Category Archives: Yachts

Westhaven Haul Out

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Westhaven 1968

Westhaven Haul Out – 1968

Heather & Keith Nicholson (H.D.M.L. Paea, P3552) are members of ‘NZ Car’ & came across on the facebook page the above photo (posted by Chris Burles) tagged ‘Street Scene – Westhaven 1968’.
The question of the day is – how many boats can we ID? The launch, center right, is obviously the RNZY’s tender Colville

09-05-2024 INPUT ex Kerry  Lilley – “the launch that’s above the Morris 1100 car  is Lady Adeliade when owned by Charles Palmer before he had the canoe stern put on. When I brought her I took off the galv. steel bow rail, she has the right amount of portholes tram top. I removed the dodger and built the present dodger”

WAITOA – Sailing Sunday

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WAITOA

WAITOA – Sailing Sunday

Waitoa is a yacht from Ken Ricketts childhood,the  photo above was taken by him in Islington Bay, during a night stopover on route to Kawau Island pre Christmas 1952.Ken recalls she was an F class but is unsure of the designer / builder. She may have been a Woollacott, but she doesn’t show on the Woollacott list.
When Ken knew the yacht (1955-60’s) she was owned by Fred McGehan of Mt Albert. Ken sailed to Kawau on her once at Christmas c1953-55, to catch up with his parents on the family launch Juliana.
Any of the woodys able to advise more details on Waitoa & what became of her?

Harold Kidd Input – 28 footer WAITOA F10 des. Bob Stewart built by Phil Barton 1947-8, so she’s a good ‘un. I saw her in 2005 at Nelson.

GOING TOPLESS

I was recently sent the photos below from Bob Cofer who resides in Bellingham, Washington, USA. Bob pro-formed a top chop on his 1972 Grand Banks ‘Ebbtide’ – if you ever need proof that going topless is the cool thing to do – check out the before & after shots 😉

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Laughing Lady Yard Updates

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Reremai V126 – Sailing Sunday

I was recently contacted by Nick Atkinson I own Melita (L-28), Nick has been looking for info on the V class
Reremai, for a good friend of his who’s currently working on a Fife (Eilean) in the Med.
The only info they have been able to uncover a previous owner who commented – “We purchased the “Reremai” in or around 1953-4, we moored her in Okahu Bay. She was originally an un-ballasted racing 18ft Mullet Boat and the builders plaque stated that she was built by the Logan Bros. Hr registered number was V126. We added heaps of ballast and sailed the gulf for many years, the only worth while photo is attached, this was taken on the Waitamata during a regatta. The last time I saw the “Reremai” was at “Kawau Island” where she was under a reconstruction by (we think) a guy named “Morris”.

Can any of the woodys – help Nick out?

Harold Kidd Input

As for REREMAI, Logan Bros went out of business in 1911 so any builder’s plate with their name on it was a fake.
REREMAI was built in late 1933 probably by Douglas Kusabs at 15 Church St., Onehunga. It is possible that she may have been built by a professional such as Les Coulthard, but there’s no record I can find of that.
She raced on the Manukau at first but Kusabs brought her over to the Waitemata in late 1935/early 1936. Her sail number was V72. Kusabs sold her to B. Foote in November 1936 and he sold her to R. Verran of Northcote in 1938.
In the image above we see, from left, V105, BON VOYAGE built by the Ragg brothers in 1939, V124, SYLVIA, later MARIE, and V126, REREMAI with a new sail number consequent upon her being reregistered with APYMBA in 1953 to H & A Davis of Tanekaha Road, Titirangi.
These were all ballasted 18 footers, loosely called “mullet boats”. REREMAI had 8cwt of internal ballast.
REREMAI’s racing history was mainly on the Manukau and then in the occasional Northcote-Birkenhead and Auckland Anniversary Regatta once she got to the Waitemata..

