Category Archives: Spirit of Tradition

Skacen / Skagen

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SKACEN / SKAGEN
Now this wee ship (she is a ship) has been on WW before but she is such a honey & now for sale so she deserves an encore 🙂
Skacen measures 36’ with a beam of 10’7” & draws 4’11”. Zoom zoom comes from a 5LW Gardner (of course).
She was built by Salthouse in 1973, with a carvel kauri hull. You will see from the above photos she is very well fitted out with lots of character.
In the photos you may have picked up something strange – on the port side her name is Skagen & on the starboard its Skacen ?
As Ian McDonald commented when he sent me the trademe link – not many boats of her size have a walk-in engine room.
She would be perfect for a couple wanting mooch around the NZ coast in almost any weather, as she spent over 10 years in commercial fishing on New Zealand’s East Coast.
Woody – David Glen has advised that she was moored in the Whangapoua Harbour, off Matarangi Wharf, for the best part of the last 20 years. She was owned by a local resident who worked in the local forests. She caught David’s eye at Matarangi in 1990’s and she appeared to be well maintained, but seldom used.
And speaking of David Glen, he sent me yesterday the photo below from Amsterdam of this lovely, what I assume is a hire boat. Loving the top & down windows.
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Kotimana

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KOTIMANA
On my last visit to the NZ Traditional Boatbuilding School I got chatting to one of the trustees – Kere Kemp & he casually dropped in that he was building a Dark Harbor 17 1/2’. Thats cool I thought & then I discover its being built in Port Hadlock out on the Olympic peninsula oppposite Seattle, Washington USA.
The yachts name is Kotimana – Maori for scotch thistle in recognition of Kere’s mother – Scottish, and his dad – Maori.
Kere commissioned her in September 2016 at the end of a post-retirement year at the North West School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock.
She was built by the classes of 2017 and 2018, & was launched at Point Hudson Marina, Port Townsend on August 29th. She is heading down under but with a few stops on the way – firstly Kotimana will be on display at the 42nd Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, second weekend of September and will then head via container to the 2019 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in early 2019 before finally making it home to Auckland in mid February 2019.
For those of you scratching your head thinking “what is a Dark Harbour 17-1/2 below is a description excerpted from a pre-launch write up that the NWSWB wrote when announcing the launch.
Dark Harbour 17-1/2

Originally designed for the Manchester Yacht Club in Massachusetts USA and called the Manchester 17, the first boats were built by the Rice Bros in 1908. As the design’s popularity spread it acquired a number of different names including the Bar Harbor 17 and eventually the Dark Harbor 17-1/2. The plans for this yacht are credited to BB Crowninshield and were completed by R. N. Burbank, an employee of the firm at the time.

 
The Dark Harbor 17-1/2 is a pure sailing machine of great beauty, but large enough to offer considerably more comfort through a larger cockpit well and a small cuddy cabin. Low freeboard combined with a wide, self-bailing cockpit well that seats you “down in” the boat puts you very close to the water. The lovely, slender hull lines, long ends, deep draft and large rig provide wonderfully sweet feel in this powerful, fast, wet, responsive and handy boat.

BB Crowninsheild was a US Naval Architect from the late 1800’s / early 1900’s who designed a number of boats including an America’s Cup contender and the largest ever steel hulled sailing boat (just prior to the introduction of the steam engine to sail boats).
Kerry commented that he fell in love with the lines of a Dark Harbor back in 2010 and decided that he would ultimately build one for himself.  Sanity eventually crept in and he commissioned her instead – Kerry was able to do some work on her prior to his move to New Zealand in mid 2017.
I’ll get a sneak preview of her at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Feb 2019 so will update this story with more photos.
Kotimana will be a magnificent additional to Auckland’s classic fleet.

Neptune

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NEPTUNE

Neptune is a 39’ John Gladden designed ex work boat / converted trawler & is now a potential live aboard.

She was extended .6m eight years ago & has a 11’5” beam & draws 5’2”.

Her trademe listing is very light on details, the only other things I can advise is that she was built in 1982 & made of wood.

