Category Archives: Tales & Yarns

Lake Rotoiti Barn Find Restoration

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Lake Rotoiti Barn Find Restoration

Alan Craig the Lake Rotoiti boat builder (Craig Marine) dropped me a note the other day to say that he was restoring the about boat. She would have to win the WW barn find prize 🙂 Her story goes like this – has be in a shed on a farm in Rotoma for the last ten odd years. Built in 1928, 24′ in length, appears to be to a USA Hacker Craft design or most likely copied, she is in fact not to dissimilar to Malolo.
It has been owned by Peter Davies and was his Fathers boat from near new. Details Alan has been told about her history: Built in Picton by Vic & Clarrie Olson? (Scandinavian or Swiss?). Built for a Mr Stocker then brought by Mr Davies in 1930, it was sold a while later and brought back again by Mr Davies once the wool price lifted and in 1950 an old, but still new, 1938 Osco marine flathead V8 went in it and is still there now. Alan thinks it was sold once again then found by Peter and brought back to Rotoma.

There is a Hacker Craft step pad fitted to her (the only reference to Hacker Craft) but this could easily have been a later addition. The plans are to rebuild the engine and try get a bit more than the supposed 90hp out of it. Apparently they didn’t get much speed out of it but looks like pretty small prop set up.

This will be a great project to follow – Alan is keen confirm / learn more about her past so if any woodys can help, please comment.

Now Alan’s not a man to run things up the flag pole, chatting on-line he says ” speaking of projects, should probably show you the Chris Craft we just finished” – totally blew we away – amazing project. I’ll run a story on her soon.

Update ex Alan Craig – Alan found the below under the fore-deck – D Jennings?

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Bay of Islands Game Fishing Fleet

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Bay of Islands Game Fishing Fleet

Woody Dean Wright was given access to some of Snook Fullers super-8 film that showcased big game fishing in the Bay of Islands. Dean edited all the fish out and made the movie clip below of the wooden boats Snook captured. A very impressive collection of craft.
I assume all (most) of you are able to view youtube movies?– if you are not, drop me an email, I would hate to think a lot of you were missing out. waitematawoodys@gmail.com

I have 2 great Lady Doreen B.O.I. photos from Dean which I will post on Saturday & run a wee promo for the first person to name a passenger in the boat 😉 WW t-shirt for the winner.

PRESTO – Is She Or Isn’t She?

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PRESTO – Is She Or Isn’t She?

If you believe the trademe listing, this is a very old lady – it says Presto was born 1898. Built by Charles Bailey, 42’ in length, 3 skin kauri. Originally powered by a steam engine but now powered by a 1950 100hp, 471 Detroit diesel.

Our resident Bailey guru HDK should be able to confirm or destroy this woodys birth details. Builder aside – what more do we know about her?. Current home is Taurangi. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the listing heads-up 🙂

28-07-2017 Comments ex Russell Ward
Port Doctor’s Boat. General workboat around the place when I was a kid at school. Had a boxy wheelbase with control position atop. Always scuttling round Hobson Wharf. Eventually retired.
She lay at Barry Brickell’s Diving Creek property in Coromandel for many years and was sold to a man who did the honours and but put the rakish upper works on her. Painted her green which is what I always remembered her as. Her old wheelhouse may still be at Driving Creek.

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Comments below ex Ray Morey
1st an aft view of PRESTO under steam, that cut from the pic of Lady Vie and pan-am flying boat at mechanics bay
2nd is part of the blue boats dated 1973 from left is RANGI-SPRAY-unknown and just showing on the right is PRESTO after rebuild. This when Subritzky owned her.

Photo below from Dave Stanaway from when he knew her in the 1960’s when Bryce Subritzky was her master.

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Input from Harold Kidd – below is a clipping from the Auckland Star, 30 March 1898 – covering the launching.

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Read lots more on the Comments Section

A Woody Trip Out West

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Steve Cranch

A Woody Trip Out West – NZ Traditional Boat Building School Re-opens

I received an invite the other day in the mail (nice for once to not be via email) to the re-opening of New Zealand Traditional Boat Building School. Getting it made me very happy – firstly, because we all need the school to be a success & secondly because I personally have fond memories of the original school (read more below), I attended numerous CYA meetings there & also participated in two events – the Robert Brooke – Caulking / carvel planking workshop & a basic boat building techniques course that ran one night a week over winter. Learnt so much & meet some great people.

Today’s function was to share the vision for the future of the school & to meet some of the past & present stakeholders.

I’ll let Steve Cranch tell you the story:

“After nearly four years in recess the New Zealand Traditional Boat Building School has just re-opened its doors in new premises on the Te Atatu peninsula.

The school was founded in 2005 by trustees Robert Brooke, Harold Kidd, Bruce Tantrum and Ron Jamieson and successfully ran wooden boat building courses at Hobsonville for seven years before being forced to move to make way for the new housing development.

During that time hundreds of students attended classes on everything from traditional boat building to apprenticeship training and small boat building in which students built their own small boats to take home, often involving a son or daughter in the process.

Our new premises are much smaller than previous so we have been forced to restructure how we run our courses and a new program is being developed. It will kick off with a full day seminar on winter maintenance. Six specialist speakers will present on topics ranging from Diesel engine maintenance, Batteries and Electrical, Sails and Covers, Marine sealants, Paint systems and common splicing all common winter maintenance issues for the larger boat owner. Following on from this will be a course on re-ribbing clinker built boats and a laminated stand up paddleboard paddle course plus many more to come”.

In a few days when the dates are finalized, I’ll publish them on ww. I would encourage you to support the school; it’s a big step forward in bringing increased visibility & sureness to the wooden boating movement. There is a website, currently getting the final finishing touches, so I’ll let you know the link to that later as well.

Today was also a wee bit of a reunion with a lot of woodys catching up. The best chat was in the car park, where I got to view a very cool RC model of the Bailey designed ex Waitemata Fisheries trawler – ‘Waiwera’ (photos below). Built by Murray White. Stunning attention to detail.

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Ariki – Sailing Sunday

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ARIKI

At long last the 1904 Arch Logan yacht, Ariki A3 has found a new owner & is getting some love & attention.
The photos above ex Angus Rogers, show her hauled out at Okahu Bay in April getting a major bum clean from the team at X-foul-e-8 – amazing job & look at the width & condition of those full-length kauri planks.
The shed photos below are ex Charlotte Lockhart, I have copied below Charlotte’s email to me re the project.

” As your readers may be aware Andrew Barnes purchased a few months ago and we have commenced a project to restore her to her former racing glory. As things stand she is under cover on the hard as we strip her back to make the necessary exterior repairs and repaint her exterior.
Once she is water tight and we will be putting her back in the water at the new pontoon we have had build to house her at the Maritime Museum. From there we will complete the interior repairs.
I would love to hear from anyone who is interested in being kept informed about this project or would like to connect in and share their experience of her. I can be contacted on this email, arikiclassicyacht@gmail.com or follow us on https://www.facebook.com/Arikiclassicyacht/ ”

R-Class Looking For A Good Home

James Mobberley (Moon Engines) has had R317 stashed away for a few years & a growing family & associated toys (kids & Dad) mean R317 needs a new home. James is adamant it must be a sympathetic woody buyer – so if you are a classic sailor looking for a project (nothing major required) James is open to offers. Email is james@moonengines.co.nz

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Iconic Lister Engine
Remember the Lister engine every farmer had in his possession many decades ago, that one of a kind noise 😉 Well they are still using them in India, turn up the volume & listen (thanks Paul Newell for emailing me this).

03-07-2017 Harold Kidd Update

ARIKI’s port planking, shown sanded back, is the original Logan Bros work of 1904. The starboard planking and complete triple diagonal structure is by Chas. Bailey Jr., done in the winter of 1917 to replace the damage done when THELMA smashed into her while they were on the hard at Torpedo Bay, side by side, during the freak E gale of February 20th 1917.

Nereides Centenary Book

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NEREIDES CENTENARY BOOK

Nereides is a very lucky boat – primarily because in Mark Lever she has a wonderful owner who treats her well, in fact better than well – she would have to one of the best presented classics in the CYA fleet. She is also lucky because she has survived a few oops, but we won’t dwell on those.

Mark sent in the above photos of Nereides showing her new cockpit covers & new Pohutakawa jaws he fashioned out of some knees George Emitage gave him. The photos give you a peek at the rest of the boat. I’m told Marks workshop is rather impressive 😉 The first 2 photos I took at Patio Bay several years ago & I included them to show off her lines.

Mark has reached out to WW for some help, you see Nereides will be 100 in 9 years & Mark has started gathering resources for a book he plans to write.

Fate can be a wonderful thing & recently there have been some very strange coincidences – I’ll let Mark tell the story.

“My daughter Lucy just happened to have the Great granddaughter of J Jukes (builder of Nereides) move in with her. Have contacted the family and waiting for their return from overseas.  Also a friend I made a few years ago went past with her father in another boat and said his parents were friends of the owners back in the 1960s and his brother Peter used to go out in her a lot. Well after a bit of digging soon realised it was my friends Grandmother and her Uncle Peter who were on the boat during the Wahine rescue…how about that!

I rang Peter and had a good long chat and was fascinating to hear the story again from the very person who was there. He’s going to send me the contact details of the Mr. Pain’s (owner during the 60s) and see if there are any old photos kicking about.

Had a look on the Royal Port Nickolson Yacht club and found just a couple of photos (below)

Basically would love to find any other Nereides related leads, maybe Harold Kidd might know where to look?

Also when she was being repaired at Half Moon Bay an elderly gentleman said his father bought Nereides in the 1940s and she still had a machine gun mounted on her bow. Now that would be great to reinstate! Apparently I heard she used to patrol the airfield and look for mines during the war. I tried to find out more info a few years back but had no luck. Wonder if there is some enthusiast who knows about wartime service for these old girls? Anyway enough for now”

So woodys can we help Mark with the publication of the Nereides Centenary book?

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30-11-2025 UPDATE – NERIDIES is turning 100 in 2026 and their owner has been giving the old lady a tickle up. Looking very smart in the photos below. 

Also, does anyone have a lamp matching the one in the photo, owner would like to pair his one up. And a rare request, owner also keen for a ‘pre-loved’ ensign, the new flashy ones look out of place on this period correct classic.

My Girl Restoration

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MY GIRL RESTORATION UPDATE – June 2017

If you are not following Jason Prew’s restoration of his 1925 Dick Lang, classic motor launch, ‘My Girl’ on his weblog (link below) you are missing a great woody project. The man is a very talented craftsman & has a cunning knack of being able to press-gang some of the wooden boating movements best minds & hands into helping at the right time 🙂
The project has really come along over the winter months – the photos above are just a taste of whats on show. Jason posts regularly so you can experience the work vicariously 🙂
http://www.my-girl.co.nz/mygirl/Restoration/Restoration.html
A Handy Hint: if you type My Girl in the ww Search Box you will get an overview of all the ww stories on My Girl.

It’s almost 2 years since we ran the story below on the missing My Girl Motor Boat Trophy. In the last 2 years the readership of waitematawoodys has increased by x14, so we have run the story again in the hope that one of the new readers might be able to shed some light on the missing trophy – read below.

LOST – The MY GIRL Motor Boat Trophy (August 2015)

This ones going to test the collective memory base of the all the woodys out there. We are looking for a trophy that was linked 80+years ago to the NZ Power Boat Association, I’m talking here about the old NZPBA, with races that involved real wooden boats – not the lumps of fiberglass with oversized outboards on the back they race today.

The trophy was the ‘My Girl’ trophy & was donated by a Mr. C. (Tui) Waldron to replace the ‘Burt Cup’. There are numerous press clipping that mention events where the cup was contested, won or presented. I have attached copies below for your reference / interest.
Despite all the searching no photo can be found of the cup.

The present-day owner of the launch ‘My Girl’, who the cup was named after, Jason Prew would like to track down the whereabouts of the cup &/or any information on what became of it. While the cup itself may not have survived, someone out there must know something about its past. Launches that have won the trophy include – Taura, Tasman & Crusader. Crusader was owned by the Rev Jasper Calder & was steered to victory by Miss Edna Herick. It appears that in several of the events that the trophy was offered up, one of the conditions of racing was the vessel had to be steered by a woman.
Launches that have raced for the trophy include – Taura, Aumoe, Edwina, Tasman, Nautilus, Ramona, Crusader, Wailani, Lady Margaret & Wanderloo.

So folks anyone able to help out in the hunt??

16-03-2018 Update – the other day Jason sent me the video clip below of the 130hp Volvo that will be sliding into My Girl. Shows the green lump running on a pallet – he would have happy that 1. it started 2. no knocks 🙂 With Mr Volvo at full chat, he will be buying a  set of water skis 🙂

Update 11-08-2020 Two and a bit years later there is a transplant underway – as they say in Thailand ‘same-same’. Just new and better 😉

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A Wee Woody

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A Wee Woody

I was contacted last year by Miles Clark searching details on the ex navy Fairmiles that had appeared on ww, his grandfather had been on a Fairmile B on his way to the Battle of St Nazaire on one and was saved by an engine failure just outside the battle area. I pointed him in the direction of Keith Nicholson & Heather Reeve who own the Paea.
During the chat he mentioned he owned a wee woody – his grandfathers kauri clinker that was built in Freemans Bay – restored a few years back. I asked for some photos & was impressed to see that the clinker while restored was still being used by the Leigh based family. Well done Miles.

Aside from it being a great looking dinghy & all of us needing a good summer photo to remind us that winter will end – the main reason for posting this story is to remind you all that basically “if its wood its good’ i.e. send in your photos, no matter what size your pride & joy is & ww followers love a project, so refitted / restoration stories are great.

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Cleona Mae

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CLEONA MAE

Cleona Mae as built by Brin Wilson in 1962 & is powered by a 6 cyl Ford diesel. In the above (hauled out) photos we see her in Feb/March 2017 at the Sandspit hard stand, where she was getting some TLC. Home of Cleona Mae these days is Scott’s Landing, Mahurangi. Below, her previous owner, Nigel Drake of Tauranga has documented some of her past. Thanks to Ken Ricketts for sending this to me. Special thanks to Nigel for sharing the story. (photos ex Nigel Drake, Ken Ricketts & Brian Worthington). On her launch day she had a wee opps, refer photos below.

“Cleona Mae, was built by Brin Wilson in 1962. Launching looks as though it was in November, as that is the date which is on the original photos of her, having fallen off the trailer on that day.

She was built for Bert Follas, a well known builder in Takapuna. She is named after his daughters, Cleo and Shona, and his first wife Mae. The story as told to me by one of his grandsons, was that Bert knew Brin Wilson quite well, and when talking with Brin one day, during a bit of a slow period for Brin, they agreed that Brin would build Bert a 34 footer. Bert apparently told his wife of the agreement that night!

Previous to Cleona Mae, Bert owned the smaller Cleona, which I understand, is still in Milford marina.

Cleona Mae lived on a mooring in Westhaven, and Bert used to row out from the dinghy storage area, though he did have some trouble climbing over the transom, as he was on crutches from age of about 50. He used to take business associates from Takapuna out to the Barrier. Large bronze bollards are on each side of the transom as he was involved with the Coastguard and used to tow boats home when required.

In 1983 Bert sold the boat to his solicitor, Ian Armstrong. Ian appears to have owned her for only 1 year, as she was purchased by Bill McNutt of Tauranga in 1984. I have a feeling the flying bridge was added in 1983.

I purchased Cleona Mae in 1999. I added the mast in 2003. It had been a flag pole, one of many, on top of the Wellington Harbour Board building. They were removing them and selling them off at the time. I did many trips up the coast from Tauranga to the Mercury Islands, Great barrier and into Auckland.

She is a great little boat.

I sold her to Aubrey Montague, her current owner, in Nov 2012 having purchased the 40 foot Woolley “Freelance” in 2011.

I did the delivery trip to Gulf Harbour with Aubrey.”

Classic Yacht Racing – Waitangi

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Classic Yacht Racing – Sailing Sunday

Sorry for the late post today, been out & about watching the A-Cup, 1-0 is a great start, even better is the fact we are actually (& mentally) 2 – Zip up on Oracle 🙂

Seems only fitting that we have some classic yacht racing today. The u-tube movie below is by Roger Mills & was bought to my attention on the WoodenBoat Magazine USA forum by kiwi classic yachtie Patrick Xavier (that’s not his real name, but I wont ‘out’ him here).

The clip shows the 1894 gaffer Waitangi preparing for a race in the winter series – 2016. Enjoy 🙂

 

Heading Across The Ditch In November?

The Jervis Bay Maritime Museum ( JBMM), in NSW, are holding a Classic Wooden Model Boat Festival on the weekend of November 10/11/12. Based on the info that I was sent by woody boat builder Colin Brown, whose brother Stan is on the Festival committee it’s a cracker weekend. See below details

On Friday evening (10th) there will be a casual “ Meet and Greet” in the museum.  There should be chance to mingle, swap yarns & partake of refreshments.

The museum is land-locked but has large grassed areas surrounding the main building with a large shallow pond.

The northern area overlooks the Currambene Creek which flows into Jervis Bay at the coastal village of Huskisson which is only a short walk away.

We plan to have Trade Stalls and Hard Stand boat exhibits.

So woodys if your in Australia & looking for something to do put this event into their diaries. For more details you can contact Stan at su.stan@bigpond.com

Check out the Museum here www.jervisbaymaritimemuseum.asn.au