Category Archives: Working Boats

Donald Sutherland

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DONALD SUTHERLAND

The Collings & Bell launch Donald Sutherland is seen in the above photo on her launch day in January 1936.
Harold Kidd advised previously that DS was very similar to the C&B launch Miss Picton (later named Mitre Peek) that was launch early(07/12/1933).
Do we know what became of Donald Sutherland and is she still afloat?
In my eyes –  rather a pretty boat, but did Collings & Bell ever build an ugly one? 🙂
WCW Riverhead2019

Arline

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ARLINE
The trade listing (thanks Ian McDonald) for Arline is a little loose eg under design it states ‘Classic’, and no mention of builder. We do know she was built in 1950, is kauri planked, 40’ in length, with a 12’ beam. The engine is a 1950 120hp Leyland, so suspect its been there from new.
Obviously an ex work boat, she appears to have good bones and if the price was right would be make a great base for conversion to pleasure use. But before that happened the asking price ($50k) would need to head south a bit.
The b/w photos below show Arline in Opua, Northland in her original configuration – they come to use ex Ross Griffen, via the BOI Historic Photos fb.
Gisborne is her home port, any woodys able to tell us more about Arline in the years between the old photos and as we see her today?
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24-08-2019 Input ex Greg Phlpott – The b/w photo below of Arline is dated 1971 and the location is Whangaroa. The newspaper clipping talks about Arline being for sale as a charter boat in the Bay of Islands.
Arline 04 - Whangaroa - Riethmaier - 1971
News

Mystery Napier Boat – Tautane > Centaurus

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Mystery Napier Boat – Tautane > Centaurus
 
Hylton Edmonds sent me the above photo of the unnamed Napier pilot taken by his late uncle TDE Edmonds who lived in the Hawkes Bay. Hylton recalls that it was taken sometime in the late 1950’s > early 1960’s and shows the pilot boat giving the ship ‘a bit of assistance’, which was common practice at the time.
 
Hylton was hoping one of the Napier / Hawke’s Bay WW followers could fill in some of the gaps re the photo e.g  a more accurate photo date, name, builder, launch date, and was she actually built as a pilot boat or later commissioned as one etc as she definitely  has an ex Fishing Boat – Miller and Tunnage look about her, and of course, what became of her?
 
UPDATE : Thanks to Michael O’Dwyers shape eyes we now know its Tautane – WW link below for details + photo of her today as Centaurus 🙂
 
 
19-08-2019 Input from Michael O’Dwyer
“Had a wee chat with an ex skipper of Tautane today.His name is Morry Trow,now 86 years old. Morry drove the pilot boats in Napier from 1967 through to 1983.He recalls Tautane being a good sea boat especially when driven with the 6/71 but the pilot house could get a little cramped with four people packed in.He regaled me with one account of having to remove an entire crew off a freighter all at once,the problem being one of the crew members had murdered a fellow seaman and the body had to come back too.Morry had taken out a number of policemen of course, so not having enough room and not that keen to have a tense situation on deck they ended up towing one of the lifeboats back with the perpetrator aboard duly escorted by the police.Tautane was replaced with the 120 tonne Athol Burns designed tug J.R. Harland in 1968 now Albatross V working adventure tourism in the Bay of Islands.”
 
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10-09-2020 Update – photo below ex Lew Redwood
 

Saint Antonio – Work Boat Wednesday

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SAINT ANTONIO
 
I understand the launch Wild Duck (photo below) is for sale, I have included a photo below to give you some inspiration as to what Saint Antonio could look like if you threw some money at a good woody boatbuilder. 
Saint Antonio is from the design board and builder – Joe Jukes of Wellington and was built in 1935. LOA is 40’ and she has the same stern profile as Wild Duck. Strongly built in single skin kauri, she is a typical straight stem, counter stern, Island Bay Cook Straight vessel. 
The best term to describe her current status would be ‘work-in-progress’, her motor has been removed (seized), she is a float and awaits a woody with version and a few spare $$. The the last photo above shows her when she was commercial fishing.
Thanks to Ian McDonald for th listing heads-up.
‘Sister’ ship Wild Duck below
The duck has had an interesting life – started out as a service boat to the Wellington flying boats. She is also a lucky boat, surviving an altercation with a piece of the coast up north. One of boatbuilders based out of Half Moon Bay marina sent in the photos below of Wild Duck after she was hauled out, after an altercation – appears to have been quite a knock.
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Cellina AK2248

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CELLINA AK2248

Normally if I have a work-boat photo I use it on Wednesday e.g. ‘Work Boat Wednesday’ but when I came across the above photos of Cellina on Lew Redwood’s fb she was such a stunner I had to post the photos asap.
Other than her name all I know is her rego # – being AK2248. Who can tell use more about Cellina?
There has to be some serious designer input in there.
Input from Cameron Pollard
Cellina ex CP2
Cellina ex CP
Input from Harold Kidd – The Zane Grey story mentioned above, is just that, a story. CELLINA was built by Chas Bailey & Sons for W C Mills & Sons of Devonport in April 1931 with a 55hp Deutz diesel. The Mills had Bailey build them MELODEON in February 1935 with a 110hp Deutz.
Update 08-08-2019 – Photo below of Cellina off Mangahawea, Motura Island, September 2016 ex the camera of Dean Wright
Cellina ex DW
08-08-2019 Update & photo below from Kerry Wickman who has owned Cellina since 2005 and reports she s’alive and well in the Bay of Islands’
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BUD NALDER RIP
The family of Bud Nalder who passed away on the 31st July 19, would like to advise they will be holding a farewell service at the Tasman Bay Cruising Club in Nelson on Saturday 10th of August at 1pm. All welcome.
(message ex Jane High)

Spartacus – 4sale

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Spartacus – 4sale
 
Woody Baden Pascoe spotted Spartacus parked up at Waipapa in the far north. Baden commented that his thoughts were she was ex NZ or UK Navy. Can anyone enlighten us on her origins and what she is up to at Waipapa?
 
