Todays woody might not be a woody, there has been speculation it could be a swimming pool i.e. built from ferro cement , but if you enlarge the photo there appears to be planking visible. I’m sure a northern woody came advise on this. There is an ‘interesting’ mix of styles on show, might be the camera angle but the pilot house appears a tad out of proportion (in my humble opinion)
The photo was taken by Jimmy Ginger and comes to us via Lew Redwood. Its dated June 2022, so recent, sadly looking very neglected.
Can we ID the boat and dig out any more on her history?
01-09-2022 INPUT ex Cameron Pollard – Cameron advised that the vessel is named Kiaora or Kia Ora – which then jogged my brain – WW did a story on her back in Nov 2016, link below – sadly in the last 6 years she has gone backwards. Quite a salty looking woody back then. In the WW article Harold Kidd commented that she had sunk and been salvaged 3 times in her life, so a very lucky boat. Cameron Pollard supplied the b/w photos below from one of the sinkings. https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/11/19/kiaroa/
I was recently contacted by Neil Mosley regarding the two photos above of launches built by Neville Robinson – top photo is Harmony and bottom is Largo. Neil commented that he didn’t know much about the man but he was quite well known at some stage. The bigger boat – Harmony is owned by John Gow and spends most of summer moored at the bottom end of Waiheke. The smaller boat is – Largo and owned by Neil and kept at Havelock.
Anyone able to tell us more about the builder – Neville Robinson and what other craft he built.
INPUT FROM PAUL DRAKE – “Neville Robinson was foreman mechanic (or similar) with the old Wellington Harbour Board for a very long time. May have served his time there I think. He built at least one other boat apart from LARGO and MELODY. Can’t recall her name but she became a crayfish boat out of Ngawi. He was a meticulous boat builder and his boats were very well engineered. He had a hand in re engineing TUNA (of WW fame) when she was in service with the Wellington Harbour Board (later CentrePort Wellington). He was a quietly spoken, gentlemanly sort of guy. His brother was a tug master on Wellington Harbour for many years, having previously been master of the police launch LADY ELIZABETH 2.”
01-10-2022 INPUT FROM MARIE BREDEN“Hi, I’m Neville Robinson’s daughter, Marie. A friend of Dad’s shared this post with me and so I’ve been searching my memory banks trying to remember all of Dad’s launches. Paul is correct, Dad worked for Wellington Harbour Board all his working life, he was a motor mechanic but his passion was wood work. My first memory of Dad’s boat building was when he built a speedboat in our garage. He named it Cee Bee II and was very successful in his racing days. He built/altered 6 launches that I can recall. The first boat he built was “Marco Polo”, built in our backyard for some local fishermen. Next was Music, built from scratch, as a family we spent many hours in the boat shed building her. Unfortunately she caught fire and burnt to the waterline. Dad managed to get his hands on some of the burnt timber and made a scale model incorporating the timber into the finished piece. After Music, and I think I’ve got the order correct, was Harmony, Souza, Largo and finally Coda. Jim Carey, previously from Picton, built the hull for Harmony and it was sailed across and finished in Wellington by Dad, and possibly another but I can’t remember sorry. Coda was purchased in Picton, the wheelhouse was removed and rebuilt by Dad, giving it his look and practicality. Dad passed away in 2018 but he’d be chuffed to think he was still getting the odd mention for his boats.”
YESTERDAYS WOODY QUIZ WINNER – the winner is K Ricketts.
The correct answers were #A Rehutai #B Movaire – as to the identity of #C , that folks remains a mystery 🙂 Had a great number of entries but most unfortunately were way off the mark.
As always I’m indebted to the mind of Nathan Herbert for helping confirm the launch names.
Gil Littler emailed in the observations and photo below
“I believe the photo is 1980, or maybe late-1970s. I say this because the wooden dividing fence between Shipbuilders (from where the photo was taken) and Baileys has already been demolished to make way for what became Orams hardstand. See the photo below taken c.1981 with the old ferries (Toroa and Peregrine) about to be buried in the Z Pier reclamation. The fishing boat Baileys converted to a pleasure boat is in both photos.”
Haven’t offered up a prize in a while so today is a goodie. Thanks to a Mitchell Hutchings fb post we get to share the two brilliant photos above of the St Mary’s Bay area. Mitchell commented that the photos were dated 1980 but he was not sure of the date. Neil Gillard also commented that the date was more like the 1960’s, as at that time he was serving his time at Chas Bailey’s yard and he recalls the boats (probably the ferries) being moored there then.
This how the quiz will work – each launch you correctly ID, gives you one point – get all there right and you have 3 chances in the draw. ID only 1 = 1 chance. Launch (c) will be a challenge.
THE PRIZE: A copy of the Jenni Mence’s superb tome – ‘K-Class – The Hauraki Gulf’s Iconic Racer-Cruiser’ – 360 pages of photographs, illustrations and tales from the skippers and crew that sailed these stunning classic yachts.
Mistral was designed and built in 1940 by Joe Wheeler, kauri carvel built – her specs are 32’ x 9’6” x 4’7”. She is powered by a 56hp Perkins 4108 that gets her along nicely when she isn’t sailing. Appears to be a well maintained and presented woody. (photos ex tme)
The photos above come to us via Brett Tomkies fb and show Brett’s great granddad and grandads Queenstown based charter launches – Kelvin and Muratal II.
