You would have to look long and hard to find a classic woody in as original condition and as highly presented as the 1953, 48’ Lidgard built launch Ngaro. Scroll down to the b/w press clippings below, showing her as launched. One well respected woody once said “Its one of the few boats that, in my opinion looks better with painted coamings than the original varnish”.
The Lidgard clan really aced it when they designed and built Ngaro – I do not think I have seen a more perfect bridgedecker and that flying bridge, which has been there since day one, scores a 10/10.
She is a very well built ship being triple skin kauri – 2 – 6’x1/2” diagonal planks and 1 – 6’x1” longitudinal plank, with 3” bronze rivets.Power comes from twin 1985, 120hp Ford diesels, both rebuilt in the last 3 years, including gearboxes. Professional bare wood anti-foul in 2020 and full repaint in late 2014 – she presents as new. The mix of painted surfaces and varnished trim is perfect. As always – click on photos to enlarge.
May 23rd – Moon Engines – Diesel Maintenance WorkshopDONE
June 20th – Riverhead Tavern Lunch CruiseDONE
August 14th > 15th – Clevedon River Dockside BBQ (overnight)DONE
October23rd > 25th – Woodys Long Weekend Cruise to Kawau Island (Labour Weekend) – Saturday morning Dinghy Cruise up Matakana River to Markets. Sunday evening dinner / gathering at Kawau Boating Club. POSTPONED – NEW DATE TBA
November 28th – Sunday – Riverhead Tavern Lunch cruise
2022
February 26th – Stillwater Dockside Afternoon Picnic
The above gatherings are put on to encourage classic boat owners to use and enjoy their boats more, and meet like minded people. We point out that the get togethers are not Classic Yacht Association (CYA) organised events. They have a cruising focus and the locations point to participation by launches but we welcome all classic vessels.Invitation to the events is via email and the waitematawoodys.com website. If you would to be sent invites, simply send an email with your name, boat name & mobile # to waitematawoodys@gmail.com Closer to the actual dates, we send more details to attendees.
In fact a tad more than a facelift- its a total refit 🙂
A couple of weeks ago I was moodching around the Tauranga / Mount Maunganui area and took Doug Owens up on his longstanding offer to view Nereides in her ’shed’. The timing was perfect as I also meet son Mohi, who is project managing the refit. Click photos to enlarge.
Nereides has always been a rather special woody – as are most boats built by Colin Wild. She slipped out of the CW shed in 1937 and her specs where 55’x15’x6’5″ and powered by a 200hp John Deere. The photos above are a combination of the ones I took on the day and others shared by Doug and Mohi, as you can see its a mammoth undertaking but is very close to re-launch. WW will kept you in the loop on this project.
Pre – Refit
UPDATE 12-04-2022 Getting very close to splash day 🙂
Hine Moana II Todays woody is named – Hine Moana II. She is 35’, carvel planked kauri and built by Jorgensen & Sons, Picton in 1963. Powered by a 145hp Perkins T 6.354 engine. Her owners are Phil Hogg, Tony Bishop and Murray Cederman – who share the maintenance and upkeep. Her home berth is the MYCC, Port Motueka, where she has resided for the last 21 years.
Hine Moana was built originally as the Commodores launch at the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.
ROYAL FALCON – FYI – Fantastic response to yesterdays story on Royal Falcon, the 3rd largest viewing day for the year – and almost no varnish 😉 For the petrol (diesel heads) below is a short clip of the Commer TS3 being fired up for the first time post re-build. Owner Steve commented that the puff of smoke is the residual lube oil from the new cylinder sleeve installation 🙂
Another woody spotted at Tutukaka Marina by Dean Wright -anyone able to tell us more about Lady Jess?
Input ex Scott Macindoe –
“Lady Jess was commissioned by an Auckland commercial fisherman, Gus Viskovic as a snapper longliner in 1961. She was designed and built by John Gladden at Milford Marina. The kauri came from half of a tree milled in the Coromandel. The hull is carvel planked. The planks are full-length, 32mm. Some demolition kauri from a church in Hamilton was also used in the bulkheads.
Not long after launching, the boat was sold and moved to Whitianga. She was spotted there by Harry Bannister from Whangaroa. Harry bought her and took her north. Since then Lady Jess has been a charter boat based in Northland. Since the 1970’s she has been based out of Tutukaka, owned successively by Doug Schlegel, Trevor Williams, Mike Airey, Peter O’Brynne, and since 1988, Pete Saul.
