Category Archives: Non Waitemata

A Peek Inside Dave Jackson’s Shed

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A Peek Inside Dave Jackson’s Shed

Woody Dave Walker recently sent me these photos of Dave Jackson at work in his Warkworth workshop.
In the above photos we see Dave working on a 8’ clinker (ply) dinghy of his own design, in the background (more photos below) is a 16’ day-sailer he built, again own design.
It’s great to see that such a talented man is still turning out fine craft. Dave would list is age as 80+ so well done I say. The dinghy looks ace.
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Need A Trailer?
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Laughing Lady’s owner James Dreyer, has kindly made an offer to loan his beast of a trailer to anyone starting a restoration & needing a trailer.
It currently has Jason Prew’s – My Girl onboard (see below) but will be free very soon.
The trailer can easily deal with 35′ x 10′ and 12 tons.  Pintle eye type trailer hitch.  New wheel bearings and great tyres.
Disclaimer is the air brakes are not operational nor is it road legal.  It has covered Tauranga > Whangateau > Auckland with ease behind a large truck. James is happy for the bunks to be modified as & where needed, as long as it is returned to as found when done.
Anyone interested can contact James as below:
jamesdreyer@hotmail.com
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Rotorua Woodys + Goodsons Trucking

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Rotorua Woodys + Goodsons Trucking

I have been contacted by Lesley Parker who is researching the Rotorua trucking firm of Goodsons Ltd. In the process of her research Lesley came across the above photos, & she is keen to learn more about them – dates, location, name of the launches etc.
The photos come from Lesley’s grandparents, who are Gregorys & coincidentally- her godfather was actually surnamed Goodson. He ran a tobacconists in Rotorua and was a friend of her uncle and her father.
There are two launches pictured above, one with a tram top & dog-house, and the other with a sedan cabin configuration, this one is named ‘Moose’. Given the location of the trucking firm (Rotorua) & the name Moose, I suspect the boat was connected to Moose Lodge?
Lesley also sent in the photos below of Goodsons logging trucks (same truck, different load), this photo may like jog some memories re dates

Harold Kidd Input – 

The 28 footer MOOSE was built by Collings & Bell for Noel Cole of Moose Lodge, Rotoiti in February 1939. It looks like she was railed to Rotorua and taken by Goodsons’ Ford V8 truck to Rotoiti. Her engine (unknown but probably a Gray, like BETTY’s) was right aft and used a Vee drive, then a novelty in NZ, the layout designed by H. C. Meikle.The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh used her when they stayed with (Sir) Noel at Moose Lodge.

Woody On Tour Up North

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MANA ROSE Opua

MANUIA, WAIRUAMA & OTHERS WAITANGI INLET

Woody on Tour

Ken Ricketts sent in the selection of photos above from a recent trip (car) up North to the Bay of Islands.
An eclectic mix of craft – some known, some not – we see Manuia in the Waitangi Inlet, Mana Rose hauled out on her owners Opua front lawn, the salty wee ship Weitox.
Anyone able to ID the unknown below?

Mystery Bay of Islands Launch (Raurangi ?) – 14-09-2018

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Mystery Bay of Islands Launch (Raurangi ?)- 14-09-2018

In both of the above photos we see a very smart day boat, in the boat house photo we also see beached a motor boat with what appears to be the name ‘Zephyr’ on her bow.
The photos come to use ex Ross Griffin, via the BOI’s Historic Photos fb.
Anyone able to ID the launch? She is rather cute i.e. not a workboat, so chances are someone will recall her, the gent aboard or the boasted.
Update from Hylton Edmonds – who has advised that the photos above originate from the late Coralie Hilton (nee Deeming) Collection via Gavin Bedgegood,  a Deeming relation too.
The new photo below, shows the young school boy (possibly a Deeming?) very proudly standing on what looks to be the same boat, newly launched.
10-07-2019 Harold Kidd Input – H.B. Melton ran her in the Russell Regatta race for launches 6 knots & under in early January 1913. She came third. She must have been launched no later than December 1912. Very up to date with that raised foredeck and neat dodger, an exact contemporary of Collings & Bell C & B JUNIOR, a very similar craft. A very pretty launch.
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Stunning Marlborough Sounds Location & Classic Woodys

