Bay of Islands woody, Dean Wright, sent in the photos above of – Lady Mellon. Not your traditional row boat that we see on WW, check out the rower seat 🙂
I understand from Dean that her time afloat was short lived, these days she lives as a ceiling decoration in a grand Waipiro Bay home.
Do we know anymore about Lady Mellon – design, builder?
Input from Dean Wright – It was built by a chap in Russell Bruce Black
12-07-2020 More Photos ex Dean W
How To Not Sell Your Boat
The photos below recently popped up on two on-line 4sale listings – do people really believe that someone will view these photos and go “my god what a boat, I so want to own her”.
And then the seller wonders why the vessel remains unsold and they get bitter and twisted about the journey of ownership of classic wooden boats.
The photos above of Tangaroa we sent to me by Alistair McRae who owns the woody Lady Margaret (the 38′, 1955, L. Deacon built LM – view link below). Alistair snapped the photos while he was (his words_ stooging around of Parua Bay, Whangarei, waiting to pickup guests for a inner harbour cruise today.
Alistair commented that he believes Tagaroa is a Logan and has recently had a very thorough refit and is in pristine condition inside and out.
Not wanting to comment too harshly on another woodys boat, but the three TV screens midships are a little OTT 😦
As always woodys, we are looking for more info on Tangaroa – anyone able to enlighten us ?
Input & photos from Craig Ogle
“Tangaroa was owned by Eden Axe and was the replacement for Pandora 3 as a longliner. She ended up out of the water is long time as Eden bought the long fin. She opened up big time and we had a hell of a time sealing her up with silicone so we could steam her from Houhora to Awanui Harbour and up the Mangatete river for haul out. Don Jackson’s son Jacko had bought her. 120 hp ford go’s like the clappers. Had a major overhaul by Don and was looking great when he was finished. Jacko steamed her to Auckland somewhere and had her for a number of years. Last I saw her she was hauled out at Parua still looking good. Obviously was before the current window set up.”
Talking with Bay of Islands woody – Dean Wright recently, he mentioned that John Gander had sent him a story on the work boat Reo Moana. I’ll let John tell the story –
“I am prompted to write a few lines about Reo Moana after seeing her coming through the Albert Channel and arriving in the Bay of Islands, she looks so different with the extra top hamper that has been added. Her current owners have recorded that she was built by Roger Carey, this is not correct, see below.
I worked at the Carey yard and in 1963 we commenced work on a Roger Carey design of a 51’x15’8”x 7’ fishing boat for John Buchanan of Cascade River. She was carvel planked in karri and launched in 1964 named “Compass Rose” The moulds of this Roger Carey design were then taken across to another Picton boat builder Bob Swanson. Bob’s yard was directly opposite the Carey yard at the southern end of the harbour, it was formerly the site of Ernie Lane’s boatyard.
Bob was commissioned to build a boat to this Roger Carey design by Bill and Sylvia Kenny of Red Funnel Launches and an associate. She was built multi skin and was powered by a 6LX Gardner. There was talk that the boat was to do a Pacific cruise that was to include Tahiti but the cruise did not come to fruition. She was put into service with the Red funnel fleet, it was also at this time that the pine plantations in the Sounds were starting to be harvested and with a substantial tow post Reo Moana was regularly used to tow rafts of logs to Picton. Her spacious after deck also proved ideal for work in and around the Marlborough Sounds.
In the above photo she can be seen in the Red Funnel colours, I was involved with salvaging the fishing vessel Ascot that had sunk in Cloudy Bay and we used Reo Moana as the salvage vessel to tow Ascot into Port Underwood to pump her out and then continue the tow to Picton.
Seeing her now, photos below, I suppose she is handy for charters in and around Auckland, but with the windage from the considerable extra top hamper that she now carries, I think she would be more that a handful going alongside wharves in the Sounds in some of the extreme wind conditions that can be experienced at times.”
RED FUNNEL LAUNCHES
While on the topic of Red Funnel boats- I was sent the photo below of Ramona by Liam Daly. Liam commented that Ramona along with Reo Moana, Rawene, Rongo and Rio Rita made up the fleet of Red Funnel Launches operating out of Picton . The “Rio Rita” was the prominent mail boat in Queen Charlotte Sound for many years, later when sold, re-named – Resolution.
The photo of Ramoana shows her in Resolution Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound
Today’s woody is the game boat Aloha Kai, seen above in a 1968 photo from Russell in the Bay of Islands.
On Lew Redwood’s fb, Charlie Baker commented that at the time she was owned by John Chibnell and that she was the fastest boat in the bay thanks to a Chev 454 V8 (petrol) engine. Her top speed was 35 knots, a step up from the norm of around 8.5 knots from the rest of the game fleet.
