Category Archives: Working Boats

CLASSIC WOODEN EX WORK BOAT – ALBATROOS V – BROKEN UP

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CLASSIC WOODEN EX WORK BOAT – ALBATROOS V – BROKEN UP

The 64’ Millar& Tunnage ex tugboat – ALBATROSS V last made an appearance on WW back in May 2022 when we reported that after a lengthy time on the market she sold for $7,100.

Over the next few years she would regularly pop up on tme for sale again. I do not know the history behind her but at one stage the starting bid was $1, and no reserve………. Link to the May 2022 story here  https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/05/18/albatross-v-sold-for-7100/

Recently WW was contacted by Dick Fisher (MV AKARANA), Dick is currently undertaking a major rebuild / refit of the 1934 Chas Bailey & Sons built ex work boat – MELODEON . Link here to WW story. https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/09/25/update-on-melodeon-restoration/
Dick advised that ALBATROSS had been pulled onto the slipway in Port Road, Whangarei for dismantling. A sad ending to what Dick described as a very well built grand old lady.The only upside to her demise was that Dick was able to ‘harvest’ some of her bronze fittings, which will be up-cycled on MELODEON.

CLASSIC WOODEN WORKBOATS OF THE HAURAKI GULF – ANZAC

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CLASSIC WOODEN WORKBOATS OF THE HAURAKI GULF – ANZAC

Trolling thru the WW archives I found a file tagged Anzac that was created in 2019, inside was was the above photo of a launch named ANZAC, back in 2019 Harold Kidd had advised that she was 33’, built at Great Barrier Island and in those days powered by a 12-18hp Zealandia engine.

ANZAC was used for general cargo and passenger work in the Hauraki Gulf. Harold commented that she was probably built by G Osborne in Tryphena.

Todays photo originally came from the Auckland War Memorial Museum and was tagged – ‘ANZAC on the Puhoi River.

Do we know what became of ANZAC.  Harold once told me these launches were the equivalent of todays Toyota Ute. Everyone had one. I’ll get it wrong but I think I was told the annual production was something like 3>4,000 a year.

CLASSIC WOODEN DICK LANG LAUNCH – RUBY II

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CLASSIC WOODEN DICK LANG LAUNCH – RUBY II

This great photo and tale popped up recently on a post that Dennis Mansfield made on the NZ – Our Past Our Present fb page. Its a cracker read so I’ll hand thetiller over to Dennis today –

 “My grandfather, Edward Mansfield, who was born in Napier in 1878 , came to Auckland about 125 years ago. In due course he commissioned Dick Lang, one of St Mary’s Bay’s boat builders to construct the Ruby 2 for longlining. She was built of end to end kauri and I believe she was 34ft in length. Grandad paid £150 deposit, £150 at the halfway stage and £150 on completion.

She was converted to Danish seining eventually to make her more commercially viable but lost her visual appeal in the process. She was my dad’s first place of work when he was taken from school at the age of thirteen to become a full time fisherman. Grandad compensated Dad for limiting his formal education by presenting him with a brand new clinker built kauri sailing dinghy for his next birthday. Dad was certainly diligent. When they had unloaded the Ruby he would take the dinghy and row around to the Kauri Timber Company. The logs were held in a boom and would often break out if the sea got up. Dad got two bob a log to retrieve them. I thought it was quite a lot of money for those days but the size of the logs and the tide meant it could take an hour or two to effect a recovery. No wonder he was so damn strong.

In later years Dad was Master of an 86ft tugboat called the Odin. He would take a bit over seven hours to steam to the Blackjacks on the Eastern side of the Coromandel. The bulldozers would push the kauri logs down onto the beach and Dad would give his mate a leg up so he could run an auger through the log and chain it to the herringbone raft they were building out of the logs. In one raft they brought three quarters of a million feet of timber back to Auckland. It took them three and a half days to steam home.

During the war years dad would tow a scow up the Wairoa river to Clevedon. It was laden with McCallum’s red chip which was used as base metal for the airstrip at Ardmore, built primarily at the request of the US Air Force. The old man said the shrouds would twang like guitar strings as they got caught up in the the willows that overhung the riverbanks.”

1912 EARLY SETTLER LAUNCH – SEABIRD

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1912 EARLY SETTLER LAUNCH – SEABIRD

Todays classic woody is named SEABIRD,  a very popular name on WW. This one made a brief appearance on WW back in December 2020. At the time we learnt from Harold Kidd that she was built at Motukaraka, Hokianga by Kelsey Bros to their own design for their own use in April 1912 with a 6hp Automatic engine. The last photo above was from the 2020 story. 

SEABIRD has recently popped up on tme (thanks Ian McDonald) where we are told  she is 27’ in length, double skin kauri hull, powered by a 80hp Hino diesel. SEABIRD has spent most of its life on the Hokianga and was built for the sheltered but demanding waters of this harbour. 

Her owner commented that she was “looking a tad shabby right now but the bones are there to get this back into great vintage condition”. She served originally as the Kelsey family launch, as well as a Butter Boat and School Boat.

WW hopes a new passionate owner is found for SEABIRD – her location, condition and style/configuration will be challenging but these earlier settler launches need preserving.

CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – SQUID

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CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – SQUID

Today again thanks to Robyn Kellian’s Leigh based photo album, which comes to us via Tobias Forsyth we get to view another vessel. It’s safe to assume, given the visible ‘number plate’ AK255 / AK2551?, the launch is a commercial fishing boat, it’s design and presentation hints that she may have had a foot in both camps – commercial / pleasure.

The photo is tagged – SQUID, that combined with an unusual design should spark a few sleeping neurones with some WW readers and we will learn more about SQUID.   

