Category Archives: How To

Restoring & Installing a Gardner in Arethusa

Posted on by
1

Restoring & Installing a Gardner in Arethusa

story & photos ex Dean Wright

It not often I get sent info on a boat & it jumps the queue & appears on ww the next day. If you have been following on ww the rolling restoration Dean has been doing on Arethusa over the last few years you would know two things, Arethusa is in very good hands & Deans a very talented commercial photographer. So the links below to Deans latest project – the restoration of a Gardner 4LW & subsequent installation in Arethusa are well worth check out.

Restoration     http://deanwright.co.nz/arethusa/log-arethusa/152-gardner-4lw-diesel-restoration.html

Installation      http://deanwright.co.nz/arethusa/log-arethusa/154-installing-the-gardner.html

Some history below

Arethusa ticked over 96 this year. She started life as a gaff rigged cutter, built by Bob Brown (designer of the Z class) at Sulphur Beach, Northcote. She’s carvel planked kauri, 33′ 4″ LOA with a 12′ Beam. With the aid of a fair bit of ballast she weighs 10 tonnes. She’s had an interesting life, more details here http://deanwright.co.nz/history.html

Maristella

Posted on by
10

MARISTELLA

Info from Harold Kidd & Mark McLaughlin

Maristella was a 40 footer, built by Sam Ford in December 1936 for Mr R.W. Wills of Epsom and fitted with a 50hp Ailsa Craig diesel. During WW2 RNZN patrol service she was fitted with a Gray for spares rationalization purposes.

Maristella was for sale recently and was advertised as having a 4-71 Detroit. She was renamed “Faye Michelle” for a time and has now reverted back to Maristella.

The b/w photo shows her on launch day & minus the flying bridge.

New photos – 12/08/2014

20-09-2023 UPDATE ex John Wicks – Maristella spotted berthed at Hobsonville Marina

Gone Fishing

Image

Reply

Gone Fishing

Gone Fishing

I’m off for a few days to a spot that is completely off the air – so WW might be on hold for a few days.

If you are reading this & thinking that there will be a big whole in your life (yeah right) – a few suggestions:

1. Use the WW Search box to check out your favorite designer, builder, period, location – there are over 700 posts in the WW library. Even easier is using the categories & tag sections on the right hand side of the WW page, by clicking on a word/s you can search by any topic & see a summary of articles linked to that topic.
Only last week someone in Ireland over a 24hr period viewed all 700+ of them 🙂

2. If you are not using the WW ‘Follow’ tool – do it today – all you have to do is click on the ‘Follow’ tab that appears at the bottom of you computer screen on the right when you have the waitematawoodys page open. You then enter your email address in the box that appears & then you will be able to:
(a) receive an email advising you when new articles have been posted or updated. Means you no longer have to check in all the time.
(b) allows you to make comments on articles that have been posted.
It astounds me the number of regular, high frequency visitors to WW that are not using the ‘Follow’ tool.

3. Lastly – have a hunt thru your photo albums for any wooden boating shots, then email them to waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Have a great Easter, travel well, be safe & I hope the Easter Bunny finds you.

Cheers Alan Houghton

p.s. I have a great series of posts coming up on the rebuild / restoration of Dick Fisher’s Akarana

New Weather Website

Image

Reply

New Weather Website

New (to me anyway) Weather Website

Two ww posts today 🙂

I was alerted to this weather website by CYA member Angus Rogers (MV Mahanui), it really is a cracker & amazingly it works – it predicted (correctly) a fine weekend for the CYA Waiheke Cruise while all local forecasters predicted rain. It also predicted and showed accurately the track of the cyclone that cancelled the CYA Yacht Regatta and predicted correctly the max wind speed in the Auckland area of about 30 knots.

It uses satellite imagery and ocean buoys downloaded into a massive computer program in the States to predict weather for the next week and provides animation of barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, and then if you go into the specific local zones they give even more detailed predictions as well as giving tides.

Check it out at this link http://www.marineweather.co.nz/pressure

Video footage of the varnishing of Trinidad with Awlwood MA (Uroxsys)

Video

Reply

How did Trinidad get that look?

If you have seen Trinidad in the last few months you would have gone………….. WoW……………… thats amazing. Well now thanks to the wonders of modern technology (a time lapse camera & Gareth Cooke’s photography & editing skills) you can watch how the team at Greg Lees Boatbuilders, working with Awlwood MA (Uroxsys) achieved that amazing finish on her topsides.

The process went like this –
1. Old coatings removed
2. Yellow primer applied
3. Two coats rolled / brushed on
4. Three days of heavy ‘wet on wet’ spray applications, with a good block sanding between coats
5. Final coat applied as a single coat to achieve best leveling

Now this is all stunning but do not think its a pro-only product, the results us amateurs can achieve with 6 > 8 coats using a hand brush is pretty wow.

CYA Beach Picnic @ Motuihe Island – Waitangi Day – 06 Feb

Image

4

CYA Beach Picnic @ Motuihe Island - Waitangi Day - 06 Feb

CYA Beach Picnic @ Motihue Island – Waitangi Day – 06 Feb

If you are at loose end this coming Thursday – 06 Feb, head down to Motuihe Island for the Classic Yacht Association NZ beach picnic.

