I know I’m tempting fate with the headline, but who can remember when it last rained? Todays gallery of woodys comes to us from the camera of Nathan Herbert (Pacific) as he mooched around the Hauraki Gulf last week. The last 5, are from Peter Loughlin (Lady Margaret -CW) doing the same thing.
We see Tasman, Viveen, Pacific, Arihi, Escape, Chandos, Zoe, Motunau, Waiari, Juanita, Pacific, Lady Margaret (CW), Rehia, Ngaro and a few that I can’t put a name to.
A question – did Colin Wild ever design / build an ugly boat?
It was a pretty wild and woolly weekend in some parts of the north and reviewing the news and photos, Tutukaka took the brunt of it – sad to see the carnage. Angus Rogers sent in the photo below from Russell last night – tagged ‘After the Wind’ showing the Russell ferry and the launch Miss Brett, bottom right closer in.
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.
The First Yacht Confirmed For The New CYA Heritage Basin Marina
If you were asleep all week, might be a good idea to click on the image below to catch up on the controversy around the probable selection criteria for classic CYA vessels berthing in the new CYA 40 berth waterfront marina.
click image to view
WW Quiz Winners – The answer to the Friday quiz re the number of boats Collings & Bell built turns out to be very questionable – Ron Wattlen in his book states over 1000 (see screen grab below) turns out it was a lot less – so woodys to be fair & kind (pass me a bucket) all entries went into the draw and the two winners of a copy of the book – ‘C J & A J Collings – Designed & Boat Builders’ are:
• Ross Dawson – Papakura • Dean Wright – B.O.I. (copies are in the mail)
The Initial Concept For Heritage Landing Was On Brief Heritage Basin – Was There Ever A Brief
TELL US YOUR VIEW – Should Auckland’s new waterfront Heritage Basin marina be: A. By invitation only for YACHTS alone that are pre WWII, NZ designed and built, and preferably gaff rigged, A Class. Or B. Be open to All CYA vessels VOTING CLOSED RESULTS BELOW – 85% SUPPORT THE MARINA BEING OPEN TO ALL CYA VESSELS
The launch Eldon was built in 1971 by Tauranga Boat Builders, so slips into the spirit of tradition woody category. The original owner was Eldon Jepson – thence the name.
Her specs are 48’ long and built with single skin kauri. It is believed that during construction, Tauranga boat builder Ted Gilpin, was often on hand, to assist in various ways, adding, the ”Gilpin touch,” which is very evident in her design & styling. When launched she was powered with twin Perkins 6-354 6 cyl. 130hp diesels.
Jepson sold her to an unknown person, not too long after she was built, who in turn, sold her to John Mayson, around the mid 1980’s. During John Mayson’s stewardship, of around 20+years, she was kept at Pine Harbour and used extensively for game fishing, from Tutukaka, up to North Cape, as well as general cruising, around the Hauraki Gulf.
She changed hands again (06-05-2008), to Dean Pollock, who continued to keep her at Pine Harbour and later sold her (22-07-2010) to her present owner, Peter Flood. She was transported by road to the Kaipara Harbour, where she was initially moored at Pahi, but they had a major bird mess problem there, so she was moved to Tinopai, where she presently lives.
In 2015 Peter Flood replaced the original 6-354 Perkins,130 hp with 2 x 6-354T, artificially aspirated 6 cyl. 1978 model Perkins, rated at 185 hp each. These had come out of 2 Commer fire engines, which had only done around 50,000Km., & having been in fire engines, had naturally been fastidiously maintained. Being a farmer and very handy, Peter marinized them himself. The engines were matched to the original Borg Warner gearboxes and heat exchangers off the original engines. He left the new engines with uncooled exhaust manifolds, which whilst they get warm, have created, no problems, in any way, as her engine room, under the bridge-deck floor, is apparently very well ventilated. The engines are mated up with a truck type silencer on each exhaust, with wet stainless steel exhausts for the last 4 feet, before they reached the hull skin fittings, so they are almost completely silent.
Peter Flood commented to Ken Ricketts that Eldon is an important part of his family and she is used all the time. In the last photo above of Peter at her helm, on the Kaipara Harbour that Eldon appears to be in excellent condition.
Thanks to Ken Ricketts for pulling the core of this story together and special thanks to the following gents for sharing details and photos – Harold Kidd, Brian Worthington, John Mayson, Dean Pollock and Peter Flood.
Back in May 2020 the launch Caravel made an appearance on WW (link below) thanks to Dean Wright. At the time we new nothing about her and only covered that she was built in Picton approx 20 years ago. Built of wood, possibly strip planked, but using an unusual timber – poplar? https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/05/20/caravel-och-video/
Approximately 10 years ago Southern Ocean Marine in Tauranga did a ’number on her’ to address a leak issue – they re-skinned the hull with double diagonal NZ kauri, sheathed in glass. The boat builder, Alan Craig commented that she was now built like a brick out-house. In the photos above of Caravel, taken by Douglas Owens, we see her recently hauled out at Tauranga for some TLC.
WW would still like to know more about Caravel, so if anyone knows the owners – would you give them a gentle nudge and ask that they share some background on this rather appealing woody.
The above ‘woody’ is the latest from the workshop of John Bullivant and is based on a USA Chris-Craft small runabout design. John scaled the model up from 18” to 33” using an old late 1950’s plan. It’s made of balsa with a ply deck, and the hull is f/glassed. It has twin motors and the same smoke and water system he installed in his models of the W1, Jaguar and Hartley.
Like the Hartley it is built-in bluetooth stereo, lights and engine sound. Runs very nicely and looks quite scale like on the water. Motors are hidden under the rear seat with the air pump and smoke system, and the water pump and batteries are under the hatches in the stern. Below are two YouTube videos – sound quality average, but you get the idea 🙂 Photos sent in by K Ricketts
Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade
Nice to see the north island event getting a good plug in the latest issue of Boating NZ magazine. I provided the photos below to help the lake team get some exposure for the 2022 event – the 25th Anniversary – well worth a trip – details here https://www.woodenboatparade.co.nz
HOW MANY MORE SUMMERS WILL YOU LET SLIP BY WITHOUT A BOAT………
Waitematawoodys has a sister – its called the Wooden Boat Bureau and we sell classic wooden boats – launches, yachts, big and small. We like to fly under the radar, as do most of our clients. Someone asked me what I did the other day – below sums it up (sounds a bit fluffy, in reality I just sell boats.
Inform and enthuse interest in the joys of owning and sailing traditional and classic wooden boats. And we do this by promoting partnerships between the boats, the sellers and the buyers, for the benefit of all. At the end of the day – its all about the boats, as most will out live their current owners.
Myself and David Cooke (MV Trinidad) are almost always available to offer advice to sellers and buyers – in the interests of marital harmony – in the first instance email to the below
The Wooden Boat Centre – A Peek Behind The Door Today we have a short video, narrated by Paul D’Olier from The Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin, Tasmania. The video #2 in a series is titled ‘The Boat Builders’ and show cases the courses being run at the centre. I have listed below a link to the another in the series – wonderful images and words, do check them out.
The videos are bought to us by the good folks at The Australian Wooden Boat Festival, if you haven’t already , put a line in the diary for 10>13 Feb 2023, this event is a serious bucket list item for all woodys.
The Thames Traditional Boat Festival is one of the woody events on my bucket list and today thanks to Olaf Wiig we get to vicariously check out last weekends event.
Olaf commented that as long as it is made of wood or riveted steel it is welcome at the festival. No 1950 cut off here 🙂
Olaf’s highlight was – Islanda, see spec sheet on her below. Enjoy the varnish 🙂
