Category Archives: Launches

What Price Provenance – 100 Year Old Game Fishing Wooden Launch

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What Price Provenance – 100 Year Old Game Fishing Wooden Launch

The legendary sport game fishing launch Alma G has just popped up on tme (thanks Ian McDonald) , without doubt one of the world’s best known and successful game boats.
Presented in better than new condition, with a 270hp Hyundai engine that sees the 36’ hull topping out at 20 knots. 

Built in 1922 by Collings and Bell, there is a big birthday coming up and she has already had the face lift in anticipation.

So woodys, I guess at a reserve of $275k your not just buying a classic woody boat but a 100 year old business / brand (she is still in survey). 
Photo below c.1950’s, shows Alma G on the left in the photo + link below to previous WW story / details https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/11/05/alma-g-alma-g-ii/

Harold Kidd Input – ALMA G was launched in October/November 1922 and took part in the Russell Regatta in December 1922 (see Auckland Star 28/12/1922)

https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/12/01/wooden-boat-bureau-advice-for-buyers-and-sellers/

Ruapani

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RUAPANI
Woody Dean Wright uncovered the above photo of Ruapani that appeared in a book on Lake Waikaremoana and that woodys is where the track stops. A quick google search tells us Ruapani was a chief of the Māori in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa in the 15th and 16th century. 

Given the life raft, maybe she is in charter on the lake.

Any southern woodys able to enlighten us on this rather fine looking launch?

Harold Kidd Input – Built by B.J.L.Jukes, Balaena Bay November 1929 for the Tourist Dept with a 40hp Thornycroft (Empire Preference) petrol engine.

Mystery Launch at Whau Creek

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Mystery Launch at Whau Creek
The photo above of the very unconventional launching of a 26’ cabin cruiser in the Whau Creek , New Lynn is big mystery. The people in the photo appear youngish and a tad nervous  🙂

Photo is an old press clipping ex Lew Redwood’s fb, but no dates. We do know she was built by Mr L Knaggs of Sandringham for a Mr J. Harvey of New Lynn.There was mention on the press clipping that the launch was built to an American design.


Anyone able to ID the vessel?

Input below from Nathan Herbert

Miller and Tunnage – Double Ender – Fisher Lassie

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Miller & Tunnage – Double Ender – Fisher Lassie
If you spend as much time as I do stalking wooden boats on-line you will have noticed the growing trend for work boat conversions, you either love them or not – me I’m in the love them camp. We do not know a lot about todays woody, thanks Ian McDonald, other than she was built by Miller and Tunnage in 1922, out of kauri, is 40’ in length, has a 9’ 10” beam and draws 3’7”. A Gardner 3LW 150hp diesel pushes her along at a comfortable cruising speed of 7 knots. Appears to be very well fitted out.


Can anyone put a name to this woody ?

18-11-2020 Input from Mark Erskine – I was interested to read about the above Miller & Tunnage Double Ender. I agree it’s a real nice boat and was interested to read about her Gardner 3LW engine.

Depending on the fuel and governor / rpm settings, the 3LW engines produce between 36 to 53.5HP from their 4.184 litre capacity.

Dimensions

The “Gardner 150” badge on the Miller & Tunnage control panel is for a 6-cylinder 6LXB Gardner (127 to 150HP) or possibly the 8-cylinder 8LXB (150 to 200)

Gardners are great engines and although the whole range are all low on HP for their considerable size, capacity and weight, they all produce a lot of torque at low rpm and are very reliable.

Although 36 to 54 HP seems a bit low for the size of the boat, I’m guessing the 3LW is a good match for a double ender hull because torque turns the prop rather than HP and the 3LW should also be very economical to operate at 7 knots.

24-11-2022 UPDATE ex Steve’s Coffee Cart – Steve sent in the photos below of Fisher Lassie below, hauled out at the Waikawa hard stand. Check out the new look, it is not often we see people ’taking away’ as compared to adding on. Well done to the owner.

admin@classicyacht.org.nz

Rawene

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RAWENE
When I was catching up with lan Craig re yesterdays story I gave him a wind up re how hopeless he was at keep us updated on the work in his Lake Rotoiti boat yard. Seems the dig in the ribs worked as a few hours later I received the photos above of Rawene, taken from Waikeremoana when Alan went  down in February 2020 for some repairs on Rawene. The boat was hit on her mooring and broke a few ribs.The old photos below are on the wall in the store there.

It has been commented on WW that she was built in 1928 by L.C. Coulthard. Read & see more about her here https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/12/14/rawene-a-peek-down-below/

Sea Spray

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SEA SPRAY
During the week I was chatting to Lake Rotoiti boat builder Alan Craig and he mentioned that he was scoping out a 1956 built, 17’ kauri clinker run-about on tme for a client. The boat had a J. Logan builders plate and we both wondered if it was ’the-real-deal’. On these matters there is only one go to guru – so a quick email to Harold Kidd confirmed that Sea Spray was indeed built by Jack Logan, and HDK had had a lot to do with Jack Logan and the Chappies, who had a twin to his boat on Lake Okareka. That intel was enough for Alan to buy the boat.


Alan understands that for a lot of the boats life, it was north of Tutakaka.
The new owner has x2 Arona 10hp engines and gearboxes, which fingers crossed,  one will go into the boat.Having witnessed the work of Alan’s yard – Sea Spray will emerge as an awesome addition to the woody lake fleet. Alan has promised to keep us updated with work-in-progres photos 🙂


Anyone able to add to the boats provenance?

