SOS – SOUTHERN MAID – CLASSIC 1929 MOTOR LAUNCH NEEDS SAVING
The 42’ 1929 wooden motor launch – SOUTHERN MAID, built by E.R. Lane in Picton has just popped up on tme with a call out for someone to help save this significant southern woody. Current owner is unable to continue the upkeep of the vessel and the call has gone out for a new owner to step up.
As we can see from the photos below, she hasn’t always been in the ‘as presented for sale’ condition.
There must be a woody follower in the South Island that can bring the SOUTHERN MAID back to the condition she deserves. ( thanks Ian McDonald for the heads up)
The 32’ Collings & Bell built (1913) launch ARAB has appeared several times on WW, but today thanks to John Dawson recovering from a unplanned hospital visit and having to rest up, we get to share some perviously unseen on WW photos of ARAB.
Most of the photos are from the McLeod collection at the Auckland Libraries heritage section.
In the first two photos we see ARAB moored at unidentified road bridge c.1910/19.
In the third photo we have ARAB on the left and a launch identified by it’s commercial number – A.K.719 in the centre. The location is Te Kouma Harbour.
The last photo is also from TE Korma and dated c.1910/19.
Recently WW was sent the above photo of the 46’ Leon Warne built (1939) classic wooden launch PIRATE by Derek Gerritsen.PIRATE has made many appearances on WW – links below.
WWhasn’t seen this particular photo. The crew shirts suggest the photo was taken during a game fishing tournament and possibly indicate the dateisn’t as old as the boat appears in the photo.
Woodys that can correctly name the crew go into the draw towin a WW cap.Note the more correct names = more chances in the draw.ENTERY IS VIA EMAIL ONLY TO– Entrycloses at 9am 10-06-2026
The classic wooden launch – ASEREHT has only made one brief appearance WW, back in 2020 when I spotted her mooching around Rakino Island.
Back in January of this year she was for sale and thanks to her listing we get to see and learn more about her.
Built in 1989 by Geoff Bagnall she is 34’ and powered by 135hp D Series Ford that gives ASEREHT a comfortable cruising speed of 9.5knots.
As with anything that came out of Geoff Bagnall’s Milford shed she very well built and appointed with all the systems needed for safe , comfortable cruising.
WW was recently contacted by Joan McCracken regarding a classic wooden launch – Joan is helping prepare a 2027 calendar for the Alex Turnbull Library.
During her search for photographs matching the calendar theme ‘Picnics’ she came across the photo above that is dated March 1952 and tagged ‘RONGO in Queen Charlotte Sound’.
The photo was taken by K. V. Bigwood. Joan is hoping WW readers can help with any information on the vessel, the photo, and specifically who owned the RONGO at this time – and is the owner / captain the person in the cap serving tea in the photo.
Back in May 2013 we a RONGO story that featured RONGO, at the time Harold Kidd provided extensive details on vessels named – RONGO / RONGO I, RONGO !! – Link below to the 2013 WW story – https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/05/29/who-can-id-this-launch/
01-07-2026 INPUTS ex IAN FORSYTH – photos below of RONGO towing LINDA up Heliers Creek 1986
Below – Lloyd Mumme with Tobias Forsyth on the bow of AVALON alongside RONGO
Below – RONGO atRambler Crs. wharf, Helliers Creek
Todays woody photograph was taken by A. J. Watson and originally published in the Auckland Weekly News in February 1908.
The photo captures the Thames fishing fleet departing for a community picnic ‘up the river’, which usually refers to a trip toward Kopu or further up the Waihou River, a common tradition for the local heritage groups and fishing families to celebrate a successful season.
While the full names of every vessel in the 1908 fleet are not all documented in a single public list, we can identify several based on the registration numbers visible in the high-resolution original:
Identified Vessels
T 547 (Left): This is the DREADNOUGHT. It was a well-known launch in the Thames fleet during this era.
TS 35 (Right, background): This vessel is the VIKING The “TS” prefix was common for Thames-based sailing or auxiliary vessels.
T 514 (Right, foreground): This is the MIZPAH.
Historical Context- The fleet shown here represents the early motorisation of the Thames fishing industry. At this time, many of these launches were owned by local families (such as the Judd, Maxwell, or Mears families) or by the growing Dalmatian fishing community that revolutionised the Hauraki Gulf fishing trade.
FRIDAY FLASH BACK – CLASSIC WOODY BOATING CLUB LIFE
Todays woody story comes to us from the Shelly Park Cruising Club (East Auckland) via woody owner James Dreyer (MV LAUGHING LADY) . James sent in the above video that was pulled together by one of the club members from the clubs archives and with the help of AI (image retouching and historical data input) we get to have a flash back to how the boating club scene snowballed in the 1970’s > early 1980’s.
After the first minute we get to see some amazing craft, a lot of which are still very active in the classic wooden boating movement today.
The film is less than 5 minutes so make yourself a cup of your poison and sit back and enjoy the film.
Todays 26’ wooden launch – KAREN JOY has recently popped up on tme. We know very little about her other than that KAREN JOY is powered by an older keel cooled Lister engine.
Home port is Dunedin so probably able to handle some sporty conditions.
Any of the southern WW woodys able to tell us more about KAREN JOY.
Last month I was a mission to locate some bronze/brass cowl vents for the classic ex workboat PRIMADOONA, owner James Hutchinson is the son-in-law of one of my oldest boating friends (Dennis Ross) – we go back 40+ years. So James gets auto access to the WW Aladdin’s cave of cool boat bits. I knew I had some of varying sizes but just where in the lock up was the challenge. Fast forward and on the 2nd deep dive jackpot (photo below)
During our chats James mentioned he had been scanning some of his late mother-in-laws old photos and came across some very cool ones of the MIL’s brother’s boat. James believes his name may have been Remy Burridge, but the name of the craft isn’t recorded. Most of todays photos are dated 1933. James commented that the family would just pull the boat up in front of their house in Garnett Road to clean it.
Interesting ‘tram top’ that may then been original or added soon after launching as a flush decker.
I have teased Nathan Herbert on this story several times in the last 2 weeks – but I suspect he will ID the launch before I’ve consumed my first caffeine shot of the day 🙂
