In between lock-downs in June 2021 I had cause to do a trip to Tauranga and took up Doug Owens invitation to visit the yard to get a peek at the refit of his 1937 Colin Wild built 55’ yacht – Nereides. The project was well underway and the commitment to best in class and standard of workmanship was already on display.
Yesterday Doug made contact to let me know that Nereides was back in the water and aside from some final interior work the refit was complete.
The gallery of photos above says it all, the pilot house just glows – well done to Doug and son Mohi. We will keep you updated as the final items are ticked off the to-do list.
During the week I was up Warkworth way and did a fleeting visit to the Sandspit Yacht Club yard. As always lots of activity happening but one boat that took my eye was – Lady Bev.
I know very little about her other than in November 2018 she joined us on one of the Woody trips up to the Riverhead Tavern (on the water photo above).
Hopefully we can learn more about Lady Bev.
INPUT ex Nathan Herbert & ‘tao38’ – Lady Bev was built in 1957 by Dave Jackson for his father. Later extended by 4′.
HERITAGE BASIN MARINA ACCESS POLL
Back in Dec 2021 we ran a poll across the WW readers asking whether they supported access to the new Heritage Basin marina area being open to all CYA classic vessels or just pre-selected yachts. At the time 85% of people voted for all classic vessels e.g. yachts of all sizes and ages, work boats, launches. I suspect at Tuesday nights CYA AGM we will learn that the grey headed ones have paid no attention to what the classic boating movement wants and are continuing to pursue the Heritage Basin marina to be a yacht only area.
Always an amazing collection of traditional craft on display at the Thames Traditional Boat Festival, from the electric Slipper launches to a fleet of Little Ships of Dunkirk.
Today we have David from the blog – Cruising the Cut, taking us on a tour of the festival at Henley-on-Thames. Enjoy Thanks to Colin Pawson for the link
THE NZ CLASSIC YACHT ASSOCIATION – IT’S NOT JUST ME – The WW comment below is from someone that should/ could have been one of the next generation of CYA leading lights – sub 50 in age and very talented and most importantly – a seriously good guy – BUT – LOST
“I started to write a long comment about this and gave up. I withdrew my 10+ year CYA membership in protest last year and my 2 other family members will be following as none of our boats qualify and because of the way applications (invites) have been handled.
Unfortunately this means I won’t have an opportunity to comment, listen or vote on something that has forced a large number away from the CYA.
The vessels at heritage landing have reaped benefit for many years – many hardly getting any use. When previous sub-committee members suggest a change or review of criteria – they end up giving up and resigning due to the way things are handled.
No transparency, nepotism and a committee that rolls over too easily despite nervously agreeing off record that it’s a farce.”
The 40’ carvel planked – Heather was built in 1965 by Doug Robb and spent her first 35 years as a commercial fishing boat. In 2000 Miller & Tunnage converted Heather to pleasure boat and installed the 1996 Gardner 6LXB, which was brand new at the time. Like all good Gardners she is very efficient e.g. at 5.5 knots, running at 800rpm, she sips 1L pnm. Normal cruise speed is 7.5 knots, but can be taken up to 9.5 knots max.
To use the old car dealer term – Heather comes with all the fruit, incredibly spec’ed and all set for some serious cruising.
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up
04-10-2022 INPUT FROM Philip Trow
“Hi, Philip here….the present owner of Heather (2022). It is great to see a correct and largely accurate report on Heather. A couple of things to add: MV Heather was originally built by the Heberley family of the Marlborough sounds. She is named Heather after Heather Heberley (NZ author of some note).
Heather has been a particularly reliable and forgiving vessel for myself and previous owners. I have taken her around most of the South Is and I know previous owners have also used her for some great trips around the North is. She is very economical to run (1l/nm @ 800rpm/5.8kts exactly and circa 9l/hour at 1050rpm/ 7kts average.) Large 1200l+ tanks give her a very usable range. She also has a 6kw gen set and 800watt+ solar panels to handle long periods at mooring or unattended. As of writing she has less than 3600 hours from new on the Gardner 6lxb. That is very few hours on a Gardner.
Heather was rebuilt around 2000 and a great deal of heavy duty good quality equipment was installed. All of the fittings and equipment are much more robust than you would typically find on a pleasure vessel.
MV Heather has benefited from myself and previous owners who have maintained her to a good standard and also spent significant amounts keeping her up to date with features like AIS, drip free shaft seal and Blackwater.
I have retired from aviation, and now have a larger “Bluewater boat”, hence Heather is somewhat regrettably on the market.”
Not a woody and not a boat but after yesterdays weather it seems very fitting for a story 🙂 Amazingly the story of this Marton, Manawatu NZ Airbnb popped up in the Financial Times (FT) Weekend Magazine. Sleeps 4 and has a very nautical fit out.
