Have had a request from Jackson Lidgard for intel on the 38’ 1955 Lidgard built motor-sailer he and his father are currently doing a major refit/restoration on.
Jackson commented that she was originally named Lazy Days but renamed to Amokura sometime in the 1970’s or 80’s by the second owner. The story goes that the second owner was a Safe Air pilot from Picton who sailed her down from Auckland.
Jackson’s family bought her 2 years ago after she had deteriorated living on a swing mooring in Havelock Sound for the last 20 years or so. When purchased they were told it was a John Alden design but have been unable to confirm this.
Currently 4 months or so into her restoration in a shrink wrap shed on the Waikawa handstand. The top photo above was before the current project commenced.
Any information on the yacht would be greatly appreciated. For those woodys using Instagram there are regularly updates under the blog handle of @todothingsblog A random selection of photos from the blog below.
And for those wondering around the surnames of the builder and the restorer – yes there is a link but very distant.
On Friday we featured the launch – Spindrift and asked for more details – well as you can see from the above photo gallery we certainly got an answer 🙂 Firstly Spindrift is a new build, launched in early December 2021 – designed by Gary Underwood (design #71) and owner built by Hilton and Melva Ward. To quote Hilton she is a 10 metre, multi-chine ply passage maker powered by a 35hp Beta (Kubota) engine.
Hilton has a very informative blog on the whole back story from design to first cruise, link below. I have just ‘cherry picked’ a selection of photos for todays story. https://thenewspindrift.blogspot.com/?m=1
Spindrift calls Ngunguru Estuary, Northland home, but there are plans for some serious cruising this summer. The build commenced in early 2016, but Underwood did the design work two years prior – see sketches below + model Hilton made to see how it would look in real life.
As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉
01-06-2024 – photo below ex Natalie Collinson fb anchored at Ngunguru
Back in June 2014 WW was approached with a request for intel on the 28’ kauri planked classic launch – Kotare, that is a poplar name for boats, so I was surprised at what we uncovered.
At the time Harold Kidd was able to tell us that she was designed by Bill Couldrey in 1960 for Frank Wilkins of Church St., Northcote to build for himself. Wilkins launched her in October 1961 with a 45hp BMC diesel.
Fast forward again to the present day and as you will observe in the above photos – Kotare is being restored / refitted by sage boat builder Alan Craig and his team at Craig Marine.
The 32’ Lake Rotoiti based launch – Manowai has been owned by a string of owners that have lavished time and $$ on her. That we know of, this started around 2003 when boat builder Colin Brown undertook major refit, including new interior. Fast forward to 2015 and Manowai has been relocated to Lake Rotoiti (Nth Island) and spends a year in Craig Marines shed where boat builder Alan Craig undertakes a 12 month refurbishment of her interior & exterior. At the same time she was re-powered with a 4 cyl. 40 hp Lombardini diesel.
Now in 2022 she has just emerged from Alan Craig’s shed after some serious TLC and addressed some issues with the steel screws used in her construction. Links below to previous WW stories – lots of photos and chat.
Manowai’s past is a little cloudy but she was possibly built in 1921 by Bailey & Lowe – would be nice to be able to confirm her provenance.
Our friends at the Australian Wood Boat Festival have just released another film in the ‘Boat Folk’ series.
Todays one is on the 1947 Tasmanian built 43′ yacht – Westward.
Westward started life designed as a recreational fishing yacht but prior to completion was converted to a racing yacht. Quite a successful one – winning the 1947 and 1948 Sydney > Hobart race.
After a long life of extended cruising Westward was donated to the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. These days she is back home in her home state and has been restored as a floating exhibit at the Constitution Dock in Hobart.
This a great story with a long tail. I first rubbed up against the boat back in 2009 when a co Kiwi based – WoodenBoat Forum follower named Graeme Tearle, lived in Thames, mentioned online he was considering buying a Townson 22 – known as a Pied Piper (Piedy) on trademe in Auckland. Turns out it was sitting on the hard at the Devonport Yacht Club (I was a member back then) so I took some photos for him. Graeme bought the boat, below is an edit of his postings on the WBF, he has a unique style of chat and the yanks on the WBF loved him –
“But this boat has issues. For starters, her name. “Born Slippery”. Ye Gods, whatever was he thinking. So my daughter Abby came up with a new name. “Ceilidh”. Pronounced “kay-lee” it is Irish (or Scots) for an informal get-together featuring traditional song, dance and drinking. In other words, a party. My kind of party (I’m half Irish). Perfect. Next, her cabin shape is all wrong. Ceilidh has the original, shorter roof, which designer Des Townson lengthened when he redrew it, and I suspect he may have lowered the roofline an inch when he did so. Either way, Ceilidh’s cabin is too short & too high for my tastes. If you can’t stand upright in a boat, there is little point in adding an inch or two to the roof height and you still can’t stand up. It just spoils the aesthetics. Also the cabintop is built in the original style with internal roof beams & a 9mm ply skin. The new style has a laminated roof with no beams. This is vastly preferable; nothing to hit your head on & a much easier paint job. So the whole cabin top has to come off. This has the added bonus of allowing me standing room inside while I do the rebuild, and I can replace the ply coamings with varnished mahogany, as they were with Candyfloss (a previous Piedy he built) In my own personal, very biased, opinion, such a beautiful shape deserves nothing less.