20-03-2017 – Input from Robin Elliott – Further to the above.
The Manukau clubs issued their own sail identification, the Cruising Club letters A-Z, while the Yacht & Motor Boat Club used numbers from 1 upwards. By the mid 1930’s this had started to breakdown under the regular import of Waitemata boats with Waitemata sail numbers. Also A-Z only gave the Cruising club 26 boats and was self-limiting.
It seems likely that Reremai did not have a numbered sail prior to 1935 when Kusabs took her to the Waitemata whereupon she was issued with V-72. She was stolen from her mooring in Mechanics Bay in March 1936 and the photograph published in the Herald, while poor quality, appears to show no registration number.
A 1935/36 list gives Reremai the number V-60 but this is a confusion with the Panmure 18-footer Reretai, something that continued until Reretai dropped out of sight during the mid 1940’s.
The Auckland Museum has photos of V-60 dated 1941, some labelled Reremai others Reretai.
She took V-126 in 1951 when owned by D.F. Baker of Hobsonville.
In the 1973 NZYF register she was owned by M. Peterson and reported as carrying sail V-129. This number was also repeated in the NZYF registration of 1976 and 1978, owner A. Keyworth, This number may well be a typo just picked up and carried over..
It may have even been a borrowed sail. V-129 was issued in 1954 to a boat named Cobra (dunno what that was). Nobody really cared what you did with these old girls and things were what you said they were.You made up your own history.
By 1988 she was owned by A. Morris and apparently carrying V-72 again.
She appeared on TradeMe Sep 2007: For Sale, port side damaged in storm, $1000
Still out there somewhere.

Laughing Lady Update
A wee update on Laughing Lady ex the ‘Seven Oceans Boatworks FB page, photos below. Looks like a splash is a happening thing soon at the Whangateau boat yard 😉

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Update 07-08-2017 – Getting Closer, some nice detail; work happening 🙂

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22-08-2017 Update – poking her nose out 😉

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19-12-2017 Update – Getting So Close. Check out the chrome game chairs 😉

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Amazing Maroro Sequel

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Maroro - launching day 01, 27 Dec 1957

Amazing Maroro Sequel

Sometimes ww struggles with a story & then other times she rocks. Yesterday as part of the Sailing Sunday story we profiled Russell Ward’s H28 woody Maroro & the fact that she was reluctantly for sale. The story flushed out a connection to one Kenrick Mitchell, son of the late Stuart (John) Mitchell – the builder of Maroro.
Kenrick emailed Russell a treasure trove of historical photos on the building, launch & sailing of Maroro. There are even photos of her on Sydney Harbour post winning the 1961 Trans Tasman race.

I have taken the liability to reproduce the email that Kenrick sent to Russell & also below is a link to Stuart Mitchell’s biography –  both excellent reads 🙂    Mitchell, Stuart – excerpt from Mitchell family biographies by Kenrick Mitchell and Shona Wright

“Hi Russell,
Fascinating who one bumps into occasionally in life! It was my cousin who mentioned he’d seen Maroro for sale and as he has a yacht of his own at Stillwater I might bring him along when I visit.

Dad built Maroro beside his parents’ house in Rust Ave in Whangarei while he was in his early 20’s. He worked on farms and on the wharves at Whangarei to raise the money. He did some coastal cruising in her, including a fruit picking trip to Marlborough with some mates. The 1961 trans-Tasman race was won on handicap (I have the trophy) with a crew of four and was followed by a cruise up as far as New Caledonia. In 1963 he set off with Mum on their honeymoon which was to have been a more extensive cruise. However legend has it that Mum threw a wobbly of significant magnitude when the first decent seas were encountered and they returned to leave Maroro in the hands of friends in Whangarei while they took a ship to the U.K. for their OE. Dad worked in a boatyard during his time away. When they returned and built the family home in Ngunguru (I turned up on the scene in 1965) it was with the ambition of establishing a boatbuilding business. Des Townson was Dad’s best man and it was a Townson 32 that first took shape under our house. This was followed by commercial wood turning to fund a crayfishing launch which, after several seasons of fishing, funded a decent shed next to the house – just in time for the infamous 40% luxury tax on boats and caravans to kill the industry. He went on to build numerous boats over his lifetime, ranging from metre long dinghies for my infant brother and I, to the 40’ dive charter cat ‘Pacific Hideaway’. Interestingly, the Townson 34 ‘Slice of Lemon’ is currently also on TradeMe being sold by her original owner at Pine Harbour.