There will be plenty of CYA yachts & launches in the bay & familiar faces ashore. Kicks off around 11.00am.

Subject to huey, if its not Waihaorangatahi Bay it will be Takutairaroa Bay. I thought I’d be all PC seeing its Waitangi Day & use the given names. I’ll help you & say that W = the city/wharf side & T = the Waiheke side 🙂

REMEMBER – No Dogs Allowed Ashore

UPDATE : A GREAT DAY WAS HAD – PHOTOS HERE

http://classicyacht.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&p=21327#p21327

Building a sawn frame boat

Video

Reply

Building a sawn frame boat

This mini movie of a stunning timber boat being built in Scotland, it is a fishing boat but the craftsmanship & finish is amazing to see & a real insight into the trade. Sawn frame boats were built in New Zealand as most of our early shipwrights were from England, Ireland or Scotland. Most of the ships built by the likes of Lane & Brown, Henry & George Nicoll and many more use this method. In small boat building it died out by about the late 1930’s. For example W.G. Lowe built most of their 40-50 fishing boats with sawn frame, Kia Ora, Moata. Percy Vos only ever built two, Waipawa and Waimana. Plank on steam bent frames (ribs) and three skin suited this size boat better and they were far more economical to build like this. The boat in the video was built in 1963 right at the tail end of the wooden boat era.

med_gallery_69_171_1323697761_1597

The classic wooden boat maintenance myth

Posted on by
Reply

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The classic wooden boat maintenance myth

Every time I talk to a potential (first time) buyer of a wooden classic the one thing I hear again & again is the worry about the time required on maintenance. Yes they require constant TLC but the days of sanding & varnishing, sanding & painting etc etc have been significantly reduced with some of the new (ish) products in the market place. But if working on your boat does not appeal – buy fiberglass.

I believe in beating the drum for good, make that great, products – one of which is Uroxsys (now marketed / sold as AWLWOOD MA) this product has revolutionized the maintenance of exterior clear coated timber. There are boats in the CYA fleet that are in their 6+ year of Uroxsys protection + it looks a million dollars & its easy & quick to apply.
In the marine game you generally get what you pay for, Uroxsys / Awlwood MA not found in the bargain bins at marine chandleries & has recently undergone an international price alignment, but if your are looking for cheap, again maybe that fiberglass boat is a better option for you 🙂
Read the report above from the UK Classic Boat magazines long-term performance test – enough said !! AH

How to – hints on removing bottom paint off a wooden hull

Image

Reply

How to - hints on removing bottom paint off a wooden hull

Hints on removing bottom paint off a wooden hull (ex Baden Pascoe – MV John Dory)

The best time to do a major paint job on the bottom of your boat is when you have it out for a major or minor refit. Just wait long enough and the timber will shrink from under the years of paint and become very easy to remove. Leave this job to the very last as the paint also holds a little moisture in the planking while you are doing the endless list of other jobs.

I started off by placing tarps under the boat to catch all the old paint and then three of us used Linbide (spelling?) scrapers. My friend Jim Mateer has put a long pipe handle on his with a plug in the end and as you scrape, most of the paint flakes run down the centre of the handle. Just empty it every 5 min or so. He sometimes attaches a vacuum cleaner via a soft vac tube, I tell ya, it works very well, I think with the three of us it took about 6 hours work.
I took 23 kg off John Dory and I am very proud to say none of it went into the sea, I disposed of it at Trans Pacific for about $50.00. Then I sanded the surface and gave it 3 coats of International Primercon, one very diluted coat so that it went into the timber, one medium dilution and them a fairly non
diluted coat. The bottom looked so smooth, not bad for an old fishing boat!!
Then I gave it two hard anti fouls in blue and covered it with two soft antifouls. So, when I go to repaint, I just scrub or wet sand off until I see the blue paint. That way I hope to never have to do this again.

JD and Jack Taylor

Photo shows  Jack Taylor now 92 (going on 60) & Jim Mateer, in his late 70’s working on John Dory.

How To Get The Most Out Of waitematawoodys

Image

2
After numerous phone calls & e-mails from people that are enjoying waitematawoodys but are not to sure how to interact with it e.g. search or find pervious articles, comment on articles, get advice on updates, I thought it might help if I posted a few blog tips.
Firstly to get the most out of the waitematawoodys you need to be a follower, relax its not some new cult, all you have to do is click on the ‘Follow’ tab  (see example below) that appears at the bottom of you computer screen on the right when you have waitematawoodys open. You then enter your email address in the box that appears  (see example below)  & now you will be able to:
(a) receive an email advising you when new articles have been posted or updated. Means you no longer have to check in all the time.
(b) allows you to make comments on articles that have been posted   (see example below)
(c) search for arcticles by almost any topic e.g. designer, boat name, build / launch year, destination etc (see example below)
I hope this helps, if you need any advice at any time just drop me an email at waitematawoodys@gmail.com
click images to enlarge
Cheers Alan Houghton