Recently Brian Peet shared with us a selection of old boating images that came from a family album. The photo above does look vaguely familiar but I can’t recall a name, so if it has appeared on WW before it must be a while ago.
Very unusual looking cabin / dog house + the twin masts make her very distinctive, so hopefully we can ID the vessel and learn more about her.
Weather gods permitting I’m off to Lake Rotoiti (Nth Is.) tomorrow for the annual Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade, always a great day afloat. If you are around the central north island over the long weekend and looking for something to do, check out the parade. The best shore based viewing is from the public picnic area 200 metres south of the Okere Store, starting at 11am. There will be an MC announcing the boats as they pass. More details on the parade here: https://www.woodenboatparade.co.nz
If you are on fb and have a passion for wooden boats, the name Tad Roberts will be familiar to you, Canadian born Tad has over 1,000 designs in his portfolio and is one of the most prolific postings / commentators on fb. Yesterday Tad posted the above photo and commented “who says a hard-chine plywood sailing yacht can’t be pretty. 40’ design by John Spencer, launched in New Zealand 1971”.
Being plywood and 1971 – Odessa isn’t the focus of todays story, what is, is the impressive line up of launches across the fairway from her. Given its an average day for boating, chances are some you might be spending longer on WW today than normal – lets see if we can collectively put names to the boats, L>R, I have tagged each boating a photo below. Relies via the WW comments section.
Got some very ‘robust’ emails as a result of yesterdays story on the cancellation of the Mahurangi Regatta. But the negative ones were out numbered 7 to 1 by positive feedback. I appreciate them all, especially the negatives on, it can’t be easy typing with 6 fingers.
Yesterday I was contacted by Brian Peet regarding the above photo. I’ll let Brian tell the story-
“My late father’s cousin Graham Hamblin gave me a photo of a launch owned by another long departed family member, Percy Hewitt. We don’t have a name or any other details for the boat, but to my untrained eye, it looks under 30ft long, 1950s with possibly American influences. The bow looks most unusual and not a styling that got picked up by NZ designers to any extent. Percy lived at Bucklands Beach and apparently raced the launch a few times in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta”.
INPUT EX KEN RICKETTS – well that was easier than expected, KR advised the boat was named Posiedon, later changed to Bonita – details here in her 2013 WW story https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/21/posiedon/
So woodys has anyone ever seen this launch before? Might be hard to confirm the accuracy of suggestions, so how does this sound – the most believable / entertaining suggestion will get a WW t-shirt and Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat calendar. Suggestions in the WW comments section please. Closes off midnight 21/01/23.
Earlier this month WW was contacted by Greg Philpott in regard to a comment on WW back in March 2018, concerning a gent named Ron Morgan who was trying to locate his old 24’ mullet boat named Echo. Echo had been at Whitianga but was taken to Beachlands to be rebuilt by a painter from the marina who Ron thinks went overseas before it was completed. Ron commented that the boat had a long history and was raced early last century. When Ron had it she was configured as a launch. Before selling it she had its cabin stripped off so could be just a hull. Enter Greg Philpott who recently posted the picture above on the ex RNZN Facebook page with the primary interest being the Naval Base and the warships HMS Diomede and HMS Dunedin. The photo came from the British Museum files. On the fb posting there was a comment added by a William Ohealy as below.
“That launch in photo is the Echo . We rebuilt her into a fine fishing boat / charter boat. But me dad got to old so was sold. We put a 6LW Gardner. Dam she was fast, 11 knots at 1100 rpm – sad to see her go. Last I saw her at Herald Island in the upper Auckland Harbour, sorry no photo. Put a forward wheel house on her. aft cockpit cabin and walk around deck. When first built was a 28 ft. mullet boat steamed up to Whangarei Harbour and added 7 ft. to the stern and made into a motor sailer. With a whole new keel. As a racing mullet was the fastest on the Auckland Harbour.”
So woodys, after digesting the above (some what convoluted) intel – can we ID the actual launch in the photo and possible join the dots to a Mullet boat link?
13-01-2023 Input ex Chris McMullen – Refer page below out of the 1945 Book “Little Ships” by Ronald Carter. It shows an early photograph of a Mullet Boat called “Echo” (top left). Mullet Boats have built down aft sections (no deadwood) Difficult to fit a propeller and make into a launch, but it has been done. The design weakness in Wooden Mullet Boats was the Centre board case. Once Toredo worm got in the case and keel the damage was a big job to fix. Enthusiast owners have done these repairs them selves. To have it done professionally would cost more than the boat was worth. So mullet boats were sold cheap. The new owner blocked off the centreboard slot, strengthened the keel, installed a motor and went fishing.
The 26 foot Mullet Boat “Corona”(now extensively rebuilt) almost suffered that fate. She disappeared for many years. As far as I know and fortunately the owners never worked out how to fit a propeller. Her hull was saved by some Mullet Boat Enthusiasts. Her Spars and Sails were long gone.
INPUT EX HAROLD KIDD – There was an ECHO launch, 29ft, originally with a 10hp Lozier built by James Reid and domiciled in Devonport around this time. She was hauled out on the Devonport Ferry slip in 1919 and took part in the first race run by the Milford Cruising Club in 1924. I reckon this is the boat. As for the 1900 Clare 24ft mullet boat ECHO, she went to Thames in 1904 and was still in existence at Whitianga in a terrible state in 1989. NOT this boat.
