Why its called Team NZ
I like Dean Barker, a lot, but when we knock that 9th win off, there are a few boat builders & shore crew that we all owe a big thanks to. Very few high performance racing yachts would have survived either of the above oops.
Rewa the hulk
photo ex Dave Jackson
The above photo is of the Rewa hulk and as you can see the masts are still standing. Dave thinks it’s before the WW2.
Harold commented that it looks like a Navy Liberty boat, cutter alongside Rewa.
Comments from Russell Ward on Rewa:
Rewa was bought for a fiver by Charlie Hansen who lived a hermit’s life at Moturekareka . Rewa was a beautiful ship with a lot of life left in her but alas, there was no need for that sort of ship any more.
She was towed to the exposed bay intended as a wave break. She sank in the wrong place but still continues to meet her intended purpose.
Parts of her rigging went into Johnny Wray’s boat Ngataki in exchange for provisions (read South Sea Vagabonds –a ripping yarn).
She was slowly leveled off over the years. Farnsworths tore a lot of steel out of her in the ’60s.
And there she lies, making the ultimate sacrifice. I shudder to think of the prospect of getting a resource consent to do this these days!
Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2013 Aerial Video
One of the wooden boating events on my bucket list is the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Previously we have only seen still photos on the WBF & in WoodenBoat magazine. Now we have aerial video footage of the event shot using one of the small drone battery powered helicopters , not much bigger than a laptop computer. Watch the video to get a birds eye view of the event.
Sierra – ‘Horse Float’
photo ex Dave Jackson
The above photo of “Sierra” was taken in the Hokianga – no date sorry.
Now when I showed the photo to Harold Kidd, he was good, he correctly ID’ed the location as Hokianga & the Omapere Wharf and the launch most likely ex Fell’s Boatyard, established in 1905 at Kohukohu by Joseph Fell. But Harolds not that good, he did not know the names of the horses 🙂
Sierra is now in the CYA fleet, colour photo below. Any details on her past would be appreciated.
08-01-2016 photo at Kawau Island ex Tom Kane
13-01-2016 Input from John Mortimer
In the late 1950’s l lived on a remote and marginal sheep and cattle farm on the Waima River in the Hokianga.
In a direct line, Rawene was only 3 miles away,by river it was 5 miles and by road 30.
The river was the obvious highway and the Sierra, owned and skippered by Fred Young was our main means of communication.
Several contracts relied on the Sierra. The school contract took children to and from Moehau school morning and afternoon. Most farmers on the river had poor or no road communication and the cream output from farms carrying anything from 20 to 120 cows went down to Rawene in the Sierra to Rawene for transshipment by pontoon to the dairy factory at Motukaraka. Empty cans from the previous day we loaded on board and delivered to farm jetties on the up river journey next day.
The mail was delivered three times week and the Herald on the afternoon return trip. If there was no one on the jetty , Fred would send the rolled newspaper to the deck with a dexterous flick of the wrist.
The launch also carried morning passengers to Rawene to do their shopping. They returned when she went back to Moehau in the afternoon at 1.30.
A conversation overheard in the open cockpit in the stern on a sunny afternoon:
First Lady – I read the Truth for the recipes.
Second lady – I read it for the horoscopes
Third lady – I read it for the scandal
A burst of laughter from all three.
When the dairy factory closed and the Moehau school roll fell her days in the Hokianga were numbered. I understand that she spent her last summer at Opononi taking visitors around the harbour and then sailed out over the bar, round the turbulent seas at North Cape and down to the Waitemata where she was used as work boat during the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Her name was always mentioned in conjunction with the name of her builders, Fells of Motukaraka. I understand that there were three sister ships, the Sierra, the Nevada and the Santa Fe.
Sounds more like an old song to me.
She approaches her hundredth year with dignity and grace of an old timer who may well live for ever.
Some only save the important things 🙂
The above photo was taken immediately after a yachting accident on Sydney Harbour, you have to have a chuckle at the chap on the left who managed to ‘save’ a bottle of ‘something’.
Now a little quiz , why are the men positioned in the water the way they are?
Sorry for the non NZ photo but I’m having hard-drive issues so had to grab an image off my laptop.
Harold Kidd’s answer in the REPLYS section was right – they are hiding from the SHARKS
| Comment from Robin Elliott
Saying it is all due to sharks is a bit extravagant and the Aussie skiffies still love to put the willies up any visitors with wild-eyed warnings of a possible chomping amputation during a capsize. It really has less to do with sharks and more about sensible weight distribution while awaiting a tow. Those boats had NO buoyancy whatsoever other than the wooden hull and spars, and having 9-10 heavy crew all sitting on the capsized hull would just push it (and the sitting crew) further down under the water – making crew drowning a more likely possibility than shark attack. The spars were solid timber and also gave support to a crewman. While I tripped across the odd report of a curious shark, mooching about a nervous crew waiting for a tow, in actuality they were really quite rare (and I ploughed through over 100+ years of 18-footer racing reports, club minutes, records etc in NSW and QLD). The most alarming (but funny) occurrence was in February 1932 when Paddy Griffith’s Shamrock reported that a 3-foot grey nurse shark leaped aboard during the race. The forward hand beat it to a pulp with the spinnaker pole. Can you imagine the adrenalin rush? Pity it wasn’t filmed. |
OTEHEI
Named after Zane Grey’s game fishing base which he set up at Otehei Bay, Urupukapuka Island in the Bay of Islands.
