Category Archives: Events

San Rosa

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San Rosa 

Todays woody is the 18m ex workboat – San Rosa seen in the above photos (dated 15 April 2022) ashore on the beach at Tikitiki, near East Cape, North Island. The story goes that she had been recently sold and the new owners were sailing her from Tauranga to the Marlborough Sounds. Her engine failed when she was 10 nautical miles off Tokomaru Bay and the crew made a mayday call. The Lowe Rescue helicopter winched 3 people and a dog (nice) off San Rosa and the vessel was abandoned. 

Being a solid old girl she drifted for 6 days including being caught in the gale force winds and huge seas brought on by ex-Cyclone Fili, which had hammered the region for days. Then surprise surprise she washed ashore in what appears to be good condition.

Can any of the Workboat Group tell us more about San Rosa’s past?

Interested to hear what became of her – hopefully somehow saved. Thanks Ian McDonal for the heads up on the story 🙂

07-05-2022 UPDATE – ex ‘The Gisborne Herald’ via John Newsham and Geoff Bagnall 

19-05-2022 Update Below ex John Newsham

21-05-2022 – Update Below ex John Newsham

25-05-2022I nput from Dave Stanaway – Dave uncovered this photo of a commemorative Sanford plate from the Dec 1955 launching. Dave’s father had a matching ashtray. Dave commented that San Rosa was top of the line when built for Sanfords. 

UPDATE 13-007-2022

Ian McDonald sent in this link to a story that appeared on the STUFF website https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-democracy-reporting/300631561/saga-of-the-san-rosa-continues

John Newsham sent in the press clippings below from the Gisborne Herald

05-11-2022 UPDATE ex Geoff Bagnall

In The Mean Time

I have been contacted by Rob Bark the new owner of the 16’ clinker run-about below. The first photo, dated c.2015,  shows the boat as purchased by the previous owner (who was based in Rotoiti, Lake Rotorua) – who very quickly removed the cabin and hot-house. Second & third photos show her as a work-in-progress.

Her new owner would love to learn more about the clinker – even a possible build date.

Chamberlains Bay Classic Launches  – Golden Hour

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Bottom end of Waiheke Island
Chamberlains Bay
Summer Wine
Sea Fever
Tuna
Isle of Arran
Awariki
Lucille
Summer Wine & Takahoa

Chamberlains Bay Classic Launches  – Golden Hour

The truely talented boating photographers talk about the ‘golden hour’, the period just before sunset and just after dawn. Rarely in a bay is it an hour, sometimes it is 10>15 minutes before the sun disappears behind the hills or clouds.

On the Thursday before Easter, this average photographer (me) arrived in Chamberlains Bay, Ponui Island at just the right time and captured some special photos of the woody launches gathering for the Woody Classics Weekend cruise the next day up the Waihou River to Paeroa.

Paeroa Historical Maritime Park & Museum

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Paeroa Historical Maritime Park & Museum

Following on from Easters Woody Cruise up the Waihou River to Paeroa, today we get a sneak peak at the venue for the weekends activities – the Historical Maritime Park & Museum. The Museum is located just above the banks of the river on State Highway 2, just before the township of Paeroa, you can’t miss it. Map at the bottom of todays story.

The Museum building and the surrounding Park grounds hosts an amazing collection of memorabilia from both the area and New Zealand’s nautical past, do stop, you will not be disappointed.

Read / view more at the link below.

https://historicalmaritimepark.co.nz/

Things You Really Need

This Saturday, 23rd, at 10am there is a once in a ‘long time’ auction of marine stuff, serious stuff, stuff that deserves to be on display at the entrance to a marina, or as an outdoor sculpture. Check out the photos below of two of the items – lots more – view here.   https://auction.abauctions.co.nz/auctions/4-5OS4EN/engineering-woodworking-farm-auction

The address is 111 Riverland Road, Riverhead, West Auckland or bid on-line

Woodys Classic Launch Easter River Cruise To Paeroa

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Woodys Classic Launch Easter River Cruise To Paeroa

