ISLAY II
photo ex Dean Wright
The photo of the above launch, which from the name board appears to be ‘Islay II’, was taken by Bay of Islands based professional photographer Dean Wright, so the photo location is up ‘North’.
Can anyone confirm the ID of the vessel & supply more info on her? I could be wrong but I seem to recall she was based at Bayswater Marina a couple of years ago.
ROYAL IRISH
photo & details ex Harold Kidd
Royal Irish was built by Bailey & Lowe in August 1913 for H.C. Williamson of Cape Runaway and named after a currently popular racehorse.
She is a 32 footer, originally powered by a 4 cylinder 18-35hp Sterling marine engine. She broke away from her moorings in the winter of 1914 and was shipped by scow back to Bailey & Lowe in Auckland for extensive repairs.
Royal Irish remained on the Bay of Plenty coast for many years. Joe Addison of Waimana owned her during the 1940s when she had a 3 cylinder Ailsa Craig diesel. In 1941 she broke down off the Raurimu Islands. Addison sent off a carrier pigeon with the details. The Whakatane pilot boat ‘Port Whakatane’ went out and towed her in. Addison sold her to Charles Bell of Waimana who replaced the Ailsa Craig with a BMC Commodore.
By 1975 she was owned by Barry Davies of Leigh and she’s been in and around Leigh ever since. In fact still fishing out of Leigh today.
Tough old bird!
NGARUNUI
photo ex Dean Wright
The photo of the above motor-sailer (or maybe its more a launch with a steadying sail) was sent to me by Bay of Islands based professional photographer Dean Wright so I’m assuming the location is ‘North’.
Can anyone ID the vessel & supply more info on her?
Details from Robin Elliott
Its Ngarunui. To my mind she is the best looking boat in the Bay. Could do with a more sympathetic colour scheme, the lolly blue doesn’t appeal to me, but that’s just being picky.
Jim Young built about 1955, so I assume a Young design as well. Registered with the AYMBA by J.A.K. Spicer and C.R. Pollard in 1957 with dims of 48ft x 46ft x 11ft 8 in x 4ft 3 in and a 165hp diesel of undeclared make.
She was based in Whangarei when I moved up here around 2006 but has lately been moored in Te Uenga Bay (Parekura Bay). Haven’t seen her out much recently but we did sight her a couple of times over the summer.
Harold Kidd Update
According to Lloyds Yacht Register she was designed and built by J.H. Young in 1955 for J.A.K. Spicer and C.R. (Russ) Pollard. She is 48’x46’x11’8″x4’3″ and was originally powered with twin GM 165hp diesels of 1942 vintage (obviously ex-USN) + an 11hp Coventry Cub. Beautiful craft!
25-01-2016 Update
As ID’ed by Russell Ward (3 June 2015) Ngarunui has 2 prop shafts, one above the other. See Ken Ricketts photos below.
27-01-2016 Update
Stewart Lodge (current owner) reports that Ngarunui had a single 165 6-71, and this was replaced with a 210hp version of the same. Always had the aux engine mounted behind the main with shaft above. The current engine is a Doosan (Korean) commercially rated engine at 200hp, solid mounted.
A Classic Lake Boat?
This has Lake Rotoiti written all over her. Not sure when she was built but she is 11’5″ + bow sprit with a 3’3″ beam. Powered by a Briggs & Stratton in-board that pushes her thru the water effortlessly. Comes with a trailer (legal) & is for-sale on trade me – current bid (no reserve) is $2500. A steal & the ensign is included 🙂 Be fast auction closes Wednesday 😉
waitematawoodys.com Gets 1,000,000 Views
At some stage today the counter on the watematawoodys.com blog site will tick over & show that people have viewed the site 1,000,000 times.
I choose the above photo for todays post because to me it captures what the classic wooden boat movement was / is all about. Its got everything there – motor boats, yachts, dinghies, people hanging out having a good time – there is even a dog 🙂 . The location is obviously Mansion House Bay at Kawau Island. The photo was sent to me by Robert Brooke & is from his father’s, Jack Brooke, stunning collection. (click on the photo to enlarge)
When I look back at the first few posts on waitematawoodys its amazing how we have evolved & now how big the audience is both in terms of numbers & the geographical reach.
I would like to thank all the followers of the site, but special thanks must go to everyone that sends in material (photos & info). Doing a daily post can be a little challenging at times but just when I start to panic, an email arrives from someone with some old photos of granddads boat. I would also like to thank Harold Kidd who gave me a swift kick in the backside 2 years ago in terms of getting serious about the site & the accuracy of the content. I would be embarrassed to say how many hours I had to spend to go back & populate the existing posts in terms of year, designer,builder etc but now the site is the #1 reference tool for New Zealand classic wooden boats. But that is a by-product, the real success of the site is that everyday it delivers to people something fun & enjoyable to read & interact with, something that puts a smile on their face.
Way did I start waitematawoodys ? – well the idea came to me via my involvement in the NZ Classic Yacht Association, the CYA is a great club but like most small clubs it can be seen as slightly cliquish, we do so many neat things but the audience is small & there are so many more people out there with an interest in wooden boats. With the birth of social media networks, stuff (photos, stories, info) that had previously been packed away, could now be available to anyone with a computer or smart phne. The future was all about content being on-line & easy to access. It was also about being collaborative. With the advent of personal websites (called blogs) people like myself are able to create a communication channel that has no boundaries. But more importantly blogs are able to be managed/controlled so that they remain true to the topic, which in the case of waitematawoodys is – the study & appreciation of classic wooden boats & the desire to tell the stories behind them & the people who built them, owned them & crewed on them.
At the start the content was all about motor boats but as the audience has grown the readers now have a broader interest in all classic wooden boats & things related to them.
