Category Archives: How To

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH-  LADY CAROLE – A Peek At Stage II

Posted on by
Reply

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH-  LADY CAROLE – A Peek At Stage II
Over the last few months we have been following the restoration the classic launch – LADY CAROLE and as seen in Wednesdays WW story LC is now back in the water.Whilst the exterior work has almost been completed and we will not be getting any updates for a while, we asked o-owner Patrick Crawshaw to share with us what’s inshore for Phase II (interior). Patrick commented that she originally had a beautiful kauri trimmed interior and the original configuration will be restored along with the fine timber work she once had.  A few modern additions will bring her into the 21st century, but these will be hidden, or discreetly placed.
The thinking / plans are shown in the drawings below  
Forward Cabin with four berth bunks. Toilet through the mirror in the bow. 

FORWARD CABIN – with 4 berths/bunks – toilet thru the mirror/door > bow

BOW TOILET

COCKPIT

MAIN CABIN – STARBOARD

CLASSIC WOODEN FROSTBITE GETS SOME SERIOUS TLC

Posted on by
Reply
CHARISMA

CLASSIC WOODEN FROSTBITE GETS SOME SERIOUS TLC

The two photos above are of Colin Pawson’s Frostbite sailing dinghy – CHARISMA which Colin is currently giving a birthday. Interesting observation – the new ribs aren’t steam bent, but laminated with the aim to be much stronger and lighter. As we have come to expect from Mr Pawson over the years attention to detail is 10/10.

Owning a Frostbite is a Pawson family thing – son Adrian owns – KITEROA, (photos below) and both sail out of the Taikata Sailing Club in West Auckland which on a good day has 15+ Frostbites racing.

KITEROA

CYA YACHTS PLAYING CRASH & BASH AGAIN

The woody spies report that the classic yacht skippers haven’t learnt from the past – first race of the season yesterday and we have a collision in the inner harbour – details are unconfirmed but it appears WAITANGI and KATRINA ‘came together’ and Katrina lost her mast – I’m not getting into specifics but if I was a betting man I know which skipper I’d be pointing the finger at 😉 Hopefully no injuries and insurance sorts out the damage.

UPDATE – Both boats reaching down the harbour. Some how they came together so it will be a ‘windward boat keep clear’ or ‘overtaking boat keep clear’.You have to ask how two classics came together on a very nice afternoon, easy sailing on the harbour.Too much testosterone ……………

