Category Archives: Working Boats

Woodys Holidaying In The Bay Of Islands

Posted on by
5

5E192A7A-A186-4302-885A-E0C16728009E

7DFFCEED-536F-472D-A06D-E3EE62503203

868D0376-B3D5-4A88-82FC-F0964DCAC882

F082A3FB-D5D4-464A-9EC6-FA0AA33BADA3

37D5DD83-429B-4467-9B8B-ED64C89E1F9C

Woodys Holidaying In The Bay Of Islands

Todays photos are from the camera of woody Dean Wright, taken over the Xmas / NY period, I love the one on Wirihana rolling around, sent it to her skipper Chris McMullen & he commented “We were coming into the bay from Cape Brett. A nasty on the beam sea. Any boat can roll when bit by a wave. Its when they keep rolling after the event…….” Chris commented the Wirihana handled it very well. Even with a roll on, Wirihana still looks beautiful – always does, from any angle.

I have to say Marie J is looking very smart, well done to the new(ish) owners. Also what do we know about the yacht Tuahine?

Woodys On Holiday @ Waiheke Island

Posted on by
5

P1250935

P1250947

P1250964

P1250967

P1250988

P1250991

P1250998

P1260045

Woodys On Holiday @ Waiheke Island

 Good morning Woodys – the 1st ‘live’ post in 2 weeks & I have to say I have enjoyed the break from the daily task of creating a WW story. Sometimes with everything else that happens in life its been a challenge, I’ll keep on with the daily stories but just a heads up, the frequency may change……… but business as usual for now.

I was amazed at the viewing audience over the Xmas / NY period, there were some huge days – the “Gunk-Holing Up The Weti River’ story had over 6,000 views in 24hrs, not bad for a ‘re-run’.

Despite the weather forecast & a broken freezer we got away on Raindance for 8 Days, came back a little early due to the weather bomb, & so glad that we did. 

For the 8 days we just mooched around Waiheke Island & had stunning launch weather + the water temp was amazing, warmest I can recall in a long time. 

I spotted quite a few woodys around the bays, if I missed getting a photo of you, either the light was all wrong or I was doing something else – so sorry in advance.

Last ones of Raindance were taken by Richard Darke from aboard his launch ’Seafarer’, many thanks Richard, I do not get many of Raindance, normally she is the camera platform.

A word of warning, last weeks storm has deposited some very ugly logs around the inner harbour, so keep a look out. It amazes we no-one (Akl Council etc) gathers them up, they will find there way back into the water & be an even bigger hazard. The one below was on Cheltenham Beach, Devonport.

If you have any photos from the holidays – email them in to waitematawoodys@gmail.com

F61E033F-6873-4604-AB1A-529439FDE85F

While ashore at Oneroa I picked up a flyer for The Island Grocer store, very clever piece of creative 😉

Island Grocer

Gunk-holing up the Weti River in a 1902 Logan – Revisited

Posted on by
6

So far there have been over 2,000 classic wooden boat stories featured on waitematawoodys & the viewing numbers (3,300,000) have grown from a dozen people to over 80,000. I have had some loyalists from day one but the big numbers have happened in the last 2 years – so not everyone will have been exposed to all the stories. Over the Christmas / NY period I have decided to take a peek back in time & feature some of the gems from the early days. Enjoy.

Have a great holiday & remember to take the camera / phone with you & snap a photo of any woodys you see. Email them to waitematawoodys@gmail.com

 

Gunk-holing up the Weti River in a 1902 Logan Motor Boat

photos ex Jason Prew at the helm of Otira

Despite the CYA Launch cruise / picnic being cancelled Jason Prew & Nathan Herbert + crew decided to launch Otira, the 1902 Logan day boat at Gulf Harbour & explore the upper reaches of the Waiti River. They made it passed the Silverdale road bridge, which is an impressive distance, along the way they passed an ‘interesting’ array of vessels. Enjoy 🙂  As always – click on any photo to enlarge.

