Category Archives: Non Waitemata

Alberta

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ALBERTA

I know very little known about Alberta other than she is kauri, 28’6″ & built in 1913. She now resides on Lake Rotoiti. In the back of my mind I recall someone saying she was kept at Milford Marina for a long time, prior to getting a new lease of life on the lake. If anyone knows the owner – Jon Dustin?, maybe we could find out more.

Harold Kidd Update

ALBERTA was built as a flushdecker by H.N. Burgess at Judges Bay in December 1913 and fitted with a 6/8 hp Automatic engine for which Burgess was the Auckland agent. A. Parsons of Ponsonby was her first owner. In 1914 she was repowered with a Model M Scripps from Lanes. From 1918 she was in Whangarei owned by the Palmer family. Maurice Reynolds bought her in 1959 and rebuilt her, then sold her in 1961. M C Williams of Northboro Road, Takapuna bought her and kept her at Milford. Artie Perkin owned her in 1969 and had a 36hp Perkins diesel in her. Andrew Campbell owned her in 2002, still in Milford and still a flushdecker, probably the very last of the pre-WW1 flushdeckers to survive in original state. The dodger put on her now is tastefully done and typical of the dodgers most flushdeckers had gained by 1918.

Aroha

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AROHA

Aroha is a kauri carvel planked 6.4m launch designed & built by C E Thompson, Dargaville, for Frank & Millie Macklow. She was fitted with a ‘Kelvin Ricardo E 4cylinder petrol (or paraffin) engine , featuring 2 sets of 2 cylinders with separate carbs, this enabled either pair of cylinders to be switched off. I have heard her running & she sounds rather ‘sweet’. This motor was designed by Anton Bergius of Glasgow & was fitted to a lot of Scottish trawlers. As an aside his nephew, Conrad Bergius lives in Auckland & is a diesel mechanic.
Amazingly Aroha is still powered by the same engine & maintains its original colours, accessories, trim, tools, stripped canvas cushions, manuals & warrantee.

In 1950 Aroha was hauled from Dargaville by road to Lake Rotoiti & launched at Mourea. She has spent the last 64 years on lake at Otaramarae Bay.

Her owner Warwick Henderson, purchased her in 2002 & renamed her Aroha after his mother, Aroha Avis Hutchinson.

Anyone able to expand on her year on build, original name & her life pre 1950 ?

(photos taken by Alan H at 2014 Lake Rotoiti Classic &Wooden Boat Parade)

Ankle Deep Too

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Ankle Deep Too

photos & story ex Chris Leech

Todays post is a quiz for the armchair historians out there. Now the above speed boat (hydroplane) is not a waitematawoody, built in fact in the USA in 1915 & competed in the 1915 Gold Cup Trophy for Count Casimir Mankowski, pictured above sitting on the bow. One week before the race she was holed & sank, recovered, repaired & raced. The 3 race series was one by the legend ‘Miss Detroit I’ who took out all 3 races.

Ankle Deep Too does have a connection to one of NZ’s outstanding designers who had a hand in building her.

Anyone willing to take a guess the designers name? Bert Woollacott √

click photo to read the New York Times storey

Update from Jo & Rob Woollacott 08/06/2014

Coincidentally, I was cleaning our our shed today and found the original framed photo of this boat. Rob (Bert’s grandson) and I were chatting about it over lunch so I googled the boat name and came to this site. Rob had the designs stored at the museum for safe keeping.

Twenty Eight Feet – life on a little wood boat

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Twenty Eight Feet – life on a little wood boat

I challenge you to watch this 8 minute movie about David Welsford & his life & travels on a H28 & not get itchy feet. Perfect entertainment for a wet Sunday –  Enjoy 🙂

Winsome

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WINSOME

photos ex Dean Wright

Winsome was built by Bailey & Lowe in 1918. More details can be viewed by searching her name in the ww search box.
The other launch in the photo is Arethusa, built in 1927 by Bob Brown & now owned by Dean Wright , again view more via the ww search box.

Photo below ex Harold Kidd of Arethusa under sail – rather fine looking

Escapada

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ESCAPADA

The designer / builder of Escapada, a 32’ 8” kauri carvel planked sedan style launch is unknown but her owner has been told she is a Roy Parish but this has not been confirmed.

Powered by a 75h.p. engine she would be an economical family cruiser & with 4 berths & 6’ 6” of headroom she is big for her size.

Personally I would love to see those coamings varnished but each to their own & her interior is a glow with wood.

Anyone able to expand on her past?