RESTORATION OF CLASSIC X-CLASS YACHT – SONYA X48

Posted on by
3

RESTORATION OF CLASSIC X-CLASS YACHT – SONYA X48

At one of the waitematawoodys / Slipway Milford – Boat Boot Sales I was talking to Michael May and he casually mentioned he was restoring an X-Class yacht named – SONYA. As I do I asked for details and last week Mike advised he had completed the project. So I’ll hand over to Mike to tell the story – 
“Restoration of X48, SONYA According to Harrold Kidd, SONYA was built by Trot Willetts, in 1946, for the Elliot brothers. Greg Elliott says the B /W photo from the Auckland Star, shows his father, Mervyn, at the helm of SONYA in a race off ST Mary’s Bay. I took possession of SONYA two years ago. She had been sitting on a trailer under canvas for the last thirty odd years. Under all the dirt and leaves the hull looked reasonably sound, but the deck was rotten, and she has a sloop rig off a trailer sailer. Looking for something to keep me amused, I decided it was worth a shot at restoring her. First I removed the ply deck, and waterblasted the inside to remove all grime. I then started to scrape off all the old paint inside, and that’s when the rot started to appear. It was either a chainsaw, or persevre. I eventually replace about 20% of the planking, and 60% of the ribs. Also the stern half of the king plank. The centrecase and knees were very agricultural, so I decided to rebuild that too.. I used Yellow Cedar for the planks, and American Oak for the ribs. With the help of Youtube and others I leant the art of using roves, and steam bending timber. I made my own bolts with Silica Bronze rod. [Fosters were a big help] Interestingly, the whole boat was built with no glue, all screws, bolts, roves A sign of the times I suppose. Some of the deck knees and framing are plywood, and still in good condition. Against a lot of advice I glued and filled every plank to plank join inside and out, after removing all the old red lead putty. My theory being that modern glues, Wests, would hold the wood and stop any water egress and swelling. I didnt want to have to go through the “Let it leak and swell” every time I launch the boat.
After doing all the inside, fitting new centrecase, deck, Everdure, and painting, I turned the hull over and started on the outside. Strip paint, dig out all putty in seams and nail holes, fill old and new nail holes, glue/fill seams, everdure, and paint. Then the right way up again, and finish the inside and the new “Bling” deck. Not traditional I know, but I had the mahogany veneer from years ago, and always imagined using it on some sort of boat one day.. [I have some left over if any one can use you’re welcolme to it] I managed to buy four spars from Bob Van Pierce in Kerikeri. All different timbers and build methods, but each one worked well with what I needed. The gooseneck was a major stumbling block. Very kindly, Herbert Krumm-Gartner, also Kerikeri, lent me a set of blanks he had made for his classic yacht. I made all the wooden blocks using pohutukawa from timber off the trees in our garden. I have gone modern with the running rigging and used dyneema for main halyards, and backstays. Brent Gillies, BG Sails, has made a fantastic set of sails, using traditional methods. 
I have only sailed SONYA once, in very light breeze to check everything out. Especially any leaks!!! Nothing of note. Now need some better conditions to get her flying again.”

LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #6

Posted on by
3

LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #6

Today we have the latest update on the restoration of LADY CAROLE, as previously co-owner Patrick Crawshaw will walk us thru it – certainly on the home straight 🙂

“A couple of weeks ago the cradle had to be removed for another boat, and so the cover had to come off. After all this time under the plastic, we were able to see Lady Carole for the first time after all the work we had done. Later that day, the cover was pulled back over and she went back into hiding for the home stretch of work to be done – finish line in sight! 

The original waterline, which was grooved into the planks, was reinstated.

Window trims with top coats

The glass for the windows arrived and were fitted along with the trims. 

Chrome half cowl vents were collected from the fabricators who had to repair them and then they went to the Chromers. Both companies did an incredible job at restoring them. 

Plinths had to be made for them to sit on. This is them being pre-fitted to the boat so we could get the plinths right as they angle back and in. 

And finally the colours are going on and we can see the colour scheme a bit better. All two-pot rolled on and then tipped off with a brush. 

Second coat white, then it will be masked for the blue to form a sharp line. 

Lady Carole letters will go evenly spaced just below the walk through instead of either side as they were before. 

Mid section is going to be browny red and this goes on tomorrow, so more photos to come once this is done. Rub rail will be white to break up the blue a bit. Waterline will also be white.” 

AVANTI – A Lot Of Boat From One Sheet Of Plywood

Posted on by
Reply

AVANTI – A Lot Of Boat From One Sheet Of Plywood

Now I know its not a NZ story and the boats made of plywood but when I read this story in the May 2021 issue of Small Boats Monthly it just made me smile – so today I share it with WW readers. Enjoy

Riley Hall was born and raised in Gig Harbor, Washington, a quiet town nestled around a narrow, mile-long inlet that shares the town’s name. The shoreline is bristling with piers and the water is dotted with boats at anchor. Surrounded by boats, it was only natural that Riley began building and working on them at a young age. He kept at it through high school and began restoring a 1940s-vintage canvas-covered cedar-strip rowing boat at home. For his senior-year project, he chose to work at the Gig Harbor BoatShop, documenting and disassembling hull #2 of the Ben Seaborn – designed Thunderbird.

After graduating, his interest in the restoration of old boats led him to move across the country to Rhode Island to study at Newport’s International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS). While enrolled there, he spent winter evenings and weekends restoring a 1963 Snipe. After graduating from IYRS in 2012 he got a job maintaining and restoring mostly classic racing yachts at Baltic Boatworks in nearby Bristol.

