OPANUI – A Peek Down Below + Woody Lunch Cruise Details
Todays woody sedan launch – Opanui, was designed and built in 1964 by Phil Lang for Robert Chamberlain of Chamberlain Island (now Ponui } , Built to tow barges up to 70′ long around the Hauraki gulf she is an incredibly strong boat, made from 1 1/4 inch strip planked kauri.She is approx 38′ long with a 10’6″ beam & 3’6” draft. Her original 6 cylinder 130 HP Perkins diesel 6354 still powers her and cruises at a comfortable 6>7 knots. Thanks to Ian McDonald spotting a tme listing we get to have good look at Opanui. From the listing she appears to be well maintained and well fitted out for cruising.Current home is the Bay of Islands.
CLASSIC WOODY LAUNCH CRUISE & CATCH UP AT RIVERHEAD HOTEL After the brilliant (but long over due) summer we have had so far this season it will be great to get together to a catch up and swap cruising tales. So its time for a lunch cruise to the Riverhead Tavern – Saturday 16th March. Details below –
RSVP to waitematawoodys@gmail.com with boat name and approx. crew numbers. DATE: Saturday 16th March TIME: Meeting at Lucas Creek area at 11am. Arriving hotel at 11.30am TIDE: HW @ 1pm – 3.3m Looking forward to catching up 🙂
The 33’ 1912 Bailey & Lowe launch recently popped up on tme so today thanks to Ian McDonald we get to have a gander down below.
Her story is that she was possibly built as a port service vessel for use in the South Island. Her current owner has had her for 24 years, and in that time crossed from Wellington (North Island) to the Sounds (South Island) numerous times.
Forward motion is via a 65hp Bedford 220 diesel (keel cooled) that gets her along nicely at 7 knots.
Every so often we get approach to find new custodians for woody craft, mostly it is a pile of firewood but sometimes its gold.
Woody Alistair McRae) owner of Lady Margaret (ex Lady Mary, ex Happy Wanderer) contacted me regarding a 23’ classic open day boat that has been stored under a cover in one of his sheds for a number of years.
Not a lot is known about her past but the exterior of the hull planking has been scraped and pretty much all paint has been removed. The interior and deck has been rebuilt to what appears to be a high standard. There is no motor, steering or wiring. Her beam is 6’9”. With a nice small Yanmar fitted she would be a perfect lake boat or Bay of Islands picnic boat.
All of the hard (and expensive) work has been done – I understand the owner is looking for a buy price of $5,500 – that woodys is a bargain. Buy her, pop in storage until winter, and relaunch in Spring.
I would be amazed if Cam from {the} Slipway Milford doesn’t snap her up, perfect wet day inside work for the team 🙂
Circle Saturday 24th Feb in the diary – the Te Atatu Boating Club are hosting a yard sale – full details in the poster below. Come along and grab a bargain to book a spot to sell your stuff.
As so often happens on WW the story was read by some one with a past connection to boat – I have reproduced Trish Kidson’s (from Nelson) note to me below
“Hi from Nelson – It was a thrill to see Kokiri featured on your post last week. I have so many happy childhood memories of trips around the Abel Tasman coastline with the owners of the time, Mr & Mrs Nalder.
I’ve put together a wee bit more information (below) and also added some photos ex the late John Evans collection (as seen above) as she was in the late 1950’s onwards while in the Nalder’s hands. Sorry, the photos are taken off my late father’s slides so not best quality but may be helpful to have in your database for future reference.
PS: “Escape” is Percy Vos design / build, launched in 1940 and bought by my parents in 1967 who brought to her to Nelson where she remained in the custody of our family for 46 years. Last we heard she was moored in Whitianga.”
KOKIRI (Newt & Nellie Nalder)
As previously mentioned by other WW viewers, Kokiri was built in Nelson by Allen Westrupp in late 1950s at his Tahuna workshop for well-known locals Newt and Nellie Nalder as a replacement for their previous boat, Kotare (built in 1951 by Nelson boatbuilders Curnow & Wilton). They had used the launch Kotare for taking passengers and friends along the Abel Tasman National Park coastline or for fishing trips.
