Mystery Launch on Waiheke Island
photo ex Mark Edmonds
On a recent cruise to Waiheke Island, Mark & Sue Edmonds (MV Monterey) spotted the above launch high & (sort of) dry at Surfdale. One of the island woodys must be able to enlighten us on details ?
Make sure to check back into ww this afternoon, I have a 2nd post today – this ones involves a classic woody owner & the new on the water Nazis – the Dept of Conservation. If you own a boat, you need to read this story 😉
Kinloch Woodys
photos ex Scott Taylor
Scott was down at Kinloch, Lake Taupo, over Oueen’s Birthday weekend and snapped a few woodys. And another glass Logan 33 replica, seems there are as many of these launches on lakes as on the sea.
One looks like a Shipbuilders but we are unsure about the rest. Victory the big bridge-decker looks very salty for a lake boat so there must be some history out there on her previous life.
Photo below of the marina – it doesn’t get much better than that 😉
11-06-2016 Input on Victory ex Paul Drake
VICTORY is very much a lake boat. She was built at Taupo by local boat builder and charter boat skipper Jack Taylor. She was launched, I believe, in 1942 or 1943. It is said that no power tools were used during her construction. Kauri planks on jarrah ribs with totara floors. She was built to replace ROMANCE (Bailey and Lowe 1914), who was sold by Jack in 1943. VICTORY became a very busy and popular charter boat. The Taylors sold her in 1982. Although it is said that Jack often wished he had never started building such a large launch (40 feet), assisted by his wife, – his two sons were away at the war – he must have enjoyed her immensely once finished. She was a big step up from the 26 foot 6 inch ROMANCE. VICTORY was perfect for the four or five day charters which were very common in the day. VICTORY is a Jack Taylor design, built from a model which Jack towed behind ROMANCE as he refined the shape. She is of shallow draft – a useful attribute on Taupo (no tidal rise and fall) – as it allows access to beaches where the drill is to put the bow on the beach and disembark via a ladder (in VICTORY’s case a rather long ladder). She did spend a few years in Auckland (Pine Harbour) during the 1990’s, but for 90% of her 70 plus years she has been at Taupo. She is well looked after and nicely appointed internally.
Duchess
photo ex Geoff Steven
I was sent the above photo last week & while I know the name of the boat & the identity of the people in the photo, I don’t know the designer/builder/year – so woodys the first one that can correctly name the launch & her designer/builder & year of launch, will win a copy of the publication – ‘The Jack Brooke Story – A celebration of a New Zealand amateur yacht designer’. Published by the Tino Rawa Trust, with input from Harold Kidd & Robert Brooke.
Now some t&c’s
1. Winning entries details will be confirmed by HDK
2. The following are excluded – HDK, Nathan Herbert & Ken Rickets – just to give everyone a better a chance of winning 🙂
Once she has been ID’ed I will post more details on her but very keen to hear about what happened to her in later years & where she is now.
We have a winner , confirmed by HDK – Paul Drake – well done.
It is the Duchess built by Bailey & Lowe in 1920 for R.L. Stewart Sr. Harold commented that funnel puts you off as she looks like steamer but it’s only for her 3 cylinder Twigg petrol engine. I understand she even had a fireplace onboard – my kind of boar 🙂
The photo was sent to me by Geoff Steven whose uncle Graham (Snow) Steven owned her. He lived at BP Bay on Kawau Island and used to do work around the island on her. Geoff recalls that he dragged telegraph poles to the various Gulf islands at times. Graham was well known by boaties in the Gulf. The lads in the bow are Geoff’s brothers & Geoff took the photo.
Update 06-05-2019 – Photo below ex Bob Platt
Mystery Launch at Opua
photo ex Deeming family collection via Gavin Bedggood
The above photo was taken at the Deemings yard at Opua. We are not sure of the year or the ID of any of the boats. Any woods able to help out?
And a wee bonus – click the link below to view the latest (May>June 2016) issue of the USA on-line Classic Yacht magazine, lots of woody photos & stories in this issue 😉
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/ClassicYacht/classic-yacht-may-june-2016/2016052501/
04-06-2016 Photos of Arline ex B Worthington via Ken Ricketts
ARAWA
photo ex Gavin Bedggood
Now there are a few Arawa’s out there but this ones a mystery. Any of the woodys able to supply any more info on her?
FRIDAY QUIZ – Win a Great Prize
OK woodys the first person (HDK you are out) that can answer the 2 questions below wins the prize:
1. Name the style of the rig on the above woody
2. ID (name) the vessel
Now if no one gets the vessel name by midnight tonight (Friday) – the prize goes to the first woody that named the rig correctly.
All entries via the ww comments section.
AND ITS A LATE – 7.00am POST – to be fair to snoozers
THE PRIZE
A copy of Kerry Howe’s just released book – To The Islands. Below is a review of the book by Harold Kidd (review also appears in Boating NZ)
I’ll let HDK tell you about the book – but I have read it & its very good, having cruised around the gulf for many years I thought I knew the history behind the islands, turns out I did not 🙂 I also found the section on the early settlement of NZ by the Maori’s compelling reading. Buy the book.
