Category Archives: Tales & Yarns

Wenna

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WENNA
photo & details ex Harold Kidd

A new photo of Wenna has surfaced from Bob Wiley of Boat Haulage, whose father did a lot of cruising on Wenna when she was owned by Willie McWhirter during the 1950s and 1960s.
Willie McWhirter (1902-1983) was a long-term Auckland Harbour Board employee, son of Tom McWhirter, brother of Jack, of the well-known yachting family of St. Mary’s Bay.
He lived at 61 St. Mary’s Road. Dave Jackson knew him well.
When McWhirter owned Wenna he carried a food safe on the dodger which was most unusual and characteristic of the launch during his ownership.
Harold commented this is now a  a missing chunk of Wenna’s history accounted for.

Back then the crack was “Wenna you going to buy me a beer?” 🙂

ps excuse the fly poo on the photo – HDK was worried that cleaning it might have damaged the original print 🙂

To view more photos on Wenna old & current – enter Wenna in the ww search box.

11/11/14 – Harold Kidd Update

Jack Taylor has given me the good oil on WENNA. He used to work alongside Alf Bell of Collings & Bell and Alf told him some facts about WENNA.
1. She WAS built by Collings & Bell.
2. They took their time over construction so Eric O’Neill, who lived in Ring Terrace a few yards away, kept nagging them, ” When are you going to get my boat finished”, and the WENNA stuck.
3. Eric was known around the waterfront as “Peggy” O’Neill after the song. He was a cheerful bloke and everyone liked him.
4. He knew nothing about boating at the start. He brought WENNA back from Barrier through the bad February 1936 hurricane and complained to Alex Collings that she leaked. 40 boats were lost in Auckland in that blow.
5. However, he got to be good enough to skipper PAIKEA on occasion during her NAPS service.

 

Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #8 – Kiariki May 1959

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Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #8 – Kiariki May 1959

I have just received another batch of drawing from Robert Brooke of these remarkable cruise drawings done by his father, Jack Brooke, again ww thanks Robert for making them available to ww followers. Jack produced a hand drawing on each cruise. Todays post is the 8th featured – enjoy.

The above drawing records the travels of Kiariki during a May 1959 cruise to Kawau Island & onto Gt Barrier Island.

Crew: John Brooke, Don Brooke, Bill Mitch, John Chapple, Peter Walker, Rob Wallace. Must have been a boys cruise.

The story of the Round NZ Cruise of Karros II

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The Round NZ Cruise of Karros II
told by Jillian Inglis & sent in to ww by Jamie Hudson ex Peter Berrett

Click the blue link below to view the story 😉

Ernie’s gone fishin

The above folks is an exceptional read – 3 blokes – Ernie Seagar, Bill Boulton & Dave Jackson (owner skipper of Karros) in Feb 1985 undertook a 7 week circumnavigation of NZ that they loosely describe as ‘Gone Fishin’.
Its 18 pages long so grab a coffee / tea & find a comfy spot – I guarantee you wont be able to stop reading. Make sure you view the photos on pages 15>18. Teaser below

Screen Shot 2014-10-31 at 12.57.33 PM
I understand the story surfaced for the 80th birthday celebration for Ernie Seagar. In the photo below, Ernie is pictured in July 2014,  on-board Margo & Jamie Hudson’s classic launch, Lady Crossley, holding a photo of LC on her launch day, Ernie’s father had LC built by Colin Wild. Ernie’s grandmother launched LC.

Ernie Seagar onboard Lady Crossley

 

Jack Brooke Collection #7 – RNZYS Centennial

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Jack Brooke Collection #7 – RNZYS Centennial 1871 – 1971

waitematawoodys again thanks Robert Brooke for making the remarkable drawings done by his father, Jack Brooke, available to ww followers. Jack produced a hand drawing on each cruise, this one was done to record the RNZYS Centennial celebrations in 1971. Today’s post is the seventh of several – enjoy.

Blow up / enlarge the drawing to view all the historic events recorded – One Ton Cup win, Woman admitted as members, Charter to wear the Blue Ensign, Charter to wear White Ensign, the list of Distinguished Guests & more. The drawing of Kiariki just illustrates how talented Jack Broke was.

To view Jack Brooke’s other drawings type Jack Brooke in the ww search box.

Heads Up – over the weekend I will be postings a cracker of a read so make sure you check in 🙂

Reelemin II

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REELEMIN (II)   #1Fairlie Launch in a series of 4
photos & details ex Ken Ricketts. Edited by Alan H

Norm Fairlie was a lifelong, dedicated & very enthusiastic game fisherman, having fished extensively, mostly at Mayor Island & started his boating life with a couple of small outboard powered runabouts in the later 1940s & early 50s.

His first foray in to cruising type boats, was Reelemin (II). She was built by Don Norton in Westmere for Norm F., c.1954-55.

She is 26 feet long & was originally powered by a largish petrol engine, which Norm does not recall the details of. She cruised at around 12-14 knots.Norma owned her until  approx 1961 when he sold her & replaced her with the new & larger 38 foot Challenger, in approx 1962, which he commissioned McGeady to build for him & which will be the subject of a later post. This was followed later still by the even bigger 45 foot (llater extended to 52 feet) Commander One, in approx 1968-69  which was built for him by Alan Williams, also to be the subject of a later post.

Fairlie also had McGeady build him a purpose built 30 footer called Tempest, which was built for him in early 1964, specially for the World Game Fishing Contest (March 1964), on which he won the Tuna section, of that contest.

