Category Archives: Movie & Video

2022 Thames Traditional Boat Festival

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2022 Thames Traditional Boat Festival

Always an amazing collection of traditional craft on display at the Thames Traditional Boat Festival, from the electric Slipper launches to a fleet of Little Ships of Dunkirk.

Today we have David from the blog – Cruising the Cut, taking us on a tour of the festival at Henley-on-Thames. Enjoy Thanks to Colin Pawson for the link

THE NZ CLASSIC YACHT ASSOCIATION – IT’S NOT JUST ME – The WW comment below is from someone that should/ could have been one of the next generation of CYA leading lights – sub 50 in age and very talented and most importantly – a seriously good guy – BUT – LOST

“I started to write a long comment about this and gave up. I withdrew my 10+ year CYA membership in protest last year and my 2 other family members will be following as none of our boats qualify and because of the way applications (invites) have been handled.

Unfortunately this means I won’t have an opportunity to comment, listen or vote on something that has forced a large number away from the CYA.

The vessels at heritage landing have reaped benefit for many years – many hardly getting any use. When previous sub-committee members suggest a change or review of criteria – they end up giving up and resigning due to the way things are handled.

No transparency, nepotism and a committee that rolls over too easily despite nervously agreeing off record that it’s a farce.”

Woody Classic Gatherings

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WOODY CLASSIC BOATING 2022 – 2023 CALENDAR
Time to get the pencil out and circle a few dates in the calendar. Our 2022 > 2023 classic woody events focus equally on the boats and the people – its all about getting off the marina and meeting up with like minded people.
As always, some dates may change and the weather is always a factor – but as the dates approach we will be in touch with more details.

Please feel free to share the calendar with your classic friendly boating enthusiasts. Where tide and draft permits – woody cruising yachts are always welcome to join in, so also share with the stick and rag woodys 🙂

AND TO ENSURE YOU GET A WOODY FIX TODAY – CLICK THE LINK BELOW  Video footage from the 2022 Moreton Bay Classic (thank you Andrew Christie)

Ubique

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UBIQUE

The crew behind the Australian Wooden Boat Festival (Hobart) are very clever with their promotional support to promote the bi-annual festival. One of the tools / channels they use is a very cool video series (tagged Boat Folk) that showcases the festival and the people and boats connected to the area. I have posted some of their previous ones on WW.

Todays video showcases a beautiful local built vessel named – Ubique. Very few boats have the pedigree of Ubique both historically and which has spawned a thousand blue water cruising dreams. Famed yacht designer, Lyle C Hess, originally based the design for Ubique (pronounced U-bee-qway) on the legendary Bristol Pilot Cutter – the epitome of yacht design in the mid 1800s to early 1900s. 

Ubique is a sister ship to Taleisin, being commissioned by Brad Hampton via the Shipwrights Point School of Wooden Boat Building at Franklin, in Tasmania. Now, owned by David and Michelle Shering, the boat hosts many quiet family sailing voyages in the Channel. Click play and enjoy – I did 🙂

The dreaded covid was the kiss of death to the last festival so next years event – 10>13th February 2023 will be huge. Hope to be there myself.

Check out the 2019 festival below

The waitematawoodys X Factor – PIRATE

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The waitematawoodys X Factor – PIRATE

One of the great things about the WW site is its ability to bring together past owners of woody classics with the current owners. Two examples in recent weeks

1. Alan Warren dropped me a note re the launch – Pirate , that was owned by Keith Warren in the period 1989>1994. Alan included the above stunning photo and commented that the photo was mounted near the kauri saloon table. Collectively we were able to get a high res copy of the photo to Pirate’s new owners.

2. Over the last year I have been trying to coordinate with Kennedy Warne for his 90+ year old father Ken Warne, son of Leone Warne who designed and built Pirate, to visit the boat – covid popped it’s head up every time there was a planned meeting – well last weekend the stars aligned and the family got to visit Pirate at Pine Harbour marina . Owners Tracy and Alan were shocked and thrilled when the Warne’s handed over the original line drawing done by Leone Warne for the boat. 

UPDATE ex Kennedy Warne

The below photo (of Dad with the Gilders in Pirate’s saloon) was taken when we meet the owners. It was just so good to reunite Dad with a launch that he had seen being built when he was a nine-year-old boy at Russell. We were able to supply Alan and Tracy with a couple more photos from when she was launched, and, as you noted, with the pencil plans, with their edges well chewed by sliverfish. Interestingly the plans showed she was originally planned as a 42-footer. At some point Leon must have decided that wasn’t enough, and she grew. 

There is an interesting story of how she was named ‘Pirate’ – it’s recounted in Neil Illingworth’s book ‘Fighting Fins’, refer the relevant pages below. 

Tracy & Alan Gilder + Ken Warne

01-10-2022 UPDATE: There was a NZ National Film Unit movie made under the same name ‘Flying Fins’ the youtube link below was sent in by K Ricketts. An interesting insight into the Big Game fishing scene in the far North – but all too cruel for me. As an aside I tracked down a copy of the ‘Fighting Fins’ book mentioned above – stashed away for summer cruising reading.

Classic Yacht Association – Canada Woody Rendezvous

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Classic Yacht Association – Canada Woody Rendezvous

After two days of woodys that are lacking somewhat in wow eg paint and varnish, todays story on the CYA Canada’s Fathers Day – Bell Street Rendezvous certainly delivers on both those fronts.

The YouTube link popped up on one of my feeds and it wasn’t until I saved the link for reposting on WW that I noticed that the video was 10 years old 🙂 . But given we are looking at classic wooden boats, thats all good.

Enjoy – suggestion – mute the sound, a little OTT.

And isn’t it nice to see a classic yacht association that celebrates its classic motor boat / launch fleet and doesn’t treat them as second class citizens.

