Category Archives: Non Waitemata

Mystery Launches at Whangamumu 

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1928 Whangamumu

Mystery Launches at Whangamumu 

Today’s photo ex Lew Redwood’s fb shows the whaling station at Whangamumu & is dated March 1928. From the number of barrels of oil in front of the factory, a visit from a freighter must be due.
Anyone able to ID the launches at anchor? The bridge-decker on the right shouldn’t be too difficult given the design, oval ports on the cabin & twin masts?
Kairangi Out at Gulf Harbour
Photos below ex Ken Ricketts hauled out at Gulf Harbour for a spring spruce up

Taranui

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TARANUI

Taranui was built in 1963, so just slips into the classic category, helped by the Strongman design & built with a pitched pine carvel by Sam Ford in Lyttleton.

She measures 32’ 9”, with 11’ beam & 3’6” draft. Power comes from a 80hp Toyota B4 light truck diesel, converted to marine.

Taranui is for sale on trade (thanks Ian McDonald) & currently called Havelock Marina home.

Do we know any more about where Taranui has been for the rest of her life?

Woody Has Lucky Escape in Milford Marina

Woody Murray Deeble, keeps his lovely ‘spirit of tradition’ woody – Waikiore (pictured below at Riverhead Pub) , berth at Milford Marina on Auckland’s North Shore. I have been ribbing Murray that Waikiore is long over-due some TLC (5 years between haul-outs) so out of the blue he hauls her out at the Milford Cruising Club slip. Next day a ‘new New Zealander’ has a wee parking oops & ends up in the water in Waikiore’s berth.

Some would say Murray was very lucky – others would say bad luck i.e. would have been a nice insurance claim 😉

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Tide In

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Tide Out

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Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

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If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
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Mystery Boat – Wairoa District

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MYSTERY BOAT – WAIROA DISTRICT

Today’s photo comes to us from one of Bruno Redwood’s old fb posts, sadly Bruno (brother of Lew) passed away recently.
The photo shows a group of day trippers, possibly on Lake Waikaremoana c.1880’s
Anyone able to ID the boat & confirm the location?
Harold Kidd Input – KAHURANGI, built for the Goverrnment Tourist Bureau for use on Lake Waikaremoana by Logan Bros August 1903, 36ft loa 10hp Union engine.
The photo below was sent to me yesterday by woody – Tim Evill, Tim was out fishing in the middle of the gulf between Rocky Bay and Maraetai & spotted a bouy in the water (11m depth) on closer inspection there was a yacht attached to it – anyone able to tell us what was at the end of the mast & how it got there?
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Woody on tour at Opua, BOI

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Christina

Leilani

Donna Maree

Woody On Tour at Opua, Bay of Islands 

Woody Ian McDonald was recently in the winterless north & popped down to the boatyard at Opua, in the Bay of Islands & snapped the 3 woodys above.
The first photo is Christina, a big heavy woody – obviously a workboat in her previous life, & set up for game /tuna/charter.
Then we have the very pretty Leilani, out for a spruce up. WW link here
Last up is Donna Maree, featured on WW as Donna “Marie” with a Dean Wright photo & an article entitled “Some days are just made for a wheelhouse” (link below). She has a very beautiful hull.

Beverlene

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BEVERLENE

Beverlene was built in 1968 by Owen Wolley & measures 39’, has a 11’9” beam & draws 3’3”,  & has a kauri planked hull.

Zoom zoom is from a 120*hp Commer diesel engine that sees her cruising at a comfortable 8 knots.

* trademe listing (thanx Ian McDonald) also states 140hp

Home is Tauranga so she is off the WW radar – can anyone tell us more about here?