During the time he had been on his career path—restoring large yachts and working boats—Riley had been toying with the concept of small boats built from a single sheet of plywood. He designed and built his first one-sheet rowing skiff  while home for Christmas in 2014. He had brought the paper patterns for the skiff with him to Rhode Island and shared them with Don Betts, a local boatbuilder who had built a 31’ six-oared Cornish gig, and the one-sheet skiff Don built  led to two more, built with the help of a group of Sea Scouts.

After about six years at Baltic, Riley moved back to Gig Harbor in 2018 to take a job with Harbor History Museum. There, as a restoration/preservation specialist, he was put in charge of the volunteers restoring the 65′ purse seiner SHENANDOAH, which was built in Gig Harbor in 1925. The SHENANDOAH project kept Riley busy during his working hours but left him with some free time and a creative impulse to design and build something new.

Working in the studio above his parents’ garage, he built three more one-sheet rowing skiffs, trying new iterations of the concept each time.  The 2.5-hp four-stroke Yamaha outboard he had for his 16’ Calendar Island Yawl set him to wondering what kind of speed it could produce with a boat made of a single sheet of plywood.

Cocktail Class Racers naturally came to mind.  Developed in 1939, they’re outboard-powered racing skiffs with a length of 8′ and a beam of 4′, just like a sheet of plywood, and limited to 6-hp motors—8 hp for racers who weigh over 200 lbs. They top out at 26 mph, far beyond the potential of Riley’s 2.5, so, with racing off the table, he was free to lavish attention on aesthetics and let visual elements from racing kayak, vintage bicycles, Beetle Cats, and ’50s nostalgia work their way into his design process.

He started with a wedge shape for the hull: a plumb stem to part waves and a flat run for planing. As he explored the shape with a model of stiff paper, the sides came together in a way that suggested a raised foredeck and stem with a reverse rake. The foredeck required a break in the sheer to sweep down to the stern, which, as Riley put it, “revealed a slightly strange shape, like little ears, between the side and foredeck standing out as rather odd and unconventional. I decided it was similar to what you see on racing kayaks, which look cool and go fast, so why not?”

Riley started construction in a workshop space over his parents’ garage. With the shape established by the model, Riley could take the pieces apart from each other to “expand” their shapes and scale them up on onto a piece of plywood. After cutting the full-sized panels from plywood and fairing the panels, he temporarily assembled them with Gorilla tape, fine-tuned the shape, and used the plywood “skin” of the hull to take measurements for the boat’s two frames.

After Riley had installed the foredeck and a Beetle Cat–inspired coaming, he invited his father, Curtiss, an art teacher at the high school Riley graduated from, for a consult on aesthetics. As soon as he laid eyes on the boat, Curtiss said, “It looks like a Studebaker Avanti.” The iconic Avanti, a high-performance car with a distinctive “reverse rake” on the front end of its side panels, was Studebaker’s swan song, released in 1962 as the company was closing down.

Curtiss’s comparison set the boat’s name, AVANTI, Italian for forward, and pointed to an automotive aesthetic direction for the rest of the project. Riley had been looking to Herreshoff’s boats for a suitable shape for the aft ends of the coaming, but nothing looked quite right on AVANTI. While the Studebaker coupe didn’t have fins, it was produced in the final years of the fin craze, and the combination seemed to work for the boat.

For steering, Riley opted for handlebars instead of a wheel. Cocktail Class Racers require that the drivers lean far forward to keep their bows down and they’re forced to wrap their stomachs around the wheels. Riley found a bow fitting at a marine thrift store that could have easily been a classic-car hood ornament; the nameplate his dad made, replicating the one Studebaker put on the Avanti, was the finishing touch.

RSVP – waitematawoodys@gmail.com

CLASSIC LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #5

Posted on by
3

CLASSIC LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #5 Another update on the work in progress from co-owner Patrick Crawshaw.