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11-09-2023 UPDATE – Vessel now for sale, contact Lyall Quaife 021 273 9225 for details

Kumi

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KUMI
The 1905 Bailey & Lowe 40′ launch Kumi has appeared numerous times on WW but Nathan Herbert was recently poking around in the Auckland Library Heritage Collection section and came across the above photos attributed to Mr. and Mrs. MF Russ. National Publicity Studios; Riethmaier. Nathan asked me if I supported his belief that the boat featured was Kumi. A quick search in my WW files popped up an email (repeated at the bottom of this story) that Kumi’s owner Haydon Afford sent me back in August 2014, that made a reference to Kumi being used as a cray fish boat between 1955 and 1975 in Whangaroa, Northland, by a Mr Russ – so jack pot – its Kumi. Catch out the size of those cray fish.
Now if you know Haydon you would have to be surprised that he had communicated with me via email – in fact he told me I was the first person he had sent an email to 🙂 Haydon is a wonderful man, they broke the mould after he entered this world. Back in the summer of 2012 > 2013 Haydon undertook a 3 month circumnavigation of New Zealand in Kumi. This achievement was acknowledged in late 2013 by the NZ Classic Yacht Association awarding Haydon the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award In Seamanship’. Below is a photo of Haydon accepting the award along with his father. A group of woodys motored out to welcome Haydon back into Auckland Harbour after the circumnavigation – he celebrated with a pint of ice cold beer.
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Haydon shared his story of the trip with CYA members at a special evening at the RNZYS and it was pure gold, good old school story telling at its best. Unfortunately no-one recorded it but prior to the evening I twisted Haydon’s (writing) arm to tell me about the trip, I typed this up and you can read it at the WW link below
HISTORY OF KUMI / ELIZA
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Lovely Lady (Star Drift)

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LOVELY LADY
Todays photo photos of Lovely Lady come to us via Andrew Donovan’s photo collection from his days a boat broker. In a previous WW story Harold Kidd told us she was built by R.T. Hartley in Whangarei in 1951 to a design by Dick Hartley. As launched she measured 33’ x 11’ x 3’9”. She looks a tab speedy in the photo and this would be from the Scripps V8 she was powered with.
Lucky Lady was built for game fishing and was featured in the December 1951 Sea Spray magazine. Any one got a copy? Take a phone photo and email it so we can all review   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Back in August 2015 Pam Cundy sent me the photos below of the launch Star Drift moored in Tryphena Harbour, Greta Barrier Island. HDK ID’ed her as being Lovely Lady. You will observe that back then she was looking very ’tired’ – can anyone update us on her present location and condition?
Update 04-08-2019 photos below ex Tont Simpson of Star Drift hauled out at Tryphena, Great Barrier Island.

UPDATE 06-03-2023 – article below ex November 1951 issue of Sea Spray magazine. Sent in by Peter Crane

Woodys In The Whangarei Town Basin

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Woodys In The Whangarei Town Basin

Previously on WW we have seen numerous b/w photos of the Whangarei Town Basin , today’s photo comes to use via Lew Redwood’s fb. and show a lot of classic launches tied up on pole moorings.
While its a great photo of the area, the wide angle makes it a little hard to ID the boats – any on brave enough to suggest the year ?
The Perks of Being The Commodore
Thankfully we have moved on in terms gender equality in advertising 🙂 the image below appeared in an early 1950’s edition of the American published ’The Rudder’ boating magazine.
Old sexist Ad

JOHN STREET – ONE MAN’S TREASURES VIDEO SERIES

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JOHN STREET – ONE MAN’S TREASURES VIDEO SERIES

Over the last week each day we have been featuring video footage of John Street’s recent speaking engagement that supported the exhibition – ‘One Man’s Treasures’ at the New Zealand Maritime Museum, MC’ed by Larry Paul. For the overseas readers, John Street was at the helm for over half a century of Auckland’s historic ship chandlery – Fosters. Such was John’s influence on the New Zealand boating and marine scene, that the late Sir Peter Blake tagged John the ‘Waterfront Mafia’. These days John has a mighty passion for preserving New Zealand’s maritime heritage. Videos’ enhanced & edited by Andrew Christie.

There are 6 videos in the series:

  1. Fosters The Beginning
  2. History of The Breeze
  3. The schooner Daring + TV1 documentary
  4. 2012 Americas Cup
  5. The steam crane ship Rapaki
  6. Tug Boat Racing on the Waitemata Harbour

Today I have pulled them all together in one place for ease of finding them in the future and to highlight the series for anyone that missed a day. Enjoy 🙂