An open-topped flying bridge was added in the 1970s, with a folding Bimini top and clears. In 1997 Pete added the hard-top bridge. She still has the original dry stack arrangement. Lady Jess was powered by a single six-cylinder Ford for much of her life to date but for the last four years has been powered by a 200hp John Deere with Twin Disc gearbox.
The engine is well forward, in the galley, giving good access to the motor but necessitating a 5.5-metre drive shaft. The forward engine and flared bow make Lady Jess a great head sea boat. Top speed is 9 knots with 8 knots cruising. Fuel consumption for a day’s game fishing averages 8 litres/hour. Diesel capacity is 900 litres, allowing extensive cruising without refuelling. Pete retired from charters in 2019 but kept the boat for family use.“
Woody Moon Engines Workshop
Great turn out last Sunday for the Wooden Boat Bureau hosted-woody workshop at Moon Engines, the MC for the day was James Mobberley who ran a master class on diesel engine maintenance and servicing. 33 boat owners turned out and I will not embarrass him by naming him but this email feedback summed up the day perfectly = “Thank you for organising this enjoyable visit – an articulate, experienced and forthright speaker made James an ideal host for subjects one can never be over-informed about.”
Post the workshop – attendee Alan Sexton sent in to WW a list of minimum spares to carry on-board from YNZ’s safety rules for offshore motorboats that almost exactly per James’ advice. See below.
Alan also supplied the links below for the engine ‘junkies’ amongst us – enjoy. Seaboard Marine as recommended by James: https://www.sbmar.com/tonys-tips/
DISTURBER Thanks to Ian McDonald for giving WW the heads up on the tme listing for the Warmington Bros built 25’ launch – Disturber. Disturber made a brief appearance on WW back in 2013, with a photo (refer below) of her racing on the Kaipara Harbour, most probably participating in the annual Pah Regatta.
Back then Disturber was a pure racer, powered by a 150hp aircraft engine. These days she has a Ford 72 hp D Series pushing her along, but a glance at her hull below the water-line will tell you that she can still deliver a good turn of speed – 13+knots.
Recently she has undergone a lot of mechanical and structural enhancements. With a sub $8k price tag, Disturber could be a great entry point into the classic wooden boating movement.
FALCON COMES HOME The 1930 Lane Motor Boat Co. designed and built launch Falcon has always been one of the smartest woodys in the classic fleet.I do not have a lot of photos mainly because she was just so dam quick, always passed me like I was standing still 🙂 Previous owner – James Mobberley (Moon Engines) had shoehorned a beast of an engine (Hino turbo) into Falcon. He did the same transplant on Harold Kidd’s — Romance II and Graham Guthrie’s – Kailua. Both of these woodys are serious zoom zooms.
Back in 2013, she was sold to a Whangarei owner and later re-sold to another Whangarei owner – the photo below shows Falcon looking a little sad, moored in the Whangarei Town Basin. In the last few months there has been chat about her returning home to Auckland – well woodys, I can confirm that she has a new owner and is back home on the WaitemataWe look forward to seeing her get the TCL she deserves.We will follow her process closely.
LAST CALL FOR THIS WEEKENDS WOODY WORKSHOP AT MOON ENGINES – WE WILL BE CLOSING THE DOORS TO RSVP’s LATER TODAY – RSVP NOW OR MISS OUT – waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Two WW followers – Ian McDonald and Philip Goddard drew my attention to the the fate of the 28′ launch – Korora that was recently on tme. She has appeared on WW before and there was good chat around who built her and when – link here https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/10/21/korora-2/
Back in 2015 she popped up on tme, not sure if she sold then but in 2017 she sank on her Auckland mooring during a storm, happened like this – awning blew off > bilge pump not working > boat fills with water > sinks. Korora was hauled out and taken to her owners farm. Time went by and farming tasks took precedence and in early 2021 she made another guest appearance on tme.I’m very pleased to advise that Tony Howse bought her and she now resides at his farm, where she will be restored. We like that, was a pretty boat in her day, see b/w photo below.
