Todays woody story features the 35’ ketch rigged motorsailer- SOUTHERN BELLA, launched in 1960. She featured in the August 1961 edition of Sea Spray magazine.
In the top photo we see her preparing for launching at the Devonport Yacht Club. In the Sea Spray article , below, they described her as amateur designed and built by Barney and Peter Soljak (father & Son), alongside they Devonport home.
When launched she was powered by a 50hp BMC Commodore Diesel engine + a 4.5hp Lister auxiliary engine.
(Story and photos ex Sea Spray magazine via Ken Ricketts)
Southern Belle and Raiona B.O.I. – date unknown
Back in 2019 in another story, DYC related, Chris Leech commented at SOUTHERN BELLE had suffered fire damage and been restored. Chris supplied to photos , the first hauled out at DYC and afloat post repairs. Can we learn more about what happened and what became of SOUTHERN BELLE after this.
Following on from the weekends story on the Russell Boating Club’s classic wooden launch parade (link below), today thanks to BOI photographer – Dean Wright we get to enjoy some stunning photos from the race.
Yesterday (Friday 9th) saw a group of woody classic boat owners participate in a parade of classic craft as part of the Russell Boating Club – Tall Ships Regatta weekend.
Great turn out with an even mix of launches, ex game boats and ex work boats, looked like perfect conditions and a great time by all.
Part of the event was a log rally which my spies tell me was a tad too long and my lips are sealed but maybe a few skippers may have been using the smart phones for more tha just phone calls……..
Photos thanks to Hilton Ward onboard SPINDRIFT. (as always click on photos to enlarge)
Today (Saturday) will be a biggie on the water with the running of the 50th Tall Ships Sailing Regatta.
WINNERS ARE GRINNERS – The winner of the log rally was the Owen Woolley built launch – KORAWAI, owned by Tania and Matt Cooper. Photo below of Matt (R) and cabin boy Grant Gibbs. I suspect they won it fair and square – I know both well and both are luddites when it comes to technology 🙂
CLASSIC WOODEN BIG GAME BOAT – DOROTHY – FLASHBACK
Back in July 2015 WW ran a great story on the Oliver & Gilpin built launch DOROTHY, link below. At the time we only had one every stunning b/w photograph https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/07/01/dorothy-2/ There is lots of chat on DOROTHY at the link.
Fast forward to late Dec 2025 and woody John Dawson sent in the great photo above .
Can we learn more about where she is today.
05-01-2025 – INPUT ex CRAIG OGLE – My old mate Wayne owned her in the 90s he sold her to a couple fellas in Wellington as far as I know.
Merry Christmas from Waitematawoodys to all the crew who follow along each day.
It’s been a monster year for WW, with more than one million extra views over last year – still hard to get my head around that, and I’m hugely grateful.
A special shout-out to all the helpers who send in stories, photos, and snippets of history. You know who you are, and you make my job a whole lot easier (and far less stressful).
I hope everyone gets the break they deserve and need. If you’re afloat over the holidays, enjoy it – and safe boating to all.
Now… if there’s no story tomorrow, it will be because the co-owner of Raindance didn’t see the humour in the “gift” (the book below ) I picked up in a second-hand bookshop
And finally – if you’re out and about over the Christmas / New Year period and you spot a woody, could be yours ;-), take a photo and email it in to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Thanks again for the support.
THE WOODY SANTA (Bill Rimmer / Poco Lento ) WAS SEEN ARRIVING AT DEVONPORT.
Todays woody story is a cracker read and comes to us from Matthew Underwood. Matthew and group of 7 ventured out to Wakatahuri in Pelorus Sound, Marlborough to catch up with the legendary mariner Davey Jones. To those unfamiliar with Davey, he has been lapping NZ in his classic wooden 100 year old vessel – KELVIN for more years than I can remember. When not afloat Davey lives in Wakatahuri, located in Marlborough at the top of the South Island.
The #1 motivation for the trip was to obtain an autographed copy of Davey’s book titled – DAVEY JONES OF WAKATAHURI. Anyway thats enough from me, I hand over to Matthew to tell the tale.