The Easter weekend cruise was always going to be a biggie – with most launches having to travel upwards of 10 hours to reach the final destination – the  ‘waterfront’ Historical Maritime Museum & Park in Paeroa. Most of the woody fleet gathered Thursday evening in Chamberlain Bay, Ponui Island in anticipation of an early start across the Firth of Thames, to rendezvous with the launches arriving from Thames and to collect our guide / navigator for the trip up the Waihou River. I’d have to say that the straight line trip across the Firth of Thames was 4 hours of my life I’ll never get back 🙂

We meet just off the old Kopu Swing Bridge which was opened specially for us to pass thru – and the welcome / turn out on the old bridge was outstanding. Must have been a quiet day in Thames, maybe  it was that it was Good Friday and most things (pubs etc) were closed 😉

We shot thru the gap and 10 minutes later our lead boat, with navigator on board, found a mud bank and were ‘stationary’ for over an hour. Once moving again the remainder of the 4+ hour journey was fun to travel together in close proximity, but the scenery got very repetitive and at 5 knots max – the going was slow. The skippers were kept awake by lots of locals who had gathered at wharfs and in paddocks to wave as we went past. The dodging of the occasional ‘grassberg’ (floating mid-stream) also kept skippers on their toes.

The final short leg from the main river to the Museum dock again saw the lead boat aground and a wait for more tide. 

We sneaked in just before dusk, a very long 10 hour day. 

Jason Prew and Peter Vandersloot  oversaw the shoehorning of the 10 woodys into the docking area. Then it was ashore to stretch the legs and a BBQ dinner/ catch up. The Museum had set up an impressive and most appreciated dining / BBQ area for the crews to enjoy. Post dinner most returned to the boats for an early night. 

Observation- it’s bloody cold up a creek in the middle of the Waikato, thank god for hot water bottles. 

Saturday was another cracker autumn day. The crews enjoyed a trip on the classic launch – Ariana (skippered by Peter Vandersloot) to the Paeroa township for morning tea at the local RSA – hot scones and pastries – always a winner. To balance out the catering, the river trip was split in two – with 1/2 the crew travelling by bus and boating back and same same in reverse for the other 1/2.

The day saw a great turn-out of locals visiting the Museum and walking the docks. I would encourage you to search the following words Kopu Bridge / Waihou River / Maritime Museum & Park on Facebook – the weekend was covered by so many people – lots more photos and videos to see.

Special mention must be made to Peter Vandersloot who masterminded the weekend and was on hand to provide so many insights into the heritage of the area, vessels and personalities. The Museum’s Chairperson Colin James and partner Gloria (a trustee) who were everywhere when needed and helped the weekend run smoothly.

Lastly none of this would have happened without woodys Jason Prew from The Slipway Milford, and Kerry Lilley for pulling everything together – well done guys.

The return trip back down the river had its challenges, very complicated tide table – but to the best of my knowledge no one is still there 🙂

The Museum and their boat trips are a must do if you are passing thru or around Paeroa. And big ups to the local council and business association – Paeroa is a healthy, well presented town, and a credit to everyone living there. 

Over the next week I’ll do additional WW stories on the Museum, the river trip to Paeroa on board Ariana and a few of the launches that made the trip.

(Woodys who attended – My Girl, Raindance, Awariki, Lucille, Summer Wine, Ngarimu, Lucinda, Maroro, Cindy Jane, Kaikoura, and guest appearance by Ariana – refer photos below)

(Photo credits to – Jason Prew, Linus Fleming, Andre Thomas, Andrew & Mechaela Dobbs and yours truly)

THE FLEET

AWARIKI – 1967 – Owen Woolley
MARORO – c.1905 – tba
NGARIMU – 1945 – Fred Goldboro
KAIKOURA – 1951 – Percy Vos
SUMMER WINE- Noel May – 1992
CINDY JANE – 1975 – Pelin Empress
MY GIRL – 1925- W H Hand Jr
RAINDANCE – 1928 – Lane Motor Boat Company
LUCILLE – Logan 33
LUCINDA – 1930 – L Coulthard

Summer of 1932/33 Cruise Aboard Scout – Ships Log – Part II

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Woody Paeroa River Raid Report

Very long day yesterday, 10 hours motoring, all 10 launches around at the dock just on dusk. A few challenges along the way. Full report later😄

