Mystery Boats & Location
photo ex Scott Taylor ex ‘Old Auckland’
Today’s post is a wee bit of a mystery, from back in the days before we had acres of marinas. The one thing I do know is the mooring fees would have been affordable, these days you have to sell of a child for medical experiments to afford to berth your boat close to the city.
So woodys where is it & can we ID any of the boats?
![DSC_0034[2]](https://i0.wp.com/waitematawoodys.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/dsc_00342.jpg?w=580&h=385&ssl=1 "DSC_0034[2]")
A Woodys Trip Report from France
photos & story ex Russell Ward
Getting the other-half to go on holiday in France – thats easy, but how Russell manages to sneak in visits to wooden boat yards, beats me. I need some tips 🙂
I’ll let Russell tell the story. Remember to click on the photos above to enlarge 😉
I visited a fellow steam boater in Arcachon and the conversation on steamboats lulled a trifle and we went on to local work boats the Pinasse! Yep, when the French say Pinasse it is rather akin to the technical term for one’s diddle!
They are a breed of double ender peculiar to Arcachon on the coast out from Bordeaux. Arcachon is a rather larger harbour than Whangateau. Golden sands and sandbars abound. Oyster farms are everywhere and the origin of the Pinasse in the area dates from 1900 or so.
The local work boats abound and many have been retired to pleasure duties and some look real posh.
They have a broad beam, some have elongated bow and stem posts to give a Venetian look; bold sheer (as befits a work boat intended for fishing), self draining cockpit fwd, low deck house and aft cockpit.
The engines were marinised automotive engines and many early ones were made by local engineers.
The older traditional boats have a disappearing prop arrangement akin to the American Dispro boats (check out Wooden Boat). The Dispro has a cast tunnel that the prop shaft and prop pivot up into. The Pinasse has a slot about six inches wide from a third of the way fwd from the stern post. The prop shaft emerges at the fwd end of the slot and there is a bronze universal to allow the prop shaft to pivot up when a lever is raised in the aft cockpit or automatically if the skeg scrapes on a sandbar.
The hull form is interesting. They appear round bilge but in fact have a chine on the middle third of the hull.
One boatyard built most of the boats and above are several photos of the sheds. Makes my eyes go all misty and George and Pam’s will too. They have so much space in there but only a couple of major rebuilds in progress. One smallish burdensome sailing boat of about 16’ and one elderly Pinasse who has a new stem, chines, set of floors and most of the bottom having new planks.
Six generations of one family worked the yard and it was recently sold to a man and his sister who continue the work.
Lovely place!
There are a lot of references but few specific to our interests. Go trawling!
http://www.dubourdieu.fr/en/history.html
MAHAKI – Sailing Sunday
photos & details ex Angus Rogers
Angus Rogers has sent in the above photos of the yacht Mahaki, owned by his grandfather Lionel B Rogers with EJ Jamieson and JF Harrison in Wellington and the photos were taken about 1909. Angus knows nothing about the design but is a fan of her clipper bow.
Sadly Mahaki was wrecked on the Wairarapa coast a year or so later on a trip which Angus’s grandfather wanted to go on but could not because he was made by his mother to go to a funeral of an aunt. It was fortunate that he didn’t because all lives on board were lost with the boat.
Note: the information about the name, owners and locations are from writing on the backs of the photos
Can we shed some more light on Mahaki in terms of designer / builder & other owners?
Positive News On The Historic Vos Boat Yard – view video footage of CYA member Baden Pascoe talking about the Vos yard & the funding announcement.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/70496491/historic-auckland-boat-yard-set-for-47m-relaunch
Photos from the Round The Island race during the British Classic Week
Harold Kidd Input
This Wellington MAHAKI was designed and built by J.T. Pratt in late 1895 for himself. The design may well have come from an overseas design, possibly in one of Dixon Kemp’s books, as did many other at the time. She was quite small, rating 1.6 or 1.7. Pratt sold her Wiggins and Hannah about 1899 and subsequent owners were Anderson & Co (1902) then the Jamieson syndicate (1906). Birch and Elliott appear to have owned her from 1907 but may just be members of the Jamieson syndicate. When her owners “went to the Front” in WW1 she was hauled up at Balaena Bay and deteriorated. She was broken up for her lead there in late 1917. Several other yachts were scrapped at the same time including MAY.
I think the tale of the wreck on the Wairarapa coast is a conflation with the wreck of a similar yacht around the same time, one of many Wellington yachts that left their bones in and around Palliser Bay.
PS thinking about the wreck, supposedly of MAHAKI, I reckon the story of the loss of the 24ft keel yacht TE AROHA has got mixed up with the legend. TE AROHA was built in late 1899 by R.G. Millman and foundered on January 2nd 1905 at Wellington Heads after returning from the Sounds. All three on board lost their lives. Maybe Lionel Rogers was meant to sail on TE AROHA?
CURLEW
photos ex Thomas Gross, details ex Harold Kidd
Curlew was built by Bailey & Lowe at Auckland for Percy Dufaur and launched in February 1912. Percy Dufaur was a law clerk working for the legal firm Dufaur Fawcett (now Cairns Slane). He owned many yachts in his time but was very fond of the concept of a small, seaworthy cruising boat.
Curlew had a 4hp Auckland-built Kapai auxiliary from new and was a centre boarder. Dufaur sold her to W. Abbott in 1914 and he sold her to H E Chamberlin of Ponui Island in 1918.
