A few weeks ago Glenn Martin sent in the above photos of woody speed boat hibernating in Taupo. Do not want to give the location away but – near the marina.
As Glenn commented there appears to be a cool hull shape hiding under that tarp. Well thanks to a WW story back in Oct 2017 by Paul Drake we know that the hull was very quick – back in c.1935/36 she narrowly missed out on being the fasted boat on Lake Taupo – just beaten by Piri Pono. Read the story at the WW link below, make sure you also read the Comments Section – good chat there. https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/10/31/three-taupo-boats/
Thanks to Paul and Harold Kidd we know that Luyvon was designed and built by Jack Taylor and launched in November 1934. She was two skin kauri and supposedly 23ft x 7ft. On her trials she attained 25mph.
I love that its tied onto the fence post – just in case it floats away 🙂
Amazing Restoration of 1912 Classic Lake Boat – Lion
How did I miss this story on fb from a year ago – back in August 2020 on WW we covered the amazing restoration of the 38’ launch built in 1912 by James McPherson in Dunedin for Hugh McKenzie of Lake Wakatipu (thank you HDK for the intel)
How today thanks to a fb post by the company that restored her – the Repair My Boat Yard (formerly Southern Classic Boats) in Invercargill, South Island, we get to see Lion, back on Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown.
Hats off to everyone that was involved in the project – she is up there with Rawhiti in terms of attention to detail and workmanship.
Over the weekend I had cause to visit an area that I had often passed by boat but never on land – the area I refer to is the ‘Old Cement Works’. Home these days to the very funky Mahurangi Marina. Its just 5 minutes from the Warworth township and as well as dockside berths, offers halibut and hardstand facilities.
There is a nice selection of woody / classic craft tied up and with the ruins of the cement works as a backdrop, its very pleasant. The grounds I imagine would be a popular picnic spot and there’s even a fresh water lake, photos below.
Nereides II would have to one of the biggest woodys built in NZ in terms pf length and volume – the Oliver and Gilpin built launch was launched in 1974 and is 66’ in length, with a 15’ beam. Tripe skinned diagonally laid kauri with some of that ‘fg’ stuff on top.
A one owner boat she has sent most of her life cruising the Kings and outer islands on fishing and dive trips, hence the fuel tanks – 5,455L. Powered by twin GM Detroit 671s rated at 275hp a side.
Being ex survey, and reviewing the tme photos (thanks Ian McDonald) Nereides II is very well spec’ed.
I was subsequently contacted by John Bullivant who supplied the above photos of Meteor III. John advised that his research uncovered that all of the Metero’s (1 / II / III) were owned by Frank Haworth, who ran a very successful tourism business in Queenstown in the 1950’s>1960’s.
It is believed that Meteor III was NZ’s first hydrofoil , but built in the UK. Meteor III cruised at 55 kph and topped out at over 70kph.
I understand that she operated on the lake until the mid 1990’s, but these days is run by a charitable trust and occasionally comes out of retirement.
When she first hit the lake in the 1950’s, based on the photos it must have been an impressive sight.
Had a wonderful response to Mondays story asking for help locating a source of kauri for the rebuild of the fire damaged classic launch – Kokoru. Currently fine tuning the exact requirements and will be back in touch with the good folk that reached out with potential solutions 🙂
EASTER – Looking To Do Something Special
On behalf of WW – Jason Prew has been pulling together an amazing Easter cruise. The plan is to cruise up the Waihou River to the township of Paeroa for the weekend. To ensure a safe passage up the river there will be a local woody piloting.
Due to space restraints the guest list is limited to 12 boats – and as of today there are only 2>3 vacant spots.
Cruising experiences like this trip are rare so contact Jason jason@slipway.co.nz for more details and to grab a spot.
Weekend Overview:
Easter Friday > Meet at Thames / Kopu bridge. Travel in convoy to Paeroa
Saturday > do the “tourist things” Museum visit, shops etc
Sunday > return down river in afternoon
Sunday night / Monday > free to do your own thing
Part of the weekend will be a visit to the Paeroa Historic Maritime Museum and Park (you’ll be moored in front), the venue is one of the best displays of NZ and local maritime history including Captain Cook, The Northern Steamship Co., Naval displays and many scale replicas of vessels.
On morning of 13th March Dean Wright spotted the above yacht off Moturua Island in the BOI.
A mystery to Dean and myself – can anyone put a name to the boat and tell us about her?
Input from John Bertenshaw. -the mystery schooner is Regulus , a William Hand design originally from San Francisco. Its been in the bay for some here. Circa 1928 build or so IIRC. Photo below
The Mence armada, below, sharing the Slipway at Milford this week 😉
Jeanne & Eileen Patricia
The Balmain Bug
Hugh Gladwell sent in the above YouTube link to a very cool video on the Australian Balmain Bug – the six foot skiffs that hav been racing on Sydney Harbour for over 130 years. As Hugh joked – perfect for someone wanting to get into classic yachting without the marina fees 🙂
Back in Sept 2015 we featured the launch Tauraka on WW, I had photographed the 32′ launch several times at the Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade. Sadly Tauraka has been allowed to deterrent over the last few years, but at ‘free-to-a-good-home’ Tauraka would be a great project.
