Waitangi at Devonport 1897
I was poking around some old WW files and came across the above photo of the 1894 Logan built gaffer Waitangi, the photo is dated 1897 and shows her hauled out near the Logan yard in Devonport, Auckland.
The image was originally sent in by Keith Humphreys.
The colour photo I took back in Sept 2018, that is 121 year apart – most impressive.
In the WW story link below there is a video filmed by Roger Miles back in 2016, gives us a good insight into sailing Waitangi.
Margaret Pearl – Cray Boat > Cruising Boat
During the week I stumbled on a YouTube video on the Southern Woodenboat Sailing channel – this 11 minute video showcase the ex Tasmanian crayboat – Margaret Pearl.
Built in 1958, 60’ in length she was about to be dispatched to the landfill in Portland, located on the southwest coast of Victoria, Australia, when up stepped Jim and Sam Woods, who were brave enough to take on the restoration / conversion project. Whilst she sports a Tim Phillips designed rig, most of her use is under power at a steady 9 > 10 knots. The canvas does come out but I suspect its more for aesthetics 🙂
Have a watch and listen to Tim tells us about why he choose a wooden boat, where he found her and the work that went into her to get to the condition we see her in.
As a bonus Tim shares some sage advice for when considering taking on the restoration of any woody.
Enjoy – I did 🙂
Someone tell me this is a p_ss take. Spotted during the week at Half Moon Bay Marina. My 1st thought was it was a ‘mule’ for an electric propulsion experiment.
CHRYSTAL VOYAGER
Todays woody story kicked off with an email from Kane Westgaard concerning his launch – Chrystal Voyager and a request for help uncovering some of the boats history. She started life as a motor-sailer, but that is just about all that is known about her. The guy that sold Kane the boat did not know anything about boats and was just using her as an apartment.
Given its a Hartley design and launched in 1971, normally I would not have finished reading the email – but she was built by Lionel Jefcoate, who was a master boat builder so she makes an appearance on WW today. Read more about Lionel Jefcoate here https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/03/12/lionel-jefcoat-boatbuilder-wood-craftsman/
Her story goes like this – she is a ’South Seas’ Hartley design and Kane and a buddy brought her from Tauranga approx. a year ago and were of the belief that there were only be a couple of soft spots that needed addressing, well surprise surprise the boats been in a shed at the Te Atatu Boat Club for over 2 months and guys have been tipping in vast amounts of labour and money.
Can we help Kane out with any intel – I might be wrong but you’d have to assume that there was a name change along the way – Chrystal Voyager sounds a tad ‘flower child’ / tarot card 🙂
06-05-2024 INPUT BELOW ex TONY SHORT –
My brother Peter and I were the first crew members (1971?) on ‘Crystal Voyager’, for the original owner Russell Berry. From (1969/70-1971) Russell would take Pete and I on alternating weekends (Sat & Sun) to Governors Bay to help (as much as young teenagers could), assist him and the builder Lionel. Although this Hartley design was for concrete, it was of course built with timber (& extended to 40’). All the timber came from Des Hunt’s sheep farm in Pigeon Bay. The boat was originally named ‘Lady Lee’ after Des’s wife Lee Hunt. After launching, Peter and I crewed for a number of years, accumulating many experiences, and some quite scary. LOL. I remember, attempting to leave the Lyttelton Yacht Club (Naval Point Club) pier in a strong southerly, we ended up on the rocks .. sideways to the southerly. Fortunately with the help of 20-30 bods (rushing out from the Yacht Club), we were freed. (Quite a story.) Another time with rollers reaching into Pigeon Bay wharf while attempting to attach a landline, our bow was pushed under the wharf with one surge and with the next surge raised us up, lifting up the entire end of the wharf (& punching a hole into our foredeck). Many stories .. many memories. We so often went to Pigeon Bay (PB) (a 90 min journey. 30 min to Lyttelton heads, 30 across the 3 heads [& crossing Port Leavy could be quite dicey] and 30 min into PB.) we were almost considered ‘locals’. Back then, the ’Lady Lee’ was fondly referred to as the “Push Button Gin Palace”. And as a young teenager, I wondered why. But concluded the emphases was on ‘gin’ not ‘palace’. And ‘Push Button’? .. Hardly! It was at least a year before ‘forward’ & ‘reverse’ gears were controlled from the wheelhouse. Up until then ‘muggins’ here, (lol) had to drop down into the cramp, hot! engine room, recking of diesel! and heave (with all the strength a young lad could muster) on the gearbox leaver, into neutral, reverse .. then Russell would shout “forward”! .. “reverse” .. “forward”, all the while the boat tossed & turned. Hahaha, Fortunately I don’t easily get sea sick, but crap, I couldn’t get out-of-there & back up on deck quick enough.
