The caption on this brilliant photo says ‘Mansion House Bay, Kawau, Christmas Day 1934. Looking to ID the launch & if possible the people in the tender, have to love the bloke relaxing with the pipe while his partner rows the four of them ashore – those were the days 🙂
I sent way to long last night trying to ID her – every time I thought I was close , the 10/11 windows on the tram top threw me.
More than likely this is the same boat??
WE HIT THE 200,000 VIEWS MARK THE OTHER DAY & IN THE LAST 3 DAYS PEOPLE HAVE VIEWED THE SITE OVER 5,500 TIMES. AMAZING NUMBERS & IT JUST GOES TO SHOW THERE IS A SERIOUS AUDIENCE INTERESTED IN CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS.
Its been a little frantic at times but given the number of you checking in each day you are obviously enjoying it, so thanks for the support. The back library of really cool material stored in ww is amazing, read below how you can access it.
ARE YOU GETTING THE MOST OUT OF waitematawoodys.com ?
There are many ways to enhance your ww experience, the three easiest ones are :-
(1) by using the categories & tag sections on the right hand side of the page, here by clicking on a (blue) word/s you will see a summary of articles linked to that word e.g. individual designers, build / launching year, CYA vessels, boat names or locations etc.
(2) by typing a key word/s in the search box, then click your computers enter key & all related posts will appear. Scroll down to view & click on each post to view it.
(3) to get the most out of the ww you really need to be a ‘follower’, to become a follower all you have to do is click on the ‘Follow’ tab that appears at the bottom of you computer screen on the right when you have the waitematawoodys page open. You then enter your email address in the box that appears & now you will be able to: (a) receive an email advising you when new articles have been posted. Means you no longer have to check in all the time. (b) allows you to make comments on articles that have been posted.
REMEMBER – If you have any classic boating related photos & tales you want to share & more importantly record / store for feature generations to view – email them to me at
Just returned from the regatta, another great classic event. Above is a selection of photos from the weekend. Most of the regular classics were in attendance & have been photographed to death before. This selection are just images & boats that caught my eye & I post to give you a ‘taste’ of the weekend. I’ll feature some in more detail over the next few days.
If you click on the photos, you can view bigger images in a slide show format.
Enjoy
ps Anniversary Day regatta today so another opportunity to see some of the classic sailing fleet up close + the Tug / Work Boat race is always a hoot.
I spotted Moana at anchor in Coromandel Harbour between Xmas & New Year. A little digging resulted in a trademe listing so if you believe that, she was built by Lanes in 1954 & is a kauri carvel planked, large volume displacement launch at 42.5′. Powered by a 6LX Gardiner. Appears to by well fitted out in terms of modern day comms & navigation toys etc.
Just a pity about the block of flats on top 😦 , but as they say – each to their own.
Now my bitch of the day – why do people selling classic boats (both the public & brokers) almost never include the boats name in a listing. Makes it bloody hard to find the listing & only drops the value, as the serious potential buyers are most likely to know the boat or know someone that knows her.
Harold Kidd Update
Ted Gilpin told me that she was built by Lane Motor Boat Co. for game fishing in at Mayor Island by Alan Hunter and that Peter Parsons had a hand in her design and construction.
Update 17-03-2019 Moana getting some TLC at Gulf Harbour (photo K Ricketts)
Update 12-09-2024 – Photo below of a painting of Moana by Debbie Park
WW has been contacted by Ron Trotter the owner of Valencia built by Baileys. Ron thinks she was built some time in the 1940’s (unlikely, more like 1920’s AH). He was told that it was built for a guy that did the Kawau Island mail run back then but cant get much info about this. The boat is currently moored at Whangamata.
Ron is looking for any info on this boat and or photos of how it was in early days. Reply here in the comments section. Ron’s details are also below.
Ron Trotter – ph 078893374 / 0274316405 / 0274850950wk
Harold Kidd Update
Well, she looks very much like the VALENCIA at Whangarei in an earlier post which a search here under “Valencia” brings up. She was in Whangarei from at least 1927. I think she could have had a name change just before that to the name of the wildly popular paso doble song of the time, “Valencia”.
