Category Archives: Working Boats

OUTSTANDING IN A PADDOCK – Duke of Marlborough

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OUTSTANDING IN A PADDOCK – Duke of Marlborough

When I received the photos above the first thoughts were ………… where and why. 

Chatting with the sender, Ant Smit, I learned that the location was the MacKenzie Basin, which is situated approx. 1/2 way between Christchurch and Queenstown in the South Island. The area is almost the dead centre of the island.

Ant advised that a friend was on a motorcycle tour and spotted the boat and couldn’t not stop and snap a few photos.

I quick chat to my WW steam guru – Russell Ward and we learn she was purchased ex Picton and should currently be viewed as ‘art’. Lets hope there is a long term plan to restore her.

Her back story is a good read and she appeared on WW in May 2020 – link below. We learned then she was made of steel in 1987 and was originally named – James Torrey, and was used for trout fishing tours on Lake Tarawera –  lots of details in the story. In the photo below we see her at Picton when she was running as a commercial passenger vessel.     https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/05/17/ss-duke-of-marlborough/

Anyone able to enlighten us more on her future 

INPUT ex DAN CONAGH (owner) – I can confirm that I’ve purchased and moved the Duke to a section of land I own in Twizel. Our intention is to restore, repaint and return to service on one of the lakes in the MacKenzie District.

Unfortunately the boat is showing the signs of having been stored next to the ocean in Picton. The hull has some rust that requires attention. The wooden topside has some sun damage. New varnish required, and the PVC roll up sides are beyond repair. The photos in this article are very recent as I was up there on Saturday cleaning up all the coal spread across the floor inside.

SEA DE’IL > SEA DEVIL > SKIPJACK

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SEA DE’IL > SEA DEVIL > SKIPJACK

Todays woody launch has had several names and appeared on WW numerous times, links below to a couple of those stories.

Thanks to Harold Kidd back in 2016 (refer screen grab below) we learnt that when launched she was named Sea De’il, most likely after a well known race horse of the time.

Lots of colour photos from thru out her recent years but we had never seen her as launched. Yesterday while doing a deep dive in the WW archives I found a press clipping that shown the launch at anchor at Reotahi, Whangarei Harbour in the late 1920’s. 

Owned at the time by Jim Hoey her first owner. There has been a lot of speculation re a possible builder so I won’t go down that rabbit hole 🙂

The launch was 30’6” in length, full length kauri planking but must have been stretched at some stage as some sources have her at 33’. 

When launched she was a workboat and whilst primarily working in and around Whangarei Harbour she was a frequent visitor to Kawau, Great Barrier Island, Mokohinau & the Hen & Chicken islands.

NOTE: I’m interested to hear debate on whether the two boats above are actually the same, now that we have an early photo of Sea De’il, there are a few features that do not gel in my eyes – thoughts?

WW 2016https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/02/24/sea-devil/

WW 2022https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/12/15/skipjack-sea-devil-2/

SEA HAWK + Turbulence At The CYA

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SEA HAWK

On a recent ’Ex NZ Post Office Construction Staff’ fb post, a Dave Hansen posted the top photo ( location Amberley Beach, early 1980’s) his the story was actually about the truck, but the partial photo of a vessel named – Sea Hawk sparked the attention of a reader named ‘Wolf Man’ who supplied a current day photo and advised the vessel was still on the same section.In his post Dave Hansen commented that the section and contents were neglected due to the owner being a guest of the state eg in prison. On a follow up visit the boat and truck were gone. So at some stage the boat returned.

Keen to learn more about the boat and what’s been happening to her these last 40 years.