Like her owners, Kokiri is remembered with much affection by many locals who frequented the Park as she was often seen pottering along the coast or on a mooring in Anchorage.
After the Nalder’s sold her, Kokiri remained in the Kaiteriteri/Riwaka area and was lengthen by the new owners. Her original length is unknown but as a comparison, yacht Escape is 28’6” (as seen in the photo of being towed up the Nelson Harbour on the day Escape was launched in Nelson, 1967).
Photos: (late John Evans Collection) Apologies for the quality – they are taken off Dad’s slides
At the recent Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat weekend I was asked about the woody that has been ‘parked’ in front of a property near Kaiwaka – as long as I can remember, well as long as I have been interested in woodys boats. She has sat in that same spot slowly decomposing, Im sure her owner would tell you its a work-in progress but…………….
The craft is visible from the main road, on the right hand side heading north.
Can anyone ID her for us
INPUT FROM PREVIOUS OWNER (Terry) – She is a Harley Black Marlin design, name was Aljo (spelling could be wrong) when I owned her back in the mid 70s.I think she has had a name change .She is battern carvel construction.I brought her in Tauranga but I believe she was from Whakatane after my ownership she moved to Clevedon river for many years, them moved north to the Bay,Last time I saw her in the water was in the Mangawhai river a long time ago.
I22-02-2023 NPUT ex BARBARA BUSET –
Well, would you believe it, I think I was the previous owner of this boat, before it was left there on the side of the road, must be coming up to 20 years now!!
It was known as Alijo when my ex-husband and I bought it in the 90’s. We re-named it Bartab and spent thousands doing it up. The first thing we did was have it parked on our front lawn at One Tree Point giving it a complete repaint. All the squabs and curtains were remade and she looked a picture. The shower/toilet was rebuilt and the engine had major work done on it, much to my ex’s disgust as it was a Ford and he was a Holden nut! She was moored on the blind channel at OTP, not far from the little dairy there. Over the years we had a new bow rail, new Bimini and new automatic winch. I loved going out on her for the weekends and we even took her up to the Bay of Islands a few times. With the divorce, she was sold and I don’t know what happened to her then until I suddenly noticed her there at the side of the road at Kaiwaka. She’s been there so long now that I don’t think she can ever go back in the water. I understand she’s a Kauri Carvel. It’s so sad to see her every time I go to Auckland, rotting there on the side of the road. When I used to go out on her I kept a log book which I still have! Unfortunately I’m away from home at the moment, but as soon as I get back home, I’m going to find it and then I might have some more info for you.
Couldn’t believe it when the Woody’s web page popped up tonight as I had only driven by earlier today and always talk about her whenever I see her.
I’ll be in touch again nearer the end of the month when I’m home and can find my log book.
YESTERDAYS QUIZ WINNER – Graeme Finch , he correctly picked – cooking – I started the process of making the ‘World Famous In Devonport Tomato Sauce’ 🙂
Has been a few weeks of back to back woody boating activity, so today is a case of slowing down – So when the WW email inbox pinged with a note from Bay of Islands woody photographer – Dean Wright, my eyes lit up. As always Dean was sending in some great photos from mooching around the Bay of Islands aboard his magnificent woody – Arethusa .
Todays are from Deans weekend trip to Mimiwhangata and starting at the top we see one of my favourite workboat woodys – the Roger Carey designed (1954), built by Curnow & West Nelson Boatbuilders craft – Souvenir in Deep Water Cove.
Today I’ll doing something very un-boating related – but to me very chilling out – 1st one to guess what that is, its an inside project – wins a WW burgee – entries via email only to waitematawoodys@gmail.com . Closes off at 6pm.
Recently Bryce Strong sent in the above photos from Lyttelton Harbour.
The top woody is unknown to Bryce and WW, can anyone help ID her for us.
