Category Archives: Launches

Lady Naomi

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Lady Naomi

Hello woodys, did you see Halley’s Comet last night? It appears in the sky once every 75 years i.e. once in a lifetime. Now maybe I’m stretching the truth about the comet but todays story has to be as rare event  🙂 
I think the reason Lady Naomi makes an appearance today is  because Amy Bateman caught me in a post Boat Show blues moment e.g. I have been looking at too much white fibreglass.
 
Anyway onto the Lady Naomi – Amy contacted me trying to trace the launch that her father built in Thames. Lady Naomi is a Hartley 30 Tide Song design. She was sold over 30 years ago and all Amy knows is that she went to Auckland.  Amy is not sure where she went after that but would love to know what became of her.

1930’s Mystery Launch and Location

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1930’s Mystery Launch and Location

When this photo appeared on fb, no one was able to ID the vessel or confirm the location. Location suggestions were Judges Bay Parnell and Takapuna Beach.
Can we do any better?
Reminder – if you like plastic boats the Boat Show is on till Sunday down at Auckland’s Viaduct – new venue as Team NZ are squatting at the Events Centre. Lots of ’stuff’ for your woody on display / sale.
Harold Kidd Input – It’s certainly a puzzle Although the hull is very similar to Seagars’ REHUTAI (but I think a tad smaller) she still retained her funnel after she was dieselised and her wheelhouse was taller. Also, why would the Seagars pull her out at Judges Bay when they had a secure spot in the Devonport Yacht Club’s yard just along the road from their nice house in Jubilee Avenue?
Who Owns Safari ? photo below. Contact me on  waitematawoodys@gmail.com I may have something from the boats past that might interest you 😉
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Mystery Marlborough Sounds Launch

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Mystery Marlborough Sounds Launch
All we know about the above launch is that she is 27’, made of kauri and has a Ford 60hp does; engine that pushes her along at 5>6 knots.
From her cabin top layout she looks like she has been used as a bach ’taxi’, most likely private use.
Can any of the Southern Woodys put a name to her and any info on her past?

 

Paikea

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PAIKEA
 
Two weeks ago my Westhaven spy sent my the 2 photos above of the 1921 Collings & Bell built launch Paikea hauled out at Westhaven for some TLC and then I spotted her back on her mooring in Bayswater looking very smart.
 
Thanks to Harold Kidd we know she was launched on 26th January 1921. She was fitted with a 120-150hp Model M Van Blerck 6 cylinder petrol engine (not a straight-eight Packard as is often said). Paikea had Chas. Collings’ “concave-convex” type of hard chine design which he made famous with his various Fleetwings and whale-chasers. Indeed she was a refinement of the Fleetwing whose image appears in the Collings & Bell section of WW. She was good for 20 knots and can still do it with her present big Iveco/Fiat, as Harold experienced at Sandspit. He commented the she goes like hell and stable with it.Alf Court sold her to Hec Marler in 1925 and he sold her to R B & S S Wilson  just pre-WW2. She was in NAPS during WW2 as Z17.
 
You can view more photos of her here

Karakia

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KARAKIA

Karakia was designed by Roy Parris in 1968 but I suspect somewhere along the line she has been ‘altered’ a tad 😉

She measures 24’ and is pushed along by a 34hp Sole diesel engine that gives a 6.5>7 knot cruise speed.
Currently home is Lake Taupo, note the trailer pictured is not for sale, thanks Ian McDonald for the tm listing heads up. BOAT SOLD
Harold Kidd Input – KARAKIA was registered with APYMBA for the 1966-7 season to J.S.C. McLanachan of Meadowbank.

Wooden Boat Festival – 30 Wooden Boat Photos 

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Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – 30 Wooden Boat Photos 
 
Todays photo essay of over 30 photos was captured by NZ Traditional Boatbuilding School trustee, Kere Kemp. Kere has just returned from the 2019 Festival and in Kere’s words “the festival was 3 great days of wooden boat jewellery everywhere you looked”.
 