ATTENTION WOOLLEY CLASSIC LAUNCH OWNERS
WW has been contacted by Kerry Lilley, owner of the Woolley launch – Awariki asking for owners of Woolley designed/built classic launches attending this years Mahurangi Regatta (Jan 28th) to join Awariki in Saturday mornings launch parade – Kerry’s contact details are below, so drop him an email or call and he will explain in detail the plan to celebrate the Woolley marque. If you don’t own a Woolley but know someone who does – be nice and pass the message on 🙂
Todays photo comes to us via Lew Redwood’s fb and the quiz is – name the launch in the middle of bay, out from the Hotel Waitangi.
All answers to waitematawoodys@gmail.com closes 6pm today (23-12-2022) All correct answer go into the draw – PRIZE is a 2023 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Calendar.
Todays woody comes to us from the camera of Dean Wright, taken on his recent southern jaunt.
Can we learn more about Seaway?
WOODY 2023 CALENDARS
The nice folks at Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat have produced another impressive calendar, limited print run so order today. See link below to order a copy – $15 or three for $40 https://form.jotform.com/221770838085866
Mystery Lake Okataina Launch – Can We Now Confirm Her ID
Back in February 2022 we ran a story, link below, on an unknown launch (2nd photo above) at an unknown location. At the time the location was ID’ed as Lake Okataina, Rotorua. The was a couple of potential ID’d on the launch from the two of the WW wise men 🙂
Harold Kidd suggested it may have been the bridgedecker – Merlin, owned by Beamish-White, that later went to Kawhia
Paul Drake was keen on her being the launch – Karina, that was in commercial service at Taupo in the 1960’s, owned by Jim Story.
Today thanks to Greg Philpott uncovering the top photo from the Archive NZ collection – taken by JG Duncan, we get a much better view of the launch, which was tagged 1951, Lake Okataina – so hopefully we can confirm her name and builder etc
The above photo comes to us ex Jon Morey via Maurice Sharp’s fb. The truck has ‘Roost – Mercer’ on the cab so I’m assuming its a Waikato boat, but could be very wrong.
She does look very familiar, I’m sure Nathan Herbert will be able to ID her.
INPUT ex John Bullivant – boat is ‘Lady Joyce’, built by Willy Oliver on his farm at Pukekawa and launched in the Waikato in the late 40s. Pic is apparently around 1949. Truck belonged to Ceaser Roose (Roose Ind Mercer) and was apparently one of two bought back from Pear Harbour. (info and photo from the Road Transport & Contracting archives Facebook page)
INPUT (+. photos below) ex Ken Ricketts – later renamed Lady Jane
WW T-SHIRTS – BEAT THE PRICE RISE
The price of the WW t-shirts has stayed the same for many years – sadly that is about to end – the buy price has been jumping up for the last 2 years. Sure I could source cheaper garments, but that is not what we are about – only source top line, 100% cotton.
So woodys I have the following existing stock – so be quick, first in first served limited sizes, refer below. Note: going forward will most likely only stock large and XL sizes
SMALL s/s – 2 only black
LARGE s/s – 4 only black + 9 only slate grey
XLlong sleeve – 5 only black – light weight, organic cotton
XL s/s – 3 only black
2XL s/s – 4 only black
3XL s/s – 3 only black
PRICE $34.95 (INCL GST) + $5 P&P
ORDERING: Because of the small numbers I’ll keep it simple – just drop me an email at waitematawoodys@gmail.com with your size/s and quantity and I’ll get back to you and confirm if there is still stock.
Last month (Oct 16th) we dd a story on the launch – Rata based around a Lew Redwood fb photo, then Ray Morey came on and embellished the story with lots more details – link below to that story.
Next up Mark McLaughlin drops a note advising he had found the above photos in his late father’s collection, which Marks thinks would be from the 1950’s. He wondered if it could be the same boat? and commented that whether or not the boat is Rata, he was 99% certain it will be one of the Johnson’s mail boat fleet of which Rata also belonged to, operating from Havelock. Mark had heard his Dad mention Rata many times. I’ll let Mark tell the rest of the story –
“The forward bulwark and twin masts are obviously missing here but the hull is a good match and the end of the aft lower belting lines up with the aft cabin porthole in the same location. The forward cabin appears shorter though in the Rata photos in the original post.
Regardless, the photo underway is a great look back in time at how the commercial boys used to roll. The safety police would be having heart attacks if they saw that now. As per most of the Johnson’s mail boats of the time though, she looks like she has a good turn of speed (and nobody fell off).
Most of the clinker dinghies in Havelock at the time (like the one in the photo) where built there by Tom Hutchison out of Kahikatea. They were large and heavy but could take a good beating in day to day use.”
Mark also did a google search and uncovered the photo below of Rata from the ‘Johnson’s Barge Service’ website, showing her well laden with logs. This is an earlier photo of Rata but appears to support her being the same boat in Marks photos. The photo is tagged ‘1930’s – Rata was built by Eric and his brother Frank in Havelock. White pine for the construction was cut in the Nydia Bay by the Wells family’
Todays woody looks familiar but the penny hasn’t dropped with me in terms of a name. She was anchored / moored in a small bay on the right, 1/2 way along, coming into Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island over Labour weekend.I didn’t write down the location but if my life depended on it I would say its – Shark Bay.
The ‘game’ poles are very distinctive so hopefully someone can tell us more about the boat
waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 14+ million views 