boat photo ex classicgameboatnz
Harold Kidd Update
OTEHEI was a sister-ship to the Collings & Bell-built hard chine launches built for various operators in the Bay of Islands in 1926-7 to service the game-fishing sport which had grown rapidly after an exploratory trip north by Colonel W.H. Hazard in his VIRGINIA in 1918. The other 3 launches to the same pattern were LORNA DOONE, ZANE GREY (later ALMA G II) and MANAAKI (photo below). These launches were all equipped with Redwing engines and were capable of 16 knots. OTEHEI was built for Frank Elliott who painted her red. Like the others, and the later AVALON, she was based at Zane Grey’s camp at Otehei on Urupukapuka Island.
She spent some time on Lake Taupo as GRACE DARLING but is now in Russell/Opua restored for the last 20 years or so as OTEHEI.
Manaaki- Xmas / NY – 201- 4
Manaaki Xmas/NY 2103-4
Continuing the game fishing link today – this time Ozone & Rosemary – more details below
photo ex classicgameboatnz
Harold Kidd Update
There were two OZONEs which makes matters confusing. The first was built by Collings & Bell in 1912. The second was built by Percy McIntosh in Whangarei in 1914 for Harold Vipond for the Auckland-Wade River trade but which Vipond took north to the Bay of Islands in 1925 or perhaps a tad earlier for game-fishing.
ROSEMARY was built in St.Mary’s Bay by Leon Warne in December 1920 for himself and his brother George and was taken north for game-fishing out of Russell at about the same time as OZONE. The Warne brothers then set up boatbuilding, repairs as well as gameboat chartering at Russell. ROSEMARY originally had a Scripps 4 cylinder but was later fitted with a Redwing. There wasn’t much love lost between Chas. Collings and Leon Warne after Warne served his time with Collings and set up alongside him in 1916. Warne shared that opinion with Alf Bell who probably worked for Leon when he left the Walsh Brothers at Kohimarama; but Alf Bell didn’t build ROSEMARY. Perhaps there’s confusion because Warne’s foreman was Alf RAGG.
Both launches were very successful in promoting the deep sea angling sport in the Bay of Islands, both from Russell and Whangaroa. The boom in the sport was accelerated by Zane Grey’s involvement in the later 1920s but ground almost to a standstill in the Depression, picking up gain by 1937.
ROSEMARY was originally launched a a dashing flushdecker. See “N Z Vintage Launches” p92 for a pic of her at speed on the Waitemata in the 1925 Anniversary Regatta.
Cutting From Northern Advocate – 30 Dec 1920 ex Harold Kidd ex Papers Past
AVALON
I do not know anything about the above launch other than she was actively engaged in the game fishing sport.
Any help re more info much appreciated.
photo ex classicgameboatnz
Harold Kidd Update
AVALON 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, 36′ x 8’6″ x 3’6′. She had a 85-100hp Redwing engine and was designed for 16 knots. She was often chartered by Zane Grey who took her to Queensland in 1936 for game fishing there. Some few years ago she was exported to the US to the Zane Grey Museum, somehow avoiding the then Antiquities Act.
And more
OOPS Zane Grey chartered AVALON to chase sharks at Bermagui, NSW, not Queensland. She came back to NZ after the expedition of course. And I may have made a glib assumption that she was square bilge to his “concave-convex” design like the other Bay of Islands game launches he built like ALMA G and ZANE GREY (later ALMA G II) for the Arlidge brothers etc. I am doubting that somewhat and wonder if anyone can post a hull shot of her?
And more
All’s well. I’ve turned up a pic of AVALON clearly showing that she’s square bilge, like ALMA G, MANAAKI, LORNA DOONE and ZANE GREY also built for the Zane Grey game fishing circus.
1956 Sydney Hobart Race Film – Hard to Windward
Lin Pardy has just posted a great youtube link on the WoodenBoat Forum for the 1956 Sydney > Hobart race. Lin’s comments below
“Kim Newstead, our hosts when we were invited to speak at the Hobart Wooden Boat Festival last year, just sent along a link to a wonderful 15 minute movie someone found in their garage. It is a professionally made program (16 or 17 minutes) from the 1956 Sydney Hobart Race, all on classic wooden boats, all with cotton sails, not a harness, pulpit or stern rail to be seen. Yes, times have changed. Thought everyone here might enjoy this.”
Mansion House Bay Kawau 1939
Any one able to ID the launch on the left?
photo ex ‘Sir George Grey Special Collections (Auckland Libraries)
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