Category Archives: Non Waitemata

Korawai Heads North

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Cabin Boy – Jacket = 1995 – Cap = 2021
Tapui
Wild Duck
Russell Waterfront

KORAWAI HEADS NORTH

Following on from yesterdays story, I’m just back from sliding up the coast to Russell in the Bay of Islands, delivering the 37’ Owen Woolley built launch – Korawai, to her new owners BOI home. After a few unexpected hiccups we eventually departed Gulf Harbour marina late Thursday afternoon, first stop Kawau Island. Had to sprint to hit the Kawau Boating Club before the kitchen / bar closed. Awoke to perfect conditions so dropped the RNZYS mooring at 6.30am and pointed the bow North – 11 hours later we rounded Cape Brett and eventually dropped anchor in Otaio Bay for the night. Saturday we picked up a friends mooring at Russell and hit the cafe for a coffee. The owner / skipper immediately re-fuelled, collected his better half and was off for a few days cruising. Sad to see the boat head north but, her new owners are a cool creative couple that will spend the time and $ to return Korawai to the condition she deserves. The new owners first thing when he stepped aboard was remove the ‘rocket-launcher’ fishing rod holder from the cabin top and toss it in the marina dump bin – so that bodes well for the future of this woody 🙂 We will follow the boat as the rolling restoration happens. As we rounded Cape Brett I got a great view of the lighthouse and ex lighthouse keepers house – 24 hours later my daughter and friends were doing the 32 km walk to the same spot – the sign says 8 hours in and 8 back, they did it in 4 hrs (each way) but split with an overnight in the now Dept. of Conservation controlled house. The report was its a stunning but tough walk, included a few photos.

Spotted a few woodys once we had made it into the bay – 
• Mike & Robbie Quilter’s Salthouse designed – Tapui • Wild Duck, the 1932 JB Jules built ex flying boat tender • Marline, the Warne family 35’, 1950 launch, designed and built by Leone Warne. Video below of the family heading out for the day, on Saturday – love the jetski being towed 🙂

SCROLL DOWN TO YESTERDAYS STORY FOR INTERIOR PHOTOS OF KORAWAI

Maranoa

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MARANOA

Woody Barry Abel snapped the above photo of Maranoa, moored in the Wairau River, Clevedon – as he was heading out recently. She appears to be long overdue for some TLC.

Reputed to be a McGeady design, she is listed here  https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/03/31/fantasy-how-many-boats-did-mcgeady-build/ Below is a press clipping of a ‘International Marine’ 4sale advertisement, NZ Heard May 1991, seen hauled out at Clevedon.
Can anyone help in expanding on the boats past?

Arahi – Update

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ARAHI – Update

The 34’ ex workboat Arahi last appeared on WW back in May 2020, link below. Now thanks to tme we get to have a better look at her. Arahi started life in 1940 as a survey boat for the Auckland Harbour Board,finishes up c.mid 1970’s. We know she spent time at Great Barrier Island. After a refit in Auckland she was transported to the Wanganui River in 2019, where she still resides but is looking for a new owner.

A very sweet wee ship and topped off with a 4 cylinder Gardner (4LW) diesel engine, that sips approx. 4L an hour.
There must be a buyer out there for such a salty classic vessel.

Link to 2020 WW story. https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/05/27/arahi-2/

Heading north today on a delivery – to Russell, hopefully I’ll snap a few photos on-route.

Gaza (Astra)

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GAZA (Astra)

Todays woody is a wee bit of a mystery, and I’m confidant that when she was launched she wasn’t named – Gaza 🙂 Ian McDonald gave me the heads up on her tme listing, where it states that the 30’ launch is a McGeedy (I assume McGeady) build with a 10’ beam and draws 4’. The forward motion is via a 75hp Ford diesel. Gaza calls Sandspit home, previously on WW it was identified that in another life the launch was called most likely Astra

Anyone able to confirm the design and the original name?

UPDATE 04-07-2023 – we learnt in the comments section she was built by McGeady and previously named – Astra. The photos below (ex Ant Smit) show her residing in the Whangarei Town Basin, where she now lives after being sold.

Olwen – Sailing Sunday

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OLWEN – Sailing Sunday

The above yacht caught my eye recently on Lew Redwood’s fb. Olwen was designed by Claude Smith and built in 1960 by Smiths Boat Yard in Whangarei. At 33’ there is a lot of usable cabin and cockpit space, very few yacht designers manage to include good sized windows and retain a classic look.In the photo she looks like some TLC is overdue, but with those ‘good bones’ I’m sure Olwen will get the attention she deserves.

Do we know any more about Olwen?

Input ex Robin Elliott – Olwen won line honours in her first race, Dec 3 1960 in the Onerahi YC 100 mile Moko Hinau Ocean Race from a fleet of 13. Conditions were tough with a strong SE wind and gusts up to 35 knots, and set a new course record of 15 hours 15 minutes.

A HEADS UP – THE ADMINISTRATOR CONTROLLING THE WHANGTEAU TRADITIONAL BOATING CLUB facebook page HAS DECIDED THAT LINKS TO waitematawoody STORIES ARE NOT SUITABLE CONTENT. SO WW STORIES AND EVEN MYSELF ARE BARRED. This means that if you have linked a WTBC fb post to an existing WW story to provide more details on a vessel, your link has been deleted. Very narrow minded and introverted thinking – and clearly a low understanding of how social media communities co-exist and facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, and interests through virtual networks. I would have thought ‘holding hands’ with a site that has just passed 7,500,000 views would have been a good thing for WTBC. Never mind, we will find new friends to play with 🙂

Woody Cruising In The Bay of Islands #3

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Woody Cruising In The Bay of Islands #3

In todays gallery we get a peek at a few more woodys cruising the far north, complements of BOI woody and pro photographer Dean Wright’s camera. The boats photographed above are – Florence, W1, Joleen and the yacht Nomad V. Links below to the boats that have appeared on WW before, the trawler style launch is Joleen, is I believe a 37’ Jackson design.

