Category Archives: Non Waitemata

Maureen Anne

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MAUREEN ANNE
Paul Drake sent in the two brilliant Taupo photos above, the photo above of Maureen Anne were recently given to Paul’s brother Michael, by one Maureen West nee Somerville who would love to know where this boat Maureen Anne is now.

She was built in Taihape by F.W. Somerville, Joiners. Maureen’s father was Ben Somerville, part of the firm. She was launched at Taupo in about 1948 & appears to be about 23′.

The second photo also came into view only recently. It is of the Boat Harbour at Taupo, in the late 1940’s/early 1950’s. The photo shows Maureen Anne in the distance on her mooring, just ahead of Romance.

On her mooring mid river is Col Wild’s 1936 Lamorna. Tied up to the river bank is El Alamein (now Ranui) – McGeady, ( third from left) in one of her earlier configurations. Also Arcadia (Slattery – second from right) and various other unknown woodys. Oh, and first on left is Wyona, a large clinker who biodegraded many years ago.

Update from Alan Craig – below are 2 photos related to todays (above) Taupo story.
Tony Mitchell had the print of Wyona, and Alan also found the post card on trademe of the ferry, at the time named ‘Rotoiti’, that use to go through the channel to Rotorua. Not quite the same boat but some one might recognise it.

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Galatea

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GALATEA

Galatea is a 1926, 36′ kauri tram topper that for the last 10 years has cruised & fished from Sulphur Point to Mayor island, Whangamata and further. Home has been a mooring is just in front of the Omokoroa club house. The zoom zoom comes from a 120hp Ford diesel. Her trademe listing is very light on details so hopefully we can expand on her – designer/builder & what she has been up to for the last 90 years. She looks a very solid old girl so maybe strated life as a work boat?
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads-up.

Update – Photos below ex classicboats nz via Ian McDonald

 

Mystery Launches at Thames

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Mystery Thames Boats

Mystery Launches at Thames

The above photo shows a group of ‘settler’ style launches berthed  at the Shortland Wharf in Thames.
Are we able to ID any of them & put a date on the photo? Are the bow numbers fishing registration numbers ? photo ex trademe via Peter Thorpy

Laughing Lady Update

James Dreyer has the foot to the floor on the final stages of the restoration of Laughing Lady & has master craftsman Paul Tingy roped in to help with the final details – the photos below show Paul’s reproduction of the original swim ladder & ‘new’ helm.

MV Mavis

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M.V. MAVIS

Mavis started life back 1918 as a Lanes 40′ trawler. Fast forward to 2004 when she had a  major refit that included –  hull refastened and splined, new decks and cabin, new  John Deere 150HP engine and re-wired. Given that she was recently in MNZ survey, she is very highly spec’ed and looks like she could handle just about anything that mother nature could throw at her. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads up re the trademe listing.

Do we know anything more about her past?

09-04-2023 Update ex Alistair Rowe – I spotted Mavis on a mooring in Whatamango Bay – roughly 8km East from Waikawa.- looks to have found a good home.

Yesterdays story on the Classic Launch Parade just got better – more photos ex Jason Prew added, scroll down to view.

Aussie 18′ Racing Woodys – Sailing Sunday

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Aussie 18′ Racing Woodys – Sailing Sunday

Robin Elliott sent me the above link to a very cool video that Australian Ian Smith has just put up on-line of how he built a replica of the 1919 traditional seam-batten Sydney 18 footer – Britannia in 2001-2002. Its approx 15min long & covers from lofting to launch > sailing. Great footage & a good commentary.

Robin also shared the link below to the ‘The Open Boat’ website which is a treasure trove of videos on the Australian small wooden sailing world. Do not blame me if your still watching it hours later 🙂

http://www.openboat.com.au/videos.html

CYA 2017 Classic Regatta
I snapped a few quick photos, below, yesterday while I was heading over to Westhaven to fuel up & then decided to pop in at Regatta HQ for a cleansing ale. More photos tomorrow from the Regatta’s classic woody launch parade &  lunch cruise to Riverhead Hotel. If you are out & about this morning & want to see the fine collection of classic woody launches, we will be passing in front of the RNZYS at approx. 10.30am.

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Jean 7314

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JEAN 7314

Jean started life as a Jack Guard fishing trawler, launched c1953. She was converted at Havelock in 2005 for pleasure use. She measures 45′ & is powered by a rebuilt 125hp Gardner 6LX that sees her cruise at around 8 knts. 4sale on trademe, she has the makings of a nice live aboard. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads up.

Do we know any more about her past?

And at the risk of boring everyone – REMEMBER the Classic Launch Parade & Riverhead Hotel lunch cruise on Sunday 😉

09-02-2020 Input from Paddy Gerard – Built by Jack Guard in Pukatea Bay, French Pass for Merle Rayner of Kaikoura. Jean is presumably named after Merle’s late niece Jean Brooks (daughter of Keith and Wikitoria Rayner), who passed away in 1942 in her mid twenties. Merle died in 1959 and his son, Russell, took Jean to Timaru and continued fishing until he sold Jean in 1978. I understand she later worked out of Lyttleton, Oamaru and Bluff. Vince Armstong from Havelock bought her in about 2007/2008 and spent 18 months stripping her out- new ribs, new deck beams, engine overhaul, recaulking, and a brand new wheelhouse fitted. I coincidentally bumped into the chap who did the caulking a few months back – he mentioned that when they pulled the Gardner out they found the bilge had been filled with concrete! I think Vince sold Jean in about 2012 and she has had four owners since then. One of those owners tragically lost his life in the Platino yacht accident in 2016. I am now living on her in Wellington and look forward to giving her plenty of TLC and learning more about her past.

