Category Archives: Events

Upper Harbour Cruise to the Riverhead Hotel

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Upper Harbour Cruise to the Riverhead Hotel

Yesterday had the makings of a stay at home day – the forecast was looking very average & the All Blacks ‘v’ Ireland test was kicking off at 9.00am. Unfortunately the gods only smiled on us once – the weather never eventuated but the AB’s dropped their guard & for the 1st time ever lost to the boys in green. Given the location – Chicago, I say it wasn’t a real test 😉
The following classics from the CYA launch fleet made the trip – Mahanui, Te Arahi, John Dory, Te Hauraki, Trinidad, Lucille, Juanita, Raindance, Matira, Lucinda, Kumi & the motor-sailer Bliss.  These were joined by others who traveled by car. Over 100 gathered on the outer decks for lunch & one or two cleansing beverages.
Another great day & special thanks to the organizer – CYA Launch Captain Angus Rogers, Tony Stevenson for the use of the Tino Rawa Trust tender ‘Whistleblower’ & the publican, Stephen Pepperell, always nice to greeted at the wharf on arrival.

A Couple of Mulletties – Sailing Sunday

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A Couple of Mulletties – Sailing Sunday

The 2 photos above were sent in by Kevin Cassidy (Mulletty Mick) via Gill Bouzaid. The top one is of Bob Ewing’s Buona Sera in the 1969 Lipton Cup & lower photo is of Ron Copeland’s Taotane at Russell, New Years Day 1968.

In the comments section of ww yesterday, June Kendall was asking what became of her fathers mulletty – Celox, which he co-owned in the 1920’s >30’s. It was reported on ww that back in Feb 2015 she had sunk in the Bay of Islands & while salvaged her owner was offering her ‘free to a good home’ – June   was wondering what became of the yacht & if the she was still in Opua? So woodys – can anyone help out with an update?
ww story on Celox here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/02/01/celox-sos/

A Woodys Weekend

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A Woody Weekend

After the last few days of inclement weather – its time to leave the house & get a wooden boat fix.
This weekend at Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour the Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition is celebrating the iconic Mullet Boat.
Yesterday at the official opening – aka,  morning tea 🙂 Tony Stevenson from the Tino Rawa Trust, welcomed over 100 of Auckland’s yachting identities to the exhibition. The photos above give you a peek at the displays – on & off the water BUT only a peek, if you can, do make the effort to visit the exhibition – its open 10am > 4.00pm Saturday & Sunday at Karanga Plaza, Halsy St, Wynyard Quarter (in fron of the old Team NZ base)

As always with these events, the team have produced a 48 page booklet (below) to support the exhibition, this years one – ‘The Mullet Boat, is a cracker & from the pen/s of Harold Kidd & Robin Elliott, truely is a must have for any serious woody.
I have a copy to give away – so the first woody that can email me at waitematawoodys@gmail.com & tell me the name of the mullet boat that appears the most times on the Lipton Cup, wins the book.

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COASTAL PATROL DURING WWII

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CALLING ALL VESSELS COMMANDEERED FOR COASTAL PATROL DURING WWII

On November 19th 2016, the Royal New Zealand Navy are holding the 75th Naval Review & have extended an invitation to the owners of any historic vessels that might be interested in taking part in the Review procession.  Interested owners can check out the Op Neptune website http://nznavy75.co.nz/international-naval-review/ & are asked to make contact with Commander John Butcher via Andrew Watts – the email address is,  ANDREW.WATTS@nzdf.mil.nz , please include details on your vessel & a photo/s.

The 1932 Colin Wild built classic launch ‘Wirihana’ was one of a number of vessels commandeered by the Royal New Zealand Navy during WWII to run supplies and to patrol the coastal waters around the Hauraki Gulf and up to the Bay of Islands. Her identification was Q01, photos above & below. Wirihana took part in the 50th Naval Review along with a number of the other classics that served as patrol boats and will be participating again this year.