I recall Dad being approached by an owner of Maroro in the 90’s to see if he’d be interested in either looking after her or doing some work on her, but the state she was in served to extinguish his curiosity.

Dad passed away in 2004 at the age of 70 of mesothelioma (asbestosis). I have many photos of his boats and the cruise in Maroro which I’ll put on a stick for you. I the meantime I’ll attach a few teasers here for you. You might be interested to learn that Dad built Maroro II in his retirement and I’ll attach a photo of that too as it really was a flying fish.

Sadly, after a childhood and youth spent helping Dad on boats and playing around in centreboarders and surfcats, I drifted out of boating. However the boating never drifted out of me and for the last few years I’ve been fortunate to score a place as crew on the 1897 Logan classic ‘Thelma’ which is skippered by Tony Blake. There are more albums on Thelma and Maroro II on my Facebook page if you happen to frequent this corner of the cyberverse.

Will look forward to meeting you, though it may take a couple of weekends to make it up your way as my wife and I have recently belatedly taken an interest in the breeding game and it takes a couple of weeks’ of accumulated brownie points to earn a leave pass from a couple of three month old kids and their shattered mother.

Kind regards, Kenrick Mitchell”

Maroro II

Slice of Lemon

Slice of Lemon - on launching day, 1976

Sailing Sunday x3

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CYA Classic Yacht Regatta Oops
If you ever thought classic yacht racing was a little ‘soft’ i.e.  “let them thru, they are nice chaps” think again, its serious racing – proof? During race one of last weeks regatta the 1898 Arch Logan Rainbow was involved in a wee incident that resulted in her samson post snapping, it takes a lot of force to break a 5” square piece of kauri. The main player in the incident was the bowsprit that compressed under impact and combined with the ‘dead’ force of the backside from the deck, something had to give & fortunately the Samson post took all the load. Effectively became a safety valve, and halted any collateral damage to the deck or bowsprit.
End of the race for Rainbow & potentially end of the regatta – but in steps master boatbuilder Paul Tingey who worked around the clock and did an outstanding job, gluing up, turning and re-installing the new Samson post to get Rainbow on the start line for Sundays racing.

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Ngatiawa
Ngatiawa, below, is a A class keeler that was  owned by Nathan Ross for many years, from the 1940s on wards. Later ownership passed to his son Clive, a school mate & young R.A.Y.C. associate of Ken Ricketts .
Ken’s photo was taken at Christmas 1952 in Mansion House.  Do any of the woodys know more about Ngatiawa – designer / builder / year of launch & what became of her?

NGATIAWA TAKEN BY KR CHRISTMAS 1952 AT KAWAU

H28 Classic Wooden Ketch 4sale

Maroro was professionally built in 1957 in Whangarei & proved herself by winning the 1961 Trans Tasman race and is featured in the NZ book ‘proper NZ yachts’ by Richard Endean.
Maroro is a traditional sailing man or woman’s boat, set up with jib and staysail self furling + spinnaker. She has a near new Yanmar 10hp engine with 60 hours on clock & F & R gearbox. Three berths, toilet in separate compartment. Force 10 diesel heater. Simon Lawrence anchor winch. All ground tackle.  Her mooring at Mahurangi is also available long term.
Owner Russell Ward commented that at the asking price of $18,500 she is would provide a lot of fun for a real sailor.