Why did I call it waitematawoodys – now I could put my advertising hat on & rabbit on about what the words mean to people but the simple truth is its just a cool name & looks great on a tee-shirt 🙂
I still get a buzz out of posting daily & from the feedback I get, so do you. But folks – do not hold back on spending stuff to me, some of it in isolation may not be enough for a post but I file it & then bang, someone else sends me something on the same topic & we have a story.
Again thanks for being part of waitematawoodys & remember – its all about wooden boats.
Cheers Alan
ps below is an advertisement I made to plug membership of the CYA (you should join up) the photo (ex Chris Miller) shows we are still enjoying these wonderful craft. If you look hard that’s me in my number one clinker dinghy – I say #1 because there are a few………….. 🙂
CYA Classic Journal – Issue 100
In todays world of publishing, hitting 100 issues for a bi-monthly is pretty impresive. If the below is a little hard to read, click on the blue link below to download a pdf file. Enjoy 🙂
Santa Rosa > Argyll > Lady Argyle
Updated details from Harold Kidd, Don Galbraith, Lynton Bates, the Lidgard family & Ken Ricketts. photos ex Don Galbraith& KR
Lady Argyle was built in 1965 by John Lidgard at his Glen Eden factory, for Mac Stewart & one other partner (a taxi driver), when launched she was named Santa Rosa. She was built based on drawings done for the original owner by “Hoki” Williams, a retired staff member of Shipbuilders Ltd., with modifications by John Lidgard.
She is a big volume, massively strong traditional bridge-decker measuring 52′ with about 15′ beam & an impressive flared bow. She is still powered by what is believed to be her original engines, 2 x 6 cyl. 130hp Ford Dover diesels, with 2 enormous props, which John & Graeme Lidgard both think are original.
Mac Stewart & partner retained her until c.1975. Norm Galbraith was the next owner & changed her name to Argyll after the part of Scotland from which the Galbraiths originated. The Galbraiths sold her to Maurice Mahaffe (a Salvation Army officer) who changed her name to Lady Argyle. Mahaffe most likely sold her to a John Taylor (who previously owned Marine), Taylor still owned her in 2002. Another owner was “Spick Spicer (date unknown). Someone (??) sold her to a Steve Lay, who sold her to a Dr. Eric Horne, a Scottish GP, Horne sold her to Graeme Lidgard, a cousin of John Lidgard, who has owned her for approx. 2 1/2 years.
Check out the comments section for more chat on her
Classic Reproductions
Today’s post profiles the work of Wayne Spicer, a very talented modeler who has built an impressive number of our classic fleet. Wayne has been modeling for approx. 17 years & is a volunteer model maker at the Maritime Museum in Auckland (on Tuesdays). Wayne has built a number of square riggers including Endeavour, Bounty (3), Victory (3), Spanish galleon.
While at the Museum Wayne meet Rod Marler, the owner of the Logan yacht ‘Little Jim’, Rod commissioned Wayne to build a model of LJ & this got Wayne hooked on Logan boats. Wayne told me that he enjoyed the classic lines of the Logans and how they showed the evolution of sailing designs since the late 1800’s. You will see from the the list below that he has built quite a few.
BUILT TO DATE:
Thelma
Rainbow
Waitangi
Jessie Logan (2)
Little Jim (2)
Tawera (2)
Ariki
Aromoana
Ngaio
Gypsy
Nomad
Ranger
Helen
Most of Wayne’s models are made from scratch which means they are not kit sets, fyi below are some photos of the model making process for Nomad.
AROHA
photo ex Robert Brooke
Another photo from the Jack Brooke collection. Son Robert thinks the location is North Harbour, Kawau Island, but not positive.
What do we know about Aroha ?
Input from Harold Kidd
I have always thought that this image was at Lidgards’ property at Shark Bay in Bon Accord. The launch is the 23’9″ x 6’3″ AROHA owned by T H Scandrett of Mullet Point about this time. She was built about 1907 in Auckland but I can’t tell you who built her. She had a 4hp Standard marine engine and reverse gear.
A Quiz photo ex Harold Kidd With todays post we are looking to put a name to this Auckland steam launch, her build / launch date being just post the WW1 period. She was twin-screw, twin Simpson-Strickland tandem compound-engined. Her boilers were by Price, 40 ihp per engine @ 250 rpm that pushed her along at very impressive 24 knots.
Anyone able to ID her or provide more info?
27-05-2015 A Confession from Harold K
Alan has suggested that I come clean and confess that I was winding up Russell aka vintagesteamer.
Daniel was a bycatch.
I bought the postcard on which this image appears many years ago and immediately thought it was a spoof for all the reasons that Russell and Daniel advance. The Simpson Strickland, 24 knots etc were poetic licence on my part.
In the original image there appears to be a shimmer of heat from the forward “funnel” which smudges the rigging of the little coastal steamer at the wharf. That does lend verisimilitude to the steamer thesis.
The point that Frank Stoks makes never occurred to me, that the conventional oil launch nearest the camera was conveniently juxtaposed in front of a twin-funneled steamer. I am not at all sure that’s the case as the same objections would apply to the boat behind which would have to be jolly small (and a fake itself perhaps). I did think that the boat behind (if there was one) could be some kind of smart Naval picket boat or pinnace from, say, one of the many visiting warships during the interwar period but can’t find a suitable prototype in the British, US and Japanese navies.
I now think that the two funnels are dummies done as some kind of visual joke…but why?
And why have those two short clerestories, which would seem to serve no purpose, unless they are dummies too?
I trawled through newspapers of the time and can find no reference to such a spoof taking place, nor can I id the launch, sans accoutrements. I have been busy and haven’t followed up one wild line that might explain the spoof. Will do so and report.
However, it’s time to confess and congratulate the contributors on their display of erudition and common sense.