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Stunning Marlborough Sounds Location & Classic Woodys

Todays photo comes to us via Lew Redwoods fb & is of Te Mahia Bay in the Marlborough Sounds. Its tagged C.M. Bay, so possibly they were the photographer.
Captured in the bay is an impressive collection of woodys, hopefully one of our followers with southern roots will be able to ID the craft for us.
The photo was used in a newspaper article (see below) promoting the Te Mahia Bay  holiday resort.
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Ark & Oi

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ARK and OI

Today’s photo ex Lew Redwood’s fb shows two woodys alongside the boat sheds at Wiahopo in the Far North. Wiahopo is situated at the upper reaches of the Houhora Harbour & was a big kauri gum field area.
The photo is tagged 1910-39 & attributes ownership as ‘Nortwood’s Ark & Harold Wagener’s Oi.
Harold Kidd Input – Don’t know about ARK but she’s obviously a small square bilge scow. OI is actually the cargo launch OEI, built for H.B. Wagener of Pukenui by T.M. Lane & Sons at Mechanics Bay (NOT Totara North) in 1910. She was fitted with a 7hp Standard engine (hardly zoom zoom). Dims were 36’6″x10’x2’8″. Arthur Subritzky delivered her north in November 1910 taking 25 hours Auckland-Mangonui.

Te Whara

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TE WHARA
 
Each year for the last 5 years in February I have attended the Lake Rotoiti Classic and Wooden Boat Parade, each year there are always several boats that ‘ring my bell’, one in particular is – Te Whara, the 32’, 1916 Bailey & Lowe built launch. Te Whara is not your typical lake boat, in my eyes she needs to be on the Waitemata & she could be – she is for sale. Firstly some details.
 
Te Whara was built by Bailey & Lowe at their yard at Sulphur Beach, Northcote in January 1916 for the Drummond brothers of Whangarei. Her first engine was a 10hp and probably a Sterling for which Bailey & Lowe were the agents. In February 1916 she was sailed up to Whangarei where she was based (always kept under cover). Originally flush-decked, Te Whara was taken back to Bailey & Lowe in the 1920’s where the wheelhouse area and companionway to the top deck was altered. She has the first rack-and-pinion steering ever fitted in Auckland. In 1972 she was refitted with the current 6 cylinder 106hp diesel which pushes her to around 10 knots. Owners Bruce Stewart and Andy Coupe purchased this launch (sporting a very rough paint job) in March 2005 for $40,000 and, after sailing her down from Whangarei harbour, spent a month sanding and repainting her at Orams in Auckland. After a short few months interlude in Auckland, Te Whara was launched at Lake Rotoiti in June 2005 and is now moored at Gisborne Pt. When searching for a launch, Bruce and Andy wanted a rear wheelhouse so that the helmsman and fisherman could be together. Of particular appeal was the elegant saloon, which runs from the engine bay to the bow. Te Whara still has the original interior fit out, including the porcelain ‘head’.
 
In 2013 Te Whara was lifted out of the lake and taken for a $25,000 re-paint and re-fit. The original canvas waterproofing on the decks was removed and the decks glassed. All other hull and deck timbers are original and in good condition. Unfortunately, being on a mooring and exposed to the weather takes it’s toll on Te Whara. In addition, Bruce and Andy are getting older and are beginning to find it more difficult to manage, and it is for these reasons that Te Whara is offered for sale for $35,000, or swap for a smaller classic launch.
 
I took the above photos of Te Whara at the 2015 & 2018 Parades. Come on woodys, lets bring her back to the Waitemata or alternatively she is a very cheap floating bach at the lake 🙂
 
Interested parties can contact Andy at.    andy@coupe.co.nz
 
 
 

15-09-2021 UPDATE – photos below sent in by Bill Upfold, whose client Grant Faber has one of Bill’s launches – Te Whara V, named after his grandfather, the original owner of Te Whara. Grant has named all of his boats Te Whara.
The b/w photos show Te Whara with Cape Te Whara (Whangarei Head) in the background. The photos are mounted on Grants saloon bulkhead.