Nathan H update

Nathan is pretty confident she is ex the pencil of Jim Young – as below (click image to enlarge)

 

She is currently kept at Sulphur Point Marina & for sale on trademe

A Mystery Boat 20/05/14 – RIO RITA > RESOLUTION

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A new photo & a question from Chris Manning – is the above photo taken at ‘Curious Cove’ Marlborough Sounds (possibly c1950’s) of the boat with the tyre fender possibly  Rio Rita? The sheer line looks about right, as do the vintage stanchions and the after windows . Can anyone comment on this ?
Screen Shot 2014-05-20 at 9.06.52 AM

A Mystery Boat 20/05/14 – RIO RITA > RESOLUTION

Ok woody boaters – todays post is an enigma to me. The boat is unknown to me, but she is flying a CYA burgee, a check of the CYA database shows no match so the vessel is either belong to a very distant lapsed member or someone has ‘borrowed’ the burgee.

The photo is ex the very talented pro photographer Dean Wright & most likely shot in the BOI.

Anyone able to shed some light on the vessel?

It also appears she is currently in Tauranga & listed on trademe (thanks Andrew Pollard for the tip). Photo added above.

Update
Lots of chat about todays mystery boat in the comments section – check it out. I can confirm it is ‘Rio Rita’ > ‘Resolution’ . I have also added a great photo sent to me by Harold Kidd of her on launch day, 1929, at St. Marys Bay, she was built by Collings & Bell & launched as a tourist passenger boat, note the open cockpit forward. Looked rather grand, quite different now days.

Updated photo– 13/06/14 – ex Harold Kidd of Rio Rita in the Sounds, still with ‘Rio Rota Auckland’ on her transom.

Updated photo – 23/07/2014 – ex Liam Daly on or close to her launch day

Rio Rita lauching 1929

2014 photo below ex Dave Jones ex Baden Pascoe

Kayla Rose – RIP

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KAYLA ROSE – RIP

Kayla Rose, a SeaCraft,  is one of those boats that we look at & think – ‘ bugger these launches, I could handle the maintenance on one of those, no marina fees etc’. Truth is I’m sure the upkeep is similar.

I spotted KR at the recent Whangateau regatta & like several others there were instantly smitten.

Keen to learn more about her – possibly Pam at the WTB can enlighten us.

Update from John Sankey
Thank you for putting up the pics on your wonderful website!
A big thanks also to Pam and George for the fantastic weekend Regatta! The weather, wind and company was perfect!
This was the first time back in the tide for Kayla Rose after 2 years hibernating and getting some ‘beauty sleep’. As you can see, the bilge pump was working hard waiting for those planks to start to ‘take up’. She is 16′ and is circa 1962 in Kauri planked clinker with a double diagonal bottom. The engine is the original Ford Consul 4 cylinder by S.A.M. Marine, with a forward and reverse box. I bought her 3 years ago off a friend in Beach Haven who will know more of her history….

Lucinda Hauls Out

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Lucinda Hauls Out

With the money that Nathan received from Sanfords for the mussels he harvested off Lucinda a few months ago, he can now begin the main project, which started yesterday with hauling out at Milford Cruising Club. Unable to make the journey under her own steam (motor out), WildDuck provided the legs to get her up the creek.

Nice to see the CYA yacht captain (Dan Renall) on hand to help with the water blasting.

Beneath all that old paint lies a very pretty launch with good bones, a quick glance at her ‘bottom’ says she should get along very nicely.

ww looks forward to following this project, Nathan has good bones himself so everything should get the tick from the CCC (classic compliance contingent) 🙂

To see more on Luncinda, type her name in the ww search box

An Update 11/07-2015

Now there has been a lot of work going on under the big tarp, but today Nathan was out of town so Jason Prew decided to test his router on the foredeck & fit some bling. A deck prism/ port light.

Update 30-08-2015

Things been happening under that cover, last time I was aboard it was looking very sad. Seems all the talk of working on cold winter nights were true 🙂

Nov 2015 Update

A peek under the covers 😉

03-01-2015 Another peek – I’ll be getting a reputation for lifting up old ladies skirts 😉

That prop is looking rather zoom zoom …….

P1180976

16-04-2016 Update – the shiney paint an not be too far away 😉

A Commodores Salute

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A Commodores Salute

Todays post is a little classic wooden boat eye candy from Seattle, the video shows the annual Lake Union- ‘Open the Gates Commodore Salute Parade’. The event marks the appointment of a new commodore to their CYA, lets hope Rod Mahler isn’t watching this, he will be demanding one of these each season 🙂