For reference see below a recent photo of Otira at Lake Rotoiti Wooden Boat Parade

Restoring & Installing a Gardner in Arethusa – Revisited

Posted on by
4

Restoring & Installing a Gardner in Arethusa

story & photos ex Dean Wright

It not often I get sent info on a boat & it jumps the queue & appears on ww the next day. If you have been following on ww the rolling restoration Dean has been doing on Arethusa over the last few years you would know two things, Arethusa is in very good hands & Deans a very talented commercial photographer. So the links below to Deans latest project – the restoration of a Gardner 4LW & subsequent installation in Arethusa are well worth check out.

Restoration     http://deanwright.co.nz/arethusa/log-arethusa/152-gardner-4lw-diesel-restoration.html

Installation      http://deanwright.co.nz/arethusa/log-arethusa/154-installing-the-gardner.html

Some history below

Arethusa ticked over 96 this year. She started life as a gaff rigged cutter, built by Bob Brown (designer of the Z class) at Sulphur Beach, Northcote. She’s carvel planked kauri, 33′ 4″ LOA with a 12′ Beam. With the aid of a fair bit of ballast she weighs 10 tonnes. She’s had an interesting life, more details here http://deanwright.co.nz/history.html

Electro-Chemical Damage In Wooden Boats Update – Revisited

Posted on by
4

rudder electrochemical damage

 


ELECTRO-CHEMICAL DAMAGE IN WOODEN BOATS UPDATE
A Special Post By Chris McMullen

Recently I received a note from Chris where he questioned if the story we posted last year on ww about electro-chemical damage to wood  was a little too long & were people reading it. Well I can tell you that the post is the single most visited story on ww, ever, & gets read by people all over the world. Its frequently referred to on the hugely popular WoodenBoat Forum in the USA. The link below takes you to the original story.

Electrochemical Damage To Wood – the marine version of ‘leaky homes’

For the impatient ones out there 🙂 Chris has done a ‘Readers Digest’ version & refers to a vessel that recently featured on ww.
I encourage all of you to read today’s story & if you own a classic wooden boat – read both versions – the problem is the biggest risk to the life of our classic boats.

In Chris’s words:
“I received the above disturbing images of another woody being destroyed by an owner who I believe is unintentionally loving his boat to death.

The use of anodes and bonding on a wooden boat is fatal. The cathode or protected metal makes hydrogen gas and this combined with saltwater makes Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda). This chemical is used to pulp wood in the paper making industry. Not on my boat thank you! I say again, there is no reason to use anodes and bonding on any boat. The only exception, steel hulls require anodes. If copper or bronze are being corroded it is due to a positive DC leak and Zinc anodes will not help. Find the electrical leak is the cure. If there is brass or manganese bronze underwater it will corrode due to the
zinc in the alloy. Anodes will possibly stop the corrosion but at the expense of wood damage. A better plan is to replace the brass with proper marine bronze.

Bronze and copper should last indefinitely in the sea. To prove that statement, I ask you to look at the Roman coins and artifacts salvaged from ships wrecked in the fourteenth century. There was no anodic protection and the metal is well preserved. So what is the difference to the copper and bronze on your boat? There is absolutely no difference so why waste your money buying anodes that will in time destroy
your wooden boat.

Three or four bottles of wine will cost the same as anodes and will make you and your boat happier.”

Note: ww is read all around the world, if there is water & boats, there are people reading ww. So a little about the man for non kiwi’s  – Chris is one of NZ’s most respected boat builders (retired) and at one time was the Lloyds (Honorary) Wood Boat Surveyor in Auckland. Chris’s (the original company) ‘McMullen & Wing’ built and repaired wood, steel and marine aluminium vessels. They built the first welded aluminum vessels in NZ. Chris is the current holder of the Classic Yacht Association of New Zealand ‘Outstanding Achievement Trophy’ for services to classic boating.

14-05-2016 Photo Update
Gavin Gault sent in the below photos of a Nova skeg floor that he believes were probably damaged due to engine – anode bonding failure. Pretty graphic !!