“The other weekend I joined some great adventurers for a marvellous trip down to get a book about Davy Jones and Wakatahuri. You can pick up a copy of this fascinating book by simple e-mail – but we made it into a bit of an adventure for the weekend.
We are a Wellington crew and our destination was the outer reaches of the Pelorus Sound at the top of the South Island. We all made our way to Picton, a number of them cycled to Havelock, and a couple of us drove the car.
From Havelock Adrian from KenePeru Water Taxis took us out to Beverly Bay. On the other side of the 100m high hill was Wakatahuri. It was a pretty challenging climb especially as my first big climb with a couple of new hips. We got a marvellous look down from the top of the hill. Natalie came and looked for us because we were slower than expected. She had tales of people coming to grief from that climb down into Wakatahuri.It was pretty amazing to walk out the last 100 metres on a track and see the wharf, the wrecks, the still functional boats, and the various sheds that fill up the Bay.
Once there we met Gavin and Davey and got a brief outline of the place. Most of us started with a cup of tea in Daveys house. We then picked through a bunch of interesting combinations of machinery and applications. There is a working slipway there with a Lister engine. It is turned over by a truck starter motor and driven off a battery. The starter wheel runs around the flywheel, and once it’s up to speed it chugs into life.
Down the other end of the property is the workshop. There was another Lister engine there that powers through a series of belts a thick-nesser and other machinery. Penguin seemed to live underneath that shed, and the possums had been in the night before as well.
There’s an old boat slung up in the rafters that belonged to one of the dads. Gavin is lovingly restoring a wooden marvel. It’s a very fast boat on not very much horse power. Something to do with being very thin and light displacement. He did admit it was supposed to be ready when his son turned 15. His current target is to have the boat ready before his new grandson turns 15.
We had a great chat to Davy Jones in his kitchen / lounge. There are just so many interesting photos, and so many interesting books. Over a cup of tea we went around the room and discussed all the photos that we were looking at. We all bought a copy of Davey’s book and it was pretty nice to have it autographed at Wakatahuri itself. One of our group, Ross Giblin, took the cover photo of the book. Davey remembered clearly the year in the 1980’s that the photo had been taken.
As we went to leave a group of kayakers turned up to spend the night. They had had a pretty full day paddling and were keen to set up tent and relax.
You had to be impressed with how quickly Davey disappeared into the engine room of the 100 year old Kelvin and soon had her all fired up ready to take us home. We had a lovely put-put back to North West Bay. After opening up the house we had a meal and a couple of beers with Davey before he trampled off back home.
It was fascinating to see 100 year old boat, with the Lister engine in it, but also a modern race car seat for the skipper, lots of charts in the roof lining of the wheelhouse, but also a radar, a couple of VHF radios, and a chart plotter and auto steering. The switchboard seemed to reflect most of the 100 years the boat had been around.
Since we’ve got home I’ve started reading through the book, and I’m fascinated by the history of it all, and all the boats that are described in the book.
You can get a copy of the book for $60 posted to you by emailing Lynette on
Another treat in North West Bay was to see one of the little boats that were part of the Wahine rescue fleet. Pugwash is sitting in a garage there still resplendent in what I understand to be Giant Paints special mix of “AA yellow”. Tony Coard, our host in Northwest Bay, had been skippering his Dad’s boat Pugwash as part of the rescue on the day.
What a great weekend that was. A big thanks to Davey for hosting us and to Tony Coard for setting the weekend up.”
Loving the photos of Davey Jones sporting a WW cap, donated by Matthew 🙂
Today woodys you are seeing the future of classic motor boating, MALOLO is best described as a salon style launch, in America they call them Picnic boats.
Having had the privilege of being at the launch last week and getting up close to MALOLO I can report the future looks outstanding.
Some facts –
• MALOLO was designed by Nick Peal and built at Wayne Olsen’s Horizon Boats yard.
• She is appprox 35’ (10.6m) in length and has a beam of 10.5’ (3.2m).
• Forward motion is from a Yanmar 315hp diesel naturally aspirated engine.
