Category Archives: Launches

Wairangi

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WAIRANGI

Wairangi has appeared before on ww (link below) but has recently had a big dose of TLC. The above photos are a mix of some taken by owner Owen Foster (via KRickets) while anchored at Rakino Island & mine that show her over Easter anchored in Man o War Bay, Waiheke Island. The newly varnished cabin/wheelhouse looks stunning & combined with a lot of other work, she looks very special – in fact I would be happy to call her mine 🙂

Also looking very smart in one of the photos is Safari, her owner Neil took the below photo of Raindance during the Sunday afternoon squall that hit the bay mid afternoon – rain, hail, wind = boats dragging their anchor all over the bay – fun & games but no damage.

Wairangi – heads north

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11-08-2018 Update – Photos below taken by Owen Foster using a drone, while at anchor at Oneroa, Waiheke Island. emailed in by Ken Ricketts

Update 19-07-2019 ex model maker John Whyte

Back in February I was contacted by John Whyte seeking info on Wairangi, John was doing the drawings of Wairangi for model maker Paul Berntsen (Havelock North). Earlier today John sent me the photos below of Paul’s finished model. John commented that the wharf behind it is a 1.34 scale model of the Opua wharf which measures just over 6 metres in length. John plans to build a lower wharf for the pilot boat with a ladder coming of the higher wharf.
The boat measures around 450mm long and 110mm wide.
Paul is obviously very talented, I struggle maintaining my own boat – building  something like this would be a recipe for disaster for me 🙂
Wairangi 1

Moananui

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MOANANUI

Moananui was launched in 1950, is 28′, carvel built from kauri & powered by a 1970 60hp Ford (Ebro) diesel. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the trademe heads up 🙂

Anyone able to supply more details on her?

Lady VIE

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Lady VIE

The above photos were sent in by Nathan Herbert, along with the questions – who is she & who built her – not often that Nathan draws a blank so keen to ID this launch & learn something about her past.

Once again Auckland was spared the worst of the weather predicted from ‘Cyclone’ Cook, there are some +’s to the high rates we pay. Must be time to go boating………. well maybe soon.

Update – Thanks to Ken Ricketts sending in the below photos (c.1939) from the Tudor Collins collection (Auckland Museum) we now know the boat is the Lady VI, so now woodys – who built her & where is she today?

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Woody On Tour – Havelock Marina

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Woody On Tour

Ross Dawson sent in the above collection of woodys from the Havelock Marina. In Ross’s words he is “currently touring around the Mainland, and taking any opportunity (when Mrs Tourist is otherwise distracted) to mooch about marinas and wharves to take pics of ‘interesting’ wooden boats.”
Great to see Gleniffer again – click link to see/read more about her, particularly Harold Kidd’s comments https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/11/glenifer/#comments.
Can we ID > provide more details on any of the other boats?

Home Wanted – Seacraft Run-about

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Home Needed – Seacraft Run-about

While out & about Mori Flapan came across the interesting small clinker runabout above, in a café at Rawene in Northland.

It is 12.4′ long and has a steering wheel marked ‘Seacraft Ltd, Auckland’. The history of the Sea Craft Ltd company can be found at http://www.mmsc.co.nz/history Makes for some interesting reading, particularly Yeoman Lionel Sands’ story, and the introduction of fibreglass.

The boat originally was an inboard, but the engine has been removed and transom cut to mount an outboard. However, a rudder with the boat looks like it might have been original.

The café owner told Mori that she is looking to dispose of the boat in the near future. She has had plenty of offers from locals to take the boat and use it as a garden ornament filled with soil and plants, but she hopes that the boat might have a better fate.

If there is anyone interested in the boat, contact Mori at mflapan@gmail.com & he will pass details on to the cafe.

Nor’West

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Nor'west Lochmara Bay 31 12 2007

Nor'west with [Te] Atatu (1919), Lochmara Lodge mooring 1 Jan 2008.

NOR’WEST

Nor’West is one of 2 identical boats built by Lane’s at Panmure circa 1948-50, Nor’West & Sou’East, given the year of their design, they had a very futuristic, low, sleek, appearance.
Both were used extensively for game fishing for many years. You can read more here in the comments section https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/27/nor-west/
I was sent the above photos dated 2007/2008 by Frank Stoks who crewed on her back them.
The photos below are from Brian Worthington.