Maybe however she was new in 1927. It’s possible. I know nothing about a Kawau connection which could be more myth.
Bailey & Lowe is more likely than “Bailey” = Chas. Bailey Jr.
Update #2
It is also possible that she is the VALENCIA built in Tauranga for?/by? L. Oliver in 1926 which he delivered to a Whitianga purchaser in March 1939. There were lots of VALENCIAs after that bloody song came out on 78 after the film came out in March 1926.
North Island’s Parade of Classic & Wooden Boats – Sat 8th Feb
When an invite to a classic boating event is accompanied with the above photo it would be rude to say no.
So waitematawoodys will heading off to Lake Rotoiti for the 2014 Classic and Wooden Boat Parade. Now this is the North Island event so its just a three hour drive from Auckland.
I have ‘followed’ the event on line for the past 5 > 6 years & its a cracker.
This year is the 17th year it has run & the formula is simple: A parade (on-the-water) to showcase the boats then everyone motors / steams off to a sheltered bay on the lake to enjoy old boats and fine company.
Over the xmas/ny period we mooched around Coromandel Harbour for a few days. I can report that the shellfish beds & rock oysters stocks were all good – steamed pipis & fresh shucked oysters + fritters were on the menu several nights. I had not been into the township in years (like 30+) so took the opportunity one day to load Raindance up with several friends off other boats & headed up harbour.
These days the river / creek channel is clearly marked but we played it safe & anchored near the wharf & took two RIB’s that we had towed, up. Along the way there is interesting collection of floating (some just) craft tucked in & around the mangroves.
The town was brilliant, so cool to see a provincial area doing well, the place had a great vibe to it & all the shops appeared to be doing well. The architecture of the main street has not been ‘mucked up’ & its like stepping back in time to the good old days of Main Streets e.g. a hardware store, cafe, chemist, craft store, fish & chip shop, pub, stationary store, pub, land agent, etc.
The highlight for me was the Coromandel Smoking Company, if it comes out of the sea, these guys smoke it – if you are down that way, try the smoked scallops.
Other than the name, I know nothing about Sunbeam/Sea Breeze – so any input would be greatly appreciated.
Harold Kidd Update
There are/were many SUNBEAMS and SEABREEZES, all over NZ. I had a look at that website to see if there’s any information on the boat, where the image was taken etc, but couldn’t find my way through it very well. I kept recoiling at some of the stuff in it, though. Thank goodness WW has peer review processes.
The image is very tiny, but if the launch was photographed as-built, she dates from the period 1920-1928, probably early in that period because the dodger is relatively modest in size.
She looks remarkably Bailey & Lowe to me, but could equally be Dick Lang or a dozen other Auckland builders. Sam Ford is a possibility because he inherited Lang’s moulds and plans when he bought Dick’s business and turned out Lang-style boats until he shifted to Ellerslie and went ultra-modern.
Perhaps the most likely candidate is the Taupo hire launch SUNBEAM of the 1920’s onwards about which I know little but the Drakes will.
Oddly enough there was a SEABREEZE built by Jas. Reid in 1909 and a SUNBEAM built by Bailey & Lowe the same year. Both would have had to be heavily modernised to look like this. That SUNBEAM is currently alive and well in Picton.
Nigel Drake Update
This photo was taken by my father or grandfather in the late1930s and is part of the Drake collection. The location is Boat Harbour in the Western Bays on Lake Taupo. She is tied up alongside the old steamer Tongariro which used to run between Taupo and Tokaanu at the southern end of the lake. Tongariro was converted to fisherman’s accommodation on the opening of the road between Taupo and Tokaanu when her services were no longer required.
Sunbeam was built by Sam Ford, date unknown, for Sid Blake and plied for hire on the lake. 36 feet long, 8 foot 6 inch beam and powered by a 4 cylinder Gray Marine petrol engine. She had a galvanized iron lined engine room to be able to ply for hire. Was one of the first boats on the lake to have a two way radio. Sold to Donald Hunt in 1939 and plied for hire out of Tokaanu until 1952. Left the lake possibly in the mid 1950s.