( thanks to Ian McDonald for the listing heads up)

 

 

SABRINA (Summer Days)

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SABRINA (Summer Days)
Sabrina was built in 1970, if you believe her trademe listing, by Collings & Bell……..
She is of ribbed, kauri planked construction & is powered by a 180hp 6 cya. Ford D series, Lees Marine diesel. This pushes her along at 9 knots.
Her length is 36’. For the last 4 years she has been dry dock stored.
Subject to her condition , with an asked price of $7.5k, she could be a good low cost entry point to the world of woodys. (trademe listing heads up from Ian McDonald)
Any one know more about her?
Input from Harold Kidd – 
In Lloyds Yacht Register SABENA was described as designed by Alex Collings, built by Collings & Bell in 1956 for W.J Parlour and fitted with a 100hp 6 cylinder Fordson diesel. APYMBA records say she was transferred to J R McGrane in 1967.

New John Brooke book – So that’s the Fathers Day present sorted

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FATHERS DAY (Sept 2nd) ALL SORTED FOR YOU

Its not often that I start to read a boating book & then stop a couple of pages in & put the book away. This happened to me during the week, Robert Brooke had just dropped off some copies, hot off the press, of the Brooke families book on their father, John (Jack) Brooke. Its tiled ‘memories – ROADS OF DESTINY – John Brooke’ & woodys its a cracker – full of amusing tales , photos & illustrations from John’s life (sample below).
Way did I stop reading it? Because its just so good, I want to be able to spend a day reading it on the boat, in a bay somewhere with no distractions.
Grad a copy from Boatbooks in Westhaven (they do on-line > postal orders), RRP is $45, a bargain. Be quick it will sell out.
I have a copy to give away – to make it fair to those that do not wake at 3am in the morning – the winner will be decided by a draw from all correct entries received by 6pm Friday 3rd August 2018. Entry via email only to waitematawoodys@gmail.com.

Now the question –   what was Jack Brooke awarded an O.B.E. for in 1948?

Sorry for the standard of the images above, taken on my mobile ph not camera & in poor light 😉
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The story of Jim Greenaway – A Rather Productive Kiwi Boatbuilder

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The story of Jim Greenaway – A Rather Productive Kiwi Boatbuilder

I was sent the profile of Jim Greenaway by his son Rob, who penned it. I recommend you read it, it’s a great read.
How I came to be sent the story is classic WW,  Rob was mooching around the web & found an old article I had done on the CYA forum (in the days b4 WW) on a launch named Korawai & Rob tracked me down.
Tomorrows WW story is on the launch. There will be some great photos dating back to the mid >late 1970’s, make sure you check it out.

Waitoa

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WAITOA – The Real Deal 
Back in March 2017, I run a story on a yacht that according to Ken Ricketts was Waitoa, it all got a little complicated & I won’t even attempt to sort it out. If your interested you can see / read it here (remember to read the comments section)
Yesterday Murray McGehan sent me he great photo above of Waitoa which Murray states (correctly) is the real , Seen in this photo c.1948-49 at Okahu Bay. Owners Merv (cockpit) and Ron McGehan (companion way).
The boats cabin top remained in this configuration until at least 1972 when the cabin coaming height was increased about two and a half inches. The eliptical cabin windows remained untouched and probably HDK can confirm that this did look a little unbalanced. After Murray talked to  subesequent owners it was felt that the current dog house was added c.1977, probably under Mike Vinning’s (Picton Shipbroker) ownership. Waitoa has had at least two owners since Mike, one was Andre Ludwig who Murray kept in contact with.
Waitoa was built by Charlie Hardman in St Mary’s Bay (not Phil Barton who Murray believes had a yard at Bayswater). Alan has some photo’s of the original launch day with the boat alongside the St Mary’s Bay Wharf. When he recovers them from storage & scans (Box Brownie) them I will add them to this story.
Ron was Murray’s father and he was lucky enough to sail on the boat in the seventies under Gordon Reynolds ownership, so Murray can confirm that at that time the basic configuration of Waitoa was unchanged from launch in 1947 even still having the original Stewart Turner petrol auxilary, this has now been changed to a Droffin diesel.
09-07-2018 Harold Kidd Input – Phil Barton, and his father Henry before him, had a yard in St Mary’s Bay to the west of Jas Clare’s/Collings & Bell’s yard since 1900 except for a period around 1916-24 when they were in the US and Leon Warne rented the shed. When the yard was closed in 1955 during the construction of the Harbour Bridge approaches Phil moved to his big shed on the water at the foot of his property at Beachhaven. He was never at Bayswater. Phil built some fine keel yachts until 1955 at St Mary’s Bay and his handsome motor sailer WOODWIND at Beachhaven.
Charlie Hardman was a noted centreboard builder, 18 footers in the main.
If he built WAITOA at St Mary’s Bay it had to be at Phil Barton’s yard.
She was for sale at Picton in 1990 as designed by Bob Stewart and built by Phil Barton. I think Phil had a hand in her building at least.
A Wasted Day
I took Raindance for a run up to Herald Island yesterday to grab some photos of the John Wellsford Small Craft Design owners club day out to the Riverhead Hotel – don’t know what happened but there was no one at the meeting spot / time they published on facebook – bloody yachties 😦
The St Ayles Skiff rowing group were at the Riverhead, photo below of the fleet tied up at the pub wharf. Would have been a fun trip rowing back after a few hydraulic sandwiches 😉
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1926 N. Herreshoff designed NY40 MARILEE – 2 Year Restoration + Insights into the Herreshoff world
I posted this link last Sunday but only 386 of you viewed it – I would encourage you to check it out, its a 10/10 in my book & Chris McMullen watched it twice so its a goody.
A Sad Day
Woody Greg Schultz contacted me to say he had a good mate die and now has the sad task of finding new owners for his fleet one of which is a wooden 18ft John Wellsford Pilgrim, decked in cutter, photo below. Looks in excellent condition and only about 4 years old. Includes a brand new galvanised trailer, outboard and very reasonably priced at $9999. These are great yachts & at this price it won’t hang around long. Wouldn’t surprise me given John W’s international following if an Aussie / American doesn’t buy it & ship it off shore.
More photo’s & details ex Greg via email.      itzgreg@xtra.co.nz
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A Spot of Koha – Seafood or Vension for Boatbuilding Guidance

