Category Archives: Events

Mystery Work Boat

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Mystery Work Boat

Today’s photo comes to us from Lew Redwood’s fb, & show a very nice work boat towing a barge – the boat & location are unknown.
The barge has quite a crowd aboard, both females & males, so it must have been an outing / picnic.
Anyone able to ID the vessel for us, I wonder if she is still afloat?
Angus Rogers sent in the video below of a barrel cooper/hopper at work. Almost as such skill required as building a clinker dinghy.

MY GIRL and PACIFIC Relaunched – 60+ Wooden Boat Photos

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PACIFIC

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MY GIRL

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MY GIRL and PACIFIC Relaunched – 60+ Wooden Boat Photos

Big day on Saturday in the woody world, we had the launching of Pacific & My Girl. Pacific is a 1917 Joe Slattery designed & built launch, owned by Nathan Herbert, & has been out all winter at Milford Crusing Club’s yard getting a major over-haul – hats off to Nathan, Pacific is a stunner, the perfect choice & mix of colours & varnish. It has been a long winter but from the smiles on everyones face, dock-side, it was all worth it. This WW link will give you a peek at what she used to look like.   https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/02/07/5898/
Well done Nathan & Steven + a big cast of helpers thru-out the project.
Second splash was Jason Prew’s – 1925, Dick Lang built ‘My Girl’, also re-launched at MCC. Jason’s re-build of My Girl has been a very long 4 years, mostly out of sight in a cold (& sometimes wet) commercial storage yard. My Girl arrived at MCC approx. 6 weeks ago for the final touches. Some of NZ’s most respected woodys were shaking their heads when Jason bought My Girl, she was so close to being a BeeHive (box of matches) restoration, but Jason has a track record of bring woodys back from the dead & that he did with My Girl. This link will show you what he started with    https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/12/12/my-girl/
To see more of the project – check out his weblog.  https://www.my-girl.co.nz/mygirl/Welcome.html
Post launching, I managed to score an invite to go for a blast on My Girl, she is fast (my lips are sealed) but I expected that, what really impressed my was the ride – very smooth. The question of the day was – are classic woodys allowed trim tabs 🙂 I seem to recall James Mobberley had some ‘additions’ on Falcon…………..
Remember click on photos to enlarge 😉
Video footage of My Girl with the throttle open 🙂
Video & photos below ex Nathan Herbert 
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Cruise To The Riverhead Hotel

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CRUISE TO THE RIVERHEAD HOTEL
If you have not visited the Riverhead Hotel by water, its time you did. The Classic Yacht Association (CYA) has an afternoon cruise to the pub next Sunday (18th). These events are a lot of fun – we head up the river / creek on mass & anchor / raft-up before going ashore for a drink & a catch-up. If you have concerns about the route, just follow the boat in front of you & anchor with the others. There will be plenty of ‘old-hands’ to show you the ropes.
High tide is 16:24pm & so we aim to be heading up the ‘creek’ 2hrs b4 HW, its a small tide at 2.8m so I would imagine we will be meeting up in the Herald Island / Lucus Creek area around 2.00pm, so leaving Westhaven area around 1pm. ETA at pub is 2.30pm & departure from the pub approx 5.30pm.
If you are not a CYA member (yet) come along & see what you have been missing out on.
The photo gallery above is a snap shot of past trips – enjoy.
Ps – Wear your WW shirt 🙂
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Kermath 182

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KERMATH

I saw the above photo of Kermath on Lew Redwood’s fb & immediately thought of the 2018 Rudder Cup launch race – so todays post is a big nudge / reminder to get your entry in.
What do we know about Kermath, race #182 ? This photo was tagged ‘Winner of the Big Tree Handicap at the Ponsonby Regatta, March 3 1923.
Harold Kidd Input – There were several KERMATHs built for C E Mackie, of 25 London Street, St Mary’s Bay (the house in which I lived as a toddler) just behind Collings & Bell. Mackie was the Auckland agent for Kermath marine engines. The earlier boats were built by Collings & Bell but I think this is the one built by Leon Warne in December 1920 which, by the time of this race, had a Cadillac car engine installed which made her quick. I think she’s the KERMATH that went to the Bay of Islands soon after.

The Rudder Cup – A Celebration of Classic Launch Racing Dec 14>15 2018

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The Rudder Cup – A Celebration of Classic Launch Racing Dec 14>15 2018

Now woodys, if I had $10 for everything woody launch owner that has told me they are entering the 2018 Rudder Cup launch race, I would be a wealthy man.
But guys, we are very fast approaching the stump up or shut up stage – entries close on 23 November, so if your going to be on the start line, we need to hear from you.
Remember entry is by invitation, so send an email off to Jason Prew at     2018ruddercup@classicyacht.org.nz
& he will send you an invitation, entry forms, notice of race etc etc.
Numbers are looking good & the standard of entrant is very broad – its not just the zoom zoomers that are entering, & in case you forgot its a handicapped race, so everyone has an fair chance of taking out the #1 prize.
If you would like to read more on the history of the Rudder Cup,  click the WW link below. Also Harold Kidd has just published an article on the 2018 race in the November edition of Boating NZ magazine – it is titled ‘Old donks, young hearts’ & is a great read – its out now in good bookshops & supermarkets.