 

10-07-2016 Reply from Chris McMullen

“Wow. Thank you Gavin Gault for sharing your very graphic images. Very sad, small consolation but yours will not be the only wooden boat affected by this scourge.
Maybe, at last some of the Flat Earth Society will start to believe what I have been saying. The worst detractors are some in the Marine Industry who have been preaching the Anode, Bonding party line for years.  Now there is no where to run for cover,  they continue to conjure up excuses and it seems, refuse to accept a simple scientific fact.
“If you have a positive and negative electrode in salt water, the negative cathode or protected metal makes hydrogen gas and this combined with salt water makes Sodium hydroxide.”
This chemical is also known as caustic soda and removes paint and destroys wood.  There is no doubt about this fact. You do require a power source and bonded dissimilar metals ( zinc and copper) provide sufficient current to do the damage, but slowly.
If there is a negative DC leak (to the sea)on a bonded boat the process is accelerated. If there is a positive leak any metal becomes an anode and will waste away. It is important to isolate the DC power from contact with the sea. Again bonding is just asking for trouble. Please remove Anodes and Bonding from your wooden boat now!
Chris McMullen”

06-09-2106 In case you were not to sure what to look out for – the below photo should be a wake-up call to a few woodys 😉

IMG_1120

 

New Zealand Classic Wooden Boat Register – 200+ Photos

Posted on by
7

image1

New Zealand Classic Wooden Boat Register – 200+ Photos

Stoked to be able to share with you the 2018 edition of the CYA Classic Register. Big ups to the CYA team behind it, pulling everything together is a massive undertaking, I’ve been there & done that, having been involved with the first 4 issues – 2018 is a winner, so make a cup of coffee or pour something a little stronger & sit back & enjoy over 200 photos. Click link below

to view https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/fullscreen/59612422/cya-classic-register-2018-yum

Lucky CYA members will be getting a free hard copy version in the post very soon. Almost worth joining to get a copy 😉 Membership details here  http://classicyacht.org.nz/joinus/

CYA Patio Bay Weekend – 2017 – 50+ Photos

Posted on by
7

P1250526

P1250630

P1250596

P1250681 (1)

 

 

 

P1250732

P1250733

P1250725

CYA Patio Bay Weekend – 2017

The photos show that 2017 was another cracker Patio Bay year, but what photos don’t get across is what a great group of woodys were there. The numbers were down a little on previous years but those that made the trip will remember it as one of the best. Plenty of room to walk around & mingle without standing on someones dinner plate.

Several Riviera owners, did they bit to re-confirm that they all have big egos & small brains – motoring thru the race finish line at 25+ knots & creating wakes you could surf on. A little exciting if you are sitting in an 8’ dinghy taking photos & wondering if the Riviera is on autopilot & the skippers playing with his small willy 😦

One of the Patio Bay race traditions is the winning skipper of the A Division has to fill the trophy barrel with rum for the following years party. Last year Prize was the winner & based on dock chatter, a sample was drawn off for analyse at the Mount Gay distillery –  purity & alcohol content results to follow 😉

(remember to click on photos to enlarge)

P1250726

Southern Isles

Posted on by
9

 

Unknown-1

Unknown

Unknown-2

SOUTHERN ISLES

The above photos were sent to me by Ross Ashby in response to a comment on WW about Southern Isles. These days she is based in Clevedon, Auckland & from the photos appears to be being very well looked after.

Ross commented that originally he understands she was fitted with a Lister engine but now has a Gardner 6LX ( a bit overpowered) & the original wheel house was added to, but not by Ross

What more do we know about Southern Isles?

Input from John Wicks:

“Ah! My teenage (and later) “sweetheart”.! Built by and for Tom Wells at Wakatahuri in Forsyth Bay, just outside Pelorus Sound.. Typical Wells shape and construction. Original (main) engine was a JP3, Lister which was hand started and fed from a 10 gallon tank abo ve it. The tank was topped up from the main fuel tanks by a semi-rotary hand pump – not much to go wrong there!
Originally she had a 2-cylinder Lister wing engine to port. Not many boats her size had a stand-up-and-around-in engine room.
Her original smaller wheelhouse had a swivel helm seat which came (IIRC) from the old Wellington-Nelson ferry “Matangi” which was wrecked at wakatahuri by the Wells’ Sounds Wrecking Company. The helmsman’s knees went under a horizontal tram-style wheel. Avery comfortable place to steer from.
Accommodation was under the raised foredeck, and was a step or two up from your usual fisherman’s “2-berth coffin” 🙂 with a small but well thought out galley (with one of those green and cream small gas ranges that used to be common) two settees and a table. The backs of the settees were pipe-cots which could swing up to make two more berths. I’d reckon it’d be a bit cramped with 4 aboard though.
There was a hold for gear under the aft deck, and the toilet was partially bulkheaded off in the port aft corner of the engine room.
Just about all the above has been changed over the years – sadly IMO.
Like most of the Wells family’s boats, Southern Isles was used for numerous commercial and pleasure purposes. Tom Wells took her on a cruise right around the South Island in (I think) the 1950s
As is probably obvious from the above screed, at the time she was my idea of what a launch should be!”

