WW t-shirts
I have been playing around with a t-shirt for ww’s for a while – several design prototypes have been done & styles of shirt tested.
Now if I asked my 23 yr. old son to wear a t-shirt, any t-shirt, he would tell me where to go. So when he ‘steals’ one of the latest designs & then wears it to the extended family & friends xmas lunch today, I think I might have a hit on a good design + his mates at lunch all asked for one 🙂
ps the raspberry pavlova was a winner as well.
Merry Christmas Waitemata Woodys
I hope Santa found you and delivered up what ever it was that you wished / hoped to get, whether it was something material (think boat stuff) or just a call / visit from someone special.
I’ll keep this short so you can make that Xmas lunch / dinner. Waitematawoodys is all about you, the readers and the team that post comments and send me their photos and stories. Its you that make it happen.
My view is that ww is just the window into the passion we all share and I’d like to think ww has helped propagate that passion.
I have a request – if you have not posted a comment on ww or sent in any material, please do in 2015. I’m here to empower you to tell stories about our passion thru photographs, words and videos. Stories about the diverse people, history, events and activities that make up the wooden boating community.
Enjoy the holidays and safe boating
Alan Houghton
ps as much as technology afloat will allow, I’ll keep the ww posts running so make sure you check in daily & remember if you see a good looking woody out there – take a photo & email it to me 🙂
Rosie Lees & Summertime
Where it all started
Final Push / Prep
Launch Day
SUMMERTIME
photos ex Lees Family
How today being Christmas Eve I really wanted a nice, feel good post today – when the details & photos of this one started to hit my email inbox, it went straight to a file tagged 24/12/14 🙂
If you follow ww you will know that Greg Lees is a very talented boat builder & runs one of the best classic friendly boat yards in NZ, what most of you would not have known is that Rosie his 20 year old daughter is also very talented. Todays post is proof of just how talented.
In October 2013 Rosie started building a Pelin Ventura, named ‘Summertime’ – now the build timeline got a little stretched out with things like work (Blenheim) getting in the way. However a 6 week period between Sept & Nov 2014 provided the ideal window to finish ‘Summertime’ off & she was splashed in early December 2014. You can see from the above photos that the boat looked beautiful and I’m told went better than expected i.e. 45mph with ease & Rosie was thrilled. Now this lady does not muck around, Saturday night Summertime was wrapped in shrink wrap and Sunday morning Greg and co. towed it down to Wellington in time for the ferry to Blenheim. Seems Rosie has a Regatta to attend. By the standard of the artistry, both the boat & Rosie the builder, should scoop a few awards.
Now this is quite an achievement for a 20 year old, seems to me that the Lees gene pool is mighty strong 🙂
05/03/2015 – Rosie & Summertime In the news (Marlborough Express)
AVALON
photos & details ex Harold Kidd
The above 3 photos of Avalon are from the Tudor Collins Bay of Islands game fishing collection*.
Avalon 36′ x 8’6″ x 3’6′ was built by Collings & Bell in December 1927 for Peter Williams of Russell for use as a game fishing boat in the Bay of Islands. She was one of Collings’ typical concave-convex square bilge designs like Alma G, Manaaki, Lorna Doone and Zane Grey also built for the Zane Grey game fishing circus. She had a 85-100hp Redwing engine and was designed for 16 knots. She was often chartered by Zane Grey who took her to Bermagui, NSW in 1936 for game fishing (sharks) there, she came back to NZ after the expedition. Some few years ago she was exported to the US to the Zane Grey Museum, somehow avoiding the then Antiquities Act.
*the images in the collection were bought at a flea-market by Sharon Knight who has made them available via Harold for all of ww followers to relish.
Photo below from classicgameboatsnz
More photos from the Tudor Collins collection – this time taken during the 1930’s visit of the Duke of Glouster. Mailed in by Ken Ricketts
RAEMA
Raema a 1940 Collings & Bell bridgedecker, has just changed hands & is now berthed at Port Motueka. She is 34′ LOA, 9’2″ Beam, 4’3″ Draft & powered by a 120hp 6cyl. Ford diesel.
