Category Archives: Events

Maka Maile + Waitematawoodys Hits 3,000,000 Views

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Drunken (Isslington) Bay Dec1938>Jan1939 – Aft hand = Eric Clay

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Drunken Bay 1938 – Speed = 10 knots

Drunken Bay, Rangitoto – 1938
Eric (TUT), Aruther (ARTY), Bob (Skipper), Colin (Totsy) – Whangarei 1938/39
Eric Clay (Forward hand, Navigator, Barman) Whangarei 1938
Aruther,Les,Bob,Col,Eric – Kamo Mineral Springs Dec 1938 > Jan 1939
Eric Clay, Aruther Parker
Whangarei Harbour Dec 1938>Jan 1939
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Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island

Maka Maile + Waitematawoodys Hits 3,000,000 Views

Today’s photo essay on the 1937, Sam Ford built, Maka Maile to me is what makes WW so special – out of the blue a comment gets posted on WW by Perrin Reilly advising that he has a collection of photos of Maka Maile that belonged to his Grandfather-in-law, one Eric Clay. Eric crewed on Maka Maile in the late 1930’s. When launched Maka Maile was 41’ in length, with a 10’5” beam & powered by a Chrysler 77 petrol engine that pushed her along at 12 knots.

Perrin emailed the above photos to me & now instead of gathering dust in some one’s bottom draw, they can be shared with the classic wooden boating community. You can read more about Maka Maile’s past on this link   https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/19/mako-maile/

Waitematawoodys.com Milestone – 3 Million Views

When I started this weblog I never imagined that it would grow into the site that it is today, with just over 2,000 stories & followers/viewers from almost every corner of the world. Obviously NZ tops the list with the USA & Australia 2nd & 3rd, after that its everywhere. As always with sites like WW, it would be nothing without the input of people like Perrin Reilly who take the time to send in their stories & photos, so to all of you –  many thanks for sharing. And on that topic, please keep sending in content – whether it’s old photos / stories, restoration projects or just you enjoying your woody.

I would like to slip an apology in – in the first 6>12mths of WW, I only really had 6>8 people who sent me content, I can tell you it was a real challenge doing a daily story back them, now I get over 100 emails a day. So the apology is for not always being able to answer your emails, it’s not that I’m lazy or rude – just busy working on the tomorrows story 🙂

Enjoy today’s WW story & remember there are over 2,000 more in the back library 😉

Alan Houghton

 

A Woody Trip Out West

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A Woody Trip Out West – NZ Traditional Boat Building School Re-opens

I received an invite the other day in the mail (nice for once to not be via email) to the re-opening of New Zealand Traditional Boat Building School. Getting it made me very happy – firstly, because we all need the school to be a success & secondly because I personally have fond memories of the original school (read more below), I attended numerous CYA meetings there & also participated in two events – the Robert Brooke – Caulking / carvel planking workshop & a basic boat building techniques course that ran one night a week over winter. Learnt so much & meet some great people.

Today’s function was to share the vision for the future of the school & to meet some of the past & present stakeholders.

I’ll let Steve Cranch tell you the story:

“After nearly four years in recess the New Zealand Traditional Boat Building School has just re-opened its doors in new premises on the Te Atatu peninsula.

The school was founded in 2005 by trustees Robert Brooke, Harold Kidd, Bruce Tantrum and Ron Jamieson and successfully ran wooden boat building courses at Hobsonville for seven years before being forced to move to make way for the new housing development.

During that time hundreds of students attended classes on everything from traditional boat building to apprenticeship training and small boat building in which students built their own small boats to take home, often involving a son or daughter in the process.

Our new premises are much smaller than previous so we have been forced to restructure how we run our courses and a new program is being developed. It will kick off with a full day seminar on winter maintenance. Six specialist speakers will present on topics ranging from Diesel engine maintenance, Batteries and Electrical, Sails and Covers, Marine sealants, Paint systems and common splicing all common winter maintenance issues for the larger boat owner. Following on from this will be a course on re-ribbing clinker built boats and a laminated stand up paddleboard paddle course plus many more to come”.

In a few days when the dates are finalized, I’ll publish them on ww. I would encourage you to support the school; it’s a big step forward in bringing increased visibility & sureness to the wooden boating movement. There is a website, currently getting the final finishing touches, so I’ll let you know the link to that later as well.