TO THE ISLANDS, Exploring, remembering, imagining the Hauraki Gulf by Kerry Howe, Published by Mokohinau Islands Press.
There have been several good books on the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and most of them are in Kiwi yachties’ libraries, but none of them runs as broad and deep as this one. It’s destined to be a classic.
Kerry Howe has recently retired as a senior academic and author of standard works on the Polynesians’ sea-going craft, their navigation techniques, their migration patterns and their world view. He and his wife Merrilyn have a Townson 30 which they use much more than most people do, but Kerry got his Hauraki Gulf fundamentals from his extensive sea-kayak voyaging. So we see a slightly different perspective, rather closer to rocks and sea level than usual.
The book is a series of essays, in the manner of Thoreau’s Cape Cod, but even more accessible. These are acute observations of all of the islands and rocks of the Gulf, interspersed, for example, with personal reminiscences of his happy childhood at Narrow Neck, the arrival and impact of both Maori and European settlers on trees, birdlife and fish stocks, many facets of the adventure of cruising and sailing, and the basic human search for paradise. There are negatives, in the historic human despoliation of the islands’ pristine ecologies, but big positives in stories of the present energetic restoration of many of the islands to their pre-contact plant and bird and fish life.
So it’s no plodding travelogue of the Gulf; it’s a magic carpet showing you the sweep of geological and human history of the Gulf and its islands. And there’s an awful lot of the wisdom of Kerry Howe in it. That’s no bad thing because he’s thoroughly worth listening and nodding to…….. unless you happen to drive a plastic gin palace with a mind-bending stereo that you must share with others at anchorages…….. but then you’re unlikely to be buying this treasure of a book!
To the Islands spoke loud to me because of my common background with Kerry in a North Shore childhood, the consequent maximum exposure to the sea and sailing in all sorts of craft, and as an old Pacific hand. I think it will speak loud to all of the readers of this fine magazine and merits a place on the bookshelves of all New Zealand yachting families. Thoroughly recommended!
Mystery Launch 24-05
photo ex Harold Kidd
Harold has been trying to ID the above launch & to date had no luck, so Woodys the question today – can any one put a name to her or even the location, that would be a big help in the process.
AN APOLOGY
For some reason the ‘WordPress’ platform who I host the ww site on has been having a few hiccups & keeps re-setting its internal clock – end result is that a few posts that I have had loaded into the system have appeared at random & then disappeared – don’t worry, they will be back 🙂
Cheers Alan Houghton
The floating art work, Lady Margaret (Dick Lang), was hauled out last week at Okahu Bay for some serious bottom cleaning. The X-Foul-E-8 team were applying their magic to her, that kauri looks as good as the day she was launched in 1940. A little birdie tells me we will not be hearing the purr of her Fodens for much longer, some open heart surgery is on the cards – the Lady always was very quick so will be interesting to see how she performs with 2 new light weight zoomers 😉 The Foden installation was a sight to behold so expect no-less with the transplant. (Peter B would kill me if I did not point out that the pile of mussels alongside LM came from another vessel)
Mystery Double Ender – Never Judge A Boat On Face Value
photos & detail ex Gavin Bedggood
Several months ago Dean Wright sent me a trademe link to a very run-down small double ender motorboat that a friend of his was looking to sell / move on. She was not a pretty sight & at the time I assumed she would be destined for a Beehive (box of matches) restoration.
Well thank god there are people out there with better vision than I 🙂 because as you will see from the photos below her new owner Gavin Bedggood has uncovered a very sweet vessel that appears to have her roots in our colonial coastal farming days.
Gavin has started a post on the boat on the American WoodenBoat Forum, if you click the link below you can see & read more on the journey Gavin as entered on. The one thing with the WBF is that there is a high % of arm chair experts so unless you know the posters you have to view the comments carefully, saying that most of the ones to date on the post are A-Team.
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?206902-Old-New-Zealand-boat-bit-of-a-mystery
A little bit of background from Gavin.
“So I have always had a thing for double enders… don’t know why I just like them.
Three weeks ago I was looking on trademe at old wooden boats just passing the time of day when I see a very cheap double ender for sale ….
It was a mess… small very ugly cabin, rot, no engine, leaking water from above and below… a REAL find…. (not).
The ad says it was once and old life boat, built in the UK from New Zealand kauri.
So I send a message to the seller saying that I thought it could be made into something really nice…
We get talking… I take a boat builder friend with me to take a look… he says, this boat is an utter SH$% heap and I should not buy it… BUT that under years of rubbish additions is what looks like a nicely made, sound hull.
The owner takes a liking to me and basically gives me the boat.
Damn, I should have learned that cheap is sometimes to expensive!
We thought it used in the mid 1930’s in a place called Mokau, on the west coast of the North Island, to row wool out to waiting ships from the beach and bring supplies back in.They were called ‘Surf Lighters’. I received an e-mail from a person who is involved with the Mokau Museum, complete with photos. Its really kind of eerie to see what appears to be my boat in these old black and white images….