On board there is a plaque saying ‘Raema RNZYS’ & she is rumored to have been once own by a past rnzys commodore.
Her owner would love to know more details on her past & see some early photos if they exist.
Harold Kidd Update
RAEMA was built in late 1923, not 1940. Her first owner was Gordon Bartleet, who had REHIA built by Colin Wild in 1939. I can find no contemporary reference to her builder, but Collings & Bell is almost certainly correct because she had a 4 cylinder Doman engine for which they were agents.
In March 1924 Bartleet sold her to Moller who was then Commodore of the Takapuna Boating Club and bought her back from him in September 1928. In October 1930 Percy McGill of Rotorua bought her, keeping her until the winter of 1933 when Horsley bought her. She then appears on the Kaipara in 1938-9 owned by Bo Bogle and then R. Smith (unless that’s another RAEMA). Then nothing in Auckland. She does not appear in the RNZYS records up to the mid 1960’s (which is where I’ve got to in transcribing them).
PS The only photograph I know of is at the Matakohe Museum and numbered PAHI 88. It shows her at the 1938 Pahi Regatta.
Lake Taupo Boating – A Look Back In Time
Now this is a really interesting website (very basic) that records the history around boats tjat have been based at Lake Taupo. There is also some great stories on the boats & the history of the Lake. The site is very basic in terms of its layout but have a poke around & you will be pleasantly surprized. We have no idea who is behind the site, Nathan discovered it in a random boat search.
Enjoy.
Links below
Boat Photos http://www.promotionalart.com/History_Taupo_Boats/Boat%20Main%20%20Page.htm
Stories http://www.promotionalart.com/History_Taupo_Boats/Stories_.htm
Mystery Launch
I think I can make out the name as Waihora. She was anchored in Oneroa on 26/10/2014.
What say you all on her pedigree?
Update 15-04-2019 – See below input from Jonathan Hope – its a great read. Also check out the comments section – lots of intel there 🙂
“To all of you that have responded to the history of the WAIHORA,I would like to relay to you all some of my happy memories spent aboard her.Logan and Joyce were my uncle and aunt and I spent many weekends and Christmases cruising the Hauraki Gulf,Bay Of Islands and The Barrier as “cabin boy” on her after their son,Rudyard was unavailable because of family commitments.
Logan always addressed me as Little Charlie or Jack Jack.I knew him as Big Charlie .Charlie would phone me on a Thursday and say that we are off for the weekend.All good,he picked me up after his work at the Mill at 5pm on a Friday, and we went to the boat moored next to the Naval Base in Devonport.My first job after rowing the supplies to the boat was to get into the dinghy with auntie Joyce to remove the oil stains off the WAIHORA with Jiff.Charlie would relax while auntie Joyce and I motored to a suitable evening mooring.The next morning we would pull the piper net for bait using bran as burley.After that ,Charlie would drop me off on some rocky outcrop. The rules were that I had to chop up ground bait for half an hour,then start fishing with two handlines.After I had caught two thirds of a sugar sack of snapper,Charlie would pick me up.It was also my job to gut the fish on the trip home that he would give away to friends on Sunday pm.
Also,I those days,we would see a commercial crayfish pot say at the Barrier.The “rules” were that if you pulled a commercial pot and took a crayfish,you left a bottle of beer.A pretty good deal!After half of a 3 lb crayfish for lunch,I didn’t eat much dinner.
I could write a book of my memories on the WAIHORA, spearing kingfish and flounder at Te Couma Harbour,spearing big stingrays with a flounder spear attached to a rope and being towed in the dinghy for 10 minutes before the 4 pronged spear came out at The BOI,illegally laying flounder nets,diving for scallops from the cabin of the WAIHORA with only a mask that you had to hold on to,catching hapuka at the Barrier,going to my first dance at Triphena,having and my first dance with a girl! Charlie also gave me my first bottle of beer,It went straight to my head and I forgot about about my first girl friend .Needless to say,I didn’t row back to the boat.