Again, many memories, and many more stories.
I wish the new owners of ‘Crystal Voyager’ much happiness, many wonderful times and the ‘makings of remarkable memories’.
10-05-2025 INPUT EX RUSSELL TEBAY – My adopted grandad Russell Berry (person I was named after) was as stated the man that had this vessel built. Des Hunt was also a friend of the family. My late Father Mark Tebay I believe also crewed maybe with the short brothers (names really ring a bell) at times on this vessel.
While I was very young born 1979 i do have fond memories of this lovely vessel in pigeon bay going out fishing and having fun. This was definitely called the Gin Palace (always had gin on board) for the captain of course.
I do remember a few instances where grandad would back his Ford panel wagon down the wharf at pigeon bay with his organ so he and friends (brass band I’m told) would take the boat out playing all sorts of music and having a good time. Oh the memories. I hope this email reaches the new owners and I wish them well on their journey with this fantastic boat.
When Grandad sold this boat he brought the Nautalis which is now in Auckland taking tours as it was.in ww2 I think it was with the red cross ship which came complete with bullet holes in th back transome..
Classic Canadian Wooden Boat Eye Candy
Today we get to have a dockside gander at the 20+ fleet of classic craft that came together for the 2023 Ladysmith Heritage Festival at the Ladysmith Community Marina in the town of Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
The photo gallery is via the camera of Maurizio Hublitz, one of Maurizio’s fellow woodys commented that he is fixated with sterns, but it’s all about showcasing / recording the vessel names.
Over the years I have enjoyed Maurizio’s event reports and been very envious of the set up at the Ladysmith Community Marina, reading this years report I was surprised that there is a dispute underway in regard to future access to the marina area – in fact they have been issued with an eviction notice to be out by Dec 31 2023 – I won’t bore you with the details but it appears that New Zealand isn’t the only country with indigenous (minority) land ownership issues. Fingers crossed sanity rules so this remarkable location can be enjoyed by everyone.
Politics aside – enjoy the photo gallery. Great to see the ex work boats sharing the limelight 🙂
As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉
Winter Woody Yard Report #1
Over the weekend Lake Rotoiti’s favourite boatbuilder – Alan Craig (Craig Marine) held an open day at his workshop in Paengaroa (Te Puke) , the first three photos above are from the day. The blue hulled launch in the first photo is the 1930 Sam Ford built launch – Marjorie Rosa in for deferred maintenance, will be looking shipshape again very soon.
Read / view more on her in the below WW links:
https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/10/22/juliana-marjorie-rosa/ https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/02/09/juliana-the-2014-lake-rotoiti-classic-wooden-boat-weekend/
A new convert to the wooden boating world is Geoffrey Fiebig, who recently purchased off Jason Prew a Frostbite named Meteor, sail #13. Geoffrey as you will see has started the thank less job of stripping the interior planks. 10/10 for attire, the new WW cap completes the look 🙂
30-05-2023 UPDATE – a nameless woody drew to my attention that many (30+) years ago a Tauranga newspaper article appeared about a young man/teen named Jason Prew who dragged Meteor out of a derelict shed on a lake and restored her to go sailing. Note the miss spelling of the surname Brew -see below
Anyone else have a project underway – if so, share some photos – email to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Clevedon Wood Mooching
Had a good excuse to point the car south yesterday so took a side trip to Clevedon and mooched around one of the ‘private’ docks.