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Aussie 18′ Racing Woodys – Sailing Sunday

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Aussie 18′ Racing Woodys – Sailing Sunday

Robin Elliott sent me the above link to a very cool video that Australian Ian Smith has just put up on-line of how he built a replica of the 1919 traditional seam-batten Sydney 18 footer – Britannia in 2001-2002. Its approx 15min long & covers from lofting to launch > sailing. Great footage & a good commentary.

Robin also shared the link below to the ‘The Open Boat’ website which is a treasure trove of videos on the Australian small wooden sailing world. Do not blame me if your still watching it hours later 🙂

http://www.openboat.com.au/videos.html

CYA 2017 Classic Regatta
I snapped a few quick photos, below, yesterday while I was heading over to Westhaven to fuel up & then decided to pop in at Regatta HQ for a cleansing ale. More photos tomorrow from the Regatta’s classic woody launch parade &  lunch cruise to Riverhead Hotel. If you are out & about this morning & want to see the fine collection of classic woody launches, we will be passing in front of the RNZYS at approx. 10.30am.

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Small Woodys – Sailing Sunday

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Small Woodys – Sailing Sunday

When recently John Bullivant sent me some launch photos, he asked  “if small boats qualify for Woodys?” – the answer was of course 🙂
So in response John has sent in few snaps of a couple of he has rebuilt. One is a 15′ Edwin I Schock (USA) designed ‘Sharron Potts’ day sailer (design from 1952)  and the other is a 1960’s John Chapple (NZ) designed 12′ Cherokee racing yacht. There might be enough Macrocarpa  kwila Mahogany and Kauri in the Schock 15 to qualify. John talks below on the two yachts

12′ Cherokee

I re-built a 1960s 12′ Cherokee racing yacht (designed by John Chapple). There were only two photos I could find despite many hours of searching the internet so I went ahead and used a bit of ‘poetic license’ in re-building the boat. I have glassed the hull, deck, centreboard and rudder to help preserve it as it was coming apart at the seams when it was given to me, dug out and filled all screw holes, new mast mount, fittings, repaired any soft spots, deck framing, made new rotating mast system etc., etc., (usual stuff), and have had it out on the water, and it sails as well as anything else I’ve sailed, (very nimble in the light stuff).

15′ Sharron Potts

I have also re-built an Edson I Schock designed, ‘Sharron Potts,’ 15′ day sailer, (USA), which I purchased around 9 yrs ago, in a bit of a sad state. I stripped it inside and out, and glassed the deck, rudder and centreboard, made a new rudder stock and tiller, (from my late mothers 70s mahogany dining table), and did all the usual stuff, (re rigging etc). Took me a year to do it, as the brother of the original builder, had sprayed it with a 2 pack paint inside and out, (apparently while he was away overseas), thus annihilating the varnished Macrocarpa interior finishing. I think I got about 2 buckets of paint dust out of it ! It was built by a Martin Jackson and his brother, (in the in Waiuku or Karaka from memory), and was framed with Macrocarpa, scrounged from a farmer nearby, who was milling some trees on his property.  It had a large outboard well built in, but I have removed it, and rebuilt it, to the original configuration. The boat was built from an American plan book, (How to build small boats, by Edson I Schock 1952), the design being from around 1950. Edson Irwin Schock (1897-1988), was a naval architect, from Rhode Island, who designed many small easy to build boats. After retirement he worked for Mystic Seaport designing boats.

The boat sails extremely well, and is perfectly balanced, and can be safely sailed single handed in winds up to around 10knts, (remembering it is pretty much a 470 2 man setup). The mast is from an old David Barnes 470, and used to play like a church organ, till I filled up all the holes, (from a hundred different fittings).
Apparently the boat used to go out with the 470s when Chris Dickson and co. were sailing. I have set up a spinnaker (ex 2004 Mexico Olympics – Andrew Brown, NZL 199, from North Shore), which I found on Trade Me,- (shame they drew the number on an originally $1000 odd Italian made Olympic certified sail with felt pen!), but have not been game to try it without a crew.”