Douglas Burnage also commented that she may have been owned in 1980’s by Vic Otto and operated out of Houhora as a long-liner.
Can anyone tells us more about Aloha Kai eg design / builder and provide an update on what became of her?
Update 24-05-2020 Photo below of Aloha Kai in Raio Creek Houhora – January 1994. Sent in by Craig Ogle.
The photos above of Caravel come to us via the camera of Dean Wright and are ‘lock-down’ discoveries. Dean commented that he wasn’t even sure if Caravel was a woody, but she is a looker and there is enough wood on show for me 🙂
Can anyone tells us more about Caravel?
GLASSING A WOODEN BOAT – Yes / No / Maybe
When it comes to the restoration of a classic wooden boat, one item draws the most discussion / debate / arguments and that’s the topic to splining and fiber-glassing the hull. Amongst the majority of woodys its long been considered sacrilege – but sometimes it is the only option that saves a boat from a ‘Beehive’ restoration (a box of matches).
Thanks to your friends at Off Centre Harbor, today we join expert boat builder and OCH co-founder Eric Blake explaining how – and more importantly, why – he fiber-glassed his 75-year-old wooden lobster boat, Charlena. LINK below to view video.
And woodys, the WW special 8 weeks NZD$5membership to OHC is still live – so jump at it below, the best $5 you will ever spend. Detail below –
Off Center Harbor has created an 8-week membership with full access to the entire website for just $5 NZD. They’re also including an optional upgrade to an annual membership at the end of the 8 weeks at 50% off.
So if you haven’t already joined, now’s definitely the time to jump aboard this premier classic boat video website to start learning from leaders in the field how to build, paint, or restore a boat… or step aboard some of the best boats in the world (including in NZ) and hang out with the owners (from the safety of your favorite chair at home).
See the details and get the membership here and enjoy full membership privileges for 8 weeks. That means you’ll have access to over 1,000 videos and articles full of inspiration and know-how.
If you are a follower / reader of Wooden Boat magazine, you will be familiar with the work of photographer – Tyler Fields, again thanks to the world-wide lock-down, life has been given to another previously ‘stalled’ project, which we now get to enjoy 🙂
I’ll let Tyler tell the story –
“More than a year ago, Woody Metzger of First Light Boatworks and I started a video project introducing some of the people behind New England’s marine industry. The small network of boat builders, sailmakers and artists that make up what we do are the best in the world. Woody and I wanted to provide an quick introduction to the people behind these brands with the hope that getting to know us might encourage boaters to support the locals when buying new, restoring old or just keeping our lives on the water going. Our idea was simple; ask our friends four questions. 1 -Why has your business survived and where do you see it going? 2- What would you do if you weren’t doing this? 3- Would you like to see your kids do this? 4- Do you love your job? The responses we filmed were a mix of the expected, unexpected, humorous and a little sobering. After a handful of interviews, life caught up and we set our big idea on the back burner. Woody and his crew started building and launching boats one after another, after another and my schedule of chasing boats around New England ate up any free time we had. Well, the world has a habit of keeping us on our toes. At the moment, we all have found some extra time. So, last week I started digging through the footage and decided to start putting the interviews together. Oddly enough, the questions seem more fitting now than they did when we first asked them. We want to send out a huge thank you to each of the people and businesses who gave the time and let Woody and I into your shops. For the rest of us, it’s more important now than ever to support these small business. They are not just logos, they’re friends and family right here in our local communities.”
TOUGH DAY AT THE OFFICE
Popped down to Waiheke Island yesterday to show a potential buyer over Kailua, stunning day, stunning boat. More details at the link below:
I recently stumbled across the above photo of the steam ship – Duke of Marlborough and knowing nothing about her put a call into Russell Ward aka Mr Steam. The man is never embarrassed to speak so – take it away Russell, WW is all yours…..
“Once, 30+ years ago, I built up a steamboat called “Gypsy”. So pull up a chair, warm yourselves by the fire and I’ll tell you a story which isn’t about “Gypsy” at all, it’s about the “James Torrey” which became the “Duke of Marlborough”.
But, through “Gypsy”, I met one Lloyd Lewis of Lake Tarawera. He was an ardent enthusiast for steamy things (who wouldn’t be – living on Lake Tarawera.) Lloyd had made a steamer up out of a hull I had sold him a year or so previously and really had the steamboat bug badly. As the late Pete Culler (he wrote a lot about boats and he was a wise man) said “It’s awful, don’t go near it or you are hooked.” And you can’t argue with facts like that, folks. Suffice to say Lloyd got steam enginitis in a big way.