I’ll let the pictures tell the story – remember you can enlarge a photo by click on it 😉
Enjoy
ps – nice to see the WW cap made an appearance 🙂
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RSVP– you and your boats name + approx. numbers to sueedwards@xtra.co.nz

A-Class Racing on the Waitemata

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A-Class Racing on the Waitemata

Today’s feature photo is from a photo essay that Mike McGehan sent in. If my eyes and memory are correct Left > Right

A15 Prize, A17 Ngatoa, A14 Ngataringa, A18 Tawera, A27 Arohia

Anyone able to put an approx. date on the photo?

Mondays WW story will be a goody – 30+ photos from the camera of Kere Kemp who has just returned from the 2019 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Great photos from a gent with a good key for woody talent 🙂 A tease below

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RSVP – you and your boats name + approx. numbers to sueedwards@xtra.co.nz

 

 

Woody Classics Weekend #2 – Waterfront Picnic Cruise

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Woody Classics Weekend # 2

WOODY CLASSICS WEEKEND #2 – WATERFRONT PICNIC CRUISE

Good morning woodys, following on from last months impressive event that saw 15 classic launches cruise to the Riverhead Hotel – We can confirm details of the 2nd event –  a cruise on Sunday 20th October up the Weti River to the Stillwater Motor Camp. The venue is situated in a stunning waterfront location on the upper reaches of the Weti River.
Depending on our cruising speed – approx. 1 1/2 > 2 hours from the Harbour Bridge. Scroll down to view photos I took when last there.
GREAT NEWS – we have access to the private deep water jetty, which makes the trip more pleasant.
And your’e best mate – Fideo is welcome, but on a lead please.
 
We will send out more details closer to the event, but for now – do two things:
 
1. Put a circle around Sunday 20th Oct in the diary and note the important times on the poster above. 
 
2. Send a quick RSVP email to Sue Edmonds at the address below – just need your name, vessel name and approx. and if you know it, the number of people aboard.
 
Remember – participation in the Woody Classics Weekend events is open to anyone and everyone, you don’t even have to own a boat – only one condition – you have a passion for wooden boats.
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McLeod – 36’ Bridgedecker 

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McLeod – 36’ Bridgedecker 

Todays wood is only a mystery due to a paranoid broker i.e. not want to show the boats name 😦  (Has been ID’ed as McLeod)
What we do know is she is single skin kauri carvel planked, built c.1965 and powered by a Ford 127hp D Series Ford diesel.
Her specs are 36’ x 11’1” x 2’11”. At a guess she is currently berthed in Auckland.
Thanks Ian McDonald for the heads up.
 
Can anyone tell us more about the vessel – builder, her name and anything on her past.
 
22-08-2025 INPUT ex ANNE JEFFERY –  My late husband and I owned McCloud for approx a year. Sold 2000 or 2001. She was built by Strongman Boat Builders in Coromandel (Strongman Road Coromandel) Her name was originally Loxsoma when we bought her but we changed it to McCloud. Great Boat. Photos below.
She was kauri plank and we purchased her from a friend. Maurie Palmer, boatbuilder.  
 

Where and when did we go wrong

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WHERE AND WHEN DID WE GO WRONG
I just love the photos above, back then even smaller boats and boats with outboards still looked like real boats. I’d like to think that if something like these boats were around today they would be popular.
The caption on the top photo reads ’The Latest Development of Outboard Motor-Boating.  A 20ft. V-bottom cabin boat built at Tauranga for use with a large-size outboard motor’
The SeaCraft runabout photo is via Peter Murton and again shows us that even small craft can look very salty.
Next week/weekend at the Auckland Viaduct Boat Show you will see some terrible examples of companies NOT using the skills of a designer or marine architect  – but there will be some cool examples e.g. Dickey Boats from Napier seem to get it right every year 🙂
HIGHEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVER VIEWING waitematawoodys YESTERDAY

Interesting day yesterday, WW struggles with the UK market, despite lots of promotional activity we just can not seem to crack it. Yesterday was the biggest number of individual people ever on one day visiting the WW site, with UK visitors 2nd in numbers to NZ for the 1st time ever. Checking out the stats the WW story titled ‘Electro-Chemical Damage Update’ by Chris McMullen was the single biggest viewed page.

I can only assume that somewhere in the UK, maybe a wooden boat building school or a tech university etc told all their pupils to check out Chris’s findings – what ever the reason its great to see the WW site and Chris’s research findings getting exposure around the world 🙂