WHERE ARE THEY NOW -THE FATE OF THESE CLASSIC CRAFT

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW -THE FATE OF THESE CLASSIC CRAFT

Todays classic wooden launch photos once more come to us from Robyn Kellian via Tobias Forsyth so we can safely assume the location is the Leigh region.  The question today is what’s the background to this series of photos – we have a work (fishing) boat donating her wheelhouse to another classic woody that appears to be a recent pleasure boat refit.

So can any of the Leigh based readers enlighten us on what became of both vessels and put an approx. date to the photos. 

INPUT ex GRAHAM ROWE – The first boat featured (fishing boat 3621) is La Vega. She was built by Millar and Tunnage using Totora planks on Pohutukawa ribs, launched 1965, and fished from Leigh until 25 November 2009 – the last entry in her Log. I know little about her ownership but on her last commercial fishing trip she was crewed by Nick and Jarrod, and hearsay suggests that her owners were two brothers nicknamed ‘Swampy’ and ‘The Animal’ Walker?

Sometime later she was bought to Helensville by Dave Cook and I purchased her from Dave after she had been sitting from 2016 with a non-functioning Mitsubishi 6D-14 engine in 2020. Since then, I have been restoring her. La Vega is 11m LOA, 3.9m beam and draws about 1.2m. She displaces about 11 Tonnes.

The doghouse being removed is possibly to enable an engine replacement. The doghouse shown is the one that was on her when I purchased her, but alas is no more, due to extensive rot. The sliding door however was salvageable and will go back on her in due course.

CLASSIC WOODEN GAME BOAT – MARGARET ANNE 

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CLASSIC WOODEN GAME BOAT – MARGARET ANNE 

I start todays classic woody story with an apology – I can not recall who/how I received todays photo of the classic wooden launch – MARGARET ANNE.

Lots of woodys on WW named Margaret Anne, my clouded memory says she is a Oliver & Gilpin design / build.

Obviously from the photo she spent time as a big game boat. 

Todays woody question – is today woody the same vessel as below. What throws me is the visual look of the photo, maybe its just the camera angle but it appears shorter than 42′ – thoughts?

WHY DO SOME WOODEN BOATS NOT SELL – MARAMA

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WHY DO SOME WOODEN BOATS NOT SELL – MARAMA

Short answer because the owners are just lazy – take todays 1927 built double-ender 33’ classic wooden boat currently on tme, one photo and the copy below –

“Boat and mooring in Oamaru. Fordson major engine parsons3/1 gearbox. Needs some ribs replaced ( freshwater damage) also comes with 8 meters of brand new 60mm thick heatproof waterproof sound deadening for a new engine cover ( cost me $2000 ) Good wee sea boat. Time for someone else to give it some love. $1 reserve”

OK – there is no reserve and a starting bid of $1, but seriously you’d be better off giving it away.

I hope she finds a new owner, the bones are there of a smart woody.

REMINDER – TOMORROWS BOAT BOOT SALE – 10am – details below – BRING CASH 🙂 PLENTY OF ROOM

MYSTERY CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – SIGNATURE (BELUGA)

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MYSTERY CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – SIGNATURE (BELUGA)

Today again thanks for Robyn Kellian and Tobias Forsyth we get to see another launch from the Leigh region. No name is visible but the photo is tagged – Gav Perry. The photo was taken on 31-01-1994.                                                                                                  

The shed / yard appears to be at Whangateau, back when it was a public facility controlled by Russell Ward and used by the local boating community. 

Can we learn more about the vessel, has a slight workboat look to her.

INPUT ex MARK MCLAUGHLIN – This is SIGNATURE (Beluga), a  late Miller and Tunnage build. Featured on WW in November 2016. Lots of details and photos here. https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/11/08/signature-beluga/

WHY CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS BECOME AN OBSESSION

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WHY CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS BECOME AN OBSESSION

There have been several magic bullet moments in the history of waitematawoodys, actions that had significant impacts on the readership numbers. The most significant was an international phone call, now I tend to ignore these calls as normally it is some self titled investment guru wanting to share a once in a lifetime investment opportunity with me. For some unknown reason I took the call  and it was a gent named Carl Cramer, who introduced himself as the Publisher of WoodenBoat magazine in the USA, that got my attention pretty quick. 

Carl told me he and the founding publisher / owner of WB – Jon Wilson, had been chatting on the phone, bored senseless after being snowed in for 3 days. As they were talking Jon Wilson was trolling the web looking for sunny wooden boating content – bingo Jon hit on the waitematawoodys site and the story of the day was my coverage of the  3 day Mahurangi Regatta weekend. Over 200 photos and videos, Carl told me Jon suggested he make contact – which led to our telephone call.  Back then WB was print only and a very popular on-line forum, so he was impressed with this new-ish blog format. Carl used to send a short, chatty weekly email out to the WB magazine subscribers, we talking 50,000+ – he asked if he could do a story on waitematawoodys. The story was a cracker and started with being snowed in and getting an infusion of summer boating that cured his cabin fever. He finished by saying.“This website is truely great”
Overnight the WW viewing numbers went into orbit, from around the world and we still retain a high % of them. In fact the USA is number 2 on the readers list.

Sorry for the long lead in to todays WW story. Over the years I have read several features on how Jon Wilson founded the WB  group but over the weekend I stumbled on a YouTube channel named ‘LIFE ON THE WATER’ – one of the featured videos is titled ‘Jon Wilson – The Restorer’s Journey’. In their words it is is a cinematic portrait of the man who took on a monumental task to change the course of wooden boat history. I haven’t come across a better insight, explanation on this bug we all suffer from. Read it, I promise afterwards you’ll feel better about life and your classic wooden boat.