St Ayles Skiff’s In The Bay of Islands

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St Ayles Skiff’s In The Bay of Islands
 
Time for a break from the miles of Australian varnished wood on display at the recent Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart 🙂
Today we are looking at some very smart St Alyes skiffs that made an appearance at last months Millennium Cup in the Bay of Islands. Woody Dean Wright snapped the above photos at Russell. It appeared that the crews from several of the super yachts ran their own mini regatta – a rowing race around the bay. Dean captured this on video (below) and commented that given the speed they hit the beach obviously the racing crews weren’t the guys in charge of the paint job.
 
I assume that Mike Mahoney was behind the rowing race as one of the skiffs – Wee Tawera, would have been aboard his magnificent super-yacht – Tawera. Mike was one of the people, including Baden Pascoe and Steve Cranch and others that introduced St Ayles skiffs and the concept of coastal rowing to New Zealand. Wee Tawera was built at the NZ Traditional Boat Building School. View more on her here. https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/03/29/wee-tawera/
 
 
 

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2019 – Photo Parade – Part 3 – 90 photos + video

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TAMARIKI – Peter Mortimer

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2019 – Photo Parade – Part 3 – 90 photos + video

For the few of you that have seen enough beautiful boats in the last few days, I promise today will be the last AWBF photo gallery. But for the record Tuesdays AWBF WW story out performed Mondays story and had in fact the highest number of views of any story on WW in the last 12 months 🙂
Today our gallery comes to us from the camera of CYA NZ Chairperson – James  Mortimer. On top of capturing some great photos, James was in a very unique position at the festival – his father Peter was exhibiting the 1979, Gary Wheeler built yacht – Tamariki (photo above), which was the only NZ flagged boat in attendance, and they briefly had the past two NZ CYA chairs and the current one on board for a beer at the same time, nice.
Again, different person = different perspective – enjoy and remember , click on photos to enlarge.
And as a bonus we also have a video of the James Craig leaving her dock – would be nice to have a vessel of her presence based on the Waitemata. Filmed by Andrew Christie.

Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2019 – Photo Parade – 200 Classic Wooden Boat Photos – Part 1

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AUSTRALIAN WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL 2019 – HOBART, TASMANIA – PHOTO PARADE 200 CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT PHOTOS

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Well woodys while I was gutted that I had to cancel my trip to the festival, I honestly believe that we have ended up with a better view of the festival. I have been inundated with photos from woodys from both sides of the Tasman. The coolest thing is that the show is so big and the exhibitions so broad, that there have hardly been any duplications – my new best Aussie woody friend – Andrew Christie has excelled with photos from the air (drone) and on the water (he borrowed a clinker dinghy from the ‘Living Boat Trust’ and rowed around the docks). My kiwi woody friends –  Colin and Sheryl Pawson + Fiona Driver and Rod Marler + James Mortimer  have supplemented Andrew’s photos with more stunning photos from their camera’s. As an aside Andrew won the AWBF 2019 short film festival, with his entry ‘Wooden Boat Lunacy’ featuring a Billy Holmes built motorboat – Folly III. This short film has been featured on WW – link here    https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/11/08/folly-iii/
Rather than mix them all up – I thought it would cool to group them by photographer. There will be more to share with you over the next few days, seems like everyone has maxed out the mobile data packages 🙂
Remember you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them – Enjoy
Andrew Christie

 

 

 

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James Mortimer
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Colin Pawson
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Fiona D and Rod M
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A Very Big Woody Weekend Down Under

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A Very Big Woody Weekend Down Under
This weekend is a very big woody weekend DOWNUNDER, we have the Lake Rotoiti Classic& Wooden Boat Parade in NZ and over in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia – it’s the bi-annual Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
Both events are huge and will be covered by waitematawoodys. Starting with the AWBF tomorrow (Monday). I have Woodys at both events sending in photos, including drone video footage, which brings a whole new perspective to our coverage.
The photos above come to us from Colin Pawson & Andrew Christie
Below is a short drone video of the fleet in what they call the Parade of Sail on the River Derwent. Many thanks to Australian woody, Andrew Christie for this video and tomorrows photo gallery.
P-CLASS P500 DAFFY DUCK
We cover everything on woodys – from mega events to a guy trying to track down the P-Class yacht his father built for him 55 years ago 🙂 Does anyone know the where-about of P500 (Duffy Duck) ? Paul Silva would love to know that she is still around and if possible have a look at her. He’s also keen to buy her – so woodys can anyone help Paul out?