He had Wellington naval architect Bruce Askew design a hull for a 36’ steam vessel following the style of the early 1900 steam boats The steel hull was built in 1987 by Gordon Clark and Brian Starrock in New Plymouth and shipped to Rotorua for Lloyd to complete. He did a fine aesthetic job. She was launched as “James Torrey” and he used her to take fishing tours on the lake. The lads appreciated the warmth from the boiler at times.
Lloyd built the engine – an English design by A.A. Leake and a dashed good looker it is -a traditional open compound, driving a 28” by 42” propeller giving a service speed of 6 knots. A piston valve is fitted to the high pressure cylinder and a balanced slide valve on the low pressure one. It has cross-head driven twin feed pumps and air pump. Exhaust is through a feed-water heater to a keel condenser. There you feel a lot better for knowing that.
But to sum up, working on salt water, you have to condense the exhaust steam or you run out of feedwater real quick. Besides, condensing gives you a useful addition to the power through the vacuum created which, in essence, sucks the piston while the steam pushes.
The steam is provided by a Kingdon type boiler (1900’s Simpson Strickland design) built by Langley Engineering in the U.K and, since you didn’t really want to know, It is a vertical fire-tube type, 34 inches high by 30 inches diameter over lagging, has 3.4 square feet of grate area and has 84 square feet of heating surface. She burns coal and there is nothing better.
Lloyd had quite job actually getting Ed Langley to dispatch the finished boiler although it had been long since paid for. Ed had had his delivery problems over the years…. Legend has it that, in frustration (remember communication was all letters and phone calls that had to be booked well ahead in those prehistoric times); Lloyd flew over to the UK and turned up at the works just ahead of the receiver. Seeing the likelihood of his investment coming to nothing, he took matters into his own hands and loaded the boiler up himself. Lloyd just wasn’t the sort of man to argue with and got his boiler. It is a very handsome job.
Anyway after a number of years, Lloyd tired of his steamboat and Roger Frazer took her to Picton. He renamed her “Duke of Marlborough” and did a lot of restoration which is a credit to him. He has been taking passengers out of Picton for some time. I’m sure the passengers appreciate the boiler’s warmth even more that the Lake Tarawera types.”
I understand she may be for sale………
WoodenBoat Magazine Interview #3
This week WB editor Matt Murphy interviews Harold Burnham in a live discussion of how, for nearly three decades, he has been instrumental in revitalizing the shipbuilding and maritime culture of his region by designing, building, and rehabilitating traditional vessels for cultural tourism. Harold is an 11th-generation shipwright, and has, at various times, also been a sawyer, mariner, model maker, and sail maker.
Bay of Islands woody Dean Wright – was another one sorting through the photo collection, looking for something else and uncovered the above photos of Puff, moored up the Kerikeri River.
At first glance you would have to assume the builder / owner had shares in a foundry, there is a lot of bronze on display 🙂
Can anyone tell us more about Puff?
Photo below ex Jason Prew
Yesterday I managed to sneak in a trip to Herald Island to give Raindance a run after two months of CV-19 lock-down. Not a lot of boats out, but I did run into Tim Jackson, who was doing the same thing aboard his launch – Bessie Florence (below).
As chance would have it, Tim had a wee present for me – that is the second time Tim has passed over (in a fishing net) an item in the middle of the harbour. Someone looking on from Birkenhead would be starting to think there was a regular drug deal going down 🙂
The above steam boat, owned by Hamilton engineer, Chris Cooper recently popped up on a fb post of Geoff Lewis’s.
All I know, but I can hear Russell Ward duping as you read this, is that Chris rebuilt the boat from a wreck. It has a tripe-expansion engine, in my ignorance I hope it is coal or wood fired and not diesel – I would love this as a retirement boat on a lake…………..
Hopefully we will find out more about her.
AND WOODYS WE CAN GO BOATING AGAIN – NO PRIZE FOR GUESSING WHAT I WILL BE DOING THIS AFTERNOON
Recently I was sent the above gallery of photos of the small yacht – Herald, from kiwi Fred Lomas, who lives/works in Australia. The photos are from an album given to him by his ex (deceased) Omapere (near Opononi, Northland) neighbour – Aubrey Bracey. Aubrey was a farmer / carpenter who built a couple of small boats, Herald being one of them.
How lucky were these kids to have a boat of their own at their age, these days we are just too PC.
I love the combination of paint colours – a perfect example of the old principle of only using 3 colours max on a boat. Also looks like as the kids got taller, they raised the cabin top 🙂
Devonport Yacht Club – Duder Cup – On The World Stage
Check out the link below to read / view a great story by Rob Peake, editor of the ‘Classic Boat’ magazine in the UK, on this years running of the Duder Cup race.
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