JOYCE TALBOT RESIGNS FROM CYA
Dockside chatter has CYA Secertary Joyce Talbot resigning from the CYA after 20+ years. An example of missing her attention to detail – in the March 2024 issue of the CYA’s newsletter ’Sheerlines’ , the editor infers that last weekends Classic Woody Cruise To The Riverhead Tavern, was a CYA event – well folks nothing could be further from the truth………. When it comes to the CYA I’m even amazed they know how to spell the word ‘launch’. I bet the editors laptop always tries  to auto correct it to ‘lunch’ 🙂

And I’m told the CYA vice chairperson has also resigned………………………

ec CYA Sheerlines Mar2024

VENTURE – A Peek Down Below

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Russell Wharf – B.O.I.

VENTURE – A Peek Down Below

I last saw the launch – Venture, back in June 2021 when she was berthed at Hobsonville marina. Link below to that story + a Aug 2017 story that has some wonderful photos from her days big game fishing in the Bay of Islands.

Venture was built by Morrie Palmer in c.1964 and while several people have made reference to being designed by Colin Wilde, at best, probably safe to say ‘influenced by’ 😉

36 in length, 12’1” beam and draft of 3’7”. Forward motion is via 6cyl Ford 90hp Diesel engine.

Today thanks to a recent tme listing (ex Ian McDonald) we get to have a gender down below.

WW Aug 2017 https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/08/26/venture-2/ WW June 2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/06/23/can-we-id-this-launch-2/

ANNA ROSA

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ANNA ROSA

Todays woody has got southern boat written all over her, this backed up by her birth place – the Morgan Boatyard in Picton.

The 41’ Anna Rosa has a build date of 1974 so she fits into the ’spirit of tradition’ category. Lots of zoom zoom with a 320hp CAT 3208 engine below decks. With the rego number on her, she is or must have been in survey.

Any of the mainland woodys able to shed some more light on Anna Rosa for us.

Photo and details sent in by John Dawson

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THE LINORA

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THE LINORA

Todays woody is the launch – Linora, built in Fairle, Canterbury, in the South Island by Guard & Cuthill. She was built for a R W Butcher of Auckland. In the above photo we see her being transported down Stafford St in Timaru, no doubt on route to launching.

The inland town of Faire may seem an odd place for a boatbuilding yard but in 1970 Dick Guard and Graham Cuthill commenced business there in an old ammunition factory. Initially building small row boats, at 60’ The Linora was the largest they built. In total the yard built 10 launches and over 130 row boats.

Thanks to Peter Grant for sending in the press clipping  / photo of the story that was penned by Dick Guard.

Do we know what became of the Linora – rather a large woody to ‘disappear’

INPUT ex NATHAN HERBERT – photo below from NH show that Linora sent time as a fishing charter boat out of Auckland, named Florence Kennedy II (images are from archives nz and akl libraries)

10-03-2024 UPDATE: I suspect that we have ‘merged’ two boats into one. Greg Philpott has advised that Florence Kennedy was built for Len Sowerty and named after his wife. 

The Lenora was built for a Mr. R W Butcher as mentioned in the article below.

ONE WEEK TO THE CLASSIC WOODY LUNCH CRUISE TO THE RIVERHEAD WATERFRONT TAVERN – RSVP TODAY

email baot name and approx. crew numbers to waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys

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Screenshot

KIRIKIRIROA – A Peek Down Below

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KIRIKIRIROA – A Peek Down Below

Well after two days of ‘wall2wall’ classic woody porn it was always going to be a big challenge to back up with a run-of-the-mill story, so I thought its Wednesday so must be time for a Work Boat Wednesday story.

Todays woody is the Terry Bailey built 1983, 36′ ex workboat – Kirikiriroa , a woody thats been on my top 10 list ever since I first spotted her at Gulf Harbour marina many years ago. Built from strip plank kauri.

She was originally built for the mussel industry on Great Barrier Island and later used for various fright and cargo transportation. While not currently in survey (on hold), she is still capable of carrying 5 ton of cargo.

AND – down below is a 70hp 4LW Gardner…………….

