Category Archives: Events

The Only Boat You’ll Be Working On This Weekend

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No Sanding or Painting This Weekend

If your looking for something nautical to do on Saturday or Sunday, check out the Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition down at the viaduct. This years exhibition celebrates the acclaimed designer and boat builder Jim Young. On display will be a static display of photos and stories celebrating his life and career. The exhibition will also feature several Young designed and built yachts and launches berthed next to the Tidal Steps at Karanga Plaza (near Team NZ base). Open each day from 10am > 4pm.
Remember its Auckland – 4 seasons in one day, so get in the day & come down.

2014 Classic Yacht and Launch Exhibition

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Jim Young

2014 Classic Yacht and Launch Exhibition

‘A celebration of acclaimed NZ designer Jim Young’

In conjunction with Auckland Heritage Festival 2014

Once again the Tino Rawa Trust is hosting the Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition & all waitematawoodys followers are encouraged to attend & celebrate the acclaimed designer and boat builder Jim Young. On display will be a static display of photos and stories celebrating his life and career. The exhibition will also feature several Young designed and built yachts and launches berthed next to the Tidal Steps at Karanga Plaza. Viewing on-board vessels only with owner’s permission.

Location: Karanga Plaza and Berths, Halsey Street, Viaduct. (map below)

Exhibition Date: Saturday, 4 October to Sunday 5 October

Time: 10am – 4pm    (Free) Open to the public. Donation welcomed

Sponsors and Supporters: Tino Rawa Trust, Trillian Trust, Waterfront Auckland, NZ Maritime Museum, Viaduct Harbour, CityGuard, Classic Yacht Association, BIA.

Location Map (click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

Lady Shirley, Little Jim & Ngataki @ Boat Show

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Lady Shirley, Little Jim & Ngataki @ Boat Show

Dropped down to the boat show at the Viaduct yesterday for a quick look – 4 hours later……. I left. A very good show & well supported by the trade with some great stands & vessels on display. Sadly only 3 classics – just way to much tupperware for me but as they say horses for courses.

LADY SHIRLEY  – Built by C Bailey & Son. , the bridge decker was restored (rebuilt) by Yachting Developments (YDL) & now owned by Greg Hinton was a thing a beauty gleaming in the sun.

LITTLE JIM – the Arch Logan yacht was back in the water after nearly a year in Peter Brookes shed where she had some running repairs & a back to bare wood paint & varnish (Allwood MA) job. Again she too looked a million dollars.

Ngataki – I think if Johnnie Wray was at the show & walking the docks he would not have recognized his old boat, Tino Rawa Trust & YDL have waved the magic wand over Ngataki. To see / read more on her – enter Ngataki in the ww search box.

 

Things I Miss

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Things I Miss

I was trolling the internet the other night & discovered that after 400 years (yes 400, its not a typo) the London yacht chandler – Arthur Beale Ltd now has a website, a bit lacking in features but I’m sure it will improve. http://www.arthurbeale.co.uk/
What did hit me was a photo of their shop window (above) & it reminded me of those wonderful windows that used to grace the front of our own Fosters in the city. Now the window contents might not have changed that often but I always looked & when I was a young lad working in the CBD it was a lunch time haunt. Then later when traveling overseas on business I used to hunt out the local yacht chandler outlets & I never found one that came close to Fosters for that total ‘salty’ offering. The crap I bought & in those days I didn’t even own a boat 🙂

I organised a few CYA evenings at Fosters (photos below) which included a guided tour of the building & stock rooms – totally amazing & so glad we did it as thats now gone. But time moves on & the new Westhaven store still stocks the same ‘stuff’.

A personal tale from Merv Stockley. pp: Don Ross on Don’s memories of Fosters. (added 21/09/2014

`Things I Miss’ really struck a cord with Don when you posted it the other day. He remembers Fosters from back in his youth and early yachting days. Don did his Trade at Stewart and Longbottom as a coppersmith and as the `boy’ was a regular at Fosters picking up supplies for
the tradesmen he worked with. Don relates what a wonderful place Fosters was in those days. Depending what you were after you could be taken upstairs to search for it or down into the basement. At that time Don owned a small keeler named `Elvine’ which he sailed around the Gulf. He particularly remembered the pre-WW2 foreman at Fosters, Hector Porter. Don remembers how good Hector was to him whenever he personally needed some fitting for his marine exploits. Unfortunately Hector went off to the War and never came back.
Your post got Don digging around in his special old memories collection and he came up with an Auckland Star newspaper cutting from the 8th August 1942 which announced Hector had been `killed in action’.
I searched in papers past and found this page of the paper.
Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 186, 8 August 1942, Page 6.
Thanks to Woodies for your references to paper past. I have learned to search there.
Hopefully Don’s memories are of interest to some of you members. Maybe this should be added to the post `Whats Happening at Fosters’ too.
Thanks again Alan for your forum. It gives Don something new to think about each day as he remembers many of the boats you post.

