SPIRIT OF TRADITION LIONEL JEFCOAT WOODY
During the week WW was contacted by John Spooner concerning his 35′ yacht – GLOWWORM. Built in 1971 by master boat builder Lionel Jefcoat to a Cox design.
As we can see from the photos GLOWWORM is a very salty looking vessel and wouldn’t be afraid of the odd blue water wave, probably GOOD THING GIVEN HER HOME PORT IS WELLINGTON.
Check out the stove, would be very cosy down below at anchor.
Do we know anything GLOWWORMS past.
MYSTERY CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – SIGNATURE (BELUGA)
Today again thanks for Robyn Kellian and Tobias Forsyth we get to see another launch from the Leigh region. No name is visible but the photo is tagged – Gav Perry. The photo was taken on 31-01-1994.
The shed / yard appears to be at Whangateau, back when it was a public facility controlled by Russell Ward and used by the local boating community.
Can we learn more about the vessel, has a slight workboat look to her.
INPUT ex MARK MCLAUGHLIN – This is SIGNATURE (Beluga), a late Miller and Tunnage build. Featured on WW in November 2016. Lots of details and photos here. https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/11/08/signature-beluga/
WHY CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS BECOME AN OBSESSION
There have been several magic bullet moments in the history of waitematawoodys, actions that had significant impacts on the readership numbers. The most significant was an international phone call, now I tend to ignore these calls as normally it is some self titled investment guru wanting to share a once in a lifetime investment opportunity with me. For some unknown reason I took the call and it was a gent named Carl Cramer, who introduced himself as the Publisher of WoodenBoat magazine in the USA, that got my attention pretty quick.
Carl told me he and the founding publisher / owner of WB – Jon Wilson, had been chatting on the phone, bored senseless after being snowed in for 3 days. As they were talking Jon Wilson was trolling the web looking for sunny wooden boating content – bingo Jon hit on the waitematawoodys site and the story of the day was my coverage of the 3 day Mahurangi Regatta weekend. Over 200 photos and videos, Carl told me Jon suggested he make contact – which led to our telephone call. Back then WB was print only and a very popular on-line forum, so he was impressed with this new-ish blog format. Carl used to send a short, chatty weekly email out to the WB magazine subscribers, we talking 50,000+ – he asked if he could do a story on waitematawoodys. The story was a cracker and started with being snowed in and getting an infusion of summer boating that cured his cabin fever. He finished by saying.“This website is truely great”
Overnight the WW viewing numbers went into orbit, from around the world and we still retain a high % of them. In fact the USA is number 2 on the readers list.
Sorry for the long lead in to todays WW story. Over the years I have read several features on how Jon Wilson founded the WB group but over the weekend I stumbled on a YouTube channel named ‘LIFE ON THE WATER’ – one of the featured videos is titled ‘Jon Wilson – The Restorer’s Journey’. In their words it is is a cinematic portrait of the man who took on a monumental task to change the course of wooden boat history. I haven’t come across a better insight, explanation on this bug we all suffer from. Read it, I promise afterwards you’ll feel better about life and your classic wooden boat.
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT – WELLINGTON’S CLASSIC WOODEN CRAFT
I’m guilty of a lapse that a lot of us northern woodys fall into – that being, we forget about NZ’s capital city Wellington as a home to some of our best classic wooden craft.
Auckland, the Bay of Islands and the top of the South Island tend to dominate WW content. So it was so good to receive a trip report from Auckland based woody Geoff Fiebig (SV CAPLIN) from Chaffers marina in Wellington.
Extra special to see that the 49’ woody VANESSA was now in her new home and looking very salty. VANESSA was Geoff’s reason for the trip, hopefully we can get an insight into the project he has been commissioned to undertake. If you missed her story on WW when she was 4sale with the Wooden Boat Bureau, check out this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/10/23/ready-to-unwind-this-summer-classic-motorboat-vanessa-ticks-all-the-boxes/
The next woody is the 26’ 1925 Colin Wild built launch – LITTLE TASMAN, another woody that slipped thru our hands and headed south. Not before an amazing restoration at the hands of Colin Brown and Josh Hawkw at their Omaha yard. Check out this WW link and view the video of the project. https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/06/17/little-tasman-restoration/
Lastly we have the 1964 Ben Hipkins built 50’ bridge decker – RANGIORA looking the best she has in a long time – well done to her owners.
