Category Archives: Non Waitemata

The Cruise of Calypso – Christmas 1919 – Sailing Sunday

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The Cruise of Calypso – Christmas 1919 – Sailing Sunday

Story & photos ex Harold Kidd

The shot below of Calypso, Celox and Waitere II is from NZ Yachtsman and Calypso is on the left.

This photo shows Calypso under tow.

The hotel shot below is at the Duke of Marlborough.

Lastly the crew of Calypso

This log was written in indelible pencil in a notebook by C.B. Madden who, like some of the others, had just returned from active service (and survived the Spanish ‘Flu epidemic). So the cruise must have helped a great deal with the normalisation of their minds.

CALYPSO was a 26ft mullet boat built to the Restrictions by Tyler & Harvey in 1909 for the Wild brothers of Stanley Bay. Barkey Wild, Colin Wild’s older brother, was killed at Delville Wood in September 1916 and Harold Handley of 73 Calliope Road, Devonport bought her in the winter of 1919. WAITERE II had always been her companion 26 footer as she was owned by the Willetts family who lived close by in Stanley Bay. By a whisker, WAITERE II was probably the fastest pre-CORONA 26ft mullet boat.

The Cruise of Calypso Christmas 1919 (an edited version)

Crew: Skipper Harold Handley, R Rodger, A Madden, C Madden, Arthur Whitely, Tom

“24th December 1919; Left Calliope Dock 8.15pm. Wind SW, weather fine full headsail full main. Waitere waited half an hour for us to start. Reached Rangitoto Beacon 9.30pm. Ruahine with troops passed inwards. We kept watches all night and sighted Sail Rock at daybreak. SS Pakeha passed inwards at 7.30am SS Manaia at 9.30am. Had kept up with Waitere right up to Sail Rock. Several yachts and launches put into Tutukaka, also Waitere also us after short dinghy tow as wind very light. Arrived 8pm had grand Christmas tuck in with assistance of two of Waitere crew.

26th December; sailed North in a nice NNW breeze. Put into Whangaruru and anchored with Waitere. Went to Maori dance ashore.

27th December; ran up to Russell with Waitere in fine SSW wind.

28th December; Waitere was put on the beach for cleaning. The plate was dropped and taken ashore for local craftsmen to remove buckle. Caught 50 or 60 schnapper at Robinson’s Island.

29th December; Left for Whangamumu with Waitere under full sail. Gave caretaker at whaling station two fish. He was pleased to get news regarding liquor poll. We got rid of most of our surplus fish by giving it to the NSSCo’s auxiliary Tuhoe.

30th December; Set sail for Whangarei after cooking breakfast on beach.

31st December; Passenger launch Oleo offered us a tow in. Arrived at Onerahi at 11.15pm. Sailed up to town wharf. After some difficulty in getting a berth tied up alongside Seagar Bros Milly at steps. Went ashore had a look around got stores and had tea at Temperance Hotel.

1st January 1920; Put quantity of ballast and all cruising gear ashore and got ready for race which started at 10.30am. Confusion regarding marks. Result of race Waitere 1 Celox 2, Calypso 3. Race finished at 3.30pm. Had tea and sailed for the Railway Bridge. Launch Ranoni kindly offered us a tow to Town Wharf. Went ashore for a walk but did not get as far as yachtsmen’s smoke concert.

2nd January; Crew went by car to Kamo. In evening gave the pictures a go.

3rd January; Waitere crew entertained us at the Whangarei Hotel. A splendid dinner was put on for us. In the afternoon we all motored out to the strawberry gardens. Left Whangarei 7pm with a great sendoff. Anchored off freezing works for an early morning start.

4th January; Set sail at 5am in light northerly breeze growing in strength. Arrived at Mansion House Bay. Only 3 launches here. After tea hove anchor and moved across the bay for shelter. Had musical evening on board.

5th January; Set sail 10am for Waiwera. No yachts here. Went to Heads to fish. Arrived at Mahurangi Wharf at 9pm

6th January; Beautiful day, very light winds.   All hands went aboard the Waitere and we sailed up the river to Red Bluff where we inspected Morrison’s Orchard. Returned to Waitere and decided to proceed to Warkworth. Tide dead low. Stuck on the mud a few hundred yards from the Wharf. After lunch, floated off and proceeded to Wharf. Found Warkworth very quiet. Left Warkworth at 6pm. For 8 shillings a local launch towed us about ¾ mile past Red Bluff. At 9.30 back aboard Calypso.