Her owner went to great length to keep her as low tech as possible but there is no shortage of systems to enhance the on-the-water experience.
Her name MALOLO means ‘Rest & Relax’ in Samoan.
Below is a snap shot gallery from the Horizon Boats yard.
Once MALOLO has had all her sea trials and gets thru the xmas / ny period we will revisit for more details.
Now a shout for Wayne Olsen and Horizon Boats – if you like what you see today, Wayne is ready to build one for you.
ROMANCE JUNIOR – AUCKLAND’S FIRST IDLE ALONG CLASSIC YACHT
During the week WW was contacted by Brian Peet regarding ROMANCE JUNIOR, the first Idle Along yacht to appear in Auckland. Brian commented that ‘Romance Junior’ was built by Sam Ford for Master Len Hodgkinson and was launched 3 April 1937. It was initially registered in the Y class as #18 and also carried the class name on its sail – presumably for promotion purposes. By 1937 the class was already strong in Wellington.
The photographer that took the above photo was AW Powell, a professional photographer of Eden Terrace, Auckland.
Before his death, he passed the photo to his neighbour’s son who’s now passed it to Brian.
WORSER BAY BOATING CLUB – 100TH BIRTHDAY – 2026
Worser Bay Boating Club are celebrating their 100th Birth Day in 2026 and are looking for classic , old school sailing dinghies that were associated with Worser Bay in the early years, as static displays for the special weekend events 30 Jan 2026 to 1 Feb 2026. As part of the celebrations the club is searching for a functioning ” Idle Along” and a ” Zeddie ” and other classic dinghies ( or even old launches used as pickup boats ) associated with Worser Bay for a rigged up static display.
There are lunches, dinners, book launching and club day sailing events for young and old and especially visitors and a classic boat club BBQ.
Our idea is that the sight of these old boats will trigger lots of stories and reminiscences. More Details Below
PAIKEA – ONE OF OUR FASTEST CLASSIC WOODEN MOTORBOATS
Last week during a visit to Gulf Harbour I spotted PAIKEA tucked away on one of the inner berths, looking very smart. This master link will take you to several stories that document her past + lots of photos https://waitematawoodys.com/?s=Paikea&submit=Search
In one of the stories we learnt from Harold Kidd that PAIKEA was built by Collings & Bell for A.H. Court and launched on 26th January 1921. She was fitted with a 120-150hp Model M Van Blerck 6 cylinder petrol engine (not a straight-eight Packard as is often said). PAIKEA had Chas. Collings’ “concave-convex” type of hard chine design which he made famous with his various FLEETWINGS and whale-chasers. Indeed she was a refinement of the FLEETWING whose image appears in the Collings & Bell section of WW.
PAIKEA was good for 20 knots and can still do it with her present big Iveco/Fiat, Harold commented that she goes like hell and stable with it.
I n recent years PAIKEA has been one of launches that line up for the Auckland anniversary day motorboat inner harbour drag race, in fact earlier this year (2025) she was 1st across the line on corrected (handicap) time. Will be interesting to see if she turns up in 2026 to defend her title.
Photo below from the 2025 race where we see PAIKEA unsuccessfully trying to catch the winner – MY GIRIL.
If I had run the headline ‘ Classic Launch VALHALLA Catches Fire’ Peter Busfield would have had a heart attach, so I toned it down 🙂
Todays photo was sent in by John Dawson and is ex the NZ Herald heritage collection.The image was tagged ‘March 1941 Otehei Bay, Bay of Islands. The 35’ fishing launch belonging to Mr L Blomfield VALHALLA destroyed by fire (burnt to the waterline)
The owner suffered burns and shock. Do we know any more about this VALHALLA – builder, year built and was she rebuilt or scraped.
CANVAS CAPS – BLACK (white embroidered logo) – one size fits all – $42
COTTON T – SHIRTS – DARK CHOCOLATE (white screen printed logo) – short sleeve only – – SIZES > SML / MED / LRG / XL / 2XL – $39
Numbers are very limited so order now – just tell me what you want and I’ll confirm we can supply and send payment (+ postage) details. waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys
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