Florence https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/10/29/florence-3/
W1         https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/01/20/w1-caroma-goes-the-full-circle/

King Orry

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KING ORRY

For a plastic boat to appear on WW it has to be a tad special – the f/glass replica Logan33 launch – King Orry falls into that special category. In the past I have featured several of these boats and commented that they we years ahead of the trend and if still made today, there would be a ready market for them. They just tick so many boxes and also cater to the old salts that need to move on from their yacht, but still want a degree of stick and rag in their boating life.

There are a lot of ‘woody’ features on King Orry e.g. bronze fittings, timber bow rail, crafted t&g kauri interior, kauri mast with steadying sail etc. Like most of these launches the forward motion comes from a 40hp Lombardini engine, mounted very far forward, the drive shaft is almost as long as the boat. She has a cruising speed of 6-7 knots and tops out at 9 knots.Big (for her size) tanks (both water and fuel are 250L) give her a serious cruising range, I believe she sips 2L an hour.

Sea Prince

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SEA PRINCE

Long overdue for a b/w photo – todays woody is – Sea Prince. The top photo comes to us via Lew Redwood. The ‘coloured’ one was sent to me a longtime ago but I couldn’t ID the boat, which now in my eyes is the same as in the b/w one. The caption on the b/w photo reads M.C. “Sea Prince”, Lake Manapouri, N.Z. and that folks is all we know of this very fine looking launch. Initially looking at the b/w photo and given the lack of obvious safety gear, I assumed she was probably in private ownership. But in the colour photo there’s a fair crowd on-board – maybe health & safety rules didn’t apply on Lake Manapouri 😉

Can anyone help enlighten us around who designed / built her and what became of her.

16-01-2022 Harold Kidd Input – SEA PRINCE was built at Fairlie in 1947 by Jones Motors’ boat building division under S J Guard. She was built for the Wanaka tourist trade as MALIBU. She was a 30 foot hard chine vessel with a Kermath Sea Prince 100hp engine. She was sold in 1956 and renamed (then or perhaps earlier) as SEA PRINCE after her engine. An advertisement for her sale in 1956 calls her “hard chine”. I agree she doesn’t look it. Perhaps the chine was well-guarded (dreadful pun).

16-01-2022 Input from Scott Barnsdale – Sea Prince ended up as a fishing boat at Stewart Island, looking very different to the photos. Unfortunately, she disappeared from her mooring during a severe gale in 1987, never to be seen again.

A Story For The Engine Heads + Must Read Book

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A STORY FOR THE ENGINE HEADS
Over the break two diehard woodys sent in some photos of what a lot of woody boaties consider to be the holy-grail to marine propulsion – Gardner engines.The top 3 photos shows classic yachty – David Glen standing alongside the Gardner 6L3 in the ex workboat – Faith. Link below to uncover more on her.  https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/04/06/faith-the-milford-slipway-opens/
In the second group of photos (ex Angus Rogers – MV Centaurus ) we see the Gardner 4LW in Dean Wright’s woody – Arethusa, nice wheelhouse too – again WW link below for an insight into the repower. Also lots more to read / view on Arethusa by using the WW search box. https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/12/31/restoring-installing-a-gardner-in-arethusa-revisited/

BOATS OF THE LAKE –  REVIEW  As most of you know, I’m a big fan of the annual Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade on Lake Rotoiti, North Island. During the recent CV-19 lock-downs past commodore David Wilson, his wife Glenys and member Lois Palmer teamed up to pull together a book detailing some of the history surrounding the LRC&WB association. The hard cover, 4 colour printed book is full of beautiful photos taken at events spanning the 25 years, plus many stories about locals and their boats around the lake. I tucked a copy away for Xmas / NY reading and if you have any interest in classic wooden boats, I give it a big tick and encourage you to buy a copy, details below. Link For Ordering https://form.jotform.com/213318234322849

Make sure to check in to WW tomorrow (Monday) we have a brilliant story on the woody – Callisto 

FLORENCE (Florence M – Carla Maria)

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FLORENCE (Florence M < > Carla Maria)

The name Florence would have to been of the most popular launch names on WW, and now another has popped up on tme, thanks Ian McDonald for the heads up. This started life as a work boat , actually a cream boat i.e. a vessel that took the milk from farms to a dairy factory. When launched she was named – Carla Maria – more on her at the WW link below. https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/04/28/12377/ She is built from kauri planks and is 29’6” x 8’10” x 3’3” and powered by a Isuzu 60hp diesel engine.
From the photos she appears to be a very well fitted out woody – if you invested a few thousand dollars with a classic sympathetic boat builder and ‘lost’ the three ‘TV monitor’ windows from the cabin sides she could be a very smart classic launch. Currently on the dark side e.g. berthed on the Kaipara Harbour. 

Update 09-02-22 From Dave Stanaway – Photos below dated 20 April 2019 during Northern Wairoa Boating Club race day. 
Dave also commented that he reckons that the boxy shape of her cabin suits her age bracket rather than some slanty looking modern version. 


HELP WANTED Can anyone make a recommendation on where / who to go to, to restore a marine compass – the one below is crying out for some TLC