Category Archives: Working Boats

1970’s STORM WRECKED HAVOC TO THAMES BOATING FLEET

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1970’s STORM WRECKED HAVOC TO THAMES BOATING FLEET

Recently Glenn Martin sent the above photos that originated from the Thames Historic Pictures fb page.   Glenn commented that they were captioned – ‘Storm Damaged boats in the 1970s Shortland Wharf Thames NZ’ , but in Glenn’s eyes he believes the date was probably earlier. Blowing up the photos the pickup truck in the top photo does tend to date it earlier. Also in the 2nd photo the shoes on the observers on the wharf have a 1970’s style – so maybe the photos are not from the same period. Thoughts?

Did some sniffing around online and learnt that records from coastal engineering and council archives confirm storms in February and May 1970 affecting the Coromandel coast (including areas near Thames). These brought large easterly swells and storm surges, that damaged wharves and boats and caused erosion and flooding.

If you have spent time there you will know that Thames sits on low-lying reclaimed land beside the Firth of Thames, so is always susceptible to flooding. 

(photo ex Toby Hyman)

RESTORATION OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN EX WORKBOAT – CLYDE GS 28

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RESTORATION OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN EX WORKBOAT – CLYDE GS 28

WW has been contacted by Mark McLaughlin regarding the 25’ Roger Carey built (1949) ex workboat – CLYDE GS28. Mark’s notes below – 

“I have been following the Facebook page of Doug Johnson who is a traditional boatbuilder in Picton documenting his restoration of the lovely little Roger Carey 25ft fishing boat “Clyde”. Originally built in 1949, Doug has rescued Clyde and spent the last three and a half years on a thorough restoration which is nearing completion with launching planned for Labour Weekend. Clyde features in the book “By Boats We Live” by Roger’s daughter, Joan Clark, which recorded all of her father’s designs & builds and designs built by others. The watercolour image is by Joan from her book and shows Clyde’s original working boat configuration” 

Mark also sent in the selection of photos above from Doug’s Facebook page, and commented that there are many more photos and videos of the restoration there, link below  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084924609149  Mark tracked down a copy of the story on CLYDE in the “By Boats We Live” book from his mother down in Marlborough. Photos below.

CLASSIC GAME LAUNCH ALMA G AT URUPUKAPUKA ISLAND

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CLASSIC GAME LAUNCH ALMA G AT URUPUKAPUKA ISLAND

The 1922 Collings & Bell built classic wooden game boat – ALAM G has made numerous appearances on WW , today thanks to a Ross Griffin post on the B.O.I. Historic Photos fb we get to share some stunning camera work from the photographer Tudor Collins. The images are ’stored’ at the Kawakawa Museum.

Most of the photos are in and around Urupukapuka Island and the islands game fishing lodge.

Can anyone ID the people in the close up photos.

A ROAD TRIP TO WARKWORTH + CEMENT WORKS BOAT YARD

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A ROAD TRIP TO WARKWORTH + CEMENT WORKS BOAT YARD

I had a good reason last week to head north and so took the chance to mooch around the woodys berthed or hauled out in the upper reaches of the Mahurangi / Warkworth River.

The excuse for the trip was to delivery a model of the coastal cruiser VANESSA to the vessel before she heads south to her new Wellinton owner. 

VANESSA was out for a serious service before the delivery crew headed away down south.

Sad to see such a salty looking woody leaving our area but we tend to win more than we lose eg more coming north ✔️

In varying stages of repair were  – NEPTUNE, LADY JANE AND WAIONE. The yard was very busy but I started to itch as I got close to most of the other craft hauled out.

I also popped down to the river and spotted – RIPPLE,JANE GIFFORD, ANAM CARA (L33), and NOW .

WOODEN WORKBOATS ON THE HOKIANGA 

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WOODEN WORKBOATS ON THE HOKIANGA 

Todays photo is a flash back to rural life in the early 1920’s when launches collected cream from wayside settlements around the harbour and transported the cargo to in this case a dairy factory ar Rawene. 

In addition to the cream loads the boats provided transport for both farm and domestic supplies. The craft were the equivalent of todays Toyota HiLux ute.

Have to love the hatch / all weather shelter on the launch closest to the wharf. I think they were referred to as ‘blue collar flybridges’.

150 YEARS OF NZ SHIPBUILDING – Reference Guilde

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150 YEARS OF NZ SHIPBUILDING – Reference Guide

Released in 2012 as a compact disc (CD), by Miles Hughes and covering the period 1795 > 1945, this booklet is of epic proportions – topping out at 837 pages.  For easy of reading in todays digital world the ‘book’ is below in PDF format.