Summer of 1932/33 Cruise Aboard Scout – Ships Log – Part I

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TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW

Summer of 1932/33 Cruise Aboard Scout – Ships Log – Part I

Last Sunday I ran an old b/w photo of yacht with the sail # C2, very quickly the stick and rag WW followers ID’ed the yacht as Scout. Then Denis O’Callahan (ex MV Tasman owner) contacted me to advise that back in the 1930s Scout was owned by one of Denis’s father’s buddies Ted Hay. Denis recalls that he thinks is was Ted Hays that changed Scout from gaff to bermudan rig. From 30 December 1932 to 20 January 1933 Scout cruised to the Bay of Islands, the crew being Ted Hays, Jack Callagher, Bob O’Callahan (Denis’s father) and Copper Speight, who represented New Zealand at Rugby in 1893, playing 7 matches on tour. Copper was older than the rest of the crew and died at 65 years in 1935.

Denis commented that in 1932 it was the depression time, and Ted, Jack and Bob may well have been unemployed and reading between the lines Copper may have  subsidised the cruise. He enjoyed it so much that he had a log typed up and Denis inherited a bound carbon copy. Denis have passed his copy of the log on to the present owner of Scout, Martin Farrand, after thankfully scanning it and keeping an electronic copy.

We apologise for the quality of the reproduction, but folks it was nearly 90 yrs ago since this was stamped out on a typewriter and in fact this was a carbon copy.

Please note the “swastika” on the cover, which was originally in gold leaf. Back in 1933, before the Nazis, this was a religous symbol and meant good luck and prosperity.

Unfortunately there are no photos from the 1932 cruise.

Scout – I know very little other than she was built in 1909 to comply with the “6 Metre” rule, by 3 brothers in Whangarei. In 2009, to celebrate her 100th year, owner Martin Farrand took Scout to Newport, Rhode Island to sail in an international 6 Metre regatta. She was the oldest boat in the fleet. The story is told by Sandra Gorther in her book ‘Scout, 100 years astern’. These days Scout sports the sail # NZL-1.

So woodys thanks to the generosity of Denis O’Callahan we get to read the Log from the summer cruise – it’s a cracker read – I have split it over 2 days, so come back tomorrow for PART II – Enjoy

EASTER WOODY WEEKEND UPDATE – As you read this, weather permitting, around 12 classic woody launches will be weaving their way up the Waihou River to Paeroa on the Inaugural Waitemata Woodys Paeroa River Raid. The trip involves a special opening of the old Kopu – Thames swing bridge and takes approx. 4 hours. We will be berthed for 2 nights alongside the Paeroa Maritime Museum. WiFi reception etc permitting I will post some updates – should be a hoot – I can see a few WW prizes being ‘won’ for examples of accidental ‘touch hydrography’ 🙂

Woodys Riverhead Tavern Classic Launch Cruise

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My Girl
Te Hauraki
Pacific
Manu
Waikaro
Raindance
Waione

Woodys Riverhead Tavern Classic Launch Cruise

Saturdays weather forecast was a wee bit gnarly but with the promise of an improvement later in the day – Harbour bridge > Kauri Point – unpleasant. Kauri Point > Herald Island – average. Upper Harbour > Hotel Good.

The time ashore was perfect, great location, service and the food very good. Return trip ok, except for between the Hobsonville and Te Atatu area – SW wind was whistling thru from the Waitakere Ranges.

We had 10 woodys turn out, 4 of them being newbies to the creek – Awarua, Manu, Margaret Anne and Waione – nice boats, nice people 🙂

Thanks to everyone for a great day.

(most photos have captions – scroll over to view)

THANK YOU

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THANK YOU 🙂

Had a wonderful response to Mondays story asking for help locating a source of kauri for the rebuild of the fire damaged classic launch – Kokoru. Currently fine tuning the exact requirements and will be back in touch with the good folk that reached out with potential solutions 🙂

EASTER – Looking To Do Something Special

On behalf of WW – Jason Prew has been pulling together an amazing Easter cruise. The plan is to cruise up the Waihou River to the township of Paeroa for the weekend. To ensure a safe passage up the river there will be a local woody piloting.