Merv Stockley. pp: Don Ross.

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500,000 Views

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500,000 VIEWS – A big day on waitematawoodys today – people have viewed waitematawoodys.com 1/2 million times.

In the last 18 months waitematawoodys.com has grown into a wonderful classic wooden boat community. You are all a big part of that with your comments, stories & photos sent in & I would like to thank you all for being helping make ww so special. One of the best buzzes is when we connect the dots between people & boats – ww has put a smile on many a face , young & old & I get very cool feedback & have meet some truly inspiring people. All this makes the time spent pulling together unique stories everyday worthwhile. I hope you have enjoyed the ride & hang-on-in-there for the next 500,000 views. Alan Houghton

Some facts:

Best Day: 4509 views – the Whangateau Traditional Boats Open Day feature. view here https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/05/05/whangateau-traditional-boat-regatta-yard-open-day-part-1/

Worst Day:  4 views – that was Day One & given so many of you missed Day One – I have re-posted the photo of Lady Gay & Waitangi taken by myself at the 2013 CYA Classic Yacht Regatta, below.

Some Stats:
1st Person to log-on & comment – Chris Leech (Castaway)
2nd – Steve Horsley (Ngatira)
3rd –  Rick McCay (Luana)
4th –  Baden Pascoe (John Dory)
5th –  Russell Ward (Romany)
6th –  John Wicks (Sirena)
7th –  Colin Pawson (Marinus)
8th –  Roger Guthrie
9th –  Harold Kidd (Romance II)
10th – Peter Mence (Jenanne)

Most Prolific Followers:
# 1 A visitor from Hawkes Bay
# 2 Harold Kidd (harold531harold)
# 3 Nathan Herbert (Nath)
# 4 Ken Ricketts
# 5 Murray Deeble
# 6 Pam Cundy (whangateautraditionalboats)
# 7 Russell Ward (vintagesteamer)

Whose Reading ww:
Many NZ but there are followers all over the world – see yesterdays viewer countries below –

Why are we doing all this?
Well waitematawoodys.com was founded upon a desire to record the history of our classic wooden boats, the craftsman who built them & characters that owned & crewed on them. Archiving the information on these magnificent craft ensures they remain a part of our maritime history for future generations.

Along the way we hope to empower you to tell us the stories about the classic wooden boats you have rubbed up against in your life & your experiences around them, through photos & words.

Remember – at waitematawoodys, its all about wooden boats.

Sailing Sunday

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Week-end Crusiing Yacht Race to Waiheke Island
Photo ex Simon Smith, courtesy of the Sir George Collection.

A collection of yachts from both the Akarana Yacht Club & Ponsonby Cruising Club, in a combined race to Matiatia, Waiheke Island.
Photo taken on a Saturday shortly after the start of the week-end cruising race.
Whats the yacht in the forefront? Extra points if you can name the yachtsman stowing the tender 🙂

BONUS

And as a wee extra check out the link below (click blue type – The Racing Tender) to Classic Yacht TV & watch the newly restored American schooner Kelpie of Falmouth, designed by Francis Sweisguth, raced for the first time after her 17 month restoration in Cornwall. The event is the 2014 Pendennis Cup. http://www.thependenniscup.co.uk/
Note – Kelpie of Falmouth is ‘just’ the racing tender ……………….. the mother ship is the legendary schooner, Mariette.

The Racing Tender

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NGATAKI VIDEO – PART THREE

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NGATAKI VIDEO – PART THREE – Tony Stevenson – Tino Rawa Trust

Last week the classic wooden boating community were treated to a double whammy –  the re-launch of Johnny Wray’s yacht Ngataki & the launch of a 75th Anniversary edition of his book ‘South Seas Vagabonds’. A grandson, Kelly Hunt, of one of Ngataki’s original crewman – Snow Hunt  was on hand to film the official side of the occasion. There are 3 short video’s.

NGATAKI VIDEO – PART TWO

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NGATAKI VIDEO – PART TWO –  Bruce  Ansley – New Introduction Author
Last week the classic wooden boating community were treated to a double whammy –  the re-launch of Johnny Wray’s yacht Ngataki & the launch of a 75th Anniversary edition of his book ‘South Seas Vagabonds’. A grandson, Kelly Hunt, of one of Ngataki’s original crewman – Snow Hunt  was on hand to film the official side of the occasion. There are 3 short video’s.