PLEASE RSVP FOR THE ABOVE WOODY EVENT – NEXT SUNDAY (23/05) – LOCATION IS 606 ROSEBANK ROAD, AVONDALE – RSVP TOwaitematawoodys@gmail.com
I received an email yesterday from woody – Mark McLaughlin, regarding the launch Tainui, that he and his wife previously owned – I’ll let Mark tell te story –
“My wife was in Thames recently for work and managed to get a few photos of our old launch Tainui (also previously owned by Sue & Mark Edmonds before me), having recently emerged from the shed at Kopu Marine. After 10 years of sitting idle in a mud berth at Thames she now has a new owner, Peter Elliot. Peter works at Kopu Marine and has bought Tainui back to life again. Amongst other items, I understand she has had new fuel tanks installed, new windows fitted (with the original claytonrite window rubber mouldings now replaced with battens), new stainless steel bow rail, some interior upgrades, and she has been stripped back to bare wood and repainted. When the photos above were taken last month she was just awaiting antifouling and will then be relaunched. Tainui was very well built in Nelson in 1958 by boat builder Alan Westrupp for Ron Montgomery at “Montgomery’s Garage”, which is the site where the Montgomery Carpark is now. Ron Montgomery did the finishing work and engineering on the boat himself. The original engine was a 6 cylinder Chrysler Crown, replaced in 1988 by a 4 cylinder Toyota 1W diesel. The design is derived from a Nova Scotian lobster boat hull form by US Naval Architects Eldredge-McInnis Inc. She is very sea kindly and capable of a good turn of speed. Also above is a photo from 1958 when new and another one from the “Nelson Photo News” in 1960. The last photos show her on the pole mooring during our ownership. It’s great to see Tainui looking refreshed now and hopefully we see her out and about again on the water soon.” Look below to previous WW story https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/23/tainui/
Back in 2014 we did a great story on the 34’ replica Herreshoff steam launch that Chris McMullen is building in his spare time, back then it had been 30 years in the making and now its approx 37 years, but when I called in last week, there had been some significant progress. Have a read of the 2014 WW stories to take in the magnitude of the project – everything , including the steam engine built by hand. When Chris started the project he didn’t have the benefit of the internet or google to help but in recent years he has uncovered numerous old photos that have helped with the project.
Some Background: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co build # 263 was a steam launch called “Cassandra Junior” and Chris believes that is the steam launch shown astern of beautiful 287′ S.Y. “Cassandra” in the photo below, she was stowed on the port side launch of the yacht. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Co built approximately twenty of this type of steam launch in the 27f’ > 34′. The H.M.C build # 227 – Vapor, refer photo below, was 30′ and built for the Steam Yacht “Yacoma” but Chris understands she was never used on that ship. A model of “Yacoma” at Mystic Sea Port Museum shows a steam launch but Chris assumes the ship had a more convenient modern motor boat.
The last b/w photo below is the tender for the steam yacht ‘Wanderer’ (photo below) called ‘Wanderer Junior’. She was Herreshoff build # 270, she is American and measures 27′ 11″. Built 1909. In the back ground of the photo is the ‘Ida Lewis Yacht Club’.
The engine on Chris’s launch has been run and currently getting a tidy up before being re-installed. The main reason for the visit was to get an update on the restoration of Haunui, the 1948 Colin Wild launch – happening nearby – check in one Wednesday for that story. I took Jamie Hudson, skipper of Lady Crossley , an almost sister ship, built one year apart, fascinating to get Jamie’s view on the two boats.
H.M.C work shop – unidentified steam launch. Cassandra, with Cassandra Junior astern
Vapor with her late owner Jon Martin. Taken late 1960’s
WandererWanderer Junior – built 1909
IT FLOATS – On 11-11-2021, on the upper reaches of the Tamaki River, Chris McMullen ticked off a rather large item on his to-do list. He launched his N G Herreshoff design Steam Launch. Chris commented that it was just a floatation trial, and that the design floated absolutely level. In the photos below we see her with all her machinery but with no fuel or water. Chris commented that for years he has had the greatest respect for the late Nathanial Herreshoff and devoted over thirty years (on and off) of his life to the project and is as keen as ever to get it under steam power. You can see, at the link below, the only image Chris has found of the original “Cassandra Junior” see https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/the-steam-yacht-cassandra-1913-creator-kirk-and-sons-of-cowes/HEZ-2696001
UPDATE 04-01-2022 – The below photos were from a shed visit in early Dec 2021, post the above water line test 🙂 click to enlarge
waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 14+ million views 