In the 1980s she was moored in Pilot Bay, Mount Maunganui, and had been used as a fishing boat. Her name had been changed to Sea Breeze and cabin had been changed markedly. In the 1990s she was rebuilt by Tauranga boat builder Barwich Harding and now resides in the Tauranga Marina.
Harold Kidd Update #2
Interesting issues arise here.
SUNBEAM, from the sheer upwards is an almost exact replica of my Bailey & Lowe ROMANCE II (and their 32 footer ROTOMAHANA), same seven clerestory windows, same treatment of the dodger. That’s simply because ROMANCE II was a high-profile fast launch, built to race, and represented the height of style and practicality in 1919. This postwar, post-‘flu epidemic period was a time when few launches had been built since late 1914. People had had a chance to think about what they wanted their post-war launches to look like, to provide in the way of headroom and volume, and how they were to be controlled. The ultra-smart, racy-looking raised-foredeck flushdeckers of 1912-5 were no longer built and most existing ones were easily and speedily modified to get the new look.
The hull of SUNBEAM does appear to have a “knuckle” in the sheer at the bow which is uncharacteristic of Bailey & Lowe. Ken considers it to be a hallmark of Sam Ford. It is certainly strongly reminiscent of his family’s Sam Ford-built JULIANA (formerly WIDGEON, apparently, but of unknown other history). I don’t totally agree with that and make the point again that Ford churned out Dick Lang launches for some years after he took over Lang’s business in 1923 when Dick went to Sydney (mind you he was back soon afterwards, building at St. Mary’s Bay again, alongside Sam).
So is the “knuckle” Sam Ford or Dick Lang???
It was only shortly after this that the US “express cruiser” and “bridgedecker” forms and styles gained attraction and we got LUANA and LADY UNA, for example.
By 1928, say, this 1919-style in ROMANCE II and SUNBEAM, with clerestory or “tramtop”, a minimal dodger and aft-control was becoming very dated, giving way to “sedans” and bridgedeckers of US inspiration.
Harold Kidd Update #3 (13/01/14)
I see that the Taupo boat history site states that “SUNBEAM was built by Sam Ford in 1936 for Sid Blake”. Two things are wrong with that which muddle the situation;
1. SUNBEAM was clearly a product of the early 1920’s not 1936.
2. According to newspaper reports, SUNBEAM was a hire launch on Lake Taupo from at least December 1926.
In fact I have now zeroed in on her as being built by Sam Ford for Blake in early December 1925 and fitted with a 25-35 Model V ohv Gray. I was fooled because the newspaper reports said that Blake (of Taupo) was going to use her for troutfishing on Lake Rotorua. I wonder if she spent a few months at Rotorua?
Currently for sale on trademe, this bridgedecker could be a good buy for someone wanting to get into classic boating.
She appears to be very well presented & excellent value for money.
The listing says she is a 1952 Collings & Bell but HDK advised this is incorrect & she was built by Charlie Filmer. She sleeps 6-8, 10m (32.8′) long, with a 2002 90hp motor. While Picton based, thats not a big issue, ‘Boat Haulage’ are not that expensive, if you are prepared to wait for a return trip.
Stuart Findlay of Paunui Road, St. Heliers owned her in 1957 and may well have been her first owner. He was followed by Solicitor Arthur Bourke of First Ave, Stanley Point in 1959. Her original engine was a 100hp Scripps-marinised Ford Mercury V8.
I can’t fathom why she is now claimed to be a Collings & Bell boat. The APYMBA records show her as built by Charlie Filmer. She doesn’t look Collings & Bell to me anyway.
Probably some oracular shellback advised an owner that she was C&B. That’s the process that has given us today more Logan, Sam Ford and Lane Motor Boat Co launches than they ever built.