Geoff & Warrick Bagnall’s Achilles Relaunched

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GEOFF & WARRICK BAGNALL’s ACHILLES RELAUNCHED
Saturday was a very special day for the Auckland woody community – we got to celebrate with Milford boatbuilder Geoff Bagnall as he re-launched the 31’ 1973 Roy Parris designed and built launch – Achilles.
Geoff has built and restored a lot of very fine craft in his 19 years at the Milford yard, but the refit of Achilles is extra special because she used to be his fathers boat. Amazingly Warrick was there to witness the launching and he looked very happy, on two fronts – seeing Achilles back family ownership and it was also his 90th birthday, a cake appeared and a bloke’ish version of happy birthday was sung 🙂
Geoff also served his apprenticeship under Roy Parris so the bond with the launch is deep.
Achilles will most likely be Geoff’s last big project – in a few days he will close the shed for the last time – that is a very sad day for us woody owners but this story is all about Warrick, Geoff and Achilles, more on the future of the shed later. Today we had 4 generations of the Bagnall family coming together for the party.
Over the last 18 months I have watched Geoff crafting over the refit and the standard of workmanship and design smarts is second to none, the man has a very good eye for size, proportion and just what looks right when it comes to boats. I have had the pleasure to have Geoff work on Raindance for over 10 years and she is now twice the boat she was when I bought her in terms of practicality and looks, as a result of Geoff’s input and craft.
Some details on the ’new’ Achilles – she now measures 31’ in length, is powered by a new Yanmar 200hp turbo that will she her dancing along very nicely. That stunning finish comes from being glassed (I quote Geoff- “I don’t want to be bloody working on her again in my life-time”) and she has all the latest features to make life aboard very comfortable. There are still a few wee jobs to complete but I think you’ll agree from the photos above and video below, Achilles is an impressive sight and a wonderful example of Geoff’s skills.

 

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Below is a selection of photos taken ‘in-the-shed’ during the refit.
As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉

To view a selection of launches built by Roy Parris – click this link https://waitematawoodys.com/tag/roy-parris/page/1/

MAHURANGI REGATTA – What you are missing

MAHURANGI REGATTA – What you are missing

If you are reading WW today, chances are you are not at Mahurangi, so to make up for it today we have a totally stunning 16minute video filmed & edited by Roger Mills of the 2018 event. Roger filmed the footage using a drone.
It truly is breathtaking & what makes it even cooler is the coverage of the Classic Launch Parade. I recommend to watch the video in it entirety, but if you are time poor, skip to the 1:50 mark.
This footage could easily be re-branded as a tourism NZ movie.
Enjoy the film, link below – 2019 regatta photos will be on WW on Tuesday.

Is This The Future Of Woody Boating?

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Is This The Future Of Woody Boating?

Normally on Boxing Day you would expect a boatbuilders yard to be very quiet – but if your were anywhere near Greg Salthouse’s Greenhite yard on the 26th Dec you would have witnessed a very special event. The yard launched two sister 10m weekender boats – ARIHI and GRACE.
Below is the story behind these two stunning launches, as told to me by Delayne Salthouse –
“Nick Peal has been with Salthouse Boatbuilders for over 38 years, and in that time construction methods have morphed and developed to achieve better this, faster that, lighter these or more efficient those. While those improvements are important and incorporated where needed, for the likes of Nick there is nothing better than getting back to the beautiful basics of a traditional build.
You can imagine the excitement when the yard received a brief to design & build two traditional looking 10m craft  that would reclaim some of the classic lines and charm of New Zealand’s coastal cruiser. This is in sharp contrast to the imported ‘plastic creations’ we see so many of in New Zealand boating in these days.
The concept plans and line drawings were done by Chris Salthouse, from these Nick has crafted Arihi & Grace utilising double skin ply, with solid timber keelson and gunwale, The boats were then heavily sheathed with double bias glass to make a robust, strong and lightweight boat.”
They are powered by a Hyundai 270hp stern leg, will cruise at 25-30 knts, and top out at around 37 knts. There is a huge super king front island berth + quarter berth with ample saloon seating that can also be a berth. Head, shower, simple cooker, fridge, large cockpit. PLUS Trailerable !!!
The boats are very easy on the eye and I have already had people asking me – who, what, where in terms of the designer / builder.
Well done Greg, Delayne, Chris, Nick & the team at Salthouses – I think you are onto a winner here.