NGATAKI VIDEO – PART ONE

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NGATAKI VIDEO – PART ONE – Finlay MacDonald – Harper Collins Publishing

Last week the classic wooden boating community were treated to a double whammy –  the re-launch of Johnny Wray’s yacht Ngataki & the launch of a 75th Anniversary edition of his book ‘South Seas Vagabonds’. A grandson, Kelly Hunt, of one of Ngataki’s original crewman – Snow Hunt  was on hand to film the official side of the occasion. There are 3 short video’s.

Kumi

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KUMI

Kumi arriving back in Auckland
Alan H & Haydon Afford
Haydon Afford enjoying a celebratory pint
Kumi leaving Hokianga Harbour
Kumi & Raindance
Mr Afford Snr. & Jnr with the CYA Award
Alan H welcoming Haydon back after 3mths away
Haydons Dad & wife (Linda) welcome him home

KUMI

I received an email a few weeks ago from someone that talked about the launch Kumi – problem was it was not from the owner & I had no idea who they were. They did talk as if they had an interest (past / present) in the boat. I even rang Harold Kidd & asked him if he knew of xxxx xxxxxx, the name drew a blank with Harold also.

So I call Kumi’s owner Haydon Afford & ask him if he knows someone called xxxx xxxxxx – the answer “thats me, I get sick of having to spell my name so for years I have used xxxx xxxxxx for the unimportant things in life e.g. ordering a pizza etc. xxxx even has his own email address…….. which is more than Haydon does, no mobile phone either 🙂

Hayden then realizes that on the email to me he did not say it was from him. I have re-printed the email below.

” Dear Alan. Quiet at work so found all these fantastic pictures on your extremely good website . if you wanted to include Kumi in the  Bailey and Lowe  chapter I wouldn’t mind. brief history?  Launched aug 1905 as ‘Eliza’  for Henry Adams as a lorry to take produce to and from his island Moturoa in the bay of islands. Raced in 1908 rudder cup ;failed to win . The annoyed  mr Adams challenged any body [mainly aimed at line honours winner James Reid with Seabird] to a race for 50 guineas to Russel wharf and back . Kumi beat Seabird more by good luck than boat speed , since in the rerun of the rudder cup it was very obvious that Seabird is a faster hull! Adams  had some bank trouble in 1913 and Eliza vanished  never to be seen again , but fortuitously at exactly that moment ‘Kumi’ appeared built by the same builder to the same design and launched on the same date as ‘Eliza’ .whew. She was sold to other people and in 1928 sold to Whangarei harbour board as a pilot boat and used as such till 1955 .She then went to Whangaroa harbour as a crayfish boat for mr Russ and did this till 1975. It was during this time  that an oyster barge made a mistake in berthing, crushing Kumi against the wharf and sinking her in apparently three minutes. In 1975 she went to a  Whangarei back yard till 1985 where she was modernised. Mr pont of Whangarei sold her to mr  Tercel and she came back to Auckland where her modernisation rapidly deteriorated through several owners until 1999 when  the present owners purchased her in spite of the surveyors comment of “not even any use as firewood, too rotten and wet”. The Affords took her back to their place and rebuilt her to close to 1905ish ; which was lucky because she ended up the same as her launching day photo in the maritime museum which Harold Kidd told us about after  her relaunch. Kumi has had several engines but mr Pont in Whangarei installed a 1963   six cylinder Ford  rated at 80 horse power  and this engine still gives perfect service .Kumi is a fun boat, fast enough [if not a line honours winner] but sea kindly and comfortable and ready for the next 100 years.”

A little more about Kumi – in the summer of 2012/13 Kumi completed a circumnavigation of New Zealand, I have covered this previously on ww but if you missed it, click the link below to read Haydon’s tale. Post the trip Haydon gave a talk to CYA members at the RNZYS, it was one of most entertaining evening I have been to. Haydon & Kumi’s vovage was acknowledged in 2013 with the presentation to Haydon of the ‘CYA Outstanding Achievement Award In Seamanship’ (photo above)

The story of Haydon Afford’s 3 month circumnavigation aboard Kumi his 1905 Bailey & Lowe launch

Recognition – Kumi also features in the CYA Classic Register 2014-15 edition – the link below takes you to the section.

http://classicyacht.org.nz/demosite/wp-content/uploads/Classicreg2014/flipbook.html#p=26