Tassie II + A Great Read

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Tassie II

ww readers may recall that last year I was sent a collection of b/w photos by Rosemary Robinson, the granddaughter of L.C. Coulthard, boat builder of Onehunga. I featured the launch Doraine here & it generated a lot of chat. Amongst the photos were the above two & the name Tassie II, 1952, appeared close to the photos, but not directly underneath, so I’m a little uncertain to the actual name. I’m also assuming the location is Coulthard’s Onehunga yard.

Can any of the woodys confirm the name of the launch & supply an details on her ?

Finding Pax
Popped down to Boat Books in Westhaven last night to catch Kaci Cronkhite the author of ‘Finding Pax – The Unexpected Journey o a Little Wooden Boat’ speaking on her just released book. Kaci has impeccable woody credentials having spent 10+ years putting together the world famous Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Readers of the USA WoodenBoat magazine & followers of the WoodenBoat online forum will be familiar with her 1936 Danish designed & built spidsgatter (double-ender) yacht. The book chronicles Kaci’s purchase, restoration & subsequent search across 3 countries to uncover Pax’s past.
To quote John Summers, who reviewed the book for WoodenBoat magazine – “this is a book to curl up with & reflect on. Cronkhite’s writing is lucid & heartfelt, feelings at times more like a glimpse into a personal diary than a personal book. Reading it may make you want to by an old wooden boat of your own. Don’t say I didn’t warn you”

Copies are available for the very modest price of $35 from Boat Books   https://www.boatbooks.co.nz/
The photo below I snapped on the iphone is of Kaci’s personal copy with the dog-eared page makers, from which she read exerts.

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Welly Woodys

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Mataroa

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Waiata

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Little Tasman

Welly Woodys

Rob Uivel has been promising me some photos of his recently re-furbished 36′, 1928 Joe Slattery launch Mataroa  for some time, well last weekend the Wellington weather gods smiled & delivered up a near perfect day for a classic woody launch cruise – in the photos above we see Mataroa joined by Waiata (32′, 1913 built by David Reid), both boats had a jaunt around the inner harbour, finally anchoring and rafting up in Oriental Bay. After a pleasant swim and lounge around while heading home they spotted Little Tasman coming out of Clyde Quay marina. Fantastic to have the 3 beautiful classic’s together. All 3 woodys have been featured extensively on ww & you can see / read more on them by using the ww search box.

REMEMBER: This Sundays CYA Classic Woody Launch Parade & Riverhead Hotel Cruise. Non CYA boats welcome. RSVP (boat name & approx. crew numbers) to Angus Rogers    rsvp email link  Scroll down 2 ww posts to see details 😉

Included also below are photos of Prima Donna, which Rob feels bears some resemblance to an old Auckland boat called All Black.

27-02-2017 photo below of All Black dated 1910 ex Maxwell Uivel

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Mananui

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MANANUI

I was contacted recently by Greg McNabb looking for info / photos on his & wife Maria’s ex pilot boat Mananui. From what Greg knows / has been told – she was built in 1913 by Harvey & Lang. Greg’s grandfather & father bought her (ex Whitianga) in 1973. She is powered by a 120hp D series Ford and has been for the last 50 years or so, although rebuilt.
The ‘old’ photo of her sitting on the grid was taken in Whitianga on the day the family purchased her. She was originally commissioned by Edward Parish and back then named ‘Heare Mai’.

From the above photos we can see that Greg has done a wonderful  refit on her. These days her home port is Tauranga.
So woodys can we shed any light on her life pre. 1973?

Photo below at Sulphur Point Marina, Tauranga ex Paul Drake

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1945 – 32′ Classic Kauri Launch

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1945 – 32′ Classic Kauri Launch

Now this launch is for sale & if you had a peek inside you would be very impressed & at the asking price of $78k you might think its a great buy. Well it is a great buy, but I do not think there will be a queue of classic woody buyers lining up – why? because someone has stolen its mojo – the thing that makes a boat special. Her name is Ranui & in another life was called El Alamein, you can read about her here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/08/03/el-alamein-ranui/
The Readers Digest version of her history is that she was launched in January 1945, specifically for use on Lake Rotoiti to help convalescing returned servicemen from World War II, many in wheelchairs, ease back into civilian life.

Now I have another life outside of being a wooden boat blogger & that is in the world of consumer & B2B marketing – mostly via the digital channels these days – so I can hear you asking yourself whats the relevance of this to today’s story? Well Ranui is in charter & these days calls Lake Taupo home – So wearing my marketing hat, if I owned a boat with the provenance that Ranui / El Alamein has I would be doing two things:-
1. leveraging every inch / ounce of her life story to make a trip on her something special, hell I’d even by donating $xx dollars from every ticket to the local RSA etc etc.
2. The other thing I would be doing was making her look as classic as possible – that’s her X-factor – the tourist’s would be telling people “I went for a very laid back lake cruise on this amazing 1945 wooden  boat that used to help with the rehabilitation a returning WWII solders etc etc.

So what has someone done? bought a few sheets of plywood & put a top hamper on her. Well it is their boat & they can do what they like (see Cameron P – I’m softening) – I’m sure the attraction of getting a few more paying passengers aboard won them over. But in my eyes they have knocked $25+k off her sale price & halved the visual / emotive appeal of the charter business.
If I was a few years older I’d buy her & borrow Mr Prew’s tungsten tipped chainsaw 😉 & go make a few bob on the Lake. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads up on the boat.

Have a look below at the photo of her back in the 1940’s, what she looked like in 2015 & as she appears today on treadme. As they say “different strokes for different blokes” – Its still a good buy for a 32′ motor launch – But not me.

 

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1940’s

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2015

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2017

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