Today was also a wee bit of a reunion with a lot of woodys catching up. The best chat was in the car park, where I got to view a very cool RC model of the Bailey designed ex Waitemata Fisheries trawler – ‘Waiwera’ (photos below). Built by Murray White. Stunning attention to detail.

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The 1946 Launching Of Mahara

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The 1946 Launching Of Mahara

Harold mentioned on the Mahara ww 2015 post (link below) that he had an upcoming article on the Shipbuilders Ltd’s SupaCraft launches in the August issue of Boating NZ magazine. Included in the article is the above great photo taken in 1946 of Mahara being launched. The photo came from boat builder, Tim Windsor’s collection. Thanks go to Harold for sharing Tim Windsor’s photo, its superb quality & showcases what a stunning wooden vessel she was / is.
Check out the link for more photos & details.

Mahara

Classic Yacht Racing – Waitangi

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Classic Yacht Racing – Sailing Sunday

Sorry for the late post today, been out & about watching the A-Cup, 1-0 is a great start, even better is the fact we are actually (& mentally) 2 – Zip up on Oracle 🙂

Seems only fitting that we have some classic yacht racing today. The u-tube movie below is by Roger Mills & was bought to my attention on the WoodenBoat Magazine USA forum by kiwi classic yachtie Patrick Xavier (that’s not his real name, but I wont ‘out’ him here).

The clip shows the 1894 gaffer Waitangi preparing for a race in the winter series – 2016. Enjoy 🙂

 

Heading Across The Ditch In November?

The Jervis Bay Maritime Museum ( JBMM), in NSW, are holding a Classic Wooden Model Boat Festival on the weekend of November 10/11/12. Based on the info that I was sent by woody boat builder Colin Brown, whose brother Stan is on the Festival committee it’s a cracker weekend. See below details

On Friday evening (10th) there will be a casual “ Meet and Greet” in the museum.  There should be chance to mingle, swap yarns & partake of refreshments.

The museum is land-locked but has large grassed areas surrounding the main building with a large shallow pond.

The northern area overlooks the Currambene Creek which flows into Jervis Bay at the coastal village of Huskisson which is only a short walk away.

We plan to have Trade Stalls and Hard Stand boat exhibits.

So woodys if your in Australia & looking for something to do put this event into their diaries. For more details you can contact Stan at su.stan@bigpond.com

Check out the Museum here www.jervisbaymaritimemuseum.asn.au

 

 

Unknown Yacht Wreck – Sailing Sunday

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UNKNOWN YACHT WRECK – Sailing Sunday

Today’s post features two Tudor Collins photos of an unnamed yacht beached at Baddeleys Bay, on the Tawharanui Peninsula, photos ex the TC collection at the Auckland Museum emailed to me by Ken Ricketts.
Anyone able to ID the yacht & how she came to end up on the beach ?

Few things in life scare me – but I do have a thing about snakes – if it had of been me working on the electrics of this boat, an underpants change would have been on the cards 🙂 Click link below to watch the video

White Cloud Movie – Leaving The Shed + Launch Day

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White Cloud Movie – Leaving The Shed + Launch Day

Today’s post is based around a movie of the launch White Cloud, being shoe-horned out of the Supreme Craft shed at 1a Summer St., Ponsonby & making its way to Fodenway Motors, Penrose for engine fit out. And then the final leg to launching at Panmure in June 1965. The movie was filmed by her original owner, Len Buckby & shared with ww by his daughter Pam Mare via Ken Ricketts.

You can see & read more about White Cloud here

The Building & Launching of White Cloud + A Peep Inside 1A Summer Street

A Woodys 104th Birthday Party

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A Woodys 104th Birthday Party

We don’t normally do Happy Birthday stories on ww but today is a little special – Keith Dawson is celebrating his 104th birthday. Keith these days resides in Port Macquarie, Australia but 82 years ago he skippered the 34’ ketch Seaward.

Below is a NZ Herald article of 5/10/1935 written by Leslie Crago about a day trip down harbour on Seaward. This article was sent to me by Ross Dawson, Keith’s ‘younger’ brother.

In the article Les Crago refers to himself as the ‘mate’ & while the skipper is not named Ross is confident it’s his brother Keith. Life was a lot harder back then without a motor J

The ‘girls’ onboard may have included the brother’s sister, who turns 101 next month. Good genes in the Dawson family.