The Launching

Arihi Splashes

Grace Splashes

Photo below sent in by Steve Finnigan – lots of zoom used on the camera/phone

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Grace

Naiad & Nifity – Woodys From Across The Ditch

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Naiad & Nifity – Woodys From Across The Ditch

On recent work travels Adrian Pawson came across the very salty wee ship Naiad. Adrian was able to uncover that she is currently being restored by Pete Messenger  in a shed at Woolwich Dock in Sydney. She was apparently built locally in approximately 1949 by W.L Holmes at the McMahons Point boatyard in Sydney. She is planked in Oregon timber with a spotted gum keel. LOA is 28ft.

Recently she was sold in derelict condition as part of a deceased estate. Her new owner has commissioned a full refit including splining and sheathing in glass fibre. She currently has no engine.
The timing of the email from Adrian was a little scary as I had just received an email from Australian woody, Andrew Christie, who owns the stunning launch Folly III that recent appeared on WW via a youtube video. Andrew sent me details on the 21’ ex woodys work boat – Nifity, she was built in 1962 by Norman Wright & Sons. 
Andrew commented that Nifity was an ex ‘line boat’. Line boats had the job of collecting the ‘lines’ from incoming ships & bringing the lines ashore, at the same time as the bigger tugs were manoeuvring the ship. 
Check Nifity out on the video below.
UPDATE ON WAITEMATAWOODY T-SHIRT ORDERS – RESPONSE HAS BEEN HUGE, SO HUGE I WILL BE CLOSING THE ORDER BOOK EARLY – LAST DAY WAS NOV 30TH BUT I HAVE AMENDED THAT TO TUESDAY 27TH. IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT ORDERING, DO IT NOW. DETAILS HERE 
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Awarua – Gets  A Make Over

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Awarua – Gets  A Make Over

Last year we featured the 1947, 36’ Roy Lidgard launch Awarua twice on WW, with photos of her afloat & even a ‘peek down below’(WW links below)

In recent chats with owner Ross Mason, he mentioned that he had hauled out at Pine Harbour & put her in the Harkins Boat Builders shed, where Jared Kirby & team were painting her topsides. A Altex alkyd 7 coat (roller & brush) system was used that consisted of –   x2 coats primer, x3 undercoats & x2 gloss coats. Prior to this the hull was sanded back to bare wood in places.

You will see in the above photos that her kauri hull was in excellent condition, a great testament to the kauri timber used & the skills of her original builders. Ross understands that the kauri used originated from the Naval Dockyards.

I’m (as is Ross) very impressed with the end results, she was always a very smart ship, now she is up there with the finest in our woody fleet. Well done to everyone involved & Ross for the biting the bullet & commissioning the work.

Awarua – A Peek Down Below

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Launch day video ex Ross , via Ken Ricketts

Mystery Work Boat

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Mystery Work Boat

Today’s photo comes to us from Lew Redwood’s fb, & show a very nice work boat towing a barge – the boat & location are unknown.
The barge has quite a crowd aboard, both females & males, so it must have been an outing / picnic.
Anyone able to ID the vessel for us, I wonder if she is still afloat?
Angus Rogers sent in the video below of a barrel cooper/hopper at work. Almost as such skill required as building a clinker dinghy.