27-02-2017 More Input from John Bullivant

A great bit of information regarding the Cherokee and thanks for the positive comments. I have been trying to find more about the class since I was given the boat by a panel beater in Albany, who had been given it by one of the painters in the same establishment. The painter had sprayed it with car lacquer which was totally the wrong stuff for a very thin flexible hull like the Cherokee and it was removing itself very nicely from all the seams (which were starting to make the boat look like strange slowly opening flower) while I had the boat stored under a cover for a year outside awaiting a rebuild. Finally got to it and got it done and the effort was worth it. She should be ok for a few more years yet.
Had to make a few mods here and there to gain access to the mast step which was broken and rotten (mast had come down at some point and broken the deck and frames on one side) and rebuilt and glassed in a new step mount and made a new adjustable step for it. Had no mast with the boat, centreboard and rudder were split down the middle, centreboard case was misaligned, (a nice 20mm port bias) laminated traveller was delaminating, transom had a large hole which had been patched, (attempt at a self bailing cockpit) rot in the floor in a few places right through and so on, so it took a while!
On sailing the Cherokee for the first time I found it to be perfectly set up for my weight (fluke!) and was extremely nimble on the water. One thing I found out when going forward to the mast to make an adjustment while sailing was – DO NOT under any circumstances go to the mast and try to make adjustments while sailing. I must have tacked uncontrollably 20 times in 20 seconds before I managed to scramble back behind the c/b case! The Cherokee has a disappearing chine and is pretty much just a V at the mast, and when you are up there it develops a terrifying high speed eel like movement. Won’t do that again!
When I first launched it at Torbay a number of people came up to me with stories about Cherokees
One chap said he had just burnt one as it had blown out all the seams from sitting around, and another told me a friend of his on Waiheke has recently fully restored a Cherokee to original and it is fully varnished and beautiful, (be nice to see that one, – perhaps we might prompt a photo through WW sometime! ) Don’t know if it means anything to anyone but my boat appeared to have been originally white with med blue cockpit and red plastic tube trim round the hull access/storage ports. Be nice to see some more Cherokee photos if anyone has them.
 

2017 Australian Wooden Boat Festival – Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

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2017 Australian Wooden Boat Festival – Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Today’s post is a photo gallery from last weekends wooden boat extravaganza in Hobart. The photos are from the camera of David Smith & sent in by Simon Smith.

Chatting with CYA Chairman, Peter Mence, on Friday night at the Vos Shed for the launch of the late Peter Peal’s magnificent  book ‘Thoughts On Clinker Lapstrake Dinghy Construction’ – Pete Mence was singing the shows praises having just returned from the Hobart. I must move it up my bucket list 🙂

At the book launch, I heard some positive talk about the future of the Vos Shed from the pollys & their hanger-ons, lets hope they stay true to the cause.

Greyhound + Johnny Wray On TV + Bargain Woody 4sale

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GREYHOUND

Greyhound was an ex WWII 40′ high speed launch .Ex Air Force out of Hobsonville. One of four launches built in the late 1930’s >early 1940′, as Waitemata chase boats for the Catalinas. They were W44; W45; W46; and W88 (now in Wigram Museum). Greyhound is thought to be W45.  She is a sister ship to Jaguar, already featured on woodys  (16.8.2014). The above photo are ex John Bullivant & the present owner, Mark Allen (trademe) via Ken Ricketts.
Allen bought the boat in December 2014 in Tutukaka & motored it down the coast to Whangerei and then took it by road to Helensville, where it resides today. It was out of the water for 6 months being re-glassed & repainted.
During the war it had two engines and would do between 30 and 40 knots, plane over the water. These days she is powered by a 120hp Ford diesel(12 knots), that is currently undergoing repair. If you are looking for a project with some history, I understand the vessel is for sale.