Kirikiriroa recently popped up on tm , thanks Ian McDonald. I could own her but I’d have to stop churning out WW everyday, I’d be too busy polishing that engine 🙂

Link here to the previous WW story  April 2016 Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/04/15/kirikiriroa/

2016 photo ex K Ricketts

07-03-2024 Input ex Russell Ward – Kirikiriroa was ashore at Gulf Harbour for a tidy up when I had Hinemoa’s Boat up for the same several years back.
The sign in the wheelhouse appealed to me somehow.
She was looking a bit tidier back then, but she’s an appealing wee boat for a real man.

HAVE YOU RSVP’ed FOR THE WOODY CRUISE TO RIVERHEAD TAVERN – SATURDAY 16 MARCH

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AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL – Off The Water Gallery – Part 2

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AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL – Off The Water Gallery – 70+ Classic Woody Photos

Today we focus on the spectacular collection of smaller woody craft that were displayed in and around the viaduct events centre – to a large % of the shows audience that had some salt in their veins this was a trip down memory lane.

Just so much care and attention has been furnished on these wooden craft. Sadly I suspect that a lot are now in the ‘display’ category. And as we all know with wooden boats you have got to use them or else they deteriorate quickly and then the cost to bring back is just too steep.

The minders / owners of the craft on display were overrun with people wanting to rely their own experiences and memories of the boats. Hopefully the show has ignited some interest in finding the craft that they enjoyed in a past life. The was certainly no shortage of owners looking for new blood to take over their artefact.

Enjoy the gallery and remember you can enlarge the photos if you click on them and the link to the other half of the festival – the classic woodys berthed dockside is below. https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/03/04/77770/

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AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL – Dockside Gallery – 75+ Classic Woody Photos – Part 1

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AUCKLAND WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL – Dockside Gallery – 75+ Classic Woody Photos

Slight change of format today. Normally we do one big gallery of event photos, but the 2024 Auckland Wooden Boat Festival deserves two stories – why? Well in the eyes os of the woodys I spoke to, the off-the-water (in the shed) exhibition was on equal footing to the exhibition afloat. So woodys come back tomorrow to see the off-the-water gallery, you won’t be disappointed.

From my mooching the #1 feedback I got was ‘where do they all come from’ i.e. people have never seen this number of classic wooden boats together #2 (from owners) was ‘it is so great to meet all the owners / caretakers’. I think a lot of people were quietly hoping their partners were thinking “there are other zany people out there, my partner isn’t the only eccentric old boat nut in town”.

For a three day outdoor event in Auckland we were gifted to have two (Fri/Sat) days of amazing weather, Sunday was a on/off rain day but it didn’t seem to slow down the people. I believe over 8,000 people were counted thru the dock-gate (it was free entry).

The photos tell the story today – its takes a lot of people to pull something like this off, so well done to all those that rubbed up against the show and well done Tony and team for pulling it all together.

PART TWO – THE OFF-THE-WATER SECTION – LINK BELOW https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/03/05/auckland-wooden-boat-festival-off-the-water-gallery/

AS ALWAYS – CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

AND YES I DID BUY THE T-SHIRT 🙂

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HELENA 8363 – Sailing Sunday

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HELENA 8363 – Sailing Sunday

Recently WW was contacted by Daniel Keat who owns the yacht – Helena. Daniel was reaching out to uncover more on the craft. Daniel has owned Helena for approx. 4 years and is working away to bring her back to her former glory.

Story goes that she may have been built c.1920’s and built in Helena Bay, hence the name. She’s made from 1&7/8” thick kauri. When the wind is off-duty there is a Perkins 6.354 to help the forward motion.

In her early days Helena fished out of Dunedin and Lyttelton , and fishing out of Nelson when in 2012 an Irish boatbuilder bought her and completely rebuilt her except of the hull (thats an Irish statement). Recently Helena has been at the Norsand Boatyard in Whangarei, Northland where Murray Wilkinson commented that she maybe older than the stated c.1920’s.

So woodys – can we help Daniel out re Helena’s past.

27-02-2024 UPDATE – photo below of Helena on sea trials off Onehunga ex Baden Pascoe

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