Due to space restraints the guest list is limited to 12 boats – and as of today there are only 2>3 vacant spots.

Cruising experiences like this trip are rare so contact Jason   jason@slipway.co.nz  for more details and to grab a spot. 

Weekend Overview:

Easter Friday > Meet at Thames / Kopu bridge. Travel in convoy to Paeroa 

Saturday        > do the “tourist things” Museum visit, shops etc

Sunday         > return down river in afternoon

Sunday night / Monday  > free to do your own thing

Part of the weekend will be a visit to the Paeroa Historic Maritime Museum and Park (you’ll be moored in front), the venue is one of the best displays of NZ and local maritime history including Captain Cook, The Northern Steamship Co., Naval displays and many scale replicas of vessels. 

Kokoru Ravaged In Marina Fire – A CALL FOR HELP

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Where it started – if only the wind had been blowing the other way

KOKORU RAVAGED IN MARINA FIRE – A CALL FOR HELP

Late on the afternoon of 14-03-2022 I started receiving messages from woodys about a fire at east Aucklands – Pine Harbour Marina , that was / had desecrated 5 vessels. Looking at the early photos coming thru on social media – one of the vessels appeared to be a classic launch. Within minutes another image appeared that clearly showed that the woody was the 1960 Jack Morgan built 38′ woody – Kokoru. A woody that less than 4 weeks before I was crawling over taking photos of, post a 18+ month restoration that included her owners spending most of the CV-19 lockdowns working on her. On that day do not think I have seen more proud and happy boat owners and a week later they attended the Woodys Picnic at Stillwater and Kokoru was rafted up on the wharf for everyone to view. 

While taking photos the owners asked that I just use only a few exterior ones on WW and that when she was 100% dressed up, I could reveal more. Well woodys sadly that day never came, as Kokoru was one of the vessels at Pine Harbour that through no fault of their own, was left in ruins by an onboard fire on a neighbouring boat – with the combined size of the insurance claim being seven+ figures I won’t speculate, other to say the dockside chat is that the explosion > fire was related to a battery installation. 

I posted one photo of Kokoru the following day, but in respect to her owners, refrained from showing more. 

Last Friday talking with the owners, who are still distressed with the whole affair, I was thrilled to be told that the decision had been made to rebuild Kokoru – a mammoth undertaking, that has some big hurdles upfront – the first being – where to find the kauri, that magical timber that sadly these days you can not just order from Placemakers. 

So woodys todays story has two parts:

(1) to congratulate the owners on making the rebuild call – to quote them “you can’t take it with you but you can leave a legacy”

(2) to shout out to the classic wooden boating community for a source for the kauri Kokoru needs  – which is approx 8 lengths approx 150mm x ideally 8 metres. But beggars can’t be choosers so it’s what ever can be found. Obviously prepared to pay – any ideas on who we can talk to – contact me on waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Kokoru has made several appearances on WW before so I have included the links below to her back story. Its interesting to read that she is no stranger to incidents that would have been the end of most modern day vessels – back on 10th April 1968 during Wellington’s Wahine ferry disaster (loss of 51 lives on the day), Kokoru was one of the vessels that went out to assist the rescue of the passengers – after returning one load she headed out again and was rolled on her beam by a monster wave, the force of which ripped one of engines from its bed. Kokoru limped back to port, taking on water. But as a testament to Jack Morgan’s boat building skills, Kokoru was hauled out and repaired. 

WAHINE DISASTER https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/02/26/kokoru/

POST RELAUNCH (11/02/22)  https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/02/11/kokoru-a-sneak-peek/

FIRST EXTENDED TRIP (28/02/22).  https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/02/28/woody-classic-waterfront-picnic-weekend/

The gallery of photos below are reproduced purely as a record of the craftsmanship and mastery that went into the refit of Kokoru and to provide inspiration and reference during the rebuild. As always click on photos to enlarge.

Acheron

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ACHERON 

When designed and built by Owen Woolley in 1968 the launch – Acheron started life at 38’ and the build  took place in Woolley’s shed on the water’s edge of the Tamaki  River, Pakuranga. She was constructed of single skin heart kauri with hardwood ribs.  The design was a very popular concept for Woolley and he built several other boats later through a number of years that were more or less sisterships to Acheron. 