Photo below hauled out at Motueka marina, Jan 2018, photo ex John Burland
Update 26-09-2021 Photos (ex Grant Stone) below when owned by a Tom Wilcox in the late 1950’s
The name plaque says built by Bailey & Lowe in 1912, I’m sure if this is correct, Harold will be able to shed some light on Jessica. HDK has rather a soft spot for B&L craft. Jessica was photographed at Thames over the xmas/ny period.
Harold Kidd Update
1. “JESSICA” is a re-name. I know she’s been that since at least 2006. 2. Although foliate scrollwork on the bow was a feature of Bailey & Lowe work up until say 1920 (by when it was considered “old hat”), their scrollwork was much more free-form than this symmetrical work. Maybe the first owner wanted a symmetrical job, but I’ve not seen another and therefore have mild doubts about the “Bailey & Lowe” tag. 3. She was obviously built as a raised foredeck flushdecker. 4. It would be nice to know her previous name(s) so that we can establish some real provenance for her. 5. I do wish launch owners didn’t so readily change their boats’ names, seemingly often to butter up the female members of the family who had dark thoughts about hubby buying a boat. My father did exactly that in 1934.
WANT TO SEE MORE?
To view more WW stories & photos on any subject, just key in the ‘subject name*’ in the search box, click your computers enter key & related posts will appear. Scroll down to view & click on each post to view details.
*designer,builder,type of vessel e.g. launch or yacht,CYA only vessel,period launched e.g. 1920 etc
NZ Antique & Classic Boatshow
Nelson Lakes National Park, February 2014
Classic boat-lovers have the opportunity to indulge in a long weekend of glorious hydromatic relaxation at St Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes National Park, with this year’s NZ Antique and Classic Boat Show linking with Waitangi Day.
The show is set for the weekend of February 8 & 9 and Coordinator Pete Rainey says if people can wangle Friday off they’ve got a four day mini-holiday.
“It’s the same weekend as Taste Marlborough and a Tasman Makos’ game in Blenheim so it’s an excellent time for North Islanders or Cantabrians to see what a varied range of action the Top of the South can offer,” he said. “Being a month earlier than usual means the weather is more stable for visitors who want to pack in a bit of mountain-biking, some exploration of the Nelson Lakes National Park or a few visits to our famous vineyards and art galleries.”
But for the true enthusiast, there’s no reason to wander further afield than the shore of Lake Rotoiti where the Classic Boat Show takes place.
“There will be the usual range of boats…cedar kayaks, jet boats from the 60s, clunky clinkers and veteran wooden yachts,” Rainey said. “From early morning on both days of the weekend you can wander around the boats on land, chat with the owners, view displays with stories of restoration and rebuild and then watch the races on the lake in the afternoon. We have a lot of fun, from the slightly chaotic sail-past to the Seagull dinghy race with its Le Mans start, which always has some poor bugger who can’t get his motor going.”
Another attraction this year is the new Nelson Lakes Classic Boat Museum, alongside the Clinker Café and gift shop complex at the St Arnaud village. It will be open with boating displays all weekend.
The NZ Antique and Classic Boatshow is now in its 16th year, and continues to grow in the number and quality of craft presented, as well as the number of people coming to view the boats and the action. Judging will take place on Saturday, ahead of an evening awards ceremony at the Alpine Lodge. At stake is the Jens Hansen Trophy where the judges are after good looks as well as history, construction and a boat with a story to tell.
Other awards include prizes for best new restoration, best steamboat, best jet-propelled craft and best themed display. Races will be held for yachts, row boats, seagull motored dinghies, poppers, canoes, child rowers and swimmers.
All boats will be checked for noxious aquatic weeds, and oil leaks before entering the water; and boaties are reminded to be aware of minimising the spread of didymo. And remember DOC has released Kiwi into the National Park very close to where the show takes place, so no antique and classic dogs please!
To view more WW stories & photos on any subject, just key in the ‘subject name*’ in the search box, click your computers enter key & related posts will appear. Scroll down to view & click on each post to view details.
*designer,builder,type of vessel e.g. launch or yacht,CYA only vessel,period launched e.g. 1920 etc
waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 15+ million views 