The other photos are of the spirit of tradition launch – Katherine, she has made several appearances on WW , link below, click on headline. She was sold early in 2023 and relocated south form Auckland. Now we know where exactly
The annual Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade always attracts a good turn out of the Albatross speed boats, but at last weekends parade we had the biggest turnout in one spot in the Southern Hemisphere. Read below for the local (Lake Rotoiti) on the craft – as told by Richard Stevens.
“Campbell Motors (Queen St Auckland) were the NZ agents. The Beamish-White family at Okataina Lodge had a fleet as “Drive U-Self” hire boats, including a 4-seater with Coventry Climax version of the engine and one of the two seaters had a factory alloy-framed full height 4-pane glass windscreen. They also had a set of hull jigs and did all their own maintenance on site including re- skinning. These boats took a hammering and were eventually replaced by outboard-powered craft. Les Warner ran a small hire fleet from his home at Hinehopu. (I recall as a kid seeing one as a crumpled mess after crashing into the jetty at speed.) There was also a hire fleet on the Rotorua lakefront. These were painted red. One allegedly sank and was never recovered. There was also a fleet at Queenstown. These may have been the remnants of the Rotorua hire fleet. The boat in these fleets may be double-ups. I do not know how many boats there actually were in total. In addition to the Stevensons and ours there were two more on the Lake during the ’60s. One was the Annabel family, the other the McDonalds. (I saw their boat in Auckland a few years ago, complete and painted black)
These boats are the MG Midget of the water. They don’t have excessive power in their standard format, but they are fast, nimble, well designed and beautifully built with excellent handling. They are simple, cheap to run, easy to maintain and, above all, great fun.
These boats have held classic status worldwide for many years now and are highly collectible. It is pleasing to see that they are acknowledged on Rotoiti as part of our boating history.
Addition: Alan Clark owned one here at Lake Rotoiti in the 1950’s.
Addition: Don Wykes and his brother purchased the Rotorua Lakefront business from Judd & Jean Davies in the 70’s. It had the launch Ngaroto (the Davies had this built in England) that took people out to Mokoia Island and had 3 Albatross hire boats: 2x 2 seaters and 1x 4 seater. They were painted Red.
He is able to confirm that one of the 2 seaters sank just short of Mokoia Island, when his worker was heading over to mow the grass. They put a buoy over the oil slick, but when they went back to retrieve it someone had moved the buoy. They sent down 2 divers but were never able to locate it, the water was too murky. He doesn’t recall who he sold the others to, but remembers one of their workers bought one and put a bigger motor in it, a 105 he thinks. “
Below is a gallery of the Albatross craft that participated in the parade – as always click on photos to enlarge. Also scroll down to view yesterdays WW story – 200+ classic and wooden boat photos from the 2024 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade.
Wow what a weekend , stunning weather, so many classic woody boats and as always at Lake Rotoiti – nice people.
Left Auckland at 5.30am to drive down – have to say the new Waikato expressway is so fast BUT so boring as a drive.
Arrived at my hosts Dave and Glenys Wilson lake front residence and collected the on-the-water transport for the day. Had a nice surprise in that the boat came with a skipper – local boatbuilder Alan Craig (Craig Marine) who over the last 10 years has rubbed up against most of the craft floating on the lake. This made my boat buddy – cabin boy, Grant Gibbs redundant but he accepted the demotion to #1 lackey.
After recent parade weekends have been effected by CV19 and weather bombs everyone was hanging out for a special day afloat and we got it in spades.
Todays photo gallery is loosely broken into 3 sections – Mooching About / Parade / Picnic.
Enjoy – if I missed your boat – sorry, next year. Tomorrow I will do a story on the Albatross runabouts that were a major part of the parade – I believe the biggest turnout in the Southern Hemisphere.
A couple of videos below.
REMEMBER – CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
09-02-2024 UPDATE – Video of the fleet at the Picnic
Master wooden boatbuilder – Colin Brown sent in the above photo of the recent Pahi Regatta. The video ex fb ex Krystal Waller gives us a peek at the on-the-water activity.
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