Speaking with Harold Kidd he mentioned that he had Leslie Crago’s photograph album that included photos of Seaward on this trip or one similar, these are the b/w ones above.

So Keith Dawson Happy Birthday from all us woodys & I’m sure you will be pleased to see the old girl is still sailing the Waitemata J

Input from Neil Chalmers – The same Keith Dawson who along with his mate Dick Wellington sailed  the 26 foot  ‘Roxane ‘ (built by Lou Tercel and his brothers) from Auckland to Sydney in 1937.
Neil tells me Keith’s  book about this voyage -‘Voyage of the Roxane’ is a good read, I must hunt a copy down.

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THISTLE – Sailing Sunday

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THISTLE – Sailing Sunday

Last Sundays story on the scows on the Waitemata / Auckland Anniversary Regatta resulted in being sent the above photos of Thistle from the Tudor Collins collection at the Auckland Museum. Emailed to me by Ken Ricketts. The photos show Thistle at Kawau Island c.1940’s.

Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta
Click the link below to view some stunning classic sailing footage of the 1913, ‘Jolie Brise’ that placed 1st in the first race of the recent  Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall ships Regatta. The 2:30 minute video shows her at the start of the race out of Torbay. Enjoy 🙂

 

Copper Cowls
Picked up the cowls below, on trademe for $30, a serious bargain 🙂 But in real life a little bigger than I imagined (note to self – read the spec’s) Added to the ww stockroom – there will be a home for them one day.

A Woody 100th Birthday

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A Woody 100th Birthday

I mentioned last Friday that on Sunday, Sierra the 1917 Joseph Fell designed & built motorboat would be celebrating her 100th birthday at the Panmure Motor Boat & Yacht Club.
Sierra’s owner Dennis Christopher (photo above) must have bribed the weather gods because the weekend was probably the best this year for classic motor boats. We made the decision to head to the Waiheke Island area on Saturday & then head over to Panmure on Sunday afternoon for the birthday party. Never made the party – see below.
Thanks to Baden Pascoe for the above photos & after speaking with Baden I can report that nearly 100 people turned up to celebrate the occasion, including members of the Fell family & the Andrews family (previous owners).
Its great to see these old work boats still being actively used & presented so well – I love the ‘beard’ on Sierra in the photo above.

Now the reason I didn’t make the party was Raindance had a mechanical oops, the 1st in 10 years that I have not been able to fix & we had to call Coast Guard for a tow. Hats off to the CC crew from Matiatia, Waiheke Island – they were on the scene pronto & had us back at Bayswater faster than I could have under her on steam 🙂 In fact the bottom probably got a good clean 😉
I spent Sunday morning cleaning 10+L of oil from the bilge – not my idea of a fun day.
A call to James Mobberley at Moon Engines will be top of the to-do list today.

(too many other classics out on the harbour to keep this below the radar – thanks guys for the txt’s 🙂  )

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There is always a silver lining – after we got home, decided to have a bbq & put a match to the lounge fire, first of the year.

Pania

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PANIA
Pania has had the same owners for over 25 years. She was built in 1973 using triple planked mahogany.
The get up & go comes from twin 90hp 6LW Gardeners & she measures approx. 50′.
She looks a very sea worthy vessel, no doubt one of the reasons her home port is Bluff, Southland.
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the trademe listing heads up 🙂

Can we expand on her details e.g. designer / builder & where was she from 1973 > early 1990’s ?

Input from Dick Hall

‘Pania’ was built by Jack Morgan for Rex Baldick of Picton off the extended ‘Hawaiki’ design. She was launched with a single Allis-Chalmers diesel that came out of a local fishing-boat but later when back to Jack and converted to twin screw with two four cylinder Fords. You can see the original strut with shaft hole through it in underwater photo. Rex had the Baldick families ‘Prima-Donna’ before building ‘Pania’

SIERRA 100th BIRTHDAY DAY

Sierra was designed and built by Joseph Fell of Kohukohu (Hokianga Harbour) & launched 3 May 1917. If she was a human, Sierra would be getting a letter from the Queen – as the old girl has just celebrated her 100th birthday. Owner Dennis Christopher is having a wee party for her this Sunday at  the Panmure Motor Boat & Yacht Club, 104 Kings Rd, Panmure.
Sierra will be alongside the jetty from 2.00pm on-wards. It’s a just drop-in event & any one is welcome. So woodys, if you are out & about on Sunday, call by. (photo below ex Tom Kane).

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