22ft MULLET BOAT – Sailing Sunday
Todays we get to view a design interruption for the 22’ Mullet Boat, as designed by R. T. Hartley.
The design drawings appeared in Sea Spray magazine – Vol 2, No 2, January 1st, 1947.
I’m probably showing my ignorance of things without an engine – but did the design make it off the drawing board?
I’m sure Jason Prew with embarrass me 🙂
CLASSIC SOUTHERN WOODEN WORKBOATS
Earlier in the month Glenn Martin was mooching around the South Island on a bike (I assume motorbike) and sent in todays gallery of woody workboat photos from Bluff.
Not all capable of heading out to sea but wonderful to see them still intact, if that was Auckland they would have made a oneway trip to the landfill years ago.
CLASSIC WOODEN 1930’s SPEEDBOAT – WINTER PROJECT
Todays vintage woody recently popped up on tme with a $1 reserve (thanks Ian McDonald).
Now hush my mouth but the chrome fittings would be worth buying her for. But there’s the bones of a nice lake boat there – 20’ in length, made from mahogany , stored under cover its whole life. Designer / builder unknown.
OFF CENTER HARBOR WEBSITE
Regular WW readers will be familiar with the USA based website – Off Center Harbour, but if you aren’t already a member I would encourage you to subscribe.
A day wouldn’t go by when I do not log in to view one off the 600+ video’s from the back library – for advice, inspiration of just entertainment.
At the link below you will find a short video on what the site is all about . https://www.offcenterharbor.com/what-is-off-center-harbor-regular-join/
Below is a random collection of screen grabs showing some of the content.
CLASSIC SOUTHERN WOODEN CLINKER – BEATTIEFUL
When I first sighted todays 16’, 1961 built clinker run-about I was a little startled and my first thoughts were had she started life as a project boat at a boatbuilding school were every skill / feature was explored. But as they say – beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and if you pay the bills you can do what ever you want 😉
And she was awarded the top prize at the 2018 NZ Antique and Classic boat show at Lake Rotoiti, Nelson Lakes. So she appeals to them southern folks 🙂
What we know about BEATTIEFUL is she was designed and built in 1961 by Jim Beattie, a kiwi boat builder based in Blenheim, and then in the mid 2000’s she was restored in Blenheim by Wayne Foley of Blenheim. Power is via a 60hp Yamaha outboard.I understand the boat changed hands at the 2026 Nelson Lakes boat show, so nice that she remain ‘local’ and presumably lake based.
(thanks Ian McDonald for the story heads up)
Yesterday’s WW post focused on the undercover displays and the surrounding shore-side activity (scroll down if you missed it). Today’s instalment is a gallery from two days spent wandering the floating docks. Why two days?
The simple answer — there were just too many woody folk to catch up with for a quick chat. Every few metres another familiar face appeared, and before you knew it ten minutes had disappeared talking boats, projects and plans.
On the weather front the forecasters got it spot-on. Sunday turned out to be the pick of the two-and-a-half day festival, with warm sunshine and a welcome cooling breeze.
Between dockside wanderings I managed to sneak into a couple of the speaking seminars. One featured designer supremo John Welsford, the other Paul Stephanus, director of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. Both presentations were knowledgeable, insightful and — most importantly — highly entertaining.
Because Auckland’s greater boating community is spread across a wide geography — marinas, rivers and estuaries scattered from the inner harbour to the outer reaches — the public rarely gets to see our classic wooden boat fleet gathered together in one place. That’s what makes an event like this so special. Seeing so many woodys together is a reminder of just how strong and diverse the fleet really is.
Of course none of it happens without the owners. They put an enormous amount of time — and more than a few dollars — into getting their boats “show ready”. Beyond the camaraderie shared with fellow woody owners, the real reward comes from the reactions of the public. Owners might shrug off the compliments, but the praise, smiles and pats on the back certainly help offset the many hours spent sanding, polishing and crawling around the bilge.
Now, I know it’s not a beauty contest… but if I had to pick a few personal favourites from the docks they would be:
SAIL — RANUI
The 1936 ex-workboat designed by Korinius Larsen. Looking at her today, the standard of presentation is closer to a superyacht than a working boat.
MOTOR — REHIA
The 1938 Colin Wild designed and built motor launch. Over the last five years she’s been undergoing a rolling restoration, and every time I see her she looks better than the last.
TRAILER BOAT — LADY MAREE
A circa-1950 Cresta Craft classic runabout — pure period charm on a trailer.
TRAILER YACHT – I missed the detailers, has the look of a John Welsford design – can someone supply details ✔️ thanks. ‘Mystery’ solved – its a Welsford Navigator ✔️
As mentioned yesterday, events of this size don’t just happen. They require the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, organisers, exhibitors and supporters.
So a big salute to everyone involved in bringing the 2026 Auckland Wooden Boat Festival together. It was an impressive celebration of our classic wooden boating movement.