Kotimana

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KOTIMANA
On my last visit to the NZ Traditional Boatbuilding School I got chatting to one of the trustees – Kere Kemp & he casually dropped in that he was building a Dark Harbor 17 1/2’. Thats cool I thought & then I discover its being built in Port Hadlock out on the Olympic peninsula oppposite Seattle, Washington USA.
The yachts name is Kotimana – Maori for scotch thistle in recognition of Kere’s mother – Scottish, and his dad – Maori.
Kere commissioned her in September 2016 at the end of a post-retirement year at the North West School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock.
She was built by the classes of 2017 and 2018, & was launched at Point Hudson Marina, Port Townsend on August 29th. She is heading down under but with a few stops on the way – firstly Kotimana will be on display at the 42nd Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, second weekend of September and will then head via container to the 2019 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in early 2019 before finally making it home to Auckland in mid February 2019.
For those of you scratching your head thinking “what is a Dark Harbour 17-1/2 below is a description excerpted from a pre-launch write up that the NWSWB wrote when announcing the launch.
Dark Harbour 17-1/2

Originally designed for the Manchester Yacht Club in Massachusetts USA and called the Manchester 17, the first boats were built by the Rice Bros in 1908. As the design’s popularity spread it acquired a number of different names including the Bar Harbor 17 and eventually the Dark Harbor 17-1/2. The plans for this yacht are credited to BB Crowninshield and were completed by R. N. Burbank, an employee of the firm at the time.

 
The Dark Harbor 17-1/2 is a pure sailing machine of great beauty, but large enough to offer considerably more comfort through a larger cockpit well and a small cuddy cabin. Low freeboard combined with a wide, self-bailing cockpit well that seats you “down in” the boat puts you very close to the water. The lovely, slender hull lines, long ends, deep draft and large rig provide wonderfully sweet feel in this powerful, fast, wet, responsive and handy boat.

BB Crowninsheild was a US Naval Architect from the late 1800’s / early 1900’s who designed a number of boats including an America’s Cup contender and the largest ever steel hulled sailing boat (just prior to the introduction of the steam engine to sail boats).
Kerry commented that he fell in love with the lines of a Dark Harbor back in 2010 and decided that he would ultimately build one for himself.  Sanity eventually crept in and he commissioned her instead – Kerry was able to do some work on her prior to his move to New Zealand in mid 2017.
I’ll get a sneak preview of her at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Feb 2019 so will update this story with more photos.
Kotimana will be a magnificent additional to Auckland’s classic fleet.

Cygnet

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CYGNET

The launch Cygnet has just popped up on trademe (thanks Ian McDonald) & while the listing makes no reference to her past, given the location of Motueka, one would have to assume that she is the ex Mokau River work boat, previously featured on WW (photo below), with a lot of work done to her.

Details – she is approx. 30’ in length, made of kauri carvel construction in c.1960s. Her zoom zoom comes from a Lombardini 87hp diesel that pushes her along at a cruising speed of 8.5 knots, max 10 knots approx.

In her previous appearance on WW, Harold Kidd commented that she was built in Auckland and shipped down to Waitara for Sjolund of Mokau in July 1913, She was described as “on the tunnel style” 34ft in length, 7ft 6in in beam with a draft of 12 ins unloaded and 18ins with a two ton load. No hint of builder but Baden Pascoe thinks she is by T.M. Lane and Sons and that seems entirely likely. She was meant for the then flourishing Mokau River trade. Sjolund had several launches.

You can view / read more on her at the WW link below.

M.V. Cygnet

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Mystery Clinker Launch

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MYSTERY CLINKER LAUNCH
The photos above were sent to me by John Bullivant & show a large clinker built, canoe sterned launch parked up at 115 State Highway.
John commented that she looks like she’s been built for the rough stuff.
I apologise for the quality of the photos – ex google earth 🙂
Anyone able to tell us more about this unusual looking craft?