Post launching Acheron spent 4> 5 years on a pile mooring in the Tamaki River, on the Panmure side of the river, near Ken Rickett’s parents house. Ken supplied the intel for todays story and the photos come to us from her current Wellington owner – Tim Prescott.  

Harold Kidd has advised that Acheron was owned in 1973  by E & J Lane of Kohimarana, Auckland so given this date they may well have been the original owners.  

Acheron’s past between approx. 1974 and 1991 is mostly unknown, until in 1991 she was relocated to Wellington by a Des Deacon, who had purchased her.    Fast forward to 2005 when she was purchased by Tim Prescott. At this stage Acheron measured 44’ in length , with a 12’6” beam and draw 3’6’, the additional 6’ had been added to her stern giving her a bigger cockpit. In a December 2019 WW story on the launch Proteus, Neil Lineham commented he purchased Acheron in 1984 and had the extension done, by John Gladden, and with the additional 6’ she had a new top speed of 19 knots.  Linehan owned the boat between 1984 and 1987.

Acheron is powered by two TS3 model 3DB-215 Commer diesels, which have been in her since new. They drive thru two 22″ diameter x 21″ pitch 4 blade propellers. The current photos of the engine bay confirm that they have recently been taken out of the boat & had a major overhaul by a TS 3 expert. 

Are we able to fill in more of the blanks in her past in the 1972 > 1991 period?
Not sure Mr Woolley would approve of the radar arch ………………. but tastes change with time 🙂   

Update ex Paul Holdsworth – Owen Woolley built Acheron for Eric Lane an executive at NZI Insurance, my farther an engineer worked on Acheron’s Commer diesels that had a distinctive rumble to them. Owen built a smaller launch for Eric before he commissioned Acheron which was very similar to Allen Williams Banshee design. Before having these Woolley designs built Eric owned the Colin Wild Talua with mooring in Okahu Bay which was immaculately kept and regularly haul out onto the handstand at Okahu.  

Update ex Ken Ricketts – post a lot of ringing around and emails  Ken believes below is an accurate record of the boats owners – Built by Owen Woolley 1968, owned by E & J Lane 1973, bought off a Mr Furness (probably off the Lanes) & sold to Neil Lineham in 1984. Sold by Lineham c.1987. We have a 4 year gap, then Des Deacon bought her in 1991 and trucked her from Auckland to Wellington.

In 2005 Tim Prescott, the current owner purchased her, possibly from the estate of Deacon. 

As mentioned above Lineham had John Gladden extend the stern by 6’, this work was done by John Gladden. Lineham was an engineer and has a substantial knowledge of the Commer TS 3 engines, he went to much trouble upgrading the horsepower of Acheron’s engines and making them quieter than is usual, for these engines. 

Her radar arch was fitted in Wellington by or for Des Deacon. It was Tim Prescott, who has had the latest refurbishment of her engines done, by Mark Erskine a very talented TS3 engine expert,  who Ken believes worked on the engines in – Invader and possibly Royal Falcon. Her top speed is now around 13>14 knots.

19-03-2022 Update ex Alan Sexton – Acheron was described above as being single skin kauri, I doubt this, per the article (refer Sea Spray below) all this series were built with multiskin diagonal planking. One change on boats after Acheron, eg Proteus and Accolade was the addition of the topsides knuckle.

  

Annual CYA Round Rangitoto Race & Cake Day BBQ

I made a late call to mooch down to Issy Bay to catch the tail end of the annual CYA round Rangitoto Race and Cake Day BBQ. Well thanks to the loyal launch group the day wasn’t a waste of time, as what seems to be the norm these days – not one classic yacht bothered to attend 🙂  Pacific cleaned up the prizes – first in the race (i.e. closest finisher to their handicap time) and first for the best looking cake – well done Nathan, Darren and crew. I’m sure the other results will be on the CYA website. Got to love the judging panel – 3 very well behaved kids – I suspect their focus was on getting first dibs on the cakes 🙂 Special thanks to Jason Prew from the Slipway Milford for organizing the BBQ and prizes ex Manson Anchors and Lawson Dry Hills wines.