7th January; Another day of the best kind. Very little wind early. Left Mahurangi as team for Tiri to fish. Left for Auckland 3pm. Put a good dinner on whilst lying off Tiri Light and entertained Waitere’s crew to their entire satisfaction.”

 

Rona W

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RONA W
photo & details ex Ross Dawson, owner of the Askew ketch ‘Delight’

Rona W is moored in the Rotopiro Creek, a km east of the Wairoa River mouth at Clevedon. She is currently owned by Mr A Hayward of Kawakawa Bay.
Rona W is 26′ LOA X 6′ Beam X 2′ Draught. The long term previous owner Mr Doug Luke, a well known identity in the Clevedon area who supplied the following information….
Built 1936 by Warmington of Dargaville, originally powered by a Beardmore aero engine. Her hull form is a narrow hardcine which planes reasonably easily. Doug understands she was built to race on the Kaipara. Doug aquired her in about 1969 in somewhat run down condition from Mr Johnny Dill of Clevedon. At that time she was powered by a Chrysler petrol engine, salt water cooled and in tired condition. Also her hull needed refastening. The single skin Kauri hull was fastened by galvanised nails into floors one inch thick and not clenched or riveted. Over a period of time thicker floors and copper fastening was carried out. Doug installed an Oliver 70 petrol tractor engine which was then keel cooled. This motor was replaced c.2005 with a Ford diesel which is capable of pushing Ron W readily onto the plane.
She has been a well known local icon moored at the Luke property at Whakatiri between Clevedon & Kawakawa Bay.
The cabin arrangements have obviously been considerably altered since the original configuration. (there is a photo of the Rona W during her Kaipara days at the Matakohe Museum) She has been a comfortable family cruiser, albeit as Doug once commented….”with her narrow beam, you need to part your hair in the middle in order to stay upright”

Update ex Ross Dawson 21/01/2015

“Doug Luke rang me today to say he had copies of pics of Rona W in earlier guise. The two without dinghy are from the Matakohe Museum and depict Rona W on the Kaipara. They are rather fuzzy pictures but show original configuration. The third was taken in the Wairoa River, Clevedon when in the ownership of Johnny Dill. You can see the doghouse now has four side lights with the cabin being slightly extended aft into what was cockpit. Doug rebuilt the Dill changes to give a much higher wheelhouse giving headroom but at cost to the asthetics I think.
The foredeck and main cabin were unchanged through the three alterations.” Ross D.

Update 11-08-2020 Rona W has been in the care of the Pollard family for several years – last week they called her out at The Slipway Milford for some TLC 😉

Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard – A different view

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Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard – A different view

photos ex Geoff Steven

At the recent CYA launch group visit / open day my good friend & CYA member Geoff Steven (Awatere) grabbed my camera off me & took a few photos of the yard. Geoff has lots of interesting business interests, most based around the world of film & photography, so it was interesting to see the yard from a pros eyes. Enjoy 🙂

As always, click photos to enlarge 😉

You can have a peek at Geoff’s work here

http://www.ourplaceworldheritage.com

Dawn

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Dawn

photo ex Paul Drake ex ‘Boats of Taupo’

The above photo shows Dawn on Lake Taupo, seems they were a little care free in the old days in terms of safety & life jackets, at my count there are 19 people on board 🙂
If you are afloat today/night (New Years eve) you be careful out there.

Tradition

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TRADITION

photos ex Ken Ricketts ex boatbuilders website

I don’t know much about Tradition, as nice smart looking launch. I understand that she is owned by a couple that divide their time between Tauranga & Wellington. She supposedly originally came from Picton. Has had a refurbishment at Hutcheson Boatbuilders in Tauranga.

Anyone able to supply more details?

Summertime – Rosie Lees

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Rosie Lees & Summertime

Where it all started

Final Push / Prep

Launch Day

SUMMERTIME
photos ex Lees Family
How today being Christmas Eve I really wanted a nice, feel good post today – when the details & photos of this one started to hit my email inbox, it went straight to a file tagged 24/12/14 🙂

If you follow ww you will know that Greg Lees is a very talented boat builder & runs one of the best classic friendly boat yards in NZ, what most of you would not have known is that Rosie his 20 year old daughter is also very talented. Todays post is proof of just how talented.

