at Moon Engines will be top of the to-do list today.

(too many other classics out on the harbour to keep this below the radar – thanks guys for the txt’s 🙂  )

P1250159

FullSizeRender-1

There is always a silver lining – after we got home, decided to have a bbq & put a match to the lounge fire, first of the year.

Scows On The Waitemata

Posted on by
8

Screen Shot 2017-05-05 at 5.14.08 PM

Screen Shot 2017-05-05 at 5.14.56 PM

Scows On The Waitemata
Late last year I was sent the two photos above by Ian McDonald whose sister-in-law was clearing out and old deceased Uncle’s stuff & came
across these photos.

Scows sailing goose-winged has a caption of 1920 Auckland Anniversary Regatta and, the other one is captioned Auck Ann regatta, 1900. Both have NZ Herald – Wilson & Horton stamps on the back. Both are about 12″ x 8″  in size.

Any of the serious classic sailers out there able to ID some of the Scows?

And a launch bonus photo today of Miss Helen on the beach at Russell c1950’s (photo ex Nathan Herbert exEric Lee-Johnson, Te Papa collection)

Russell,Te Papa, Lee-Johnson, Eric 1950's

Manuia – An Update

Posted on by
9

Manuia Oct2016

Screen Shot 2017-05-04 at 11.29.18 PM

image001

Screen Shot 2017-05-04 at 11.32.10 PM

image002

image003

MANUIA – An Update

Recently I was enjoying a coffee at my local Devonport coffee shop, Cafe Santini, & I had on a ww t-shirt. I was approached by a gent, Ron Ackroyd, who commented that he used to own a launch similar to the one shown on the front of the ww t-shirt. Turns out Ron briefly owned the Joe Slattery launch Manuia. Ron offered to send me some details & photos – which he did. Then this week, current owner Tony Butcher sent me a magnificent photo of her taken in October 2016. As you will see not a lot has changed & we like that 🙂

Ron commented that he owned Maunia from May 1989 to November 1989 & bought it from Jack Nears. Ron had spent a lot of great times on the boat with Jack between 1977 and 1989 and he promised Ron first option when he got round to selling her. Jack became quite ill in 1988/89 and the boat was getting beyond him and in May 1989 he offered Manuia to Ron. Ron already had a H28 but bought Manuia planning to use her and then make a decision on which boat he wanted to keep. They used the boat and did a fair bit of  painting, varnishing and general maintenance before coming to the conclusion that sailing the H28 and enjoying the very active H28 club scene was more their thing.

Ron sold Manuia to Paul Jones in Nov 1989.  Included above are a couple of photos of Manuia taken just before Ron sold her & list of what Ron knew of her previous owners (view the link below to the previous ww story on Manuia & you’ll see that Ron’s list dovetails well with Harold Kidd’s records.

Also above is a copy of a survey done by John Gladden while Ron had her. You have to love the honesty & practical advice / opinion given by  John Gladden, there are some significant defects that have been highlighted but John Gladden still says “The vessel is generally in good condition and is well constructed, timber sizes and joinery are of good standards.” In today’s PC world a surveyor would have written the boat off or at least scared any purchaser away.

20-09-2017 Photo below ex Nathan Herbert ex (I assume) the NZ Herald archives. Show Manuia post launching, during her sea trials.

Manuia

 

Taree – A Peek Down Below

Posted on by
3

Screen Shot 2017-04-29 at 3.39.09 PM

TAREE 1

TAREE 6

TAREE – A PEEK DOWN BELOW

Taree, the 1966 Owen Woolley designed / built 36′ launch changed ownership in Dec 2015 & new owner Don Bruce undertook an impressive refurbishment that started in June  2016, at the Brin Wilson Shed, Gulf Harbour.
Between June 1 & December22,  2016, approx. 1500 hrs went into boat building, engineering, replacing glass, painting, varnishing, plumbing, re-wiring & re-chroming. Don himself spent 12 hours every day,  Monday > Sunday working on the boat.
The results are impressive & Don speaks very highly of the Brin Wilson team & associated contractors that worked on Taree.