Photo sent in by Rob Watt, showing her moored in the Okere Arm of Lake Rotoiti. Owner contact malcolm.mcnicol@gmail.com
Input From Paul Drake – TAURAKA’s story brought back memories of 50 years ago when we got hold of ROMANCE. The photos below of before and after of ROMANCE might inspire some keen young person to give it a go with TAURAKA.
The launch Meteor / Comet II was built by Collings and Bell and is reputed to by at the time the fastest commerical launch in New Zealand, with a top speed of 36 knots, carrying 12 passengers. She plied her trade as a tourism launch on Lake Wakatipu, Oueenston, but also has been based out of the Bay of Islands, Rotorua, Picton and the Marlborough Sounds.
Just popped up on tme as a work-in-progress and sadly a long way off her original configuration.
33’ in length, these days she is powered by a Ford 180hp diesel engine – would be interested to hear what powered her in the zoom zoom days.
Classic Launch Kokoru Damaged In Pine Harbour Marina fire yesterday – refer the NZ Herald for details, its still a little to raw to go into details – more later. But I’m sure you’ll all be thinking of the owners.
When designed and built by Owen Woolley in 1968 the launch – Acheron started life at 38’ and the build took place in Woolley’s shed on the water’s edge of the Tamaki River, Pakuranga. She was constructed of single skin heart kauri with hardwood ribs. The design was a very popular concept for Woolley and he built several other boats later through a number of years that were more or less sisterships to Acheron.
Post launching Acheron spent 4> 5 years on a pile mooring in the Tamaki River, on the Panmure side of the river, near Ken Rickett’s parents house. Ken supplied the intel for todays story and the photos come to us from her current Wellington owner – Tim Prescott.
Harold Kidd has advised that Acheron was owned in 1973 by E & J Lane of Kohimarana, Auckland so given this date they may well have been the original owners.
Acheron’s past between approx. 1974 and 1991 is mostly unknown, until in 1991 she was relocated to Wellington by a Des Deacon, who had purchased her. Fast forward to 2005 when she was purchased by Tim Prescott. At this stage Acheron measured 44’ in length , with a 12’6” beam and draw 3’6’, the additional 6’ had been added to her stern giving her a bigger cockpit. In a December 2019 WW story on the launch Proteus, Neil Lineham commented he purchased Acheron in 1984 and had the extension done, by John Gladden, and with the additional 6’ she had a new top speed of 19 knots. Linehan owned the boat between 1984 and 1987.
Acheron is powered by two TS3 model 3DB-215 Commer diesels, which have been in her since new. They drive thru two 22″ diameter x 21″ pitch 4 blade propellers. The current photos of the engine bay confirm that they have recently been taken out of the boat & had a major overhaul by a TS 3 expert.
Are we able to fill in more of the blanks in her past in the 1972 > 1991 period? Not sure Mr Woolley would approve of the radar arch ………………. but tastes change with time 🙂
Update ex Paul Holdsworth – Owen Woolley built Acheron for Eric Lane an executive at NZI Insurance, my farther an engineer worked on Acheron’s Commer diesels that had a distinctive rumble to them. Owen built a smaller launch for Eric before he commissioned Acheron which was very similar to Allen Williams Banshee design. Before having these Woolley designs built Eric owned the Colin Wild Talua with mooring in Okahu Bay which was immaculately kept and regularly haul out onto the handstand at Okahu.
Update ex Ken Ricketts – post a lot of ringing around and emails Ken believes below is an accurate record of the boats owners – Built by Owen Woolley 1968, owned by E & J Lane 1973, bought off a Mr Furness (probably off the Lanes) & sold to Neil Lineham in 1984. Sold by Lineham c.1987. We have a 4 year gap, then Des Deacon bought her in 1991 and trucked her from Auckland to Wellington.
In 2005 Tim Prescott, the current owner purchased her, possibly from the estate of Deacon.
As mentioned above Lineham had John Gladden extend the stern by 6’, this work was done by John Gladden. Lineham was an engineer and has a substantial knowledge of the Commer TS 3 engines, he went to much trouble upgrading the horsepower of Acheron’s engines and making them quieter than is usual, for these engines.
Her radar arch was fitted in Wellington by or for Des Deacon. It was Tim Prescott, who has had the latest refurbishment of her engines done, by Mark Erskine a very talented TS3 engine expert, who Ken believes worked on the engines in – Invader and possibly Royal Falcon. Her top speed is now around 13>14 knots.
19-03-2022 Update ex Alan Sexton – Acheron was described above as being single skin kauri, I doubt this, per the article (refer Sea Spray below) all this series were built with multiskin diagonal planking. One change on boats after Acheron, eg Proteus and Accolade was the addition of the topsides knuckle.
Annual CYA Round Rangitoto Race & Cake Day BBQ
I made a late call to mooch down to Issy Bay to catch the tail end of the annual CYA round Rangitoto Race and Cake Day BBQ. Well thanks to the loyal launch group the day wasn’t a waste of time, as what seems to be the norm these days – not one classic yacht bothered to attend 🙂 Pacific cleaned up the prizes – first in the race (i.e. closest finisher to their handicap time) and first for the best looking cake – well done Nathan, Darren and crew. I’m sure the other results will be on the CYA website. Got to love the judging panel – 3 very well behaved kids – I suspect their focus was on getting first dibs on the cakes 🙂 Special thanks to Jason Prew from the Slipway Milford for organizing the BBQ and prizes ex Manson Anchors and Lawson Dry Hills wines.
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