 

22-06-23 UPDATE – photo below ex tme listing June 2023

Nevada

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NEVADA

Nevada was built in 1942, measures 32’ & is built with split strip kauri planking. Her first role was as a cargo boat for Tauranga Ports, later on she was converted for commercial long line fishing, before being retired for pleasure fishing.
Her zoom zoom is a 135hp Ford Lees diesel.
Home these days is Helensville on the Kaipara & her owner according to the trademe listing (thnx Ian McDonald) was also born in 1942 & the up keep on Nevada is just too much, thence the sale.
Her interior is crying out for some love – for the right price this has the bones of a goof project.
Had a stunning Labour weekend cruise around Waiheke Island, very few woodys out & about, I suspect with the greta forecast, a lot would have headed further north e.g. Kawau Island.
Had the misfortune to get rammed by a rather large vessel that drifted anchor in Man O War Bay on Saturday afternoon – observers say he had very little chain out. A few bumps & scratches, he did come over later on & supplied contact details. Not major damage, just a pain-in-the-ass to have to fix.
Unbelievably I did not take the camera out of its bag the whole weekend. Enjoyed some great hospitality, afloat & ashore. Sunday nights dinners (at the family of good boating friends waterfront island house, was to die for – multiple bbq’s + a smoker = slow cooked beef, chicken & smoked beef spare-rib brisket. Carnivore heaven 🙂
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Leda A26

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LEDA A26
I was recently tipped off by the new CYA chairperson – James Mortimer, about a great tale that was unfolding on the CYA forum. It involves a gent by the name of Russ Senkovich, who owns the 54’ kiwi built, 1949, yacht Leda. Russ & his wife are thinking of bringing Leda back to NZ & ultimately selling her here. Leda left NZ in 1953 & has been off shore ever since – there is an amazing weblog on her travels & maintenance over the years, check it out here   svleda.com
You can also follow the story on the CYAF – link here    https://classicyacht.org.nz/cyaforum/topic/leda-a26/ 
But let me set the scene for you on Leda, it starts with a Christopher Gordon Wilson, better known as Dooley and his brother Alexander, better known as Sandy who were both home from WWII and had a dream of racing the Fastnet.  However, the war had left the NZ dollar devalued and buying a yacht was out of the question.  So, of course, they decided to build one.  They had in their possession a book by Uffa Fox of noteworthy yacht designs.  One of the boats featured in that book was Ragna R.
Ragna R, launched in 1938, was built by Gustav Plym in Stockholm for a British client.  She is a Knud Reimers a design. The Wilson brothers admired the yacht and showed the book to a fellow named Jack Taylor, whom its believed worked for Lidgards.  Jack Taylor developed a full set of construction plans, including the dimensions of all the timbers needed for the project.

So, Dooley and Sandy, had their plan.  Now they just needed to build their boat. The line drawings below are dated June, of 1947.  Sandy would have been 25 and Dooley, 27-years old.  Remarkably Leda would be sailing 29 months later. She is double-planked kauri over mangeao frames with pohutakawa knees and copper rivets.  Leda’s deck is double planked kauri, her cabin is Douglas fir (Oregon pine) and pine.

Thats all you’ll get here today on WW – use the link above to read / view the full story – its a great read.
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22-10-2018 Input from Neil Chalmers – Neil commented to me that the Leda post reminded Neil of a story Con Morley told him about his admiration of Knud Reimers yacht designs . 

Con owned and raced ‘Freya’, a 32 foot double ender built in the 1950’s. ‘Freya’ was very similar to  Reimers ‘Stor Tumlaren’ design made famous by the well known British yachtsman / author K Adlard Coles and his yacht ‘Cohoe’.
During a visit to Stockholm, Con called at  the Reimers design office and met the great man himself. Reimers was very polite and formal . He mentioned to Con that he was aware several of his designs had been built in NZ , however he had never sold any plans to NZ !

Lady Ellen Restoration Update

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LADY ELLEN  Restoration Update

Just had an update on Bruce Mitchinson’s Lady Ellen restoration project, I wish everyone was a s good as Bruce is in sending in work-in-progress reports 🙂

Bruces words – “Strut and rudder all back in place, below waterline fairing is going on at the moment.

