Category Archives: Yachts

Naiad 361 – Sailing Sunday

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NAIAD 361 – Sailing Sunday

Today’s woody – Naiad,  resides in the Bay of Plenty and I know little about her , other than she was built by Lou Tercel, of Ranger fame. The question of the day would have to be – is she distended for a beehive restoration or will she be saved and sail again? Photos come to us from Jason Prew.

Input from Robin Elliott –

Naiad was built 1914 ‘1915 by Tercel Bros to a modified C.D. Mower/T. Fleming Day (Rudder Magazine) Sea Bird design and launched possibly late 1915. She was entered in the 1916 Regatta but recorded a DNS and appears to have done no racing until 1916/17 season.
From 1916 onwards she was a regular entrant with the Ponsonby and Victoria Cruising clubs.
She had many owners and had a lot of mods done to her over the years. She was converted to a yawl in 1949.
Last registered with YNZ in 1999.
There is a lot more info in the book Ranger by Sandra Gorter and Aroha Tercel.


Anyone Able To Help ID The Design /Build Of This Run-About 


I was sent the photos below by Matthew Farrant who is hoping that someone can ID the design/builder of his 20’ double diagonal stripped kauri run-about. Matthew believes it was built in the 1960’s and originally had a shaft drive but has been converted to stern drive. Engine is a 3 litre  Ford Essex. 

Name The Launch

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Name The Launch

Todays woody shouldn’t be too hard to name, from Lew Redwood’s fb we know that it was owned by Edward Bullmore and in the photo which is dated 1993, she is afloat on Lake Tarawera. And then there’s those rather distinctive ‘decorations’.

So woodys – boat name, builder, year ? The Drake brothers will be able to enlighten us I’m sure.

Ngahere L34

Have been contacted by Jonathan Edmeades whose grandfather – Graham Cole, owned Ngahere back in 1947/48. On a WW story, there is mention that she is now owned by Chris Harris, Jonathan would love to contact Chris and if possible, view the yacht. Could anyone that knows Chris email me his contact details  – Jason Prew? (thanks JP – passed on) waitematawoodys@gmail.com

And remember woodys – on Saturday May 1st we have the 100th birthday of the Lipton Cup. Details below

Riwaka Waterfront Walkabout

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Riwaka Waterfront Walkabout


Following on from Sundays story on Matahorua the sailing cutter tied up at the Riwaka river / estuary , today we follow the camera of Tim and Pauline Evill as they explore the craft that call Riwaka their home ‘port’.

A fine collection of woodys, all appearing to be well loved – if you had the Riwaka agency for marine varnish , you wouldn’t remain in business for long 🙂

Enjoy the stroll

Matahorua

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MATAHORUA

Friends Pauline and Tim Evill managed to get a day away from the grape harvest at the Lawson Dry Hills vineyard and were mooching around their old home town of Mapua, Nelson.Tim never likes to be far from the sea so its not surprising he ended up down at the Riwaka river/estuary where there is always an impressive fleet of woodys berthed.

Today’s woody is an open cutter named Matahorua, which my suspicion of being an ex Outward Bound boat was confirmed with a quick google search – she is stretching the WW ethos a bit as she is made from ply and fiber-glassed but her salty looks get the tick. Would have to be a contender for the boat with the highest number of individuals that have sailed / rowed her 🙂

WE WON

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NZ Herald image
NZ Herald image

WE WON

What a day yesterday – watched New Zealand defend and win the America’s Cup.

I go back a long way, sat in a small meeting room down near Pier21 with the infamous ‘Aussie Malcolm’ as he sold the idea of NZ challenging for the cup to a couple of merchant bankers that thought a 12m yacht was very small boat to be challenging with eg 12m long 🙂

One of the funniest memories was a breakfast meeting at the Quay St offices of the bankers, post a charity auction the evening before ,where full size silver replicas of the actual cup were auctioned off – remember this was the 1980’s, pre the stock market crash – lots of loose boys were too much cash. On average the cups (can’t remember how many, but between 7 and 10) sold for $100,000+ each – problem is no one recorded who the winning bidders were. So in the morning a 111 call to Peter Montgomery who MC’ed the night / auction – and thank god was sober. So on a big white board, the function room / table layout was recreated and from memory PJ takes a best guess at where the bids came from – $1,000,000+ invoices sent out and all paid. Not sure if it was a perfect match up, suspect a few got a free cup and a few made a rather large donation 🙂


Along the way collected / ‘borrowed’ a lot of gear. My favourites were always NZ and the Italians, so today was special – the Prada team went further than ever before and as you would expect were so gracious in the loss. They will be back.The winner on the day was New Zealand – we were blessed with stunning weather on everyday, so brand NZ looked amazing to the worldwide audience. Highlight (I can’t help myself) Cindy never made it to the stage – and if she did & I missed it and so did the rest of NZ / world as it wasn’t on the news footage 🙂

1987>1999>2000

Who Can ID The Yacht On The Rocks

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Who Can ID The Yacht On The Rocks & Win A OCH Sailing Cap
The above two photos come to us from the camera of woody Paul Drake and I have Paul’s word that they are ‘never before seen’ photos of the yacht aground off Rangitoto Island in the early 1960’s. Paul was a teenager at the time, staying with a school friend and his parents in their Rangitoto bach. They spent their time messing about in the family’s seagull powered clinker dinghy and came across the ‘wreck’ by chance. They rendered what assistance we could. Paul commented that the crew seemed quite relaxed about their predicament and no doubt she came off with the next tide.
So woodys first correct answer, with the yachts name – emailed to waitematawoodys@gmail.com wins an Off Center Harbor sailing cap. Entries close at 8pm 05-03-2021


Varnish Porn

If you need a dose of varnish porn to rid the CV-19 blues, check out the 1924 Fife classic schooner – Adventuress featured in the video below. Thanks to Mark Erskine for pointing WW in the direction of the video ex Yachting World.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpAW5-60qBA

Lock-down Treat ~ Free Access To The Worldwide Classic Boat Show

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A LOCK-DOWN TREAT – FREE ACCESS TO THE WORLDWIDE CLASSIC BOAT SHOW


Our friends over at Off Center Harbor have been orchestrating a new gig on the classic boat scene – a virtual worldwide classic boat show. Its been live now for 10 days and only available via purchasing a ticket (US$5) – now woodys to help us kiwis (and the WW overseas followers) during CV-19 lock-down – the show is now free.