A lot of our classic fleet played a very important defence role during WWII, its not well recorded but the Hauraki Gulf was mined. It is NZ Governments best kept secret. The NZ press often quote the closest NZ has come to war was the Rainbow Warrior bombing! This is BS, they just don’t know. A lot of the records make the patrol work sound like a boys own trip but  Wirihana and the other boats were on patrol for two years summer and winter, it would not have been much fun in these small launches.
The crews made their own navigation sketches so they could recognise headlands by their outline in poor visibility. Similar to those in the NZ Pilot. They had no chart plotters or navigation aids (only a compass) and often ran without Navigation lights.

So woodys if you own or know someone that owns one of the launches – get in touch today with the RNZN

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Chris McMullen found the  letter below on board ‘Wirihana’. Chris commented that he would imagine the writer has now passed on. Chris hopes the letter may draw
some history from others with photos and letters hidden away. Photography
was illegal during the war but it certainly did not stop people from
recording their life at the time.
Chris  recalls going to school with a John Rhodes who he thinks lived at Bassett Rd.
Remuera. Maybe the same family?

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Below is light hearted list of NAPS boats out of Whangarei. Sent to me by Brian Fulton.

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08-1-2016 Input From Chris McMullen
A German Raider mined the outer Hauraki Gulf. An account is recorded in the translated from German, a book listed as “The Black Raider”by Kurt Weyher and Hans Jurgen Ehrlich.
Chris’s copy dated 1955. Below are the relevant pages but there is more. This happened June 13th 1940. As a result the SS Niagara was sunk 19th of June 1940.
The Raider Orion sunk many ships off the New Zealand Coast.

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Unknown Motorboat & Seaplane + Cool Event Invite

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UNKNOWN MOTORBOAT & SEAPLANE

Hello woodys, triple header today – name the motor boat, the seaplane & event / gathering, if there is one? Lots of people lining the breakwater, so possibly a VIP onboard. Photo belongs to the Tudor Collins collection at the Auckland Museum, emailed to me by Ken Ricketts (as is the M-class photo below)

CLASSIC YACHT & LAUNCH EXHIBITION INVITE

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Once again the Tino Rawa Trust is hosting the annual Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition – this years exhibition celebrates the iconic Mullet Boat.
On this Saturday & Sunday 10am > 4pm – Karanga Plaza – Halsey ST, Wynyard Quarter (in front of the ‘old’ Team NZ base)

ENTRY IS FREE – Further details here http://www.tinorawatrust.co.nz

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I APOLOGIZE
If sometimes I’m a tad slow in answering your emails – that is because I average around a 100 emails a day relating to ww. BUT keep them coming, I love hearing from you all. 🙂

Harold Kidd Input

The PanAm flight was a proving flight in late December 1937. PanAm  had set up an infrastructure at Mechanics Bay for their Sikorsky flying boat SAMOA CLIPPER which Imperial Airways’ Short Empire CENTAURUS also used. Capt Edwin Musick was pilot in command of the Sikorsky. Musick Point was named after him when the SAMOA CLIPPER caught fire and crashed at Samoa while dumping fuel preparatory to landing. The Short arrived just after the Sikorsky, obviously to show that the Brits were up to it as well as the Yanks. The Short’s range made it unable to carry a viable payload across the Tasman however.
As for the runabout/launch, the only reference I can find is that PanAm had a “special launch” at Mechanics Bay. Need to dig deeper.

Win Tickets To Auckland’s On The Water Boat Show

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Win Tickets To The On The Water Boat Show
The Auckland On The Water Boat Show is best & biggest boat show in NZ & kicks of tomorrow at the Viaduct events centre. Waitematawoodys has tickets to give away. We won’t make it too hard – first woody to correctly advise what time the show closes on Thurs/Fri/Sat & Sunday wins 2 tickets. All entries via email waitematawoodys@gmail.com

There will be more to give away tomorrow 😉
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Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – Another Stunning collection – 100+ Photos

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2016 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival

Stunning collection of 100+ Photos by ‘Old Salt’. Link sent to me by Scott Taylor.

