RIKI
Morning woodys – the above photos were sent to me by Peter Mence, Chairman of the NZ Classic Yacht Association. Peter spotted the hull ‘resting’ in Pine Valley Road, Dairy Flat, Albany.
Someone must know who she is & how she ended up.
Update 01-05-2017 ex Barry Davis – Bay of Islands 1971
50% Off Sale
Boat below ex Tim Evill on Waiheke Island, I hope she was not headed for the landfill, would make a get firewood shelter.
Mahurangi Regatta – Sailing Sunday
I was sent a great collection of photos form the 2017 Mahurangi Regatta by Bernie Power who was aboard Shane Anderson’s classic launch Waimiga. Lots & lots of great photos, above is just a selection of the yachts, which I tend to miss as I’m pointing my camera at the beautiful boats i.e. the classic launches 🙂
Enjoy.
TAWERA 1935 LOGAN – A18
Tawera was launched on 30th December, 1935. Tawera was designed by Arch Logan and built by Colin Wild of Stanley Bay, Devonport. Her first race was the Auckland Anniversary Regatta in January 1936.
She was Arch Logans last big cutter, measuring almost 50 feet on deck and the culmination of a number of racing keelers built at that time. As the largest of the more modern keelers from Arch Logans drawing board she represented the very best in design development and to this day still epitomises all of the racing winning and wholesome sea keeping abilities of Arch Logans designs.
Tawera is immaculate and has been extensively restored and is now considered one of the finest examples of the a keeler of the pre-WWII era. Her owner is one of the Classic Yacht Associations most loyal members & has loved her as a Logan should be & spared nothing on her maintenance & restoration. She is for sale & is I believe amazing value for money.
Her recent restoration was to the highest specification which includes the building of a new spruce mast to the original specs, new Volvo Penta engine, and redevelopment of the saloon, galley, heads and fore cabin. A new wooden spinnaker pole and wooden turning blocks on deck as well as an all new sail wardrobe consisting of Mainsail, #1, #2 genoas, asymmetric and conventional spinnakers.
Anyone interested in acquiring one of, if not, the best Logan a float could contact me on waitematawoodys@gmail.com & I’ll pass details on to the owner 🙂
QUEST – Sailing Sunday
Mid-week we were lucky to have a peep at some of Peter Midgley’s fathers photo collection, that show the launch Kenya & the Joe Slattery boat shed. I asked Peter if he could share with us anymore of Eric Midgley’s photos & today we have the yacht Quest, built at the Vos yard for a Mr Wood of Devonport.
The top photo shows the launching on 10 December 1936, Peter commented that this photo of the exact moment a lady christens Quest has always fascinated him as a great moment frozen in time. Eric is third from the left with his arms folded. The man in uniform far left appears to be a St Johns person, did they have then at launchings in case of accidents? The man next to him with pen & paper in hand is perhaps a reporter for the “Star” or “Herald”. Then a lady in a heavy overcoat & umbrella, looks like a wet day in December.
Then the man far right also with umbrella “Photo Bombing” the photo.
Unfortunately the lady doing the honours, is blocking our view of the man holding the sledge hammer, Peter has an identical one in his dad’s toolbox.
Then the real character of this photo, the lady with a piece of paper in her hand having just read some words, with an expression of surprise as liquid sprays back towards her. Perhaps she is the wife of the owner – Mr Woods?
You have to love the way two planks of wood balancing on two saw horses is sufficient for the lady to stand on, no health & safety in those days!
The bottom photo of Quest moored presumably after launching.
As a footnote in the Percy Vos book, ‘Launching Dreams’, it states Eric Midgley worked at the Vos yard from 1937 to 1938 & only worked on the ‘Korea’ but Peter thinks he was there in 1936 working on the Quest. He went on to work at the Devonport Dockyard throughout the war & built the sailing dinghy ‘Kiwi’ in 1947, the NZ Navys gift to Princess Elizabeth & Prince Phillip for their wedding. Link here
It would be great if any woodys could identify people in this photo.
Input from Harold Kidd
QUEST was a design by Dr. Harrison Butler (he of the metacentric shelf) built by Percy Vos (with one S) in December 1936 for L.M. (Milton) Wood of Devonport. His brother Lincoln had the Butler-designed 22 footer MEMORY built by Fred Mann in 1930. She’s very English in her lines (and all the better for that).
As to the people my guess is, from left, A St John’s “Zambuck” who used to be present at Rugby matches (and possibly launchings if they were yachties, as many were), W.A. (Wilkie) Wilkinson of the Auckland Star, Vos employee, the matriarch Mrs Sarah Wood, Milton and his wife/fiancee not sure when they married), Lincoln being silly. There was a multitude of Wood brothers and sisters, so the latter could any one of the other brothers.
Ladybird (Mystery Yacht) – Sailing Sunday
The above photo was sent to me by Russell Ward who obtained them from a patient of his, Bruce Forsyth, whose father was an avid photographer in the pre ww2 period.
This one should be pretty easy to ID 😉 Can we date the photo as well?
Looking For Info of a Mullet Boat named RAWHITI JUNIOR (N13)
I have been contacted by June Batten whose partner used to own (approx. 60 yrs ago) a mullet boat named ‘Rawhiti Junior’ and he is wondering if it is still around. He believes the sail number was N13. June & ww would appreciate any help you can give them.
Harold Kidd Input
RAWHITI JNR was a 20ft mullet boat built by Andy Tobin in 1906. She had sail number N13 from 1922. She had many owners over the years but was lost in 1989 when owned by Vernon Lees of Hahei. She was swept out to sea from an anchorage at Blind Bay, Great Barrier and disappeared.
She was often attributed to Logan Bros, but in error.
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
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 😉
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 😉
Update 07-08-2017 – Getting Closer, some nice detail; work happening 🙂
22-08-2017 Update – poking her nose out 😉
19-12-2017 Update – Getting So Close. Check out the chrome game chairs 😉
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
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.
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?
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.