Currently underway down on Auckland’s waterfront is the 2026 Auckland wooden boat festival. The event kicked off late Friday afternoon and runs through until 5pm Sunday.
I dropped down on Friday hoping to grab a few photos before the predicted weather turned sour. Thankfully we were treated to a few welcome bursts of sunshine, which made for some great viewing and photography. As it turns out, today (Sunday) is shaping up as the best day to get along and soak it all in.
Today’s woody story focuses on the undercover displays and surrounding shore-side areas. Tomorrow we’ll bring you Part #2 — a full dockside walk-through featuring the boats afloat.
The festival is a visually stunning showcase, with around 80+ classic wooden craft on display along the docks. In an era where most marinas are locked away from the public 24/7, events like this provide a rare opportunity to get up close to these beautiful wooden boats and chat with the passionate owners and crews who keep them alive.
Pulling together an event of this scale doesn’t happen by accident. It takes hundreds of volunteers, organisers, exhibitors and supporters working behind the scenes to make it all happen.
Hats off to everyone involved — it’s a fantastic celebration of our wooden boating heritage.
2026 NEW ZEALAND ANTIQUE & CLASSIC BOAT SHOW
In the first weekend of March we have one on NZ’s coolest wooden boating events – the NZ Antique & Classic Boatshow, hosted in Kerr Bay, Lake Rotoiti, Nelson Lakes National Park.
Todays coverage of the event is a perfect example of how the WW community works – I get an email from a friend (John Burland) living in Germany informing me a friend of his (Cam Rodgers) is attending the show this year and would I like some photos – short answer – YES.
So thanks to Cam today we get to have a gander at the show. Looks like the weather gods were smiling.
Remember – click to enlarge photos and enjoy the gallery 🙂
NAPIER CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – BETTINA – GETS A SECOND LIFE
Recently Sam Avison acquired a berth in Napier, but there was a slight problem, the berth included a 1950’s kauri built launch. The launch named BETTINA wasn’t / isn’t in good shape, in fact at the time of purchase she was taking on water (sinking). Sam couldn’t bring himself to call in the back-hoe boys so decided to take on the challenge.
First job was to sort out the leak, that’s done and he’s currently getting his head around where to start next.
The primary reason for Sam contacting WW to see how f he can learn more about the vessels past. All he knows is 26’ long, built in Napier and probably had a name change in the 1990’s.
Anyone able to help with IDing the boat.
CLASSIC WOODEN STEAM LAUNCH PUKE
Today we have another great photo from the ‘Thames Historic Pictures’ fb via Lew Redwood.
On the left is the steam launch PUKE, standing off the sunken paddle steamer KOPU. The location is the top end of the dead end channel, Puke Wharf, Paeroa (I assume).
Question of the day for the steam heads – is this the same steam launch that I photographed at the 2025 Whangarei Maritime Festival or a replica? Photos below.
CLASSIC MASON CLIPPER – HOTSPUR – REFURBISHED
Recently, woody Angus Rogers sent in the top photos of HOTSPUR , a recently restored 24’ Mason Clipper that calls the Outdoor Boating Centre (OBC) in Auckland home.
Angus pointed her owner – Fraser Elder in the direction WW and Fraser sent in the gallery of photos of HOTSPUR.
This wasn’t a fast project, in fact Fraser commented that from start to finish it was 9 years, fitting it between work and family commitments.
Some background – HOTSPUR was built c.1968/1969 and during the restoration, several bits of the timber in the boat were numbered (as in the photo with H15 on the inside of the instrument panel) and they are numbered H15, H16 and H17. Fraser reinstalled these parts to keep the numbers in the boat. Puzzled about the presence of three numbers, Fraser spoke to Anne Mason about this, and was told ‘Oh that’s to be expected, we built the boats in threes’, so there was always an amount of cross pollination between the boats.
HOTSPUR was built with a fibreglass hull, after the first tranche of builds with a timber hull, but there is a lot of mahogany in her. During the restoration Fraser needed to replace a high percentage of that timber, using sapele, as real mahogany is no longer allowed to be sold because of the CITES agreement.
Before the restoration, she had a BMW D150 (around 140HP) diesel engine. However, this had several parts that were too corroded or rusted too be used and very hard, or impossible to replace because of the age of the engine. So Fraser installed the BMW D190 (around 180HP) that he had purchased along with the boat. It was also newer and had, he was told had been rebuilt, although this is later questioned. It is this engine that you see running in the boat after he had figured out the few issues he had getting the engine started.
The restoration was mainly completed around August 2022 after nine years but as with any of these restorations, there are still (mainly small) tasks to do, and things that Fraser will eventually get around to, including replacing some of the work he did in the early days, as he says he is now more skilled 🙂 and more knowledgeable about some the techniques to use.
LOCATION IS DOCKSIDE AT THE VIADUCT EVENTS CENTRE – DETAILS HERE https://www.auckland-boatshow.com