See below instructions on how to visit the show. 

You can use the globe / map to see an amazing collection of vessel around the world + locations of museums & trade folks – but the real gem for me is the daily video presentations from some of the worlds leading lights on the classic boating scene – sailors, teachers, photographers, event promoters and boat builders. You will be addicted so I apologise in advance for ruining your day/s – but, you’re supposed to be in lock-down 🙂

If you only watch one presentation – make it the legendary Tom Cunliffe presentation – you’ll find it on Sat Feb20th under the heading ’Seas of Northern Europe’ – do not be put off by the boring title – its a cracker, the mans one of the best storytellers around, you’ll be glued to the screen for 2 hours. ENJOY THE SHOW 🙂

How To Get Your Free Ticket:

1. CLICK HERE to get your free ticket (here is the full link if you need it: https://classicboatshow.com/product/one-free-ticket-for-full-access-to-the-worldwide-classic-boat-show/ )

2. Checkout for free, and your username and password become your ticket

3. To login, go to ClassicBoatShow.com, click login in the top right corner to get full access, and enjoy the show!

If you have trouble getting your free ticket, you can always email the show’s crew for help at crew@classicboatshow.com.

If the show turns out to be an enjoyable and valuable experience for you, they have a voluntary “tips/donations” button on the top of the screen where you can contribute.

Oyster – Sailing Sunday

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OYSTER – Sailing Sunday

The photo gallery above of the 1903 Charles Bailey Jnr. yacht Oyster comes to us from her new Wellington owner – Gavin Pascoe’s fb page. Gavin recently sailed her back from Lyttelton to Wellington. Gavin is one of the leading lights at the uber cool Wellington Classic Yacht Trust, so Oyster is a very lucky woody to be in such safe hands.

Most of the photos are from her early days in Wellington c.1920’s>1930’s. The cover of the NZ Yachtsman magazine is dated August 10th 1912 and shows her in Nelson. Oyster is 32’ in length, with a 9’ bean and draws 3’ (she is a centre-board ketch).

Photo below taken by Andrew McGeorge of Oyster in Lyttelton just prior to her departure north.

Classic Boats Wanted + Classic Regatta – All You Need To Know

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CLASSIC BOATS WANTED

If the old sign in a brokers window and a thumbnail photo in a monthly brochure isn’t working for you – contact the Wooden Boat Bureau – there are 2 simple differences between the Wooden Boat Bureau and other boat brokers:

1. We actually sell classic boats.

2. We have a list of buyers wanting to buy a classic wooden boat


So woodys if you are trading up or trading down/out of the market and have a woody in good condition – drop us a line at waitematawoodys@gmail.com for a confidential chat.

(Sorry for the brazen commercial message today, but my wife tells me we need a bigger boat)

CYA 2021 ABD GROUP Classic Yacht Regatta 

The CYA 3 day Classic Yacht Regatta starts tomorrow (Saturday), and finishes on Monday – all the details you need to know here https://classicyacht.org.nz/events/2021-classic-regatta/

To view previous years regattas – links below
2020 https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/03/09/2020-new-zealand-classic-yacht-regatta-photo-gallery-100-photos-and-videos/
2019 https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/03/02/cya-classic-yacht-regatta-2019-race-1-37-photos/
2018 https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/02/19/cya-classic-yacht-regatta-2018/

https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/12/01/wooden-boat-bureau-advice-for-buyers-and-sellers/

Whats So Special About Wooden Boats

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https://vimeo.com/510393350/c94b7f0bfa?fbclid=IwAR0t66rtvtC1dcsHl2zFnsmmCEQpyW0XcLdeafmw33GjFLJksY1U5Zg_Jb0

Whats So Special About Wooden Boats
The above video by Tom Nitsch, featuring Tom’s stunning camera skills, gives a very cool insight into why in this modern age so many people are committing so much time and money restoring and enjoying wooden boats. 
The interviews with Donn Costanzo from the Wooden Boatworks yard and John Lammerts van Bueren (sailor, boat builder, author) really capture the why – something a lot of us struggle to communicate when asked by people outside the wooden boating movement.I have reproduced some of John’s comments below –

 “Most of all I think that a lot of the people who sail classic boats and enjoy the classic boats are probably more bonded than the people who sail modern boats. Nothing bad against the modern boats but modern boats are usually fiercely competitive and there is not as much love for the boat for what it is, the love is for the performance, the speed you get out of it and your chance to win the boat race. Something that people have in common is they have a drive to create and re-create and preserve and not to consume and I think that that is something very essential. If you are driven by consuming you aren’t able to create and re-create and preserve as much as you need to do to love these classic boats, and in a way the beauty of the boats that you are working with. You look at the old boats and in many ways they are compared to modern boats not as mush as a statement of your personal wealth, they are statement of beauty and it doesn’t really matter whether is a Dragon with varnished topsides or whether its a cruiser or a meter or a great big schooner, no matter how large these great big schooners are they are a statement of beauty and not a statement of wealth, all though they are incredibly expensive, it doesn’t really matter – they are beautiful and people appreciate it.”

You can see more of Tom’s work here http://www.tomnitsch.com