Fairing done on the topsides, final fill and longboard, all over, will happen over the next few weeks.
Toe rails and beltings have been repaired and reinstalled.
Looking to undercoat topsides, deck, and below waterline early next month.
Inside we have stripped the paint off the underside of the cabin top and the decks, ready to be sprayed, along with the rest of the interior, as we move from aft, for’ard.
Cockpit complete with draining floor and seating, plenty of locker space, and gas bottle enclosure.
The existing rod steering, that used to be buried under the old water tanks, has been refurbished and can now be accessed through the new lockers.
Galley and saloon trim underway this week.
Painting inside the hull, to get ready for fitting out below deck.
Keeping the original layout apart from opening up the hanging locker into the for’ard cabin with a McGeady style window opening through the bulkhead.
No guesses as to what I will be doing this Labour weekend.”
Remember – click on photos to enlarge 😉

Champion / Iona

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CHAMPION / Iona

This Wellington woody, is a little the worse for wear – 2 options – bite the bullet & bring her back to life, there is a pretty workboat hull there & she looks like she wouldn’t be afraid of the open sea. 2nd option – as a donor for someone looking for 40hp Gardner L3W to restore. 
 
She started life helping to build flood gates in Taupo for a power station.  
I have had 4 people bring her trademe list to my attention, so there is some interest already. Asking price is $2k.
Her 32’8” hull is kauri & its claimed she is around 100 years old. Not 100% sure her name is Champion, anyone able to confirm?
 
So woodys – project or donor ?

Input ex Tony Brown – I bought the boat as a wreck in 1985 and re-ribbed it and replaced about a third of the planks. Also fitted the 3LW engine. I shifted to Kapiti on 2003 and sold the boat to John Luke. Before Taupo, the boat was at Napier and got stranded on the flats in the 1929 earthquake (where the airport is now) and then got taken to Taupo. There is info in both Napier and Taupo museums. 

John, the present owner has all the historic info as I gave it to him.
I have a spare 3LW and 2UC g/box if any one is interested.. never used in the boat as the installed one was too reliable.
Input from Paul Drake – Built as IONA by Bailey and Lowe for J A McFarlane of Napier (year not known). Named after the island off the West Coast of Scotland where his family came from. Relocated to Taupo after the 1931 Napier earthquake. Name changed to CHAMPION in 1944 when bought by Jack Taylor and put into survey. Left Taupo in late 1950’s. At Porirua harbour in 1970’s and re modeled over a long period of time to her current configuration. Located at Even’s Bay Wellington for some time. Re-named but pleased to see she has reverted to CHAMPION. Unrecognizable now from early days.
Update2 from Paul Drake – photos below of CHAMPION ex IONA. The1st one (b/w) shows her as a charter boat at Taupo under Jack Taylor’s ownership. She was of course built as a flush decker, Paul thinks about 1912, when the raised focsle was becoming the thing. Jack raised the cabin. Later, a wheelhouse was added.
The 2 colour photos show her at the early stage of her long 1980’s transformation when owned by Tony Brown.
Paul also commented that the Taupo Museum has a great photo of IONA being launched at Taupo c.1935, as evidenced by the steamer shed on he Government Wharf in the background of the photo. This shed was replaced by the present wharf offices in 1937. IONA sported the large letter ‘I’ on each side of the bow and a quirky and distinctive gable roofed ‘conning tower’ for the helmsman, which could have passed for a fish safe.
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Harold Kidd Input –  Macfarlane bought her from H H Tocker of Napier and had her trucked to Taupo in April 1935. He changed her name to IONA. The photo below is of IONA on the truck from the NZ Herald on 16/4/1935. She certainly looks very Bailey & Lowe of the period 1912. They built a couple of launches for Napier around this time, one for Davis & Boyd of Hastings in April 1911 and a 30 footer for an unknown owner which was in frame in July 1912.
Most of the Hawkes Bay newspapers’ archives perished in the 1931 earthquake so you have to rely on secondary sources for the period before that. Makes it hard.
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