RANGIORA has had an interesting life , check out this 2022 WW story that backgrounds her partial sinking in1973 after hitting rocks off the northern coast of Waiheke Island, Auckland. https://waitematawoodys.com/2023/01/04/rangiora-sinks-off-waiheke-21-09-1973/
WOODYS ON TOUR – THE FRENCH RIVIERA
As we enter mid-winter I thought an injection of sun and sapphire blue water might be appropriate.
Yesterday Maurice Bryham, owner of the classic woody – IONA II sent in todays gallery of photos from Côte d’Azur (southwest corner of France)
Maurice commented – ‘some wooden boat photos from Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Med. Great to see so many wooden boats being well looked after. Still some traditional boat yards too.
The wooden fishing boats are still in good use. The brother and sister caught those fish at 7am-8am with their dad and then selling them on the foreshore at 9am with their boat in the background.
30C, sunny every day and crystal clear water’
CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW
IS THIS THE PERFECT WOODEN BOAT
I regularly rave on about the virtues of the USA based video blog – OFF CENTER HARBOR, it is subscription based but if you need an example of value for money check out this video on the building of the plank-on-frame wooden launch – MAGGIE-ANN.
Todays video is a snapshot of the projects, accumulating with launch day. OCH ran a 44 part series on master boat builder Peter Buxton’s A>Z build.
This video is just one of over 500 in the library that subscribers have access to. OCH is the worlds leading reference tool for advice, direction and enlightenment for everything wooden boating.
Don’t believe me – check OCH out here https://www.offcenterharbor.com/about/
And it is only USD$49 for 12 months unlimited access.
BETTER STILL – HERE IS A FREE 2 WEEK TRIAL – LINK BELOW https://www.offcenterharbor.com/join-now-free-trial/?level=1&discount_code=homefreetrial
CLASSIC WOODEN WORKBOAT – TENACITY
Back in 2024 the 44’ classic wooden workboat TENACITY was for sale in Nelson as a commercial fishing boat , but the suggestion was she had the bones to make a good recreational cruiser.
At the time we learnt she was a Jack Guard design, built in 1988 from kauri and was powered by a 150hp Gardner 6L3B engine.
Todays woody question is did she sell, and if so did she remain in commercial work or get converted to recreational use.
HOW MANY OF THESE CLASSIC CRAFT WERE SAVED.
While using the WW search box yesterday for the SOS – SOUTHERN MAID story I typed in SOS and was amazed how many WW stories had SOS in the headline of text (selection above)
Ata glance not many of them were saved. The common denominator was lack of timing, in most cases WW was contacted with less than 24hrs notice of an appointment with a back-hoe.
Click on this link to see all the SOS stories . https://waitematawoodys.com/page/2/?s=SOS&submit=Search
Also any update on the classic launch – SILENS, last I heard , $500 would have secured ownership. A great project boat, hopefully saved.
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – ASEREHT -A PeekDown Below
The classic wooden launch – ASEREHT has only made one brief appearance WW, back in 2020 when I spotted her mooching around Rakino Island.
Back in January of this year she was for sale and thanks to her listing we get to see and learn more about her.
Built in 1989 by Geoff Bagnall she is 34’ and powered by 135hp D Series Ford that gives ASEREHT a comfortable cruising speed of 9.5knots.
As with anything that came out of Geoff Bagnall’s Milford shed she very well built and appointed with all the systems needed for safe , comfortable cruising.
FRIDAY FLASH BACK – CLASSIC WOODY BOATING CLUB LIFE
Todays woody story comes to us from the Shelly Park Cruising Club (East Auckland) via woody owner James Dreyer (MV LAUGHING LADY) . James sent in the above video that was pulled together by one of the club members from the clubs archives and with the help of AI (image retouching and historical data input) we get to have a flash back to how the boating club scene snowballed in the 1970’s > early 1980’s.
After the first minute we get to see some amazing craft, a lot of which are still very active in the classic wooden boating movement today.
The film is less than 5 minutes so make yourself a cup of your poison and sit back and enjoy the film.