I saw Taree just after her re-launch, in late January 2017 at the Mahurangi Regatta weekend, the first photo above, I took there, the refurbishment ones are ex the owner, emailed to me by Ken Ricketts.
Previously on ww we had a peek at the work-in-progress & when she first left the shed, you can view / read that story here https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/11/29/taree/

Seacraft Woodys

Posted on by
1

054

058

052

001

003

SEACRAFT WOODYS

I was recently contacted by Chris Laird & his first words were “are you guys interested in small woodys?”. My answer was ‘if its wood, its good’ 🙂

The above photographs show two dinghies that Chris restored  a couple of years ago. The 12ft 6in Seacraft Tuna has been stripped back and had new rib sections, one or two splines to cracked planks, seats, foredeck trim and beltings before being painted up to original Seacraft colours with original badging.

The varnished 12’6″ Brin Wilson has been stripped back, seats  etc removed, some rib sections scarfed in, several splines to cracked planks and varnished / painted up to original colours.
Chris commented that it is a lovely boat to row.

Also included are photos of a 6hp Norman and original cone clutch that is in a 16′ Seacraft cabin boat that Chris is currently rebuilding. I have asked Chris to send in photos of that project.

OOPS THAT IS EMBARRASSING
Over the Anzac weekend a lot of the classic fleet headed north to Kawau Island. Anchoring room near the Kawau Boating Club is always at a premium on long weekends & no one likes a long row in the dark……….. but even the old salts can get it wrong – the crew on the  1905, Logan Bros, ex pilot boat ‘Ferro’ must have been in a hurry to make the KBC as they anchored rather close in. As it turned out, too close in – the below photo was 1/2hr before low tide & mid Sunday morning – would have been a long / embarrassing day waiting for the tide 😉

Ferro @ Kawau April2017

Valsan

Posted on by
10

1988_Valsan_NavalPatrolDuties_1939_1945

1988_12_09_ColthartsValsan

1997_10_09_Coltharts_Valsan_47ft_built1938_byLidgardAkld-3 1

1988_1998_ColthartsValsan_MarlbSounds

1997_10_09_Coltharts_Valsan_47ft_built1938_byLidgardAkld-3

1988_12_31_ValsanKenepuruSound (2)

1998_04_20_ColthartsBoatValsan

VALSAN
Recently on ww one of Valsan’s previous owners, Shirley Colthart reached out to her current owners Ian & Carol Nicholson & made a very generous offer to pass on a collection of blue blazers that had been custom made for Valsan’s crew (refer photo above)c1995/6. During the process Shirley mentioned that she had a collection of old photos from during their ownership, which  appear above. Below I have reproduced Shirley’s note (edited) to me that accompanied the photos. The collection is a wonderful snapshot into a period of Valsan’s history.  (As always click on any photos to enlarge) Enjoy.

“I have sorted through a few photos of when Valsan was in our care that may be of interest. When we sold to Hans Otto in 1998 we left a full history onboard including a home movie of her 1938 launch and letters between ourselves and the original owner’s daughter Valerie Harvey and it would be nice to know all was still intact for Ian when he took possession.

We added a dining table and elevated the seating area around the dining table so as to have a view out the windows as the original seating was very low, and due to our cooler climate in the south we also added the diesel burner.

We and our family loved Valsan and only sold to acquire a vessel with more accommodation once our daughters became older and wanted their friends to stay.
We purchased her in December 1988 from Jobe Hollander in Auckland and my husband and friends, with a professional skipper onboard, cruised her down to the Marlborough Sounds, quite a mission as they had to carry two 44 gallon drums of additional fuel in the cockpit and along the way encountered a couple of big storms where she well and truly proved herself to be a very seaworthy vessel indeed.

Early 1993, my husband, with a crew, brought her down from the Marlborough Sounds to Lyttelton where she was used as the after-function venue at the Banks Peninsula Cruising Club for our elder daughter Anna’s 21st celebration”.

Below are copies of Valsan’s Certificate of British Registry and the NAPS booklet from a 1943 Smoke Concert. For reference also below is the first page naming the NAPS ships.

