Category Archives: Launches

2014 Classic Yacht and Launch Exhibition

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Jim Young

2014 Classic Yacht and Launch Exhibition

‘A celebration of acclaimed NZ designer Jim Young’

In conjunction with Auckland Heritage Festival 2014

Once again the Tino Rawa Trust is hosting the Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition & all waitematawoodys followers are encouraged to attend & celebrate the acclaimed designer and boat builder Jim Young. On display will be a static display of photos and stories celebrating his life and career. The exhibition will also feature several Young designed and built yachts and launches berthed next to the Tidal Steps at Karanga Plaza. Viewing on-board vessels only with owner’s permission.

Location: Karanga Plaza and Berths, Halsey Street, Viaduct. (map below)

Exhibition Date: Saturday, 4 October to Sunday 5 October

Time: 10am – 4pm    (Free) Open to the public. Donation welcomed

Sponsors and Supporters: Tino Rawa Trust, Trillian Trust, Waterfront Auckland, NZ Maritime Museum, Viaduct Harbour, CityGuard, Classic Yacht Association, BIA.

Location Map (click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

Tide In / Tide Out

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Tide In / Tide Out

Following on from yesterdays post, these two photos are from Mary Guthrie’s collection & are most likely from the same day c.1935, we get a glimpse of the launch in yesterdays photo.
Its that classic scene everyone having a great time ashore then oops – where did the tide go 🙂

Certainly the Manukau Harbour, most likely Titirangi / French Bay area.

Any one able to ID the launch?

Lady Shirley, Little Jim & Ngataki @ Boat Show

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Lady Shirley, Little Jim & Ngataki @ Boat Show

Dropped down to the boat show at the Viaduct yesterday for a quick look – 4 hours later……. I left. A very good show & well supported by the trade with some great stands & vessels on display. Sadly only 3 classics – just way to much tupperware for me but as they say horses for courses.

LADY SHIRLEY  – Built by C Bailey & Son. , the bridge decker was restored (rebuilt) by Yachting Developments (YDL) & now owned by Greg Hinton was a thing a beauty gleaming in the sun.

LITTLE JIM – the Arch Logan yacht was back in the water after nearly a year in Peter Brookes shed where she had some running repairs & a back to bare wood paint & varnish (Allwood MA) job. Again she too looked a million dollars.

Ngataki – I think if Johnnie Wray was at the show & walking the docks he would not have recognized his old boat, Tino Rawa Trust & YDL have waved the magic wand over Ngataki. To see / read more on her – enter Ngataki in the ww search box.

 

Rehia Z15

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REHIA
photo ex Scott Taylor & details ex Harold Kidd

Rehia was launched by Colin Wild on 26th January 1939 for Gordon Bartleet but was bought by Frank Pidgeon of the Ace Tyre Co shortly after. She was powered by a single 6 cyl. petrol Buda that was imported by Seabrook Fowlds and installed by Allely Bros. A newspaper report at the time said she had twin Budas, but was wrong. She was fully mobilised with NAPS in 1943 as Z15 with Frank Pidgeon as skipper and Ron Hunt (married Jack Brooke’s sister) as crew. Bill Ryan bought her about 1948 (or possibly straight from the postwar disposal sale). She was loosely referred to as a “shortened Amakura”.

Scott Taylors father Mac, crewed on Rehia during the war when she was on boom patrol at North Head. Below are the navy documents recording Mac’s time aboard. click to enlarge.

More Rehia photos & details here.   https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/23/rehia/

Gulf Star > Cirrus > Lady Elwyn > ??

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Gulf Star > Cirrus > Lady Elwyn > ??

photos ex trademe

Gulf Star in her current configuration is a traditional pilothouse displacement vessel. Length: 40’ Beam: 10’9” Draft: 3’3”. There is a belief that Bailey & Lowe built her but Harold Kidd, marine historian & author, questions this & he would know better than most of us, given he is about to publish another book, this time focussing on Bailey & Lowe.
Solid kauri carvel planked & powered by 120hp Ford motor, which pushes her along at 8-9 knots. Lovingly restored & maintained by the present owners over last 17 years.

While for sale the current owner (Suzanne Bell) would love to know some more about her past. Harold Kidd has advised that Fred Hilditch of the Coastguard Service owned her at least between 1978 and 1983. Before that she was owned by Coastguard itself from the end of 1954 and was called Cirrus (from 1956). She was lent to the Police in 1955-6 during the refit of Lady Shirley. Before that she was Lady Elwyn & owned by W.W. Smith from 1952 at least.

Unfortunately Harold knows little of her history before the above but suspects that she may be a lot older than the 1940 Suzanne Bell understands was her launch date.

Any of you waitematawoodys out there able to shed some light on her earlier years ?

Got A Question, Looking For A Boat, Found Something Of Interest?

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Got A Question, Looking For A Boat, Found Something Of Interest?

ww gets lots of correspondence that start off like this :

” I used to own _ _ _ _ _ in the the 1960’s, do you know where she is now”

” I wonder if you could help me trace my granddads boat”

So I have set up a Lost & Found post – if your looking for a boat just enter brief details in the comment section below & click the ‘post comment’ button. You click on this icon, top right (up turns blue when you scroll over it), to go straight to comments – the number indicates the number of comments.

Over on the right hand side of the site is a Lost & Found panel – if you click on that it will take you to this post.

You can also use the search box to see if there have been any info posted – just type the boat name into the box & hit enter.