Link below if your in the area and looking for somewhere to stay…….
The above photo popped up in my ‘odds and sods’ file – it is dated late Jan 2022 so may have been from when I was helping deliver – Korawai to the BOI. But the photos code tells me it was taken on a Samsung device and I do not touch those, so maybe one of the other crew.
Anyway the launch is most likely named – Blue Seas, can anyone tell us if that is her name and any more intel about her.
INPUT ex Graham Hunter – She is still named BLUE SEAS Waiheke Island is also on the transom. She is now on a Mooring in Whakatakata Bay By OBC
25-07-2022 Input below from Chris Cotter (co-owner)
MY LIPS ARE SEALED – NO NAMES
If you need more proof on why not to bond your wooden boat and attach anodes – have a look below – luckily it was very localised. Very scary, the rudder shaft and surrounding area was VERY close to just not being there and you can guess what would have happened.
And if you need more read the most referenced story on the WW site – link below
Bay of Islands photographer Dean Wright took the above photos of the Clipper 23 – Black Tulip back in 1983. The location was School Road, Paihia.
A couple of unusual feature – shaft drive and a ’soft top’ hopefully will help us ID the boats current whereabouts and condition.
INPUT ex Murray Deeble – The famous Clipper Black tulip ex Lincoln Laidlaw (as seen on the cover of Seaspray) is retired at Milford . After her record breaking Auckland to Russel run when new with the Big V8 -she did a couple of Atlantic 100 races and disappeared, saw her at Sam Dorotich’s Superior Boats in the early 2000’s She has recently been sold -now powered with a Yanmar /BMW 4BY diesel -always been shaft drive.
We all know the correct answer when some asks “does my behind look big in these jeans” well in the same vein someone needs to tell the owner of the above launch not to use a wide angle lens for the hero shot 🙂
Putting that aside today’s woody according to her tme listing (thanks Ian McDonald) has a great back story – built in 1912 by the daughter of John Geard, the Geard family were early pioneers in the South Island. In fact the mother was the first English woman settler in the South Island. The family were whalers in the Marlborough area.
The launch is 46’ in length and built from kauri. Her engine is a 1950, 60hp Cummings diesel.
An interesting mix of design styles on display – it states that she s a ‘dreadnought’ design, not sure what that means – dreadnought is mostly connected to early 1900 battleships and more modern day submarines.
The challenge would be to keep as is or get the tungsten tipped chainsaw out and start again.
Can we put a name to the boat and learn more about her?
INPUT EX CAMERON POLLARD – Named Dreadnaught. Owned by the Gaurd family for most of the century. 43 ft long, 4cyl Ford engine. Largely original – photos below
On Thursday one of the Lake Waikaremoana launches we featured was – Idalia, we enquired about her whereabouts and sadly Toni Metz informed us that she was abandoned and subsequently broken up and removed from the lake front. Toni spent some time yesterday trolling thru his photo album and uncovered the above collection of Idalia when she was well cared for.
The b/w photo above was from her early days on the lake.
Toni has also search the launch on the Papers Past site and uncovered two interesting mentions – the first is from the Poverty Bay Herald, 23 Feb 1925 and covers a wee (actually not so wee) oops while Idalia was in Gisborne. You have to love the terms they used back then – no steering = “she did not answer to the helm” and taking on water = “she commenced to fill up”. Press clipping below
The second mention is also in the Poverty Bay Herald, this time dated 13th October 1933 and covers Idalia’s overland journey from Gisborne to Lake Waikaremoana. Lots of background on the boat ownership in the press clippings below. She was 36’ x 10’ x 3’6” and powered by a 40hp Thorneycroft engine, recently installed in 1933.
Back in Nov 2020 boat builder Alan Craig (Craig Marine) and I were chatting re a 1956, 17’ clinker run-about named Sea Spray that was on tme and claimed to be built by J Logan. A quick call to Harold Kidd confirmed the provenance and Alan acquired Sea Spray on behalf of a client.
The yard re-planked the bottom up to water line and rebuilt the whole cabin top and interior. While to some it may appear a lot of effort for a 17′ boat, remember woodys it’s the real deal – a Jack Logan boat.
The project was finished at the end of 2021 and relaunched at Xmas 2021.. Now called Helena, she has been converted to electric, through a steerable pod in place of the rudder. Helena will do a good 10hrs without charging, Alan commented that’s a lot of trips to the Lake Rotoiti hot pools 🙂 I’m told Helena is a quite comfortable boat, even with 4 people aboard.
Her old engine, a 10hp Arona diesel is hopefully going to replace another in a yacht in the far north.
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