Then it was converted to a motorboat and used by the harbour board, then converted for fishing for 10 years, then used ad a private boat. I had plans to turn it into a motor launch with a big open cockpit and low forward cabin…. but as you will see if you read the WBF post the story gets changed and more evidence comes to hand”.
Gavin has to be commended for undertaking this project, so woodys can anyone help Gavin out – all input appreciated – details on surf lighters, similar boats, this boats recent past etc etc.
As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉
AS FOUND
DECONSTRUCTION
JACKPOT
COULD THIS BE HER?
What Happened To The Viking?
words & photo ex Mark Davis
This is a great tale – I’ll let Mark tell it 🙂
“I stumbled across your web site by accident after reading an article in the Otago Daily Times about the Elsie Evans. It got me thinking if anyone may know it’ll be yourself or one of your members. My late mum used to tell me of her life growing up in Waihi. Her dad, my grandfather, Walter Caldwell, used to own a well known fish shop in Waihi, called simply Waihi Fish Supply, (which is now a burger bar). To supply his shop he used to have a small number of boats moored at Waihi Beach. This, I think was sometime between the two world wars. Anyway to get to the point, he purpose built a boat to his own design in the “backyard” of the fish shop. This is the boat my mum talked about the most. When finished and launched at Waihi beach, most of the then town, turned out for the occasion. The boat was christened the Viking. Mum told me the Viking was an excellent sea boat and remembers going out on it once or twice. Of course being a “girl” she didn’t know any of the important stuff. The story continues, as the world was plunged into another global conflict in the late 30’s the government of the day commandeered as many suitable boats as possible for coastal patrol etc, the Viking was one of these boats. That’s where the story could end, but as chance would have it someone told mum the boat ended up at the Auckland Maritime Museum on Quay St Auckland. I’ve looked on line but didn’t find any trace of her, (the boat not mum), so put it down to urban legend or similar.
So that brings me to this email. After taking possession of mums treasures after her death I came across a suitcase of old photos. Amongst the hundreds of unidentified photos is a picture of a boat being built in a “backyard” of what looks to be the rear of the fish shop in Waihi, (I have visited and still do visit Waihi many times). The photo doesn’t show much apart from a hull being laid over with planking and not a lot of detail, however if you like detective novels then this may appeal to you or visitors to your web site. Please let me know if you’re interested, one way or the other, and I’ll email you a scan to have a look. As we now live in North Otago popping down to the Maritime Museum to research this further is not on the cards anytime soon.”
So woodys, can anyone help Mark out? Is there any truth in the Maritime Museum story or as Mark says – is it just an urban legend.
16′ Kauri Clinker Work Boat
photos & details ex Arthur Neely
Arthur contacted ww as he has recently started the restoration of the beautiful little clinker work boat featured above and is trying to get some ideas as to her heritage, age, designer, builder etc. He is also keen learn if there is she any historical significance associated to the vessel.
What we know is that she is kauri clinker, 16′ long with a 5’6″ beam and Arthur reports in excellent condition, given her age. She has been in a shed in Hamilton for the past 45 yrs owned by 3 generations of the one extended family. However as is often the case Arthur hasn’t been able to get much of an idea of her lineage before that.
She had a Sea-Mite 4cylinder 20hp petrol engine in her with a shaft drive to a 3 blade fixed prop. Arthur doesn’t think it was the original engine as there are 2 sets of engine mounts visible.
She also had wheel steering installed at some stage, made up of what looks like old tractor parts, but appears to originally had inboard tiller steering.
From old photos Arthur has seen she looks very similar to designs by Logan Bros or Lanes, but he doesn’t know enough to know.
The canvas cover that you see in the photos, Arthur thinks is original.
The only real damage is she doesn’t have a rudder and from what Arthur gleaned from the previous owners, the rudder was damaged and the boat was put in the Hamilton shed for repairs, and that is where she stayed for the past 45 years. The boat is currently in a shed at Dairy Flat, Auckland.
If there are woodys that might be able to help Arthur understand this project better, he would appreciated hearing from you.
Harold Kidd Input
For a start, forget Logan Bros. The last dinghy they built was in 1911 and this boat is 40 years later than that at least. However Arch Logan’s son, Jack Logan, did build many similar launches post WW2 at Stanley Bay. But then, she could have been built by a dozen other very good boatbuilders at that time. Most put their plates on them unless they were retailed by Wisemans for example, when they were usually anonymous.
I think you can forget Lanes too. They had bigger boats to build.
Update from Arthur Neely
The boat was bought by Jock and Edith Graham in 1950 and homed on their property at Graham Rd Puketaha, I understand that is near Hamilton. When Jock died he left the boat to his son John and he has recently gifted the boat to his daughter Vanessa.
The boat was mainly used as a pleasure boat and for fishing on both Lake Rotorua and Lake Rotoiti. Jock bought the boat as he believed that she had been “professional built”. There is some suggestion that the boat had been built in Tauranga but I think this might just be speculation.
To my eye though, there is no doubt that she was built by skilled craftsmen.
I am trying to find out who Jock bought the boat off in 1950 but I think this might be a long-shot, everyone who would know has since died.
There is no evidence of the boat having a name, feedback from the family shows a consistent view that the boat was always called “the bloody boat”.
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