Little Tasman Restoration

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Click Image To View Video

LITTLE TASMAN RESTORATION

We followed the refit of the 26′ Colin Wild 1925 built launch – Little Tasman extensively on WW, links below will give you a great insight into the project undertaken by Colin Brown and Josh Hawke at the Omaha Yard.

The other day I uncovered a very cool video put together by Kauri Classics that gives us an overview of the project.

Post re-launching Little Tasman was relocated to her new home in Wellington.

PAST WW LITTLE TASMAN STORIES:

https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/08/11/little-tasman-gets-some-serious-tlc/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/04/18/little-tasman-2/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/09/19/little-tasman-out-of-the-shed/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/01/02/little-tasman-moves-south-after-91-years-in-auckland-waters/

Phyllis

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PHYLLIS

After a long career earning her keep across multiple owners in and around the Waitemata Harbour, the ex work-boat Phyllis has been up north in the Bay of Islands in recent years. Sadly her owner pasted away and his 3 daughters inherited the boat. 

I’m sure that the likes of Russell Ward and Baden Pascoe will be able to enlighten us further on the vessel. What we do know is that she was built by Harvey and Lang c.1913 and was up until recently (2013) the oldest working tug boat still in survey.

Woody John Wright and cohorts have taken over Phyllis and last week steamed her down from the B.O.I. to Auckland on one engine – took 23 hours, and with only on board.

Already she has been hauled out at the Te Atatu Boating Club and been given a freshen up.

Call For Help – Phyllis has one dud engine, so the guys are looking out for a Ford 120hp – so if you have one in the basement / under the bench etc – Phyllis would be a very good home for it 🙂

UPDATE – READ THE COMMENTS SECTION – LOTS OF CHAT

INPUT EX CAMERON POLLARD – photos below from her Auckland working days for Blue Boats etc

12-04-2023 Update – new photos added.

Sad video below of the 162’ schooner Eleonora E being hit by a commercial ship – she later sank. Happened in the Port of Tarragona, the offshore supply vessel – ‘Punta Mayor’ had an issue with being locked in reverse and t-boned the Eleonora E.

Spring Launch – Cool Benjamin Mendlowitz OCH Video

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Spring Launch – Cool Benjamin Mendlowitz Video

Regular WW readers will be familiar with the USA website – Off Center Harbor, Benjamin Mendlowitz who aside from being one of the world’s top marine photo journalists, is a co-founder of OCH – dropped me a note the other day re a video he shot for OCH last week. Its one of those feel good insights into what this classic woody boating gig is all about – Click the photo above to view – Enjoy 🙂

If you not a subscriber to OCH, you should be, neat stories and the back library is one of the best woody boating reference tool out there. In the link above there is a wee bonus – you can view 10 of the best OCH videos at no charge.

Beautiful Boats Attract Beautiful People

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Beautiful Boats Attract Beautiful People

Friday was one of those special woody days – I travelled out to Pine Harbour marina to see the re-launch of Pirate, the Leon Warne 1939 built, 46’ launch.

Why was it special? Well back in March the launch Kokoru was ravaged in a dockside fire, just weeks after a total refit / restoration, links below to Kokoru. One of the few salvageable items were the brand new twin Yanmar 75hp engines. 

The owners made the tough call and decided to purchase another classic and use Kokoru as a donor. The lucky woody purchased was – Pirate. And she became the recipient of Kokoua’s engines.

For the last 6 weeks the transplant and associated bits – new shafts, props etc and a lot of work to the tankage – size and location, has been happening.

Still a work in progress but back in the water and ready for the next stage of the project. Amazingly Pirate did not take on any water, probably the result of her owners hosing the hull down twice a day while hauled out.

WW will visit again when Pirate is ship-shape and knowing the owners – sparkling 🙂

A big shout out to the owners – it takes special people to (1) restore a woody (2) recover from seeing her destroyed (3) leaping back in and buy another – well done Tracy and Alan. I read somewhere the other day a quote that “beautiful boats attract beautiful people” – seems to fit this story 🙂

( fyi – Kokoru went to a good home and we understand, overtime will be rebuilt, so a happy ending)

KOKORU https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/02/11/kokoru-a-sneak-peek/

PIRATE https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/06/14/pirate-a-peek-down-below-4sale/

30-10-2022 – input below from owners

Classic Launches – Lady Karita, Menai, Valsan + Others – 1947 NZ National Film Unit

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Classic Launches – Lady Karita, Menai, Valsan + Others – 1947 – NZ Diary #8 Movie

Following on from yesterday story on the launch – Lady Karita, Robert Phillips sent in a link to a 1947 movie tagged – ‘NZ Diary #8’ from the NZ National Film Unit. Its a great look back at post war life in Auckland. The movie is only 5 1/2min long so watch it all but if you’re time poor – go to 1.43min in and to 2.07min where it shows Lady Karita motoring on the Auckland Harbour in 1947 with someone wake boarding (or Aqua-Plane as they called it back then ) behind her. Carrying on further and we see more wake boarding at Kawau Island with Menai and others in the background. Later in the video, more wake boarding, this time behind the launch –  Valsan.

Wonderful to see all the launches and yachts, most of which are still around 75 years later and looking as good or better than in 1947.


Woodys Classics Weekend Cruise To Clevedon – Call for RVSP’s
The dates for the next Woody Weekend Cruise to the Clevedon Cruising Club are Saturday 21st > Sunday 22nd May 2022.As always due to wharf and river size numbers are restricted – so Woodys if you are interested in doing this event RSVP to address below ASAP to avoid disappointment. Send – Your name > Boat name > and if you know approx. numbers on board. Well behaved dogs are welcome. 

RSVP TO   waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys