Category Archives: Tales & Yarns

The Building & Launching of White Cloud + A Peep Inside 1A Summer Street

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The Building & Launching of White Cloud + A Peep Inside 1A Summer Street

1A Summer St, Ponsonby was an unlikely location for boatbuilding, particularly for large launches. The building was built on to the rear of a retail shop, on the corner of Ponsonby Rd & Summer St., Auckland. Summer St was & still is an incredibly narrow side street, dating back to the late 1800’s.
To date on ww we have never seen good photos of the interior of the yard/shed, now thanks to the generosity of Pam Mare, we have access to the above photos. Pam is  part of the Buckby family, that had White Cloud built at the yard by Ben Hipkins, to a McGeady design. Ben bought the Supreme Craft, off Mac Mcgeady. Other craftsman at the yard were boat builder Garry Wheeler & Tracey Nelson, a marine & refrigeration engineer, who did the vast majority of the engine & machinery installations, in the Supreme Craft vessels, — along with looking after all the Ponui Island mechanical work, from  all the farm tractors, power generators, to George Chamberlain’s Lane built, tram topper, Falcon.

Such was the shortage of space at the building, that every boat that emerged, meant ,the picket fence of the house opposite in Summer St, to have to be removed & later replaced, to facilitate the exit from the building on to the transporter.

White Cloud left the shed in June 1965, to go to Fodenway Motors, Penrose, for engine installation & finishing. The photos below show her leaving the shed & later, on route to launching. Sorry for the poor photo quality, stills photos taken from old ‘home’ movie footage,  recorded by Len Buckby or his wife & made available to us by his daughter Pam Mare.
Special thanks to Ken Ricketts for pulling the individual pieces together.

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Mt. Pleasant

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Mt PLEASANT
The below video is of the 1916, 40’ newly –restored Sydney, Australia ferry – Mt Pleasant. Batemans Bay is home for Mt Pleasant.
The video was done to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the HMAS Kuttabul in Sydney Harbour on May 31 1942 by Japanese mini-subs. Mt Pleasant was tied up alongside Kuttabul at the time.
Thanks to WoodenBoat & the Bay Post / Moruya Examiner for the heads up re the video.

Stunning restoration 🙂

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Kahu

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KAHU

Over the last 10 years every time I have motored past Kahu, when she was moored in the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour, just past the Greenhite upper harbour crossing, probably 50>60 times & each time was pleasantly surprised she was still a float. The old girl has had a very checkered past & unfortunately during numerous periods of ownership, all with big plans for her – nothing really came to fruition & she appeared destined for the knackers yard.

I can report that she is now in Whangarei undergoing a major refit. Fingers crossed that this time she returns to her former glory. Ken Ricketts sent me the above old trademe photos that record some of her WWII period, post WWII Navy service (c.1950s), her almost conversion to a passenger ferry (c.early 2000’s), a neglected moored hull.

If there are any woodys that can tell us more about her past & if there was a Northland woody out there that can give a use an update on the project, please do 🙂

01-06-2017 Update ex Geoff Brebner

Photo below of Kahu on her way to Whangarei c.2012

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Interested in reading more on all things Motor Launch, be they serving in the Navy or in civvy hands. (over 250 photo’s and 50+ stories and tech data / links to other ML pages) Check out the link below
 

http://rednaz1958.blogspot.com/2016/03/composite-list-of-hdmls-still-active.html

Kotiti – Sailing Sunday

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KOTITI – Sailing Sunday
The above photos are of the schooner Kotiti & were sent in by Lesley Brennan, whose father, Dudley (Lex) Dowling, owned her from November 1963 until 1968. Lesley was a teenager at that time and their family and various crew spent their summers cruising the Hauraki Gulf and the Bay of Islands and Far North. It was then sold to John Wicks who took the yacht to the South Island. Lex, kept copies of everything and Lesley has inherited two files relating to Kotiti & to other boating matters (purchasers, receipts, logs, etc) at that time in the ’60’s.
The yacht had quite a history, having once been stolen before Lex bought it. Later, while under his ownership, a crew from the Navy in Auckland raced it in the Whangarei to Noumea race in April 1964 and in the same year, Lex sailed it with a crew to Fiji (a lifetime ambition).
For many years Lex taught navigation based on a system he devised himself specifically for sailors of small ocean going boats. He also self published a related textbook on navigation (long before the internet and the electronic age!) and this textbook was in much demand at the time and sold well in NZ and throughout the Pacific.
Lesley last spotted Kotiti up on the hard at Sumner in 1994 & she would love to know who the current owner is. They may be interested in having the two folders of information about their boat during the 1960’s.
So woodys – do we know who owns her today & what became of her post Lex selling her. I’m sure if the John Wicks mentioned above is the JW that comments on ww, we will find out a lot more.

Input below from John Wicks

I sold her in ’78 or ’79 to Jim Wood who I think still has her. There was a recent pic on WW of a boat in Havelock Marina with Kotiti in the background and looking well cared for.
As noted above, I bought her from Lex Dowling in ’68 and took her back to the South island; specifically to Waikawa, Picton . Cruised her extensively in the Sounds, D’Urville Island and across Tasman Bay to Nelson, Torrent Bay etc., and we did several Cook Strait races.  
Her genesis is interesting. She was built by Peter Lamb, a science(?) teacher at Christchurch Boys High School; I met his son at one stage, who was adamant his father designed her, but when I first owned Kotiti she had amongst her documents two pieces of blueprint, one of her body section and one of her backbone structure, both of them bearing Eric Cox’s name. I have already seen Cox’s “Dancing Feather” design, the interior layout of which was very similar to Kotiti’s, and years later came across Howard I> Chapelle’s “Corsair” designed for ‘Popular Mechanix’ magazine which closely resembled Kotiti in hull form. “Corsair” was designed for inside ballast; “Kotiti” had 2/3 of her ballast on the keel and 1/3 inside. (Quite a story there)
I have also been told that noted ChCh boat builder Cliff Mahan bought a set of “Corsair” plans with a view to building one for himself, but never did.
There is a photo in an old “SeaSpray” of Peter Lamb standing under the coutner of soon-to-be-launched “Kotiti” showing a model of her to Ian Treleaven. To my eye at least, the model looks more like “Corsair” than “Kotiti”. My conjecture (and it is only conjecture!) is that Peter Lamb looked at both designs, took what he wanted from both, made the model then went to Eric Cox to take off the lines and draw the actual plans.
At any rate, she was (still is, I hope) fast and weatherly for her type, comfortable and sea kindly. I have very fond memories of her.

A Woodys 104th Birthday Party

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A Woodys 104th Birthday Party

We don’t normally do Happy Birthday stories on ww but today is a little special – Keith Dawson is celebrating his 104th birthday. Keith these days resides in Port Macquarie, Australia but 82 years ago he skippered the 34’ ketch Seaward.

Below is a NZ Herald article of 5/10/1935 written by Leslie Crago about a day trip down harbour on Seaward. This article was sent to me by Ross Dawson, Keith’s ‘younger’ brother.

In the article Les Crago refers to himself as the ‘mate’ & while the skipper is not named Ross is confident it’s his brother Keith. Life was a lot harder back then without a motor J

The ‘girls’ onboard may have included the brother’s sister, who turns 101 next month. Good genes in the Dawson family.

Speaking with Harold Kidd he mentioned that he had Leslie Crago’s photograph album that included photos of Seaward on this trip or one similar, these are the b/w ones above.

So Keith Dawson Happy Birthday from all us woodys & I’m sure you will be pleased to see the old girl is still sailing the Waitemata J

Input from Neil Chalmers – The same Keith Dawson who along with his mate Dick Wellington sailed  the 26 foot  ‘Roxane ‘ (built by Lou Tercel and his brothers) from Auckland to Sydney in 1937.
Neil tells me Keith’s  book about this voyage -‘Voyage of the Roxane’ is a good read, I must hunt a copy down.

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Sir Peter Blake & Bandit

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Sir Peter Blake & Bandit
When Sir Peter was 18 & living at the family home in Bayswater he built his first keeler, Bandit, on the front lawn, as people did in those days 🙂
Bandit was discovered recently in a shed at Warkworth & purchased by The Classic Yacht Charitable Trust. Bruce Tantrum has overseen the restoration of the yacht & she will shortly be on permanent display at Auckland’s Maritime Museum. The photo above shows Bruce Tantrum supervising the weighing of Bandit for the manufacture of the Museum installation brackets. Ian Cook & the Yachting Development (YDL) team have done a magnificent job on the restoration.

WW has been contacted by Shirley-Ann McCrystal, the CYCA’s secretary, asking for help joining the dots on Bandits past. The CYCA are producing a register of Bandits ownership, but have some blank slots, Sir Peter’s brother Tony and members of his family cannot recall who Sir Peter sold her to in 1968/69? so today’s ww story is a shout up to any woody that may have known any of Bandits previous owners.

KNOWN OWNERSHIP
CYCT – 2013 – present)
Viv Wyatt – (1999? – 2013)
Mike Sharp ? – 1999?

So woody’s can you put the thinking cap on – any input will be most appreciated, you can rely via the ww comments section or email me on waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Once Bandit is installed at the Maritime Museum ww will do a full story on the recovery & restoration of Bandit.
Below are some photos of the original build & 2013 recovery – you can view more here http://www.classicyachtcharitabletrust.org.nz/gallery.htm?gallery_id=53
If your interested to read / view more on The Classic Yacht Charitable Trust & their fleet – view here http://www.classicyachtcharitabletrust.org.nz/

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Input from Robin Elliott
Bandit was launched with sail number E-260 possibly late 1967 but more likely early 1968. Sea Spray October 1967 reported that Peter Blake had almost completed the hull of a 24ft Van de Stadt Buccaneer design.

I first see her racing ( in print) in Sea Spray December 1968 which reports her racing with RAYC’s JOG Donaghy’s Trophy series.

SS Apr 1969: Racing in RAYC’s J.O.G. class events.
SS May 1969: Racing DYC Regatta.
AAR 1970: Entered Channel Island Race
SS Mar 1970: Racing DYC Points series.
SS Apr 1970: Racing DYC 40 mile single handed. 1st place.

In 1969 she took NZYF number 660.
Peter Blake appears to sell her in 1970 to J.A Dunnett 527 Beach road Murrays Bay who entered her in the 1971 Anniversary Regatta.
Dunnett owns her until at least 1973/74 where he has her on the register of RAYC.
NZYF has her registered to Dunnett right up to 1980 but it’s anybody’s guess whether this is accurate or not.
After 1980 she vanishes and has no registered owners.

One more thing. I see from the NZCYT website that:
“Peter, Tony and Crawford won the New Zealand Junior Offshore Group Championship in the 1968-69 season.”
I believe this surfaced a few years back in Alan Sefton’s book on Peter Blake but might not be strictly accurate. Does a plaque or cup exist to confirm this?
According to Jack Potter, one of the founders of the JOG movement and member of  RAYC’s JOG Committee, the JOG scene was driven by a bunch of young enthusiasts centered around RAYC, and barely a season old when Bandit was launched. There was no recognised National or NZ competition. Everything was centered around RAYC and supplemented by other yacht clubs such as DYC that held long distance races.
What Bandit possibly did win that year was the RAYC JOG championship. It so, it was possibly the first such championship for JOG boats, but it was not as such ‘a New Zealand JOG championship’.
The RAYC trophy list records Bandit 1968/69 as winning the Satanita Rose Bowl, presented by Ron Wilkie 100 mile JOG Classic.
The Satanita Rose Bowl is the only RAYC trophy carrying Bandit’s name
Check with Jack Potter for clearer details. I can furnish his phone number if anyone is interested.

Sea Spray’s reporting for these events was rather minimal at the time, so everything is open to correction. Maybe someone has some Herald/Star cuttings that can expand things?

 

22-05-2017 Input from Craig Johnson

I sailed on Bandit for 2 season’s – maybe 3. The owner was John Dunnett(?) and I’m reasonably confident that he purchased her off Peter Blake. She was moored on a swing mooring in Bayswater. We had a sister ship called Yunta – owned by Richie Schofield that we had many a good time with racing and cruising. The toilet was a plastic bucket and to use it you had to sit on the bucket with your head out of the for’ard hatch. Was always a time of much humour when the Bandit or Yunta crew had that call of nature. Every yachtie in the bay knew what was going on. One Christmas John D, Keith Randle & myself sailed Bandit North for a couple of weeks cruising. We made it to Mangonui which was like a great adventure for us al on a 24 foot boat. The year would have been around 1973 -75. Would love to see Bandit again and John Dunnett. He worked for Gibson Patterson back then as a Sales Rep. His wife was Eleanor and they lived in Murrays Bay.

Nunui

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Nunui, Bulwer 1969 just launched 30 10 2015

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NUNUI

When woody Brynn McCauley was researching Wainui, his grandfathers 1950’s era Marlbourough Sounds fishing boat (now owned by Cameron Pollard) Brynn discovered the whereabouts of Nunui,  his grandfathers last working fishing boat. Nunui was/is….. a small clinker built c.1969 motor boat, that unfortunately has ended its days in Porirua, (photo below).
Brynn commented that he suspects she was originally a row boat that was used to row out to the scows from the shallow bays in the Sounds.
Its amazing that this was a working fishing boat that went way out into the Cook Strait. Those old seamen knew a thing or two and were pretty fearless.
The b/w photo is dated c. 1969 & was taken just after her launching. The colour photo is c.1978.

Do we know any more about her past?

Nunui at Porirua

 

 

A Woody 100th Birthday

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A Woody 100th Birthday

I mentioned last Friday that on Sunday, Sierra the 1917 Joseph Fell designed & built motorboat would be celebrating her 100th birthday at the Panmure Motor Boat & Yacht Club.
Sierra’s owner Dennis Christopher (photo above) must have bribed the weather gods because the weekend was probably the best this year for classic motor boats. We made the decision to head to the Waiheke Island area on Saturday & then head over to Panmure on Sunday afternoon for the birthday party. Never made the party – see below.
Thanks to Baden Pascoe for the above photos & after speaking with Baden I can report that nearly 100 people turned up to celebrate the occasion, including members of the Fell family & the Andrews family (previous owners).
Its great to see these old work boats still being actively used & presented so well – I love the ‘beard’ on Sierra in the photo above.

Now the reason I didn’t make the party was Raindance had a mechanical oops, the 1st in 10 years that I have not been able to fix & we had to call Coast Guard for a tow. Hats off to the CC crew from Matiatia, Waiheke Island – they were on the scene pronto & had us back at Bayswater faster than I could have under her on steam 🙂 In fact the bottom probably got a good clean 😉
I spent Sunday morning cleaning 10+L of oil from the bilge – not my idea of a fun day.
A call to James Mobberley at Moon Engines will be top of the to-do list today.

(too many other classics out on the harbour to keep this below the radar – thanks guys for the txt’s 🙂  )

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There is always a silver lining – after we got home, decided to have a bbq & put a match to the lounge fire, first of the year.

Manuia – An Update

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MANUIA – An Update

Recently I was enjoying a coffee at my local Devonport coffee shop, Cafe Santini, & I had on a ww t-shirt. I was approached by a gent, Ron Ackroyd, who commented that he used to own a launch similar to the one shown on the front of the ww t-shirt. Turns out Ron briefly owned the Joe Slattery launch Manuia. Ron offered to send me some details & photos – which he did. Then this week, current owner Tony Butcher sent me a magnificent photo of her taken in October 2016. As you will see not a lot has changed & we like that 🙂

Ron commented that he owned Maunia from May 1989 to November 1989 & bought it from Jack Nears. Ron had spent a lot of great times on the boat with Jack between 1977 and 1989 and he promised Ron first option when he got round to selling her. Jack became quite ill in 1988/89 and the boat was getting beyond him and in May 1989 he offered Manuia to Ron. Ron already had a H28 but bought Manuia planning to use her and then make a decision on which boat he wanted to keep. They used the boat and did a fair bit of  painting, varnishing and general maintenance before coming to the conclusion that sailing the H28 and enjoying the very active H28 club scene was more their thing.

Ron sold Manuia to Paul Jones in Nov 1989.  Included above are a couple of photos of Manuia taken just before Ron sold her & list of what Ron knew of her previous owners (view the link below to the previous ww story on Manuia & you’ll see that Ron’s list dovetails well with Harold Kidd’s records.

Also above is a copy of a survey done by John Gladden while Ron had her. You have to love the honesty & practical advice / opinion given by  John Gladden, there are some significant defects that have been highlighted but John Gladden still says “The vessel is generally in good condition and is well constructed, timber sizes and joinery are of good standards.” In today’s PC world a surveyor would have written the boat off or at least scared any purchaser away.

20-09-2017 Photo below ex Nathan Herbert ex (I assume) the NZ Herald archives. Show Manuia post launching, during her sea trials.

Manuia

 

MATAROA (KENYA) – A Great Read

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Elaine aboard Mataroa

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MATAROA (KENYA)

The life story of the 1928 Joe Slattery built launch, Mataroa (formally Kenya) & her restoration has been very well documented on ww. It was however a pleasure to be contacted earlier in the week by Elaine Reynolds, whose parents – Maurice & Pauline Reynolds owned the launch from 1968 to 1994.
Elaine sent in a great collection of unseen photos from their ownership period & shared with me the story of Mataroa’s mishap & near sinking at Great Barrier Island in late Dec 1970 – its a great read, so I have published it as sent. Enjoy 🙂
For photos of the damage, beaching & repairs mentioned in the story – click this ww link     https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/10/31/mataroa-kenya-2/

“Hi Alan

You have posted several wonderful articles on M.V. Mataroa and also posted some of the many photos taken by my father, Maurice Reynolds (a mechanical engineer and jack-of-all-trades) who owned Mataroa 1968-1994.  The photos include those of when Mataroa was hit amidships at Great Barrier Island, between Christmas and New Year, I think it was 1970, about 29-30th December. It was the first week of our usual 3-week annual Christmas cruise.

I was on board Mataroa when she was hit, standing on the aft platform, looking foreward – I saw it all happen. At the time of the accident we were in 90 ft of water. It was a beautiful sunny day, almost flat calm with barely any wind. We were just idling along with the motor out of gear, the rest of the family were on deck or in the cockpit.

The boat that hit us was owned by my father’s best friend, Jack. His launch was of similar vintage to Mataroa, also with a straight stem. Jack was going to come alongside to pick up his daughter, Jenny, who’d been aboard Mataroa spending time with me. Unfortunately, Jack was on the wrong turn for his boat’s prop, but didn’t remember, and thought he’d just give a burst on the throttle to spin 90 deg to bring her alongside but instead, he slipped, hit the throttle hard and rammed Mataroa amidships at full speed. Horrified, I watched the wood smash and shatter inside the cabin and the “hole” that was created in Mataroa, through which we could now see daylight, went from the deck to 3-4 inches below the waterline

Jenny, my younger brother and I were ordered into the dinghy and cast off. Dad ripped up the floorboards, gave my older brother a bucket to bail with and had Mum stand with her thumb firmly on the electric bilge pump button which was on the instrument panel just inside the engine room. Dad steered for shore with Mataroa’s throttle full open, just heading for shallower water to start with but it was a rocky shore and would have torn Mataroa apart. Then he realised that the water ingress was slowing.

What Dad discovered was that when underway at full speed, the waterline wave fell away from the hull to below the waterline at the place where Mataroa had been hit, so he made a sharp turn to starboard and full throttled Mataroa (remembering that for this graceful lady, cruising speed was 7-7.5 knots, Dad’s orders!) to the other side of the harbour, going through the usual Christmas throng of anchored boats at Smokehouse Bay at a speed that drew many raised voices and eyebrows, and beached Mataroa on the sand, with people scattering out of the way.

Unfortunately, this was also at the peak of the highest tide – full moon, etc – and that caused problems in itself.

From there, the insurance assessor/shipwright was contacted and flew out to us on a sea plane and you can see from the photos Dad took that they stripped Mataroa out, used available materials and lots of willing helpers to patch and shore her up for the journey back to Auckland. They used sheep fat/lanolin to seal the ply to the hull. Due to the extreme high tide when Mataroa was beached, they had a difficult time launching her off the beach. Again, many hands and lots of Kiwi ingenuity.

It was a harrowing night-time journey back to Auckland on 30th-31st December, with my younger brother and I on Jack’s boat. I think Mum was on board with us, but my older brother, Kevin, was on board Mataroa. Jack’s boat couldn’t keep up with Mataroa, being smaller, slower and definitely not as sea-kindly, so Mataroa was an ever smaller and disappearing set of lights in a dark night.

Back at Auckland, Mataroa was slipped at Baileys in Westhaven and up there for about 6 weeks (I think) in their shed. During this time, Dad had the portholes enlarged, the dodger raised and changed the shape of the dodger windows. Mataroa was stripped back to bare wood. I’m not sure if this was when Dad removed the muntz metal that had been used to shield the hull from toredo worms while Mataroa was seconded by the Air Force up to Fiji during the war (another story there). With the paint stripped, we found the Air Force rings scribed into the bow. We also discovered that Mataroa had been made from single planks of kauri from stem to stern. Dad painted the sides of Mataroa around the new windows to look like varnished wood but was in fact painted-on wood graining, something he’d learnt to do from his father.

As a result of Mataroa being at Baileys for that time, my older brother, Kevin Reynolds, decided to become a shipwright, doing his apprenticeship with Baileys. Kevin was well known in the Auckland boating scene, and passed away in 2010 at the age of 55 from melanoma. Dad passed away in 2012. Both were old salts who’d enjoyed their lifetime on the ocean and mucking about in boats.

I have attached some photos of Mataroa that you won’t have, plus a photo of myself in the cockpit of Mataroa in about 1986. The group of 4 photos-in-1 are #1. Me/Hilda Reynolds (Dad’s mum)/Pauline Reynolds (my Mum). # 2. Mum & Dad waving bye to me from Mataroa in early 1979.  #3. Our cat Gidget on board Mataroa.

I’ll ask her the name of Jack’s boat another day – I remember it started with a ‘T’ possibly Tewara but Mum may remember the spelling. Of note, Tewara only lost a palm-sized chip of paint off the stem from the accident.

Thank you so much for posting about Mataroa. She was a very much-loved a part of my life and I was heart-broken when I saw the state of her when for sale the other year.  

Huge kudos to Rob and Sue Uivel (current owners) for the work done. It is so wonderful that Mataroa is being loved and looked after again.  Mataroa is amazingly comfortable in seas that most other boats would or could not handle.  Does Mataroa still have the boom with “gaff” steadying sail set-up that Dad rigged and can be seen in the photo below?  It was really worth putting up in a cross sea – Mataroa settled down and didn’t roll much at all.

Btw, the last photo shows Kevin putting the scrubbing brushes in the dinghy, with me at the oars.  It was our “pram” dinghy with which we spent many fun-filled hours, and that’s our old Seagull outboard on the back.”

A question for the woodys – can anyone name the other launch involved in the collision ?

HELP WANTED ON VALHALLA
Robert Brooke is trying to track down a copy of the plans for the Gladden built 1964 launch ‘Valhalla’, can anyone help?