The publication contains more than 1,200 NZ shipbuilders, shipwrights and boatbuilders and includes their biographies and the names, specs and first owners of over 5,600 craft.

150 Years of New Zealand Shipbuilding_260414_080355Download


HEADS UP: WW can not vouch for the accuracy of the content and when reviewing the list of contributors , several stood out as ‘being fond of interviewing their typewriter’ i.e. they make up what they either do not know or are unsure of. So woodys best treat it as a guide 😉

WW would be interested in feed back on this guide – maybe chose a designer/builder well known to you and review the content. 

As an example below is the listing on my boat RAINDANCE, some of the content is correct and some unknown or speculation that I have been told over the last 18 years of ownership, but it is very close her provenance.

So the question of the day – is this an amazing reference tool or to use that old school english saying ‘A Load Of Pants’ ?

UPDATE – Still available in print version at Boat Books in Westhaven, Auckland.

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH WYNONA – RESTORATION UPDATE WANTED 

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CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH WYNONA – RESTORATION UPDATE WANTED 

The classic wooden launch WYNONA made a brief appearance on WW back in Nov 2023, at the time we learnt from Harold Kidd that WYNONA was built in 1948 by Sam Ford for the Rotorua Lake Service Ltd., who used her for tourist trips to Mokoia Island in the middle of Lake Rotorua. 

Later a comment was made on WW that WYNONA was being restored at Tarakohe Marina, in Golden Bay – unfortunately we learnt no more on the vessel, so today is a shout out to see if we can get an update.

The photo above came to us from Sharron French who uncovered the photo when reviewing her fathers photo album.

(photo ex Toby Hyman)

EASTER ON THE WATER – Classic Wooden Boat Cruising

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EASTER ON THE WATER – Classic Wooden Boat Cruising

Just back from three days on RD , Friday was one out of the box, simply stunning. Saturday was another goody and Sunday a tad overcast but still warm. Very happy with the number of classic woodys at Rakino Island over the weekend. I managed to catch up with a lot of the skippers, general consensus was ‘grabbing a few days afloat before winter kicks in’. 

The white bridge-decker above was a mystery to me, short 4 letter name – Nathan what say you?

On Saturday I caught up with Bill Brown whose family (Corrine & James Brown) owned my launch in the late 1960’s. Back then she was named LADY GAY. Bill works off shore but keeps a very smart woody yacht (SusanJane) at Westhaven for when back in NZ. 

We meet a few years ago via a mutual friend and the WW site, the penny  dropped re the boat link and Bill sent me a great album of b/w photos from back in the late 1960’s.

 I spend a lot of time matching other people and boats from the past so it was extra special to have an ‘own goal’. 

One of Bill’s photos below of LADY GAY (RAINDANCE). For those interested more on RD’s past here https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/04/23/lady-gay/

Late 1960’s
2026

CAN WE DATE & ID THESE CLASSIC BAY OF ISLANDS GAME BOATS

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CAN WE DATE & ID THESE CLASSIC BAY OF ISLANDS GAME BOATS

Today’s very cool photo has been rattling around in the “too good not to share” tray for a few months now… and frustratingly, I can’t recall where it came from — so apologies upfront for not crediting the source.

The photo is tagged – ‘Bay of Islands Game Fleet’ and first two boats are the legendary Collings & Bell built launches – Alma G II, followed by Alma G.These launches were part of the original wave of purpose-built game boats that helped put the Bay of Islands on the world big game fishing map.

Can any BOI game fishing launchmen ID the other boats for us, would be great to bring the fleet to life again. 

INPUT ex GREG PHILPOTT

Was working recently on IDing these launches in a similar photo and with the help of Hylton Edmonds and Brett & Shelley Arlidge the occasion was identified as the “funeral” procession for the scattering of the ashes of veteran gamefishing boatman HW (universally known as Peter) Williams who died on 9th August, 1949.

The launches in that procession were Alma G II” (Mervyn) , “Alma G” (Francis), “Idolon” (Fred Baker), “Marline” – Leon Warne ??, “Reliance” (Les Blomfield)??,  “Pirate” (Jimmy Whitelaw / Otto Summers) and possibly given he was of that era – George Warne and the “Rosemary”?.

The general consensus is that the photo was likely taken from the stern of William’s boat “Avalon”.

CLASSIC SOUTHERN WOODEN WORKBOATS 

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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.