ECLIPSE – A Peek Down Below Back in Sept 2016 John Sankey was mooching around Nelson and sent in a selection of woody photos, amongst them were several of the launch – Eclipse. At the time she was looking a little sad and was for sale.
Now thanks to a tme listing we get to have a peek down below, she has also had a lick of paint.Some details – 37’ in length with a 9’ beam and drawing 3’4” , powered by a 70hp Nissan SD25 diesel engine, giving her a cruising speed of 8 knots.
Her tme listing states she was built in 1907, but in the 2016 story Harold Kidd advised that she was built in November 1922 by James McPherson at Dunedin for W. Webber of Ravensbourne.
04-06-2021 Update ex Keith Murphy – photo below of Eclipse at Ravensbourne
JULIE ANNE 15321 Todays photo of the launch Julie Ann comes to us from the camera of Bay of Islands photographer Dean Wright who snapped the photo while mooching around the Te Puna and Kerikeri Inlet area. Dated Dec 17th 2020.
Given the reg #, she must have been in commercial use at some stage – do we know anymore about her?
Today’s photo comes to us from William (Bill) Brown, and is dated Feb 1958 and was taken on his parents honeymoon cruise, and the location is Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island. I’m pretty sure they were not on this boat, but Bill if you see this story, can you confirm? Bill lives and works overseas.
The boat looks familiar but I wont try and guess – can we get a positive match? Original (non crop or colour corrected) copy of the photo below.
Yesterdays Lidgard 1/2 models – anyone else have a view, when the knowledge of Dave Jackson is ‘in play’ – we all tend to freeze – the mans seldom wrong 🙂
UPDATE: The launch is Lady Joan, thanks Ken R for the reminder. Sadly no longer a float she was scraped back in 2018 and a few fittings were saved, hopefully to grace another woody. Photos below LJ has appeared on WW before – see and read more here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/29/lady-joan/
LIDGARD 1/2 MODELS – Help Needed Saturdays story on the 48’ Lidgard launch – Ngaro, link below, promoted Donna Lewis to contact WW re three 1/2 models that she purchased from a garage sale on Kawau Island, when she and husband Norm were living at Schoolhouse Bay. At the time she was told all three were Lidgard vessels. The painted one is obviously Ngaro, the writing on the back, supporting this.
Donna and Norm live in Australian the Sunshine Coast, Queensland and took the models with them, hopefully one day they will find their way home to NZ.
The challenge is that Donna doesn’t know which launches the other two models ‘belong’ too, so woodys – big ask today. Maybe an ex Lidgard worker can suggest suitable candidates. Or maybe one of the more talented WW readers recognizes something in the 1/2 model that is specific to a particular Lidgard design.
I suppose I should put a reward to the woody that provides the most credible suggestion. So a WW cap is on offer. For once, let’s do entries / suggestions via the WW comments section. I think the answers will be via a collaborative approach.
12-03-2022 UPDATE The models have arrived back in NZ from Australia, thank you – Donna Lewis, obviously the painted one at the bottom is Ngaro, there was comment on WW that the other two would be
TOP > TAILSMAN
MIDDLE > MELODY
Are we able to confirm the likelihood of this provenance and if so can anyone supply contact details of the current owners ?
You would have to look long and hard to find a classic woody in as original condition and as highly presented as the 1953, 48’ Lidgard built launch Ngaro. Scroll down to the b/w press clippings below, showing her as launched. One well respected woody once said “Its one of the few boats that, in my opinion looks better with painted coamings than the original varnish”.
The Lidgard clan really aced it when they designed and built Ngaro – I do not think I have seen a more perfect bridgedecker and that flying bridge, which has been there since day one, scores a 10/10.
She is a very well built ship being triple skin kauri – 2 – 6’x1/2” diagonal planks and 1 – 6’x1” longitudinal plank, with 3” bronze rivets.Power comes from twin 1985, 120hp Ford diesels, both rebuilt in the last 3 years, including gearboxes. Professional bare wood anti-foul in 2020 and full repaint in late 2014 – she presents as new. The mix of painted surfaces and varnished trim is perfect. As always – click on photos to enlarge.