GIVEN ITS THE COMMENTS SECTION – KEEP IT SHORT i.e. NO STORY TELLING

I’ll trial it for a while & see how it goes. Alan H

Romance

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Waiheke 1914
Taupo 1972
Taupo 2014 – 100yrs old

ROMANCE
photos & details ex Paul Drake

Romance 1 designed & built by Bailey and Lowe in 1914 has just celebrated her 100th birthday. Owner Paul Drake gifted the old girl a new coat of paint & installed an anchor winch – which he told me actually says more about the age of her owners than the age of the boat 🙂

The Drake family have been Romance’s custodians for the last 42 years & she has been kept at Taupo since 1931. She was built for W.C. Mills who replaced her with the larger and faster ROMANCE 2 in 1919, now owned by Pauline Kidd.

Romance had the distinction of appearing on both the front and back covers of The New Zealand Yachtsman magazine of May 19, 1917. See below photos of both covers taken by Paul from an original copy of this magazine he has.

The September 5, 1914 edition of the same magazine included the following: “The launch Romance was hauled up at Queen’s Parade at Devonport on Saturday afternoon last. She is a handsome little craft and is a welcome addition to our fleet of pleasure boats. Last Saturday it was delivered to Mr Mills, a 26 foot tuck stern launch. This boat is of the raised deck type, her engine room being forard and her cabin a roomy compartment aft. The cockpit is spacious and is fitted with the usual seats and lockers. Her motive power consists of a 6 HP 4 cycle engine. She has been named Romance”.

The Drake family saved Romance from the slab sided plywood cabin brigade when they rebuilt the cabin using there own ideas in 1976. They also re ribbed and re floored her, installing a wing motor (an ancient Feltham twin), and a magnificent Chrysler Ace. These engines continue to serve her well.

The above photos show Romance at Waiheke in 1914, as purchased in Taupo in 1972, and as she came off the slip a couple of weeks ago following her 100 year repaint.

More details & photo here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/05/10/romance/

The NZ Yachtsman May 19, 1917. Front Cover
The NZ Yachtsman May 19, 1917. Back Cover ad.

Ken Rickett photo below – Feb 2014

ROMANCE - TAUPO - FEB 2014

 

 

Kereru

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KERERU

Info & photos ex Sea Spray magazine ex Neil Chalmers

Following on from yesterdays post on the mystery Brin Wilson’s motorsailer – today we have Kereru (maori for pidgeon) another Brin Wilson designed & built 30′ motor-sailer. Originally built for Frank Pidgeon (……..Kereru).
She was the cover / lead story on the June 1960 edition of Sea Spray.
With a 86hp Ford diesel engine she would have had a good turn of speed when the wind dropped. These boats were very practical & attractive solutions to the power/sail dilemma , the only other that has come close is the fiberglass replica Logan 33’s, which unfortunately are no longer in production.

Anyone know where Kereru is today?

Update from Mark McLaughlin (article from NZ Herald 29 Jan 2011)
Kereru is now on Lake Rotoiti & since arriving she has had her saloon windows enlarged but is otherwise fairly original, and kept in great condition. There are also some photos of her on WW under the 2014 Wooden Boat Parade post.

Mystery Launch 19/09/2014

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Mystery Launch 19/09/2014

photo ex Dave Jackson via Adrienne

All I can tell you about the above launch / motor-sailer is that she is a Brin Wilson sedan. Now there can’t have been many sedans around with a stick, so lets see what we can uncover.

Wenna

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Wenna

WENNA

With ww I try to plan the posts a few days in advance, well yesterday Harold Kidd turned my schedule upside down when he sent in the above photo of Wenna. Earlier this week,
Harold was the recipient (on loan) of a photo album from Margaret Field of the O’Neill* family. One of the photos was the stunning one of Wenna above.

Wenna was recently purchased as  Rangitira & renovated by Pam  Gundy at the Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard (launch day photo below)

*Eric O’Neill arrived in NZ with his family just after WW1 and lived in Ring Terrace, just above St. Mary’s Bay & Wenna was built for him around 1925. Given his residence, most likely by a St. Mary’s Bay builder, the options being Collings & Bell, Leon Warne, Dick Lang (or Sam Ford who took over Lang’s yard in 1923 and used Ford’s moulds until 1924 when Lang returned).
Now two days ago I was sent a photo of Marua (below), by Dave Jackson via Adrienne, Dave’s father, (David Jackson Snr) was one of the owners of the Marua c.1955-56. Dave commented that Marua & Wenna were very similar in design, with Marua being built in 1915 for E. McKeown by Peter A. Smith who was an engine supplier and contracted out his hulls to St Mary’s Bay builders. Harold would pick Dick Lang as the builder of Marua’s hull, not Leon Warne who was still with Collings & Bell in 1915. It’s likely that Dick (or Sam Ford possibly) built Wenna too. Marua was a total loss as a result of the fire that destroyed the Baileys yard.

There’s always the possibility that Collings & Bell built both boats but Harold does not think they did much (if any) work for Peter A. Smith as they were more interested in selling their own brands of marine engines where the greater profit margin lay and weren’t short of their own orders.

All of the above aside – both Marua and Wenna are best described as typical St. Mary’s Bay – built launches of the period.

Note – when Pam’s partner George (Emtage) saw Margaret Field’s photo of Wenna, he starting looking for his chainsaw – he liked what Harold described as the slinky look – so do I.

Pam on the other hand is happy with Wennna’s tram-top, which according to Dave Jackson was built by Cyril Freeman of Ponsonby. He was working for Shipbuilders at the time, but this job was a ‘homer’. This was during the late 1940’s maybe even the early 1950’s.

MARUA

Marua

 WENNA (Rangitira) 2014

Wenna 2014
Wenna 2014
Wenna 2014

07/11/14 – photo of Wenna ex Harld Kidd ex Bob Wiley