MYSTERY NORTH AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT
Todays photo comes to us from the ‘Old North Auckland – Northland Photos & Stories fb via Lew Redwood.
The photo was captioned “Steve Bignall and his crane truck, an American war surplus Diamont T putting a launch back into the water, Whangarei, 1940-50’. The location is where the swimming pool car park is now.
Any one with a good memory able to put a name to the launch.
PRETTY SAFE TO ASSUME TODAYS WOODY WONT BE ON THE START LINE AT THIS WEEKS CLASSIC SAILING REGATTA…….
One of the WW crew was recently doing a dock-side mooch at Westhaven marina and spotted the K-Class yacht HELEN looking very sad and neglected. Check out the size of the oysters. Other than health issues there is no excuse for a craft like HELEN to be in this condition – Bob Stewart would not be impressed.
A Busy Time On The Wooden Boating Event Calendar – five events both local and overseas – circle the calendar.
1. OFF CENTER HARBOR – Worldwide Classic Boat Show – live on-line now, until March 2nd – WW readers have free access via this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2025/02/06/worldwide-classic-boat-show-free-access-ticket/
2. Classic Yacht Sailing Regatta – Fri March 21st > Sun 23rd on the Waitemata Harbour
3. Lake Rotoiti (Nelson Lakes) – Antique & Classic Boat Show – March 1>2 – Details here https://www.nzclassicboats.com
4. Auckland Wooden Boat Festival – Mar 1>2 – a 2 day speaker series featuring topics such as the building of waka, navigation, women at sea, history, environmental and sustainability topics, and boat building. Venue – Auckland Maritime Museum. https://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/events/auckland-wooden-boat-festival
5. Auckland on The Water Boat Show – March 6th > 9th – Venue is Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour.
PARADE OF SAIL – 2025 AUSTRALIAN WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL
One of the big events during the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasmania is the ‘Parade of Sail’ – the offical opening event. Conditions allowing they get 11 Tall Sailing Ships and over 200 craft sailing up the Derwent River and into Sullivan Cove to mark the start of the festival.
Today you get to experience the spectacle from about the media boat – a rather large twin hulled motorboat that was perfect for the task. Conditions were a tad challenging for the smaller craft but everyone was well behaved and followed the marshals instructions.
Enjoy the gallery – only a selection – could only capture what the skipper deemed of most interest 🙂
LOOKING FOR HELP IDENTIFYING THIS CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT
Todays woody photo comes to us from the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection via Nathan Herbert. All we know is that the ship is the ‘GOTHIC and at the time had a very well known passenger on board – Queen Elizabeth II, during her 1953 visit to New Zealand.
So woodys can we ID the launch – I’m sure HDK knows the answer 😉
We return to the AWBF tomorrow for a gallery of images from the opening day – Parade of Sail.
DAY SIX – BULLETIN – TUES 11TH
On the big silver bird today heading back to Auckland. Today we have a glimpse at a rather fine speed boat – MISS JAMAR that caught both my self and Angus Rogers eye.
Powered by a 383 ci Chev V8.
DAY FIVE – BULLETIN – MONDAY 10TH
DAY FIVE – BULLETIN – MONDAY 10TH
Today woodys we have a gallery of photos of the 1895 Bailey Brothers built yacht – TE UIRA. She was one of the first NZ designed and built racing craft to be exported to Australia (Victoria, Melbourne).
TE UIRA has had a colorful past and been very close to a Beehive restoration several times. Luckily she found the right owner who commissioned a full restoration that was only completed late last year by Cygnet Wooden Boats.
Won’t bore you with the full details but lost my IPhone yesterday, spent hours visiting lost & found + police etc but there are some honest people out there and later in the day I recovered it. So relived.
Lunch was a shared pizza – very good 😋
DAY FOUR – BULLETIN – Sunday 9th
Four seasons in one day today on the weather front but all good post mid day.
Some serious culture today via museum and gallery visits then dock mooching to snap the woodys I’d not photographed and then some R&R at the local watering holes. Public holiday on Monday so crowds could be a little OTT.
Bumped into anyone and everyone that matters in the trans Tasman classic wooden boating scene and made a few new friends.
Lots of activity at the Pacific exhibition, with Johnny Wray’s – NGATAKI, stealing the limelight.
Back at the hotel our wallaby mate came around for dinner and bought the whole family 😄
DAY THREE – BULLETIN – Saturday 8th
The first gallery of photos above were taken early evening yesterday, taking advantage of the best light.
Today was overcast all day and a tad cold. A little bit of sightseeing and dining then the ‘Dinghies After Dark’ function at the City Hall. Lots of Kiwis in attendance which is always nice.
It was also time to move on from the fish diet – Beef Cheek Wellington and discovered a new ginger beer ✔️
Also woke up very early and meet a visitor on the lawn, could have been worse eg a snake.
OFFICIAL OPEN DAY
DAY TWO – BULLETIN – Friday 7th
OFFICIAL OPENING DAY
Today was when the waterfront comes alive, yesterday you could have fired a shotgun and not hit anyone but overnight and thru out the day the classic wooden craft kept pouring into the surrounding areas.
The highlight of day one is the ‘Parade of Sail’ that sees 11 Tall Sailing Ships and over 200 craft sail up the Derwent River and into Sullivan Cove to mark the start of the festival. At the 2023 festival I was aboard the 110’ brigantine – WESTWARD BOUND, this year I choose the very fast and stable media boat. A perfect platform to capture the event.
Today woodys I post a snapshot of the day and share our culinary highlights- the seafood is next level in Tasmania.
DAY ONE – BULLETIN – Thursday 6th
Hello woodys
I’m now in wooden boat heaven – attending the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Arrived yesterday mid morning and to use that wonderful Aussie saying – ‘ I’m as happy as a dog with two tails. I attended the 2023 festival and quickly became hooked – search Australian Wooden Boat Festival in the WW search box to view that trip.
I’m adopting a different reporting style this festival – rather than doing massive photo posts each day – there will be some narrative on what we have been up to and some BOATS of THE DAY photos, then at the end of the trip there will be one big story. Why you may ask – well last trip I spent 1/2 my time bent over my laptop editing photos and loading up via very average hotel internet services.
This year I will be trying to enjoy the occasion more and meet more woodys and visit their craft dockside.
Each year the festival has a theme – The 2025 festival celebrates Australia’s deep maritime connections across the Tasman Sea, featuring the debut of Te Karangatahi, the Māori waka taua, and a lineup of NZ vessels including NGATAKI, LADY GAY and TE RAPUNGA. There will be talks, open to the public, on the restoration of NGATAKI and the saving of the DEEMING. These vessels are well known to the followers of WW, so the cameras will be mainly focusing on the hundreds of stunning Australian wooden craft that make up the festival – so I apologise in advance to the connections of these Kiwi boats. 🙂
Lots of activity down at the waterfront as all the festival crew are setting up.
Tomorrow I’m out on the water for the event that marks the start of the festival – the Sail In’ – it’s very spectacular.
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