UPDATE BELOW: 

It’s been about three weeks’ since the last update and in that time we have finally got to the stage where she is ready for painting. We are working from top down and have got to the final undercoat (orange) down to the gunnels.  We have gone for a low-sheen, two-pot system for the whole boat with two primers, two undercoats and two top coats.   

There has been the usual wild-Winter-Northland weather, which has hammered the cover, but it’s still holding up – not long to go now so. It just has to last until the windows go in and we get the finish coats on up top, which will be the week after next.

She had holes all over the place and many were in the side of the hull – including bilge ones. So, they have all been re-directed and moved to the under the duckboard where you can’t see them. The hull now is without any unsightly grills/holes/lettering, etc, etc. Nothing now to draw the eye away from the lines. 

The line that connects the forward cabin to the aft deck is now re-instated. That was fun…Hundreds of cuts later, we got the curve, although it wanted to keep snapping. We took it all the way to the front of the forward cabin as it was. This has given the forward part above the windows a really nice profile.  Finally, the lines of the LADY CAROLE have been restored working nicely with those reduced windows. 

The cockpit drainage was a plastic box with a float switch. This never really worked properly and was prone to blockages, so the drainage for the cockpit has been returned to self draining with larger holes so they don’t get blocked. 

The back doors had brown smoky glass in both sections, so they were taken to a local joiner to have slats put in the upper section so we can improve cabin ventilation. Here they are almost ready for the top coats. 

We decided that the trims should be put back on the windows to give it some profile and finish the look. Originally L.C. had trims, but these had long gone.  

The hatches are finally finished and pretty much ready for their top coats. 

RSVP – waitematawoodys@gmail.com

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – ALMA G II Restoration Updates #3 & #4

Posted on by
1

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – ALMA G II Restoration Updates #3 & #4

We have been following the refit / rebuild of the1927 Collings & Bell classic wooden launch – ALMA G II for a while now, the last WW story was back in December 2023 Dec 2023 and I have a confession to make – Update #3 slipped between the WW cracks so today you get a two-4- one 🙂

UPDATE #3 from Sian Steward at CMC Design below – 

“So much has been going on in the last few months, the team have been working very hard and things are looking great.

After the long long months of initial work of bringing all the bones of the Alma G II back together and many coats of white paint in the hull interior we moved onto the next phase.

The hull has been double skinned with kauri planks, filled, fared and prepped for fiberglass. It was a shame to say goodbye to seeing all the beautiful original timber underneath, but a boat that floats is the ultimate goal.

It’s good to have all hands available for this aspect of the build, working together makes the tough job of glassing much more streamlined and quicker. No one wants to draw out glassing for too long and we are grateful it isn’t a regular part of our day-to-day job..

More full suited days in the hot hot heat bogging and readying for paint. This is where the restoration really looks like it is getting somewhere. We have been going since last April and these milestones are meaningful to both the workers and the boat owners.

The Alma G II has been carefully rolled once more and the whole process starts again on the port side.

From there, back to upright and some more detailed discussions on the interior finishes and fixtures. The owners are keen to honor the traditional elements of the boat and have been sourcing some really lovely items from navigation lights to the bench top surfaces.

Top coat paint colour choices are being made and we keep moving on…”

UPDATE #4

“Further updates on the Alma G II. We have layers of paint going on!   More hard work has been done in these last few months with the Lees engine going in, fiberglassing, long board sanding and bogging and fairing.  Real backbreaking stuff. Onward we go with paintwork and then the interior fit out. “   

LINKs TO PREVIOUS STORIES FOLLOWING THE PROJECT

WW May 2023 Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2023/05/01/restoration-of-alma-g-ii-begins/

WW Dec 2023 Story  https://waitematawoodys.com/2023/12/06/alma-g-ii-restoration-update-2/