Input from owner Daryl Brighouse – edited by AH
“I own Nor’West, when I bought her in Picton she was a little sad with very tired Ford diesels (two of the 1,000 units imported by Lees Marine ex Germany – and apparently the very first of the overhead cam diesels – now with no parts available world wide so magnificent anchor projects) I have recently replaced the engines with Nissans and at the same time replaced the vee drives that were well past use by date with decent American units. The rest of the vessel is absolutely solid and as good as the day she was built. Based in Havelock now she is still a very pretty and well founded much treasured vessel.  
The external fibreglassing on the cabin and some parts of the internal fine paint job had unfortunately covered up patches of dry rot / black water disintegration … in the extended coamings – looks as if, while the original coaming materials were kauri and in perfect condition, oregon or similar had been used to do the extension and end grain water ingress did the damage on the very course grain timber.  The silastic put into the hull instead of putty no doubt looked good when first completed however turned into a disaster after a season with all planks and joins showing badly and the silastic peeling out while under way.  With putty replacing the silastic and professionally painted she is starting to look as she should.  However I am really pleased to say that the heavy work is now done and only the cosmetic touch ups on the coamings and interior are left for me to play with this season / winter – which I do get a great deal of pleasure out of pottering around with, she is a fabulous vessel, handles magnificently and very comfortable. I remembered her as a child sailing in the Bay of Islands watching her thunder past with her nose in the air and stern well tucked down.
Any details from past owners would be well received.

NOR WEST (I) BY G LANE - 1951 EARLY DAYS

Lazealon

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LAZEALON

Doug Tutill sent in the above photo of the launch Lazealon that was owned by his father Arthur TutillI. Doug is curious to try and find out if Lazealon still exists & what became of her over the years.
Arthur Tutill had a great interest in boats and crewed on Val Masefields Thetis and the Nuns brothers champion H18 mullet boat, Corona.
Arthur was also secretary and commodore of Ponsonby Cruising Club. He bought Lazealon fully equipped in 1936 and sold her to a J.Shaw in Mangere in 1942. In the time he owned her, he cruised and fished the gulf extensively.

20-04-2017 Input from Keith Turner

Arthur Tutill (AJ Tutill Carriers, green trucks, still operating today) purchased Lazealon I think from Colin Wilde who built and launched her in 1936. Arthur used Lazealon until 1942. I don’t know the history between 1942 to 1947’.

1947 saw a new engine, a Morris Navigator, (Morris Cowley block) installed. The name was changed to Lone Star, and had a forward cabin built over the engine.

Easter 1965 Del Whitcombe found Lone Star lying clear of the tide beside Tim Lees shed at Sandspit. Del towed her to Milford and slipped her on the Milford Cruising Club slip where he recaulked her. We purchased Lone Star from the slip. After using her for a season we replaced the Navigator with a 60hp Fordson purchased from Don Tillesly in 1966. We installed the motor from the Inga Rd bridge. I removed the wheelhouse to make Lone Star look more original and fitted a mast. This engine was still in her when we sold her in 1976 to Alan Underwood who owned her for 2 years.

Alan sold her to 2 pilots, who sold her (I think) to Barry Johnson, then (I think) to Max Leech who took her to South Head. Then Lone Star was sold to Merv Brown in Paihia.

Next I heard Lone Star was sold to Vern Tonks around Feb 2006, and moored in Whangaruru where she was rammed by a runabout leaving a hole 1200 x 1200 and sank. She is now being restored in Whangarei by Steve Ekman.

BETTER THAN A BEEHIVE RESTORATION
Sadly a lot of your old wooden boat end up either in a land fill or as firewood (set alight with a box of beehive matches) – the one below morphed into a rather cool cabin/ shed. I missed the listing on trademe, probably just as will because if I had bought it, there would have been trouble on the home front 😉

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Taramea

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8, Taramea at Leasks

Brian Lows had her at this time in Timaru in 1993

TARAMEA

Recently I was contacted by Sharon Beer who had seen a comment on ww concerning a fishing boat named Taramea and her wee mishap while steaming north from Auckland with her new owner Mr Rob Clarke.
Sharon suspected that this boat may well be the boat that her Grandfather built in his back yard in Riverton.  Sharon has been trying to contact Rob Clarke to get confirmation and maybe share with him launching photographs of her Grandfathers boat, (Sharon’s father has the original photo album). Also included are some photos of later reincarnations that I Sharon on-covered over the last three years.
Sharon is keen to link / confirm the Taramea connection with her grandfather boat. Any woodys able to help?