In October 2013 Rosie started building a Pelin Ventura, named ‘Summertime’ – now the build timeline got a little stretched out with things like work (Blenheim) getting in the way. However a 6 week period between Sept & Nov 2014 provided the ideal window to finish ‘Summertime’ off & she was splashed in early December 2014. You can see from the above photos that the boat looked beautiful and I’m told went better than expected i.e. 45mph with ease & Rosie was thrilled.  Now this lady does not muck around,  Saturday night Summertime was wrapped in shrink wrap and Sunday morning Greg and co. towed it down to Wellington in time for the ferry to Blenheim. Seems Rosie has a Regatta to attend. By the standard of the artistry, both the boat & Rosie the builder, should scoop a few awards.

Now this is quite an achievement for a 20 year old, seems to me that the Lees gene pool is mighty strong 🙂

05/03/2015 – Rosie & Summertime In the news (Marlborough Express)

Avalon – the game fisher

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AVALON

photos & details ex Harold Kidd

The above 3 photos of Avalon are from the Tudor Collins Bay of Islands game fishing collection*.

Avalon 36′ x 8’6″ x 3’6′ was built by Collings & Bell in December 1927 for Peter Williams of Russell for use as a game fishing boat in the Bay of Islands. She was one of Collings’ typical concave-convex square bilge designs like Alma G, Manaaki, Lorna Doone and Zane Grey also built for the Zane Grey game fishing circus. She had a 85-100hp Redwing engine and was designed for 16 knots. She was often chartered by Zane Grey who took her to Bermagui, NSW in 1936 for game fishing (sharks) there,  she came back to NZ after the expedition. Some few years ago she was exported to the US to the Zane Grey Museum, somehow avoiding the then Antiquities Act.

*the images in the collection were bought at a flea-market by Sharon Knight who has made them available via Harold for all of ww followers to relish.

Photo below from classicgameboatsnz

More photos from the Tudor Collins collection – this time taken during the 1930’s visit of the Duke of Glouster. Mailed in by Ken Ricketts

avalon-14

avalon-15

Raema

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RAEMA

Raema a 1940 Collings & Bell bridgedecker, has just changed hands & is now berthed at Port Motueka. She is 34′ LOA, 9’2″ Beam, 4’3″ Draft & powered by a 120hp 6cyl. Ford diesel.
On board there is a plaque saying ‘Raema RNZYS’ & she is rumored to have been once own by a past rnzys commodore.
Her owner would love to know more details on her past & see some early photos if they exist.

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Harold Kidd Update

RAEMA was built in late 1923, not 1940. Her first owner was Gordon Bartleet, who had REHIA built by Colin Wild in 1939. I can find no contemporary reference to her builder, but Collings & Bell is almost certainly correct because she had a 4 cylinder Doman engine for which they were agents.
In March 1924 Bartleet sold her to Moller who was then Commodore of the Takapuna Boating Club and bought her back from him in September 1928. In October 1930 Percy McGill of Rotorua bought her, keeping her until the winter of 1933 when Horsley bought her. She then appears on the Kaipara in 1938-9 owned by Bo Bogle and then R. Smith (unless that’s another RAEMA). Then nothing in Auckland. She does not appear in the RNZYS records up to the mid 1960’s (which is where I’ve got to in transcribing them).

PS The only photograph I know of is at the Matakohe Museum and numbered PAHI 88. It shows her at the 1938 Pahi Regatta.

Lake Taupo Boating – A Look Back In Time

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Lake Taupo Boating – A Look Back In Time

Now this is a really interesting website (very basic) that records the history around boats tjat have been based at Lake Taupo. There is also some great stories on the boats & the history of the Lake. The site is very basic in terms of its layout but have a poke around & you will be pleasantly surprized. We have no idea who is behind the site, Nathan discovered it in a random boat  search.
Enjoy.

Links below

Boat Photos   http://www.promotionalart.com/History_Taupo_Boats/Boat%20Main%20%20Page.htm

Stories    http://www.promotionalart.com/History_Taupo_Boats/Stories_.htm

Launches at Waipu Landing 1953

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Waipu Boats

photo & details ex Colin McKenzie ex New Zealand Herald Jan 1953.

A flotilla of launches & the scow Rahiri seen here at the Waipu Landing at the start of the celebrations to mark the arrival of the Nova Scotian settlers there 100 years previously.
From the left:
#1 Bridge decker on left (was owned by Mac Kelly, Beachlands) Colin has forgotten the name of the launch.

#2 Highland Lass (Jim Somner, Waipu)

#3 Bluebird, (John Munroe, Papakura)

#4 Spindrift, (Gordon McKenzie, Clevedon – Gordon was Colin’s father & Commodore of the Clevedon Cruising Club)

#5 Rahiri (Jock McKinnon, skipper). The remains of Rahiri are now to be seen in the sands/beach at Blackpool, Waiheke Island.