Esperanza II The above photo of the Chris Craft, pictured above in the Bay of Islands, come to us via Len Redwood’s fb.There is a great story at the link below as to how the boat came to be in NZ. https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/04/08/esperanza-ii/
Make you check out WW tomorrow, we have a feature on New Zealand’s best Lidgard woody and she is looking for a new custodian 😉
Can We ID This Launch – Venture I spotted the above launch while mooching around Hobsonville marina, no name on display.Chances are she has been on WW b4 but after a while unless they have some distinctive feature, they all merge in my brain 🙂
UPDATE Photo below of Venture alongside the Salthouse wharf at Greenhiite – April 2017 ex Ken Ricketts
If I Slipped And Banged My Head – Maybe This Would Be My Next Boat
Or more likely if Ardern has her way ………….Quartet is a ‘Greenline Hybrid’ – but just what the set up is I do not know. But it is a lot of boat for its size (the berth is 10.5m) and seems to include most things – wide walk around decks, large covered cockpit, drop down stern / duck-board, inbuilt solar panels etc. And I’m sure I’ll cop some flak – but its visually not that offensive, at least to me 🙂
A Classic For The Lake Woodys This cute clinker launch popped up on tme (thanks Ian McDonald) and at 18’6” it would be perfect as a family lake boat – even the kids couldn’t get into too much trouble in SS Magoo.She was built c.1950 by Swanson, and current home port is Waikawa marina in the Marlborough Sounds.Powered by a 2.2L BMC Diesel engine , she will comfortably cruise at 5>6 knots, perfect for trolling (I think).
I suspect with a make-shift wooden cradle she would slip into a shipping container, for a relatively low cost re-location.
Woodys Riverhead Tavern – Winter Cruise Yesterday was one of those days where the weather forecasters got it wrong -big time. Took the dog for an early morning waterfront walk between the showers and the ferries on the harbour were sounding their fog horns – fast forward 2 hours and the suns out, water glassy flat and we are going boating. Quick side trip to collect our quests – Margo & Jamie (MV Lady Crossley) from Westhaven and we are off.
A great turn out for mid-winter, saw 60+ woodys gathering at the historic waterside Riverhead Tavern for lunch – special thanks to those that came by car and helped with berthing the boats at the wharf. As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉
Nice to meet some new faces and if there was an award for most travelled attendee, woody Bruce Rowe on board – Ngarimu would be the winner. Bruce and his ‘decky’ mate – travelled from Thames to attend. The boys left Thames on Friday, stayed at bottom end of Waiheke, then off Stanly Point / Bayswater on Saturday night and will be heading home today. Talking to Bruce, Saturday night sounded heaven – tucked up in their warm bunks, rain on the cabin top, listening to the Auckland Blues rugby game, then the NZ v India cricket test – not a lot of sleep was had 🙂
We were also graced with the company of John and Diana Olsen on their steam boat – Dancer, The Olsen’s towed Dancer from Cambridge and launched her at the old Salthouse yard to make the trip up the creek.
Check out the Woodys Classic Weekends Event Calendar at the link below, for upcoming outings – our next one is an overnight BBQ cruise up the Clevedon River on the weekend of 14 > 15th August – a heads up – numbers will be restricted due to berthing / anchoring limits -so RSVP early.
Raindance Gets A Birthday Firstly a double apology
1. If you are one of the several WW followers that have an issue with me posting photos of my launch – switch off and read a book, in fact do everyone a favour and push delete to WW updates
2. Today is all about the boat – after several weeks of being hauled out at The Slipway Milford, I relaunched today – I have used the term b4 but I’m as happy as a dog with two dicks 🙂 I will not bore you with all the work but Jason and Cam at the Slipway have corrected a telephone book size list of issues, faults and potential future oops – the ‘Readers Digest’ version of the work I’m very happy about is :-
• the paint job, stunning
• the steering, rebuilt including new rudder tube / stock / arm
• the mast – rewired / vanished + visual enhancements
• refurbished stern – removed upright support posts + rot
• refastened duckboard
• addressed several niggling water leaks
Still a few cosmetic jobs on my list but she is looking 90% perfect. If you are joining us on Sunday for the Woodys Riverhead Tavern lunch cruise, you can have.a gander dock side 🙂
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