Haunui Restoration

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HAUNUI – RESTORATION
In between the CV-19 lock-downs one of Auckland’s most beautiful classic wooden motor launches changed ownership – the Colin Wild designed and built 1948 launch – Haunui was sold by Owen Cashmore. In a previous life Haunui was owned by Harry Julian. Haunui was almost immediately hauled out at a private yard and master wooden boat builder Paul Tingey was engaged to return Haunui to her glory days. I showed her new owners over her ‘cousin’- Trinidad and they accepted the challenge to equal her presentation. 

As can happen when dealing with 72 year old wooden artifacts, on close (pulling boards off) inspection the old girl had a few issues, so the decision was made to undertake a total refit, including engine. Haunui is single screw, but has a smaller auxiliary engine > shaft > prop on the starboard side. I believe an electric unit will replace the small diesel. The Gardner sadly is coming out, fyi – prior to going into Haunui, rumour is it came out of a Sydney Harbour > Manly ferry, so was very run in ;-). Her owner has told me they will restore the engine over time but the process involves utilizing a foundry that will have to custom cast the parts that are needed. In the meantime Haunui will receive a new heart transplant. 

As you can see from my photos above, the refit is on a rather grand scale, but Mr Tingey is the man for the job.
We will follow this project and keep you updated. As always, click on photos to enlarge 😉

The photos below are dated 2014, ex Rod Marler, and show Haunui hauled out at Orams yard in Westhaven. 

Wanda II Refurbishment

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WANDA II REFURBISHMENT

Mooching around The Slipway Milford yesterday I spotted a familiar looking shape, closer inspection revealed Wanda II was hauled out as part of her ‘rolling’ restoration. Previous WW stories tell us she was built in 1948 by the Lane Motor Boat Co. for Fred Porter. She measures 38’6’ and is powered by twin BMC Commodore 55hp diesel engines.


Her current custodian / owner has virtually gutted the interior and is refurbishing her to better match the demands of classic woody family cruising. Whilst the latest fittings and systems are being utilized, her owner has a very sympathetic eye to detail so I’m confident she will look fantastic.Milford wooden boat builder Geoff Bagnall was onboard while I was there replacing / sistering some ribs. I think that is what he was doing 😉


Great to see her at Milford, hopefully providing motivation to Cam Malcolm, head honcho at the Slipway, to accelerate the work on his – Connie V, one of 3 sister ships – Wanda II, Connie V and Doreen. Connie V is currently directly in front of Wanda II inside the shed.   

In the top photo, the woody alongside Wanda II is – Uhuru Jack, getting some TLC. She would have to be one of the oldest residents of Milford Creek Marina.

photo ex Ken Rickets c.1940’s
photo ex Chris Horsley c.2014

Paloma

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PALOMA
The above photo of the launch Paloma comes to us via Lew Redwoods’s fb. The corresponding story supporting the old press clipping from the March 26, 1929 edition of the New Zealand Herald newspaper, states that Paloma was owned by a Mr W. Sinclair and was destroyed by fire, followed by an explosion, during the previous weekend. The incident occurred off Kauri Point and the cause was unknown.
Do we know the name of the designer / builder and year launched ? 

Harold Kidd Input – Built by Colin Wild to a design by W.H. Hand in August 1926. Power by a 4cyl Daimler truck engine. Lots of torque but low revs!


WW SITE USAGE

If any of the readers are wondering why we post stories like the above, I’ll explain – when I started the waitematawoodys site its primary purpose was a channel to chat to like minded true-blue wooden boat admirers, on a regular basis about wooden boating stuff. But over time as the site became more popular, the daily visitation numbers and the focus of the visits / readership changed. Now on an average day, 62% of people are reading the story of the day and 38% are using the search box (or google) to find / research intel on a particular vessel or designer or a combination eg Colin Wild launches from the 1930’s, some obviously do both – we like that 🙂 .

So woodys, stories like today’s are all about building the back library up, and then at some stage in the future, someone will search using maybe W. Sinclair’s name and up will pop Paloma and if we are lucky that person might be related to Sinclair and have some old photos, and those photos might prompt someone else to comment – its called user-generated content (UGC) and it really turbo’s the google search ratings.
And a funny – ex UK cartoonist Mike Mockford

WAIKARO Emerges From The Beauty Parlour

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WAIKARO Emerges From The Beauty Parlour 

Over the lock-down / winter period the owners of Waikaro have given her a facelift. She was built in 1978 by Roy Parris as a 30’+ work boat for a Great Barrier family. She was ’saved’ from a slow death out there by master craftsman boat builder Geoff Bagnall, who re-modeled her cabin and cockpit and created one of the most practical, live-able 30’ launches I have seen.Power is via a 120hp Ford diesel and Waikaro has all the accessories to make cruising a breeze – remote capstan, hot shower (stern), stand-alone toilet/head, permanent double berth, solar charging, duckboard bait tank and more. Her owners have had her for 15 years and during this period Geoff Bagnall has overseen her maintenance programme.She returned to the water last week after a repaint, anti-fouling and varnish refresh.


And if you haven’t already guessed it – yes Waikaro is for sale and would be the best value for money woody on the market. Marina / mooring access available by negotiation. So woodys if you and the family want to be on the water this Christmas  – contact waitematawoodys@gmail.com
More photos below from last months relaunch.

25-05-2022 UPDATE – Post selling ,her new owners have been undertaking some differed maintenance and giving her a birthday, which has included a bow-thruster and trip to the Milford Slipway beauty parlour for a Jason Prew paint job (JPPJ) and a splash of varnish – well done JP and Cam for convincing the owners to add the bling 🙂

26-05-2022 UPDATE – first coat is on, looking very swanky 😉

28-05-2022 More paint & the first few coats of Uroxsys

14-06-2022 Getting close to relaunch day

John Spencer Book Winner
The winner was Kerry Alexander – with the 68’ New World

Lots of answers submitted for Buccaneer at 73’, but John didn’t build her, and Infidel was 61’8”