He had retained Challenger & owned both boats at the same time. Challenger came second in the game fishing section, but unfortunately, Fairlie has no pics of Tempest & he sold her shortly after the contest concluded & does not recall engine details of this boat.

Norm is now long retired, at 91 & when Ken spoke to him, sounded very fit & active for his age & living at the Gold Coast.

He was a very successful Auckland businessman & father of one of NZ’s world famous international tennis stars of the 1960s-70s era, Brian Fairlie.

Ken would like to acknowledge the help, input & permission of Norm to make this & the future  posts on his other  boats possible.

The pic below of Gay  Dawn was taken by Norm from Reelemin at Opua Christmas 1960. His in-laws are standing on the stern & a young Brian, outside the portside bridegdeck window.

Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #6 – Matanui 1966

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Matanui 1966 Cruise

Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #6 – Matanui 1966

waitematawoodys would again like to thank Robert Brooke for making the remarkable cruise drawings done by his father, Jack Brooke, available to ww followers. Jack produced a hand drawing on each cruise. Today’s post is the sixth of several – enjoy.

The above drawing records the travels of Matanui during a ‘boys’ weekend fishing trip in 1966 to the Needles. They departed Friday morning & returned early Sunday morning. Check out their course on the chart & the times recorded – given the distance & time, I’m surprised they caught any fish. The haul was 23 hapukau, a lot of snapper, a few sharks & a cod or two. From the illustration of ‘El Capitano’, Jack can’t have had much luck with the fishing rod 🙂

The crew was made up of Jack Brooke, Joe Kissin, John Ellis, Ralph Scott & Gordon Bliss. Most of this crew did the same trip 11 years earlier (1955) – type Jack Brooke in the ww search box to view the previous cruise drawings.

CYA Launch Group Road Trip

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CYA Launch Group Road Trip

While the CYA yachties were having their 1st race of the season on Sunday, the launch group hit the road & headed north to Whangateau for a shed visit to check on the progress of ‘Laughing Lady’ at the Whangateau Traditional Boat yard. Good planning ensured we were there at high-tide, so we got to see all the old girls afloat. Regular readers of ww will have seen photos of the yard from my previous posts but today was special to share Pam & George’s magic space with a bunch of serious wooden boat nuts.

James Dreyer gave a brief talk on the the history of LL & how the restoration was coming along. Probably the best question of the day & best answer was – “Are you taking her back to the USA” – “No, she is here to stay, the Waitemata & greater Hauraki Gulf is her new home”.

Post the shed visit we headed up the hill to Carolyn & Shane Anderson’s (MV Waimiga) stunning property for a a tasting of locals wines & their own estate olive oil. A BBQ followed & then a coastal walk.
There are plans to make this trip a regular on the launch calendar.

A big thank you to Pam & George from Whangateau Traditional Boats + Carolyn & Shane. And James Dreyer for letting us all crawl over Laughing Lady 🙂

Enjoy the photos – click any to enlarge – I took so many, this is just a random selection, I’ll post more over time.

Shane,Pam & George

Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #5 – Matanui 1955

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Matanui 1955

Jack Brooke Cruise Collection – Matanui 1955

waitematawoodys would again like to thank Robert Brooke for making the remarkable cruise drawings done by his father, Jack Brooke, available to ww followers. Jack produced a hand drawing on each cruise. Today’s post is the fifth of several – enjoy.

The above drawing records the travels of Matanui during a ‘boys’ weekend fishing trip in 1955. They departed early Friday evening & returned on Monday morning. A lot of ground was covered with the Needles being the targeted location to the north & Elephant Cove to the east. From the sea state drawing & comments, it must have been a little rough between Elephant Cove & Shag Rock.

The crew was made up of Jack Brooke, Joe Kissin, John Ellis & Scott Wilson. Interestingly the crew did the same trip 11 years later – I will post that drawing next week.

So Much For Spring

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A woody reports in from Italy

Well so much for spring – here in Auckland its just foul today so I thought I’d brighten things up a little with a report from ww follower Bruce Rowe. Bruce owns the classic bridge decker – Ngarimu, photo here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/06/the-tale-of-two-ngarimus/
Bruce is currently holidaying in Italy enjoying some time on the Amalfi Coast which has a very old rich history of boating. The photos were taken while in Procida, an island in the Bay of Naples. A quaint little place and as you can see still a little fishing village. Bruce says he & Lyn spent days just wandering around the foreshore & sitting in cafes checking out the many different and interesting boats and the on the water boating activity. The rich had their launches (yachts) outside the breakwater but lunchtime saw flash tenders come in, throw a line to a waiter, then swagger up to a dining table. Of course dressed for the occasion.
Some of these boats were glass hulls but mainly wood. They had beautiful trim finished in wood and all typically followed a similar design.

Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #4 – Kiariki Xmas 1962- 63

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Jack Brooke Cruise Collection Kiariki 1962/6

Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #4 – Kiariki Xmas 1962- 63

Thanks to Robert Brooke for making  another of these remarkable cruise drawings done by his father, Jack Brooke, available to ww followers. Jack produced a hand drawing on each cruise. Todays post is the fourth of several – enjoy.

The above drawing records the travels of Kiariki during their annual Christmas / New Year Cruise to Whangaroa, Bay of Islands, Gt Barrier & all points North

Crew: John Brooke, Elsie Brooke, Peter Walker, Rob Wallace.

This one is my favourite – the detail & humour is first-class 🙂