The cockpit has been hacked about in the modern way with an open transom. I will fill the transom back in again & add an aft deck forward to the mainsheet traveler, then an aft coaming across it, aft of the traveler. There can be no lazarette here as the rudder shaft comes up thru the cockpit floor aft of the traveler, making a bulkhead impossible. Also, she has a rise in the companionway of about 300mm, to stop water entering the saloon should the cockpit flood. What absolute nonsense. This is the Hauraki Gulf guys, the best cruising grounds in the world, not Cape Horn. I’ll cut it out, fit a lintel about 50mm high, and should the weather become so severe that I fear a wave might jump into the cockpit, (yeah right, it is sooo going to happen) I’ll fit the first washboard & lock it in place. The ability to easily step thru the companionway without having to clamber over what amounts to a bridgedeck is a boon beyond measure on a cruise. The existing tiller is an ugly stick. I’ll build a new, properly shaped one.”
Graeme did an amazing job restoring the yacht (sadly all the work-in-progress photos on WBF have been lost) and bought Ceilidh by road up to Auckland for a Des Townson exhibition at the Viaduct and motor sailed her back to Thames – memory is hazy but I think I lent him a life jacket and a VHF radio for the trip. Graeme’s past post on the WBF was c.July 2014 and I think he sold the boat in June 2014.
Fast forward to mid July 2022 and the son of old family friends – Gavin Woodward tracked the boat down to a mud berth in Thames and was trying locate the owner, dockside chat was that she had been abandoned. Photos below showing Ceilidh looking very sad.
Fast forward to mid September 2022 and Andrew Sander – a previous owner of the boat , tracked her down and re-bought her. Andrews words “Spent Sunday preparing and Sunday night on the high tide dragging her from her mangrove and rat infested grave, she’s now in a berth in Thames Marina. Her next adventure is going to Tauranga for cosmetic work, a weight loss program and a new set of sails. Then it’s back to Auckland to catch up with her old Piedy mates where she will live. Looking forward to some great racing and antics. Get a Piedy up ya (again)”
Photos below of the extraction at Thames.Wonderful that these iconic craft are held in such high regard that yachties go to these lengths to keep them sailing.
ANYONE GOT A POT OF THIS WOODY PRODUCT?
Steam boat woody – Russell Ward contacted me as Russell and some of his fellow steam boaters are bemoaning the loss of Davis Slick Seam. The trailer boaters swear by it. It holds the leaks until the seams take up and it squeezes out -doesn’t set. Stops the incontinence when you launch.
Anyone got a spare tin or know what might have been in it? It was black, had some waxy filler apparently, stayed put and wouldn’t go hard. It is no longer being stocked. West are not answering emails, it is obviously not a big seller.
So woodys what would have been in it -NO EPOXY but maybe some of the filler they use. But it was tarry looking.
In late January 2022 I help relocate the 1962 Owen Woolley built 36′ sedan launch – Korawai to her new home in the Bay of Islands. Her new owners had big plans for her and it’s great to see that a refurbishment program is now under way.
Korawai has recently been hauled and now tucked away in the shed at Ashby Boatbuilders in Opua. First item was to remove all the glass (to be replaced) and restore the varnished coamings. The owners have very good taste so I’m sure there will be more on the list 🙂
We will keep you updated.
10-03-2023 NAME SPELLING CORRECTION -input ex Harold Kidd
UPDATE 16-10-2022 lots of progress, new glass is in – varnish 97% done – just 3 more coats on the beading.
UPDATE 18-10-2022 Less than 24hrs from re-launching
RE-LAUNCHED TODAY 19-10-2022 – WoW
04-11-2022 Back in her happy place
19-12-2024 UPDATE – The rolling refit continues, latest work has seen a new bathroom / head and gallery added. Her owner, Matt is a very talent man with his hands and partner, Tania adds the good taste / styling – well done ✔️
On Friday I was contacted by Mike Lyon regarding the 52’ yacht Tern II, built by Stow and Son, in Shoreham, UK.- back in May 2021 we ran a wonderful story on the yacht and how it ultimately to be Mike’s care. It is a great read, full of insights and photos (link below) https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/05/23/tern-ii/
I’ll let Mike share todays story with you –
“Hi there, we have a project boat that we are looking to find a new home for, her name is Tern II, and she was built in the UK in 1899, and briefly owned by Claude Worth, a well-known sailing writer of the time who included her in his book “Yacht Cruising”.
She was sailed out to New Zealand in the 1950’s by Ben Pester, a returning Naval officer who wrote about the voyage in his book “Just Sea and Sky”.
We came across her in Tonga in 2004, where she had been abandoned after a failed passage to Hawaii. I had worked as a shipwright in the UK restoring similar vessels and so we decided to take her on as a project.
We had her shipped to NZ in 2006 where we had her in storage for several years before moving her to Whangarei where she is now.
We have replaced the old elm keel with greenheart, wrought iron floors with puriri and 1″ copper keel bolts. There is a large stock of puriri for the framing and the stem and sternpost, and the deck beams.
Due to other work and life commitments, we haven’t been able to work on her for the last few years.
It’s looking like the lease for the shed where she is currently being stored is coming to an end as the whole area is earmarked for development, and so we are looking into ways to secure her future and are putting the word out there to any interested parties who would be willing to take her on.”
Todays story has 2 parts – the first being a link to a brilliant article that appeared in the UK Classic Boat magazine on Uffa Fox, from the pen of Barry Pickthall. Pickthall reflects on the legacy of the designer, sailor and the man himself. Its a good read, I enjoyed it, I hope you do as well. Click below to read.
AUSTRALIAN WOOD BOAT FESTIVAL – BOAT FOLK VIDEO SERIES – Terra Lina
Another short video from the team at the AWBF – this time focusing on Terra Linna, the oldest surviving yacht built in Tasmania, but there is degree of ‘granddads axe to that claim 😉
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