Incidentally,Charlie’s first launch was the SEQUOYA,a bridge decker. When Brin Wilson was commissioned to build the WAIHORA I went with Charlie on the SEQUOYA to Rangitoto.He had plywood templates for the ribs of the WAIHORA which we matched against the branches of the pohutakawa trees!
So many fond memories!
I Devote my current and past fond memories to my Uncle, William John Logan Nicks.”
Dr Jonathan Hope
Waipu Boats
photo & details ex Colin McKenzie ex New Zealand Herald Jan 1953.
A flotilla of launches & the scow Rahiri seen here at the Waipu Landing at the start of the celebrations to mark the arrival of the Nova Scotian settlers there 100 years previously.
From the left:
#1 Bridge decker on left (was owned by Mac Kelly, Beachlands) Colin has forgotten the name of the launch.
#2 Highland Lass (Jim Somner, Waipu)
#3 Bluebird, (John Munroe, Papakura)
#4 Spindrift, (Gordon McKenzie, Clevedon – Gordon was Colin’s father & Commodore of the Clevedon Cruising Club)
#5 Rahiri (Jock McKinnon, skipper). The remains of Rahiri are now to be seen in the sands/beach at Blackpool, Waiheke Island.
SENTOSA
photos & ‘details’ from Pam Cundy
The photos above are of the 28′ double-ender Sentosa, that was recently hauled out at the Whangateau slip getting some DIY repairs & a lick of paint. Her owner, Bill Freeth would love to find out more about her background. Bill has had her for approx. 6 years & understands that she was kept at Panmure for 10-12 years. Bill bought her from Waitakaruru (Thames) way. Talking to an old Kaipara Harbour Master he thinks she may have been one of two built on the Kaipara.
She has just been re-powered with a Sole 44hp (a Spanish marinised Mitsubishi motor), previously she had a huge American landing craft motor in her. There is some speculation her original name was Golden …….. something – Golden Spray ??
Any of the woodys out there able to shed some more light on Sentosa’s past?
MOERANGI
Moerangi is a 1901 Logan Bros 55’ 9” trawler style classic launch that spent most of her life as a fishing boat and ferry before undergoing 2 separate restorations the last in Whangarei costing I understand over $300,000.
Being royalty i.e. a genuine Logan, she has a wonderfully documented pedigree of ownership and escapades detailing her life over the last 113 years, which makes my life very easy when doing a ww post. Click the (blue) links below to view/read. Built in the Logan style triple skin heart kauri she has been restored by the expert shipwrights of The Wood Shed in Whangarei who obtained suitable heart kauri and replaced in the traditional manner all that was required, its interesting reading & you can see where the $300k went.
Powered by a 1950 Gardner 5L3 reconditioned in 1986 she has traveled approx 500 hours since and cruises 7-8kts at 750 rpm using approx 8 liters per hour. Accommodation is in 2 double staterooms forward with ensuite and aft plus 2 single berths. The wheelhouse has a large saloon and dining area, aft galley with 2 burner stove grill & oven, 3 way electric fridge, pressure H&C water, 1 heads and a separate full size shower. Electronics VHF, autopilot, GPS radar, depth-sounder & TV/DVD.
Moerangi is for sale (sales brochure below) & this really is one of those situations where someone can ‘profit’ at the expense of someone else e.g. all the money has been spent & the work done to sympathetically modernize this unique classic motor launch while retaining her graceful lines. Her next owner gets to enjoy the vessel without all the hard work & I’m sure at a discount to what was actually invested in her restoration.
Older photos
Akaroa Mail article 15/1/1988 click to enlarge
October 2014 ‘The Wood Shed’ shipwright work summary / report link Shipwright report October 2014 (2 pages)
Boating NZ Oct 2007 feature link Boating NZ Oct 2007 Article (5 pages)
Ownership history link Some Ownership history
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