Click below & enjoy 🙂

IMG_1842CE1 - Port Townsend WA - Port Hudson Marina - 40th Annual Wooden Boat Festival - MV RIPTIDE - sunset

 Free To Good Home
I mentioned on ww the other day that I had bought a box of old/new signal flags – in the box was 50cm x 30cm British Red Ensign (Red Duster) – cloth not polyester, never been used, made by ‘Shipmate’.
The most deserving woody that wants it,can have it 🙂 email me on waitematawoodys@gmail.com

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Port Townson 2016 Wooden Boat Festival – 50+ photos

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Port Townson 2016 Wooden Boat Festival – 50+ photos

Last weekend saw the usual collection of classic wooden craft assembled in Port Townsend, Washington for their annual wooden boat festival. What was not usual was the standard of the photography recording the event. Now you can google search & find 1,000’s of photos from the weekend but to make life easier, just click the link below to see the magnificent work / art of Patrick Downs. Enjoy the 50+ photos – motorboats & yachts 🙂

http://patrickdowns.photoshelter.com/portfolio/G0000dNrGH6fo5b8

MV Tiri – Radio Hauraki

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Tiri and Widgeon first day out November 1966

MV Tiri – Radio Hauraki

I received an email over the weekend from Denis O’Callahan, owner of the classic launch Tasman asking for some help from the woodys – I’ll let Denis tell the story.

“I was sorting some memorabilia recently in preparation for the 50th anniversary of Radio Hauraki when I came across the old newspaper cutting above ex my mother’s scrap book.
As well as the MV Tiri and the Widgeon there is a nice woody and there must have been another vessel from which the photo was taken but I’m damned if I can remember either of  them.
So can any Woody identify the launch and maybe even the photographer and his boat?

I certainly remember that day, our first out in the gulf (Nov 1966) before we had raised any kind of broadcasting antenna and here is the true story.
It was glassy calm and Captain Fred Ladd landed nearby with David Gapes and some newspaper reporters on board. Unfortunately when restarting, an engine flooded and cranking it flattened the 12 volt battery.
The Tiri had 24 volt batteries and we had lots of heavy cable on board so two of us rowed out to the plane in a dinghy and I climbed onto the wing. The cable hanging in the water pulled the plane in toward the ship so the guy in the dinghy had to tie the painter around a tail strut and row hard to keep them separated. Captain Ladd directed me to the battery compartment and I signaled to the Tiri crew to connect their end to the ship’s batteries. In a short time we had enough juice in the Widgeon’s battery to start the engines and we cast off the cable and the dinghy. So there I was on the wing with the plane taxiing around ready for take off. I had no option but to dive in and swim back to the Tiri.”

Woodys On Tour

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Rick McCay & Peter Boardman

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Woodys on Tour

A bit of what they call thread drift today – I told Rick McCay when he sent me the above photos that him sporting a ww t-shirt in the USA was the only justification I needed to run the photos 🙂

Two of our nicest classic woody owners – Rick & Roz McCay {Luana] and Peter Boardman [Lady Margaret] caught up at this years annual USA Monterey Car Week and Pebble Beach Concours. Rick reports that the show features a great variety of cars and personalities.
The black Ford GT40 pictured above is the actual car that won the 1966 Le Mans 24 hr race driven by two Kiwis, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.
In one of the photos of Rick he is standing in front of what he thought was an boat upside down on a trailer, but it turned out to be a caravan, for sale for only US$217k. On their way up the coast Rick spotted a couple of shockers in the Santa Barbara Marina. A helpful American attempted to pronounce Waitemata Woodies…Why the tatty woodies! Rick couldn’t return the abuse because he didn’t even own a boat 😉
Remember to click on photos to enlarge.