CLASSIC LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #3

Posted on by
Reply

CLASSIC LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #3

Again co-owner Patrick Crawshaw walks us thru the latest work

“First thing, I would like to say a massive thank you to Ron Trotter who after last week’s post got in contact with waitematawoodys to say he had the original cowl vents. He posted them up to the Bay of Islands and I had them on Tuesday.  This website is incredible for putting the right people together and after spending literally hours and hours searching the world online for these things, I was very happy that I have the original ones back. One closer inspection when they arrived, I could see they were made back in the day by hand, hence the reason I could not find them and even more of a deal that we had the original ones to go back on LADY CAROLE.  They will get panel beaten and tidied up and then have to go to be re-chromed.

This week has been a little more challenging, not in what LADY CAROLE has thrown us, but more in what mother nature has. 

We are working through the Winter and have a limited time frame at the yard. The slipway closes during the Summer season because of the cruise ship passengers, which tender to the wharf there.  So, we ordered a large – very large – piece of plastic, the type of which is used for tunnel houses, to cover the boat and then we waited on a certain freight company who shall remain nameless,  and we waited…. 

On Monday the weather delivered very low lying persistent fog, which hung around for most of the day. The boat was so wet, no sanding could take place, then on Tuesday and eight days later the plastic arrived. We tented the boat just in the nick of time and the heaven’s opened –  it hasn’t stopped raining since then. Then the power went out…., but luckily we could press on…

Now she is tented, we can remove things like steel/glass hatches (wooden ones need to go back) and the windows, which was done yesterday. 

The windows were a tricky one as I am trying to keep as many of the original elements of the boat as possible and did not want to remove them, but we discovered over the years that they had been replaced as they broke, or as they were changed. The boat had a complete mix of different tints and types of glass and most were leaking, so they all had to come out. I decided after much deliberation to go for clear glass. The objective of this restoration is to try and get LADY CAROLE back to her launching look, and she would have had clear when launched, so that’s what we are going for, but in safety glass of course. 

Sam, the Wynn Fraser rep has been helping with the colour scheme, which was posted previously.  The inspiration behind the colour scheme is the reddy brown she had in the 70’s on the side section, with the added addition of a deep blue hull with white pinstripes to break up the blue and make her lines pop even more.  It’s crucial that the blue works well with the reddy brown and that the white is not a bright white, more subdued almost like a mellow antique white.  The finish will be low sheen, not gloss as I think that belongs to the modern boats with their perfectly finished hulls.  The low sheen will give her more forgiveness.  The whole boat is getting a flexible two pot system for strength and durability.  Sam supplied the paint cards and test pots shown below to make sure they work on the boat and in the outdoor light.  The test pots were glossy, so the finished look will be more subdued than the photograph. 

The ceiling in the forward cabin had to come down to sort a hatch that had been put in the wrong place.  When the boat was reconfigured a past owner put a hatch in the centre of the forward cabin (to let light in I think) and then covered over the forward hatch. They then moved the mast to the top instead of the centre of the forward hardtop. So, in order to correct this back, we had to remove the ceiling as one of the ribs had been cut to allow for the hatch and this was compromising the integrity of the roof. The new ceiling will have insulation and show the ribs to give a little more height. 

Meanwhile a lot of sanding has been taking place and we are almost there – well, first sand anyway.”

LADY CAROLE REFIT – Update #2

Posted on by
3

LADY CAROLE REFIT – Update #2

Small update re important design work to the overall lines and  look of the boat. Again co-owner Patrick Crawshaw updates us below :

“When they raised the main cabin roof, the aft deck curves and back end on the upper part looked very clumsy and ungainly. She lost a lot of elegance in the stern. We spent a day refining these lines and curves. – lots of curves. She now looks much better. The large aft bulkhead curve was enlarged to open up the aft deck and then the back ends where they meet with the roof refined with nice curves. All the curves in the stern section now have relationships with one another.   There is also going to be a curve where the entrance from the duck board is and this will be raised so the lettering can go symmetrically across the stern. 