Now I might be losing my marbles, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t run this story before.
Back in early 2019 an old friend – Greg Fenwick, sent me the above photo of the motor boat – Heather, participating in the Westshore Regatta in Napier on Jan 31st 1931.
In the photo Greg’s dad John, is on the helm, aged 12 years at the time.
Four days later the Napier Earthquake hit and the waterway in the photo was no more. The location is now close to the site of the current Napier Airport. The houses still exist and are next to the main highway north in to Napier.
Any info on what became of Heather would be most welcome.
Job Opportunity At Auckland Boat Yard
Todays a shout out to anyone that is this person or knows someone that is – looking for a work-life change. If you have a CV you’re probably not who we are looking for 🙂
In no particular order does this sound like you –
• Good practical hands on general skills
• Not afraid to roll your sleeves up and just get the job done
• Sense of humour
• Looking for full time / part time / flexible hours
• Age open – young > old, its all about attitude
We offer –
• Small passionate team
• Central Auckland location
• Working railway slip – one of few left in Auckland
Recently WW received an email from Colin Davies in regard to the launch featured above. I’ll let Colin tell the story :-
“Back in the 1930’s my late father Laurie Davies of Miramar, Wellington owned the above launch. Photo taken in Marlborough Sounds. Except for the photo I knew nothing and I have been trying to piece together the puzzle. Based on the design of the wheelhouse, rectangular windows, stem and stern – I think Joe Jukes designed her and possibly built her, or Rex Rix built her. Similar but smaller than the ex work boat – Wild Duck. On WW there is a photo of Wild Duck attending the Flying Boat with a smaller sister ship (refer #1 below).
I also found several photos on the National Library website taken by Whites Aviation. The key photo is the one looking south, Kilbirnie hills in the right background. The flying boat in the lower right, centre Wild Duck stern on and another launch on starboard side tied up alongside (refer #2 below). There is also a bow on photo of Wild Duck on the left showing the side of another launch on the very left edge of the photo (refer #3 below). I am interested to know the name and whereabouts of the second launch and if it is still afloat. Based on all these photos I think it is my late fathers launch.
I estimate the length at 38 feet, almost the same as Saint Antonio 40 feet, again similar above waterline hull shape. (refer #4 & 5 below) of St Antonio)”.
Can we help Colin with his search to ID the launch and possibly uncover what became of her ?
Back in May 2020 we ran a story on the spirit of tradition classic launch – Caravel (link below), at the time the story would have broken the WW record for the number of people emailing me about a boat. Seems she ticked all the boxes for people considering doing laps of NZ in their retirement 🙂 Stunning photos ex Dean Wright at the link + the photo today is Deans also. https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/11/30/caravel/
We subsequently learnt that Caravel was built c.2004 in Picton, strip planked but using an unusual boat building timber – poplar. Fast forward 10 years and she was hauled out at Tauranga being re-skinned with double diagonal kauri and glassed, boat builder Alan Craig commented that she was now built like a brick-out-house.
Some details – designed by Bob Salthouse, 42’ in length, beam of 14’6” and draws 5’. Built by Miller and Tunnage, Picton.
Forward motion is from a John Deere 135hp diesel that gives her a comfortable cruising speed of 8 knots.
Todays story comes to us from retired boat builder Allan Hooper, just back from an extended trip to visit family the USA (Carlsbad just north of San Diego). I’ll let Allan tell the story :-
Prior to leaving I made contact with Morgan Spriggs the current owner of Lola, an NZ37. Lola was built at Jim Young’s NZ Yachts in 1969-70 while I was the foreman.
I was very keen to see the boat after all these years. Morgan has spent a lot of time restoring Lola and she looks as good as the date she left the factory apart from a few alterations and replacements. Morgan was excited to meet me and be able to talk about the build of the boat.
The hull construction is 4 skins of 1/4’” Kauri cold moulded with all of the back bone, floors, transom and bulkhead boundarys set in the mould. The hull was sheathed in Epoxy and glass. After the hull was taken off the mould the bulkheads and the interior were put in place and gunwales fitted.
The cabin, cockpit and decks were built on a separate mould complete with paint work, glazing and hardware. Then in an operation taking only a couple of hours, was lifted and placed on the hull, located over the bulkheads, glued and fastened down.
The techniques developed to build these yachts enabled a NZ37 to be built from start to finish in 4 weeks.
Morgan‘s father Robert owns a beautiful picnic boat, Easterly (photos below), an ex Maine lobster boat on which we toured the San Diego bay.
It was used by Denis Connor is a chase boat when he was sailing in the Americas cup. Robert Spriggs has owns the boat for 22 years and it is in as new condition, you could have eaten your lunch of the engine or engine room floor.
The teak cockpit sole is the best laid teak I have ever seen, the timber selected is absolutely perfect, as was the whole boat.
The waterfront at downtown San Diego has a beautiful collection of maritime exhibits including a sailing immigrant ship the “Star of India” which was a regular visitor to New Zealand in the 1800s, once a year it is taken out for a sail.
Further along the waterfront is the USS Midway launched in 1945, she was finally laid up in the 1990s. If you’ve never been on an aircraft carrier it’s well worth a visit. 3.5 acres of 3 inch thick steel makes up the flight deck. It is an interesting harbour to visit and extremely busy as it is alongside the international airport, a military airport, a naval base, several marinas and the city. When you go out on the bay you see it and hear it all.
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