AND A REMINDER NUDGE – CYA XMAS PARTY TOMORROW AT PATIO BAY.

If you have not experienced the weekend before, you must, its hands down after Mahurangi weekend the biggest gathering of classic wooden boats in NZ & the Saturday BYO BBQ ashore is legendary. See you there. Photos below from last year in the bay + see more here   https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/12/05/a-woody-weekend-cya-patio-bay-invasion/

Screen Shot 2017-11-30 at 9.53.37 pm

Screen Shot 2017-11-30 at 9.54.08 pm

Screen Shot 2017-11-30 at 9.54.21 pm

 

Olive Rose

Posted on by
15

Screen Shot 2017-11-17 at 10.53.47 am

Screen Shot 2017-11-17 at 10.55.44 am

OLIVE ROSE

Ian McDonald gave me a nudge yesterday about the 50′ Olive Rose being 4sale on trademe, my initial reaction was that I was sure I had covered her story previously but a quick WW search, said no.

She has just popped up on tme & if you believe the story – must be sold in the next 2 weeks. Reviewing the above photos & the bidding to date, she would have to be the cheapest waterfront accommodation packages in Auckland. Her owner has spent a lot to money on her, $30k alone on the 6LX Gardner 127hp engine.

Built in 1910 she must have had a good life as a commercial boat but her current configuration is all about cruising / live-a-board. She is built like the proverbially brick out-house & she should be able to do laps of NZ.

Check out the listing for more details.

Anyone able to comment on her previous life?

04-07-2018 Harold Kidd Input – Snorky (Norman John) Inglis &  Rose Smyth were married in 1916. So, the long story is that Snorky named his first passenger launch OLIVENE (1915) after his highly successful racing 14 foot sailing dinghy of 1911, which in turn had been named after his younger sister Olive Jean Inglis (b1892). OLIVE JEAN (1919) was the second boat and named after his sister too. Number three was named OLIVE ROSE (1925), I guess because he now had three OLIVE boats that formed a little fleet, so he put his wife’s name in as well as his sister’s (to keep the peace?).

 

 

 

Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Association 2018 Calendars

Posted on by
5

Screen Shot 2017-11-10 at 3.02.58 pm

Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Association 2018 Calendars

Readers of WW will know that Chris Miller & myself each year make the trip to Lake Rotoiti (North Island) to attend the Classic & Wooden Boat Parade, every Waitangi weekend. It is one of those events that you just have to attend at some stage. The link below will give you a peep at what the weekend is like.

While we are there Chris & I bang off a lot of photos, some of which the LRC&WB Association use to produce their annual calendar. The 2018 edition is hot off the press (printed by the  great team at Quality Print in Taupo).

The calendar (A3 size, sample below) makes a great Xmas present for any woody – hell buy it for yourself, that way, you get something you want 😉

The price is the same as last year:  $15 for 1 or $40 for 3.  Courier is $6.50 (rural delivery is extra).

To order:

  1. email Rachel Jamieson on zea.rachel@gmail.com  with the your name, address & how many you want.
  2. Transfer the payment (remember to include postage) to this bank account 12 3155 0140546 00   AND please use your name and calendar as reference.

And in case any of you were wondering – neither Chris, myself or WW make a cent from these calendars – it is all about the boats & the people that do all the work to maintain them & host the very cool event. So woodys, even if you only order one calendar, it makes a big difference to the Lake Rotoiti woodys 🙂

Link below to the 2017 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade  – enjoy  https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/02/06/lake-rotoiti-classic-wooden-boat-parade-2017-160-photos/

Screen Shot 2017-11-13 at 12.37.38 pm