Windows are next. I think they are being done next week so will send details of how we work those out in relation to the stern curves/lines and the mid ship section.” 

UPDATE #1 https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/06/14/lady-carole-refit-update-1/

And Some Great News – WW rocked on the search for x4 1/2 cowl vents. Not only did we locate some, they are in fact her original ones, removed in a past life and kept in storage. Well done to Ron Trotter and his generous offer to return them to the vessel.



OLLIE IRENE

Posted on by
Reply
OLLIE IRENE- with covers removed, catches her breath in Port Macquarie for a couple of years
Splined hull and repaired bow …and installed 5 new laminated ring frames to secure shape
Repaired garboard and glassed under waterline rolling the glass into a rebate and glued a “spline” into it secure the transition at water line.
Installed self draining front cocktail cockpit through front hatch carlings, including provision for  ice bucket to chill the “ bubbles Also allowing safer working space for anchoring. Storage for 3 piece hard deck cover when cockpit not in use and spare anchor in locker under seat…
Fabricate and fit keel extension for rudder and install new prop shaft tube
New rudder
After removal of a number of previous era bearers New engine bearers install to take 80HP Vetus, new prop shaft and drip less seal 
The tank!…..out, modified to fit and be removable in future increased baffling, water sump and inspection plate which now sits below the cockpit engine hatch…Cockpit sole and structure remained  in tact
Engine pan fabricated and installed
Engine in position for installation
Front engine cover/ companion way with storage bins in each step for oils , spare belts, filters etc 
About this time I decided to put Ollie out in my back paddock

OLLIE IRENE

Over the past couple of weeks I have been chatting online with woody from over the ditch – Keith Glover is well known to some of us in the classic wooden boat community having competed in several Auckland classic yachting regattas as crew on Auckland classics. Unlike most Keith has even gone as far as to sail his 1949/50 Alden ketch ‘WRAITH OF ODIN’ (photo below) from Brisbane to Auckland to compete in the 2010/11 regatta.

Todays WW story is based on Keith’s launch – OLLIE IRENE, that Keith has been restoring/rebuilding//recommissioning/rebirthing (multi-choice) for the last few years as he says “out in the back paddock’Probably best if I let Keith tell us about OLLIE IRENE:

* LOA 32’x Beam 9.3″‘x Draft est 3’ x Displacement est 5.5 Ton

* Original Iron bark keel, Spotted gum frames and hull planking, new sheathed ply deck, house, and laid teak cockpit sole

* Little is known of history or providence (long story of how it finished in my hands) other than to say it was a completely stripped-out mildly hogged hull, with a rebuilt deck, and bare house structure. No engine, gearbox, drive train, prop or rudder, although you could see from remaining engine beds it would appear at least 3 different power plants had made an appearance over time!  However there was a fuel tank of unknown age or condition totally built-in positioned aft between floor plates and captured by custom deck beams prior to the teak cockpit sole being laid  BONUS!!….it was sport but suffice to say it turned out to be new SS which now has better baffles, removable and the cockpit structure remains intact!

* De hogged (adjustable steel cradle)  and Splined hull, installed a 80HP  motor with hydraulic box ,bow thruster pressure hot water, head etc etc etc

*The complete fit-out has been built, dry fitted, finish coated  including upholstery ,basic electrical systems and switchboard etc etc and are in storage awaiting installation whilst we finish painting stuff.

* Limited research suggests Ollie was built in Brisbane during the 1920s as a spec (launched as Irene) built by a yard long since gone and appears to have a close design reference to Blanchard Lake Union Dream Boats of the 1920s from the NW coast USA.

Along the way, I have managed to repurpose many orphan genuine classic bronze bibs and bobs boat bits including some from my original restoration of Wraith of Odin, and targeting a Wooden Boat show in Pittwater November this year.

The purpose of Ollie is to explore some Australian East Coast river systems for which Wraith is unsuitable.

WRAITH of ODIN