Below are some comments that have been placed on a facebook page Sharon started – I reproduce them only for reference as we are unable to confirm the content.

June 2014:
Allan Mcmillan ( Other wise known as ZZ ) purchased her from Timaru around about late 90″s. And gill netted out of Picton for a couple of years before the bank took it away. It had been fully refurbished from top to bottom, inside and out just before he bought her. (That picture may have taken when the work was being done ). After leaving Picton I saw it briefly up on the hard in Nelson. That is the last time I sew her.
 
April 2017:
From the man who sold it to Mr Clarke, the photos are his.
“She ended up in Auckland named Maureen Anne. I owned her briefly (about 2008) after she sunk at her mooring in a storm. My brothers and i got her running and called her Taramea again.
Was powered by a 6bd1 Isuzu. Sold her to the current owner Rob Clarke . He managed to hole and sink her on his way up north.
Shes mostly restored now and last i heard in his driveway, way up North…. Rangasomething or other harbour….”
 
And from the brother of the above – “Boy was she tender. Had hundreds and hundreds of lead ingots in her bilge from stem to stern. We took every one out to clean out her bilge and then re-stacked them. Could steam very well tho”.

From Sharon’s father:
“Taramea was her original name . Power was from a O/e engine, then a  2 cyl Bolinder, followed by a 3 cyl National, and next a 4 cyl Fordson, were there any others ?
 Had a name change to ‘Gail I’ and kept at Leasks Bay , Stewart Is. “Hurricane ” John Leask. Powered by Fordson then.”
 
April 2017
From a fisherman – “Last that I can remember the Gail she had a black painted hull and at Moeraki. Was leaking badly and had a 4 cylinder Ford diesel engine.”

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Kenya (Mataroa) Ready For Launch

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Doorway Joe Slattery's Shed

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Kenya (Mataroa) Ready For Launch

I was contacted yesterday by Rob Ulvel, the owner of Mataroa, (Mataroa was previously named Kenya). Rob sent me the above amazing photos of Kenya outside the Judges Bay, Parnell, shed of her builder, Joe Slattery. The photos & details were sent to Rob by Peter Midgley, whose father Eric Midgley was an apprentice at the Slattery yard from 1923 to 1929, Eric along with Billy Rogers is pictured with Joe Slattery in the doorway of Joe’s shed. Billy is on the left & Eric on the right.
In the photo that shows two men inspecting the launch, they areprobably the Heards. Peter Midgley commented that these photos would have been taken late November 1928 as she was launched 1st December 1928.

To view photos of Mataroa being relaunched recently (Jan. 2017) in Wellington after a refit / make over, click this link’s https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/01/27/mataroa-re-launched/
Compare the 1928 & 2017 photos & see how remarkably original she is, from what I’ve seen of Rob’s work, I’m confident that when he moves onto Mataroa’s interior, he will ensure that the work is sympathetically done, commensurate with her vintage 😉 You can view & read a lot more about the boat by searching Mataroa in the ww search box.

Gay Rambler

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GAY RAMBLER

Reading the latest issue of the Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Associations newsletter, I came across the above photos of the c.1960’s 15ft Hartley run-about ‘Gay Rambler’, owned by Gavin Finch. Gavin purchased her in 1972 from her builder, Allan Hall of Ngongataha. Gay Rambler is powered by a 50hp  Johnston that Gavin purchased new in 1974. Trolling power comes from a 2010 Yamaha 3hp.
After 44 years of ownership, 82 year old,  Gavin would like to sell the boat & see her enjoyed by another family.
To discuss & view – contact Gavin on (07) 888 8182.

How To Build A Half Model
The link below is to another of Ian Smith’s short videos, this one is on how to make a half model. Thanks to Robin Elliott for sharing the link 🙂