1938_Valsan_CertificateBritishRegistry_1stHalf

1938_Valsan_CertificateBritishRegistry_2ndHalf

1988_reValsan_Published_1943-1

1943_NAPS_Ships_inclusValsan

Mahurangi Regatta – Sailing Sunday

Posted on by
3

_MG_6618

_MG_6609

_MG_6604

_MG_6571

_MG_6730

_MG_6499

Mahurangi Regatta – Sailing Sunday

I was sent a great collection of photos form the 2017 Mahurangi Regatta by Bernie Power who was aboard Shane Anderson’s classic launch Waimiga. Lots & lots of great photos, above is just a selection of the yachts, which I tend to miss as I’m pointing my camera at the beautiful boats i.e. the classic launches 🙂
Enjoy.

Feb 1940 – Whats The Event?

Posted on by
8

J

Feb 1940 – Whats The Event?

Rather an impressive collection of woodys in the above photo, the image is dated Feb 1940 & is from the NZ Herald / Auckland Library collection via Harold Kidd via Lew Redwood.
Harold commented that with that date, the wartime reporting numbers on display would have been recently issued & given the ‘families’ on board there must have still been petrol readily available.
Lew’s thoughts were that gathering could possibly have been to welcome HMS Achilles home.

So woodys can we confirm the event &  ID the boats? – some will be easy & some not – to help I have posted a photo below with each boat numbered 1>9.

AUCKLAND FEB 1940 copy

Bondi Belle – Relaunched

Posted on by
3

image2

image1

IMG_0471

IMG_0469

IMG_0504

 

BONDI BELLE – Relaunched

A couple of days ago I was alerted by Baden Pascoe to the recently relaunched Bondi Belle, ww readers may recall that back in February 2014 Baden alerted us that her owner at the time Ted Carter was looking to sell the old girl. Well she was bought by Dan Abernethy, the photo below of her resting on the poles was taken on the day Dan bought her from Ted at Sandspit.

I’m pleased to be able to report that she has undergone a very sympathetically rebuild at Pine Harbour & looks wonderful. Dan asked that I give a special mention to his brother-in-law’s father, John Waterman, seen in one of the photos above. John’s has spent numerous hours on the boat doing all filling and fairing and spray painted the boat. Happening this week will be the addition of her mast 🙂

Bondi Bell was built as S.S.Whakapara, at Whakapara (North of Whangarei) by Charles Bailey Jr. for the Foote family who were saw millers at several Northland locations . Launched in 1901, initially she was a steamer and was converted to diesel in the 1920’s. You can view / read more details on her past here https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/02/17/bondi-belle/

IMG_0389

IMG_0560

15-11-2024 UPDATE – photo ex John Sloane below of her hauled out at Half Moon Bay marina for some TLC

Wairangi

Posted on by
9

Screen Shot 2017-04-17 at 9.28.12 pm

Screen Shot 2017-04-17 at 9.27.49 pm

Screen Shot 2017-04-17 at 9.26.43 pm

Screen Shot 2017-04-17 at 9.24.44 pm

WAIRANGI

Wairangi has appeared before on ww (link below) but has recently had a big dose of TLC. The above photos are a mix of some taken by owner Owen Foster (via KRickets) while anchored at Rakino Island & mine that show her over Easter anchored in Man o War Bay, Waiheke Island. The newly varnished cabin/wheelhouse looks stunning & combined with a lot of other work, she looks very special – in fact I would be happy to call her mine 🙂

Also looking very smart in one of the photos is Safari, her owner Neil took the below photo of Raindance during the Sunday afternoon squall that hit the bay mid afternoon – rain, hail, wind = boats dragging their anchor all over the bay – fun & games but no damage.

Wairangi – heads north

IMG_1007

11-08-2018 Update – Photos below taken by Owen Foster using a drone, while at anchor at Oneroa, Waiheke Island. emailed in by Ken Ricketts

Update 19-07-2019 ex model maker John Whyte

Back in February I was contacted by John Whyte seeking info on Wairangi, John was doing the drawings of Wairangi for model maker Paul Berntsen (Havelock North). Earlier today John sent me the photos below of Paul’s finished model. John commented that the wharf behind it is a 1.34 scale model of the Opua wharf which measures just over 6 metres in length. John plans to build a lower wharf for the pilot boat with a ladder coming of the higher wharf.
The boat measures around 450mm long and 110mm wide.
Paul is obviously very talented, I struggle maintaining my own boat – building  something like this would be a recipe for disaster for me 🙂
Wairangi 1