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A Spot of Koha – Seafood or Vension for Boatbuilding Guidance

The owner of Cobweb, Matt Debono has sent me an unusal request, I get a lot of  WW emails but this one was a first. I have included it below, just as I received it.

“This is probably not a usual e-mail for you. I send you this because of the passion you have for wooden boats. In saying this my yacht Cobweb isn’t even a classic wooden boat. She is a 35ft Laurie Davidson design launched in 1975 with a 3 skin kauri construction under glass… modern classic?

I have recently purchased Cobweb as a bit of a project as I wanted to learn how these wooden boats were constructed and learn some skills myself as the craftsmanship that goes into them astonish me. I saw her potential as a good yacht and got her for a good price. What I am asking for is if you know anybody in the South Auckland region that may share the same passion who has some experience in boat building of this nature who may want to pass some of their skills and experience on to a younger guy like me.

As you can see I have Cobweb sitting on my front lawn, I have opened her up and I’m not too far away from scarfing the inner 2 skins after I let the timber dry a bit. I have all the tools and machinery required however a bit of guidance would go a long way. Whoever comes to help could obviously expect a reward, I can fill freezers up with Venison or seafood fairly easily… or pay cash.”

So woodys, if you have the skills & an empty freezer – drop Matta note mpdebono@hotmail.co.nz

Lots of photos (50) on Monday from the Lees Boatbuilders shed visit 😉

Mahana

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MAHANA

Mahana being built in c.1975 by Atkinson falls into the ‘Spirit of Tradition’ category. She is a biggish girl – 46’ LOA & is pushed along by a 315hp Yanmar.

Ian McDonald commented that he was on board Mahana up Kawau Island some years ago. She was then powered by a big old 6 cyl Foden and was owned at the time by two brothers connected with Rinnai NZ. She is strip planked. Ian next saw her in Picton marina about 2008.

Home these days is the Marlborough Sounds & she is for sale on trademe.

Do we know any more about her past life?

16-01-2023 Update – new photos ex tme listing

 

 

 

 

Classic Woodys at Sandspit Marina

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Classic Woodys at Sandspit Marina

A couple of weeks ago I was up Sandspit way & spent an hour or so mooching around the new (ish) marina. Very impressive set up & with the yacht club’s haul-out facilities its a prefect spot to keep a woody. The real win win factor is the proximity of the ‘Greg Lees Boatbuilder’ yard, in recent years Greg & his talented team have rubbed the magic wand over some of our finest classic woodys. Just type Greg Lees in the WW search box to see the level of workmanship & perfection.

I have included a few photos of the motor camp where I stayed with my ex woodys boater – Chris Miller in this stunning motor home. 

A real bonus was the amazing meal & service we had at the Sandspit Yacht Club on Saturday night – I was expecting burgers & fries but no – everything – décor, service & the food was superb – check it out if you are up that way. The scallop entree was as good as anything you would get in Auckland City. Photos below.

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Update: I have been sent by Dean Wright the photo below of the dinghy ‘Tiki’ in happier times 🙂

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