Very pleased to see that work is underway of Lady Gazelle, you may recall back in March she came to grief during Cyclone Gabrille (WW story link below) – a new owner has stepped up and we look forward to her relaunch. https://waitematawoodys.com/2023/03/02/lady-gazelle-on-the-rocks/
The mystery Couldrey has been put out graze but is all rugged up for winter. Last appeared on WW back in August 2022 – link below https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/08/16/a-call-for-help-2/
I spotted the 36’ c.1950’s launch – Antares , one of the better looking launches to come out of the Supreme Craft factory. More on her a future story. Previous WW story and lots of photos here https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/09/25/antares-2/
Also a few boats, below, looking unlikely to see the ocean again.
A Recount Of Our Classic Wooden Craft DNA
Recently I was sent a link to an article that appeared in the New Zealand Geographic magazine back in 2000 – in fact issue 45 , Jan-March. The article was headlined – GRACE UNDER FIRE, written by Vaughan Yarwood with supporting photos from the late Henry Winkelmann and more recent photos ex Hamish Ross and Paul Gillbert.
The stars of the article is the 42’ 1908 Logan built gaff rigged cutter – Rawene, and her then skipper Russell Brooke.
This is a brilliant insight into the early days of boating in and around Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour, I’m sure there will be some mix ups re dates, skipper/craft names but overall we get to see and read the history of these magnificent craft, a lot of which are still sailing today.
Have a read, its only 10>15 minutes, longer if if you linger over the photos 🙂 – even a die-hard motorboat owner like myself found it a fascinating read.
PURUWAI
Sometimes the odd email in the WW inbox sips between the cracks – today woodys is one of those, back in June 2022 Mike Ogier pointed me to a fb marketplace post on the yacht Puruwai – a kauri planked 40′ restoration project. Her story stated that she had been ’sailed internationally.At the time she was in s yard in Te Puna, Bay of Plenty.
Question of the day, did she sell and what became of her.
KAHA – Help Wanted
Back in January 2022 WW was contacted by Geremy Hinton who advised he and his father had acquired an old wooden motor-sailer named – Kaha. All they knew about her was a possible build date in the early 1900’s.
The top photo shows Kaha as found / purchased.
Since early 2022 they have been undertaking an extensive refit, as seen in the photos below.
Geremy and his father would like to learn more about Kaha, so today woodys we are reaching out to see what the collective WW minds can come up with.
TARANUI – A Peek Down Below Taranui
The 1965 John Gladden ketch motor-sailer is one of those rare vessels that you have an immediate attachment to – it has everything it needs, in the right place and proportionally correct, which is hard for a designer to get right on a 36’ vessel. Her designer was a UK resident named Francis James. Her first owner Gordon Robertson, an engineer by trade and a very skilled amateur boatbuilder, had input in the finishing. All the cast bronze fittings throughout Taranui are impressive.
Built from kauri, carvel planked , Taranui has a 9’ beam and draws 5’. When the wind drops there is a 62hp Nanni Diesel engine, installed new in 2000 by the Salthouse yard. The eagle eyed will note that her name (big tern in maori) appears on her bow with a hyphen, this is a songwriters oops – its Taranui.
Stepping on board is a treat, she is a boat that you could easily call home for extended periods of time – in fact her owner of 26 years has been off shore 3 times (in Cat1 each time) – destinations being Tonga and New Caledonia. I’ll let Richard tell us about the trips.
“Our first trip to Tonga in 2000 was a wonderful family experience. We were there for 3 months with out 3 young children. Sailing back to NZ from Tonga was my first solo ocean trip, and Taranui proved herself to be a very easy boat to manage solo. I also sailed solo to New Caledonia and back to NZ twice. On one of these trips we spent many months living aboard with family and friends flying over to join us aboard. Taranui has also taken me on a solo 3 month trip around NZ, including Stewart Island were I was joined again by family and friends and got to explore most of the fiords. Other family cruises have been to the Marlborough Sounds and numerous excursions exploring the Northland coast and islands including Great Barrier and Coromandel. Taranui’s most recent voyage was a cruise from Auckland to the Bay of Islands and on to Whangaroa – skippered by my daughter and partner. We’ve had great fun with Taranui and been so lucky to own such a safe and comfortable ship”
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