Thanks for all the kind words & emails yesterday – I couldn’t do it with out your help 🙂
CYA Rudder Cup 2018 flyer

Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

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If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
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Mavis

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MAVIS

Chris Manning sent in the top photo of Mavis, as built by Ernie Lane in Picton in 1919 & advised she is still alive & living in Havelock.

Greg Noble also sent me the above photos of Mavis on a ‘buck’s’ cruise (love that description of a boys trip), the photos come from Greg’s grandad, Perceval Noble, journal. 

In a previous WW story on the launch Maxie, in the WW comments section – Gavin Pascoe question if Mavis was the motor launch that took part in the early days racing at the Evans Bay Yacht & Motor Boat Club (1919 onwards),  can anyone comment / confirm this?

Check out the below flyer – cool woody events like this are why if you aren’t already, you need to join the Classic Yacht Association. As the Irish say “the craic will be mighty”

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The Gables Hotel, Russell, Bay of Islands + Mystery Launch

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The Gables Russell, BOI

The Gables Hotel, Russell, Bay of Islands + Mystery Launch

Today’s photo of the Russell foreshore,  comes to us from Lawry Williams via the ‘Old North Auckland / Northland fb page.
Anyone able to ID the launch on the beach? The canoe stern should help.
Recently I hosted one of the worlds foremost boating photographers onboard Raindance. We were out shadowing the CYA classic yacht race fleet. At some stage I’m sure Ben’s photos will appear somewhere very public. He was very taken with Waitangi, the most photographed yacht on the day. Ben snapped a photo of Raindance – see below, probably the only photo I won’t remove the photographers tattoo from 🙂
Alan Houghton at Helm of RAINDANCE
Also out on the day was the RNZYS photo boat, who kindly shared with me some photos they took, the one below I like a lot (enhanced a little by mate Chris Miller, the light was poor)
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2018 Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition – The New Zealand Sailing Dinghy

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2018 Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition – The New Zealand Sailing Dinghy

This years Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition, hosted by Tino Rawa Trust, at Karanga Plaza in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, was a 3 day celebration of the New Zealand Sailing Dinghy.
The event showcased many of the successful designs that created our world class sailors & formed the backbone of your sailing clubs.
I went along on Friday morning to the opening morning tea 🙂 & rubbed shoulders with some of our wooden boating legends, these morning teas are always a special treat. We were entertained by another of Robert Brookes talks – always beautiful delivered & an entertaining insight into Auckland’s sailing past. If you have not seen Robert’s & the Brooke families latest book ‘Memories – Roads of Destiny’ (WW link below) grab a copy at Boat Books in Westhaven – its a must have / read.
I’ll let the photos tell the story of the show – enjoy.
Brooke Book Link

Alert

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Alert HDML

Alert
Yesterday as part of the story on the HDML – Kuparu, I ran a link to Zaps Zander’s impressive blog on Navy vessels. Zaps has asked for some help from the WW readers, in the above photo we see a large white vessel rafted alongside the ferries, now some people think it is an ML (Alert Q1189) and some say not? The question of the day is – is it Alert? Zaps is pretty sure she would have been in Dunedin around the time of this photo, as the road construction behind is before 1959 when the Auckland Harbour Bridge opened.
Any one able to help out, & if its not Alert, who is it?
The photo also is a sad reminder of the fleet of awesome harbour ferries we lost, just imagine the tourist attraction if they were around these days…………….

Update from John Bullivant – below is a selection of photos of ‘Alert’. The colour photo with the ferries looks to have been  taken from a similar spot as the one you put up. Think they buried them in the early 1970’s, they were mostly cut up when I rescued some Kauri off them for wood turning.

Input from Russell Ward – more photos below, Russell believes she was used by the sea scouts in Dunedin. Later owned by Ernie Davis Mayor of Auckland. Chiseled out of him on some deal and there was a memorable photo of her on a rock in the Gulf at an impossible angle – Russell will try & find it. Russell thinks she has been updated and sold for a pittance in Dunedin and was also heard of up in Auckland (confirmed by Cameron Pollard) on offer for a lot more. Two Isuzu diesels for the zoom zoom.

 

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Input from Linus Flemin – the current skipper of the ML Alert. (Q1189)
The research I have done would also suggest that this is Alert alongside the ferries and at this time belonged to Sir Ernie Davis. Alert was one of the first HDMLs to be sold by the Navy post war 1947. Alec Black of Dunedin was the first owner who converted her for charter work.( I think Ernie purchased her around 1959) We Know she went south again around 1980 for deer recovery in Fiordland owned by Jim Kane, and has been in Bluff and Fiordland for the past 30 years. Anymore history would be greatly appreciated.
Alert is currently receiving much needed love at Kopu Marine. Photo below.
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07-10-2018 Update from owner Linus Fleming – the new photos below, in his eyes confirm that the vessel is Alert.
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Interested in reading more on all things Motor Launch, be they serving in the Navy or in civvy hands. (over 250 photo’s and 50+ stories and tech data / links to other ML pages) Check out the link below
 

http://rednaz1958.blogspot.com/2016/03/composite-list-of-hdmls-still-active.html

 
And if you are looking for eye candy – check out the link below to the 2018 Victoria Classic Boat Festival in British Columbia – stunning.
 
DON’T FORGET THE NZ SAILING DINGHY EXHIBITION IS ON THIS WEEKEND – I WENT YESTERDAY, VERY IMPRESSIVE – DETAILS BELOW
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