Input from John Bullivant – “below is a photo of Jaguar I took in the 70s. She is on the ramp at Bucklands Beach Yacht Club having just been hauled out. The Hansens who owned her had an engineering business in Harp of Erin producing grease guns amongst other products ( I still have one of their grease guns). Jaguar definitely had two stroke diesels at the time this photo was taken (used to love the sound of them). She was moored at little Bucklands beach, pretty much straight out from the owners house for years. I lived on The Parade at Bucklands for many years and saw many well known boats come and go up and down the river including Imatra, Jaguar, Golden Lotus (Alan Harnish and later Rick Irvine who put the cabin on her for diving use) Tarapunga, Alert, Carroma, Jane Gifford, Romo, Rainbow and Rainbow ii and hundreds more. Fleetwing Junior (with cabin) was moored almost in front of our place (belonged to a school friends parents at the time)
Coincidentally there was a plywood yacht of around 45ft named Fleetwood moored about 200ft from her as well.
It was a great place to live in the 60s and 70s and 80s as the river was like Queen st most weekends, but as the price of gas went up there seemed to be fewer launches going out regularly. I’ve noticed a big drop off in weekend boating in the last 20 yrs (maybe it’s just me) but I’ve been out sailing on a few perfect days between Browns Bay and Rangi and been all on my own with not a boat in sight. The first time that happened I thought I was missing something – like a Tsunami warning, a very odd feeling to be out there on your own on a perfect day, would not have been like that in the 70s as the whole area would have been populated with boats of all types.”

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The Johnny Wray & Ngataki Story –  On TV Tonight (Sat 18th)

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Just a quick heads up that Television NZ will be screening tonight (Sat 18th) the latest series of ‘Te Radars Chequered Past’ on TVOne at 8:05pm. In the opening episode Radar retells the story of Johnny Wray & Ngataki’s creation. I’m told its a cracker & not to be missed – but if you do miss it, in this wonder digital world, you will be able to view it later ‘OnDemand’ link below.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand/te-radars-chequered-past
Enjoy 🙂

36′ Grand Banks – ‘NO SALT’ – Must Be Sold – Offers over $50,000 will buy her
Check out the trademe link http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/boats-marine/motorboats/auction-1258171194.htm
Owner contactable on 021 025 46184

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Marangi – Sailing Sunday + CYA Events Update

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MARANGI – Sailing Sunday
The photo above of Marangi is ex the September 1910 edition of the NZ Yachtsman magazine, sent to me by Ken Ricketts.
The photo (9/10/1910)is just prior to her launch in Auckland, where she was built at the Le Huquet yard. She possibly went to Wellington. Can any of the woodys enlighten us on her details & history?

A Little Boat Porn
Check out this video of Rosemary III, designed by William Fife III & built in 1925 by William Fife Fairlie. waterline length is 25′ (38’6″ overall) with a 8’6″ beam. The video shows hr sailing in Falmouth, UK in early December 2017, post a very sympathetic restoration by a relative of William Fife III. For sale for NZD$520k – makes the Logan – Little Jim, a steal for around 25% that price – enter Little Jim in the ww search box for details.
Enjoy 🙂

CYA Event Updates – Update Your Diaries

Don’t always believe what you read – 🙂 there have been several changes to the CYA launch / cruising calendar.

  1. Firstly next Saturdays (18/02) lunch cruise to the Riverhead hotel has been cancelled. But there is a replacement event – an overnight raft-up at Fairway Bay (Gulf Harbour), we did this once before & it was a lot of fun. Note there is a tight window for entering & leaving the basin (gate/boom) so refer copy of CYA newsletter below for details.
  2. March 3>5 is the dates for the CYA Yacht Regatta, this year on the final day (5th) there will be a Launch Parade, just prior to a cruise to the Riverhead hotel.Full details in the newsletter below.

RSVP for these events to    admin@classicyacht.org.nz

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