In 1919 A T Jamieson of Northcote bought her. He had admired Curlew and had had Bailey & Lowe build him a very similar yacht called Kereru in 1916 although she was a keel yacht. Jamieson kept her for 2 years, selling her to George Lepper of Northcote who used her to transport NZ Herald newspapers to Northcote for distribution every morning, 6 days a week.
W. Keen owned her in 1946 and D J Best 1946 to 1951 when boat builder Dave Jackson bought her (hopefully Dave J can tell us more about her recent history).
K Darrach owned her in 1973 and Bert Knight of Ngunguru owned her in 1989.
From 1946 her registration number was O15.
These days Curlew is owned by Thomas Gross & moored at Bucklands Beach.
ADVICE NEEDED 🙂
Thomas has a question for the woody boaters out there – he is after some guidance on how to re-build Curlew’s rudder that broke in 2 pieces. He has the pieces stored on the boat to bring home and use as form for the new one, but was wondering where to start, e.g. he has read that he should use different sheets of plywood and put them in different directions etc, but was wondering if the ww followers know of more information on this or what other options to rebuild the rudder.
Update – 19-09-2015
Whangateau Traditional Boay yard have been helping Thomas with the repairs – Pam’s words “Lots of good wood still so George decided to make some simple repairs.
New rods with thread and nut to draw it all up tight again”
And for the yachties – todays bonus is a link to Day 4 + Ladies Race photos from the British Classic Week. Enjoy
MYSTERY LAUNCHES 21-07-2015
photo ex Harold Kidd
During the recent post on the launch Manana (Raehutia) Harold Kidd sent me several photos of Manana while she was owned by the Seagar family.
Thats her on the left in the photo above – today’s question for woodys is what are the two launches to the right of the wharf ? & while we are at it – the location?
To view / read more about Manana – click link https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/07/17/manana/
And to brighten up the day – some stunning yachting photos from the first 2 days of the British Classic Week -click the link below
A spectacular 2 days of Panerai’s British Classic Week in images.
Update from Hylton Edmonds
From Left to Right – Manana (pre Leon / Chris Brown), Albacora (Pat Edmonds) and Lady Doreen (“Snooks” Fuller / AE Fuller & Sons), – and yes, taken at Otehei Bay, hmmm… guessing around late 50’s?. Due to the fact that Otehei Bay had the Lodge and was an official BOISFC Weigh Station Site, a lot of the Big Game boats would operate out of there, (as well as their home bases Russell / Paihia ) over a season. A few of them had permanent moorings down there too. Great Photo of a wonderful era.
BETTY (Achernar)
photo & details ex Betty Black (Stewart)
Today’s post is an example of what makes ww so special & motivates me to keep doing it. I received the email below last week.
“Dear Alan
My son in Sydney was browsing on the internet presumably looking up about his grandfather Bob Stewart, when he came across your blog about Achernar. I was most interested to read this as I had no idea what had become of the launch “Betty”. It was requisitioned by the Americans during the war. My grandfather died in 1943 and my father became the owner. He got it back after the war in an appalling condition. I remember him saying there was oil all through the bilge. We had a number of family holidays on it until the yacht Helen* was built. The photo was taken by me in 1947 (on a Box Brownie camera).
Kind regards
Betty Black (Stewart)”
To read / see more on Betty / Achernar click here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/10/14/achinar/
*Photos below of Helen (K1) during 2015 CYA Classic Yacht Regatta
Update 29-07-2019 Oct 1939 photo below
BEN BOLT S48 – Sailing Sunday
photo ex Gillian Williamson
Today’s post is of the mullet boat Ben Bolt when she was owned by Gillian’s father Tom Hollows.
Gillian & Tom would love to know what happened to her & if she is still around today.
ps sorry about the poor photo, must have been a photo taken off a framed photo, a bit of reflection going on 🙂
Robin Elliott Update
Whisk Martinengo maintained that Ben bolt was in fact a Rudder cat-boat design built by Arthur Perkin(s) and I have no cause to doubt him. He was right about so many other things. Many Rudder designs were appropriated by local yachtsmen and modified to local needs, the cat-rig itself never finding favour here apart from small centre boarders such and the Tauranga (P-class) or the Zeddie.
Here is all I have of her owners. No mention of Tom Hollows but there are plenty of gaps in the registered dates so he could be there somewhere.
What date is the photo? I see she’s flying an RNZYS burgee and I seem to recall her being on the register of the Squadron post war, but I can’t fine my old RNZYS year books to see if I missed something.
A. Perkin 1922/23+? A. (F.) Glover (Grover?) 1925?/30+?; A. Sainty & Others 1931?/33; S.V. Cunningham 1933/34+? ; Brown (Whangarei) 1939?/40+?; R.M. Allen (Whangarei) 1945+? ; D. O’Donoghue (W’rei) 1948?/50+?
NZH 30/1/1940: Racing Onerahi Regatta
SS May 1949: Racing with Whangarei CC
NZYB Sep 1978: G.F. Brookbanks says he owned her before WW2.
Update: Gordon Brookbanks owned her in the 1935/36 season.
Maitiatia
photo ex Simon Smith ex the Sir George Grey Collection
The scene above is a wee bit different from life today in Maitiatia at Waikehe Island. The hills look a lot higher without todays planting & housing.
Its not the best of photos in terms of quality but there certainly are a lot of classics at anchor – must have been a holiday weekend.
TIP OF THE DAY
Looking For Info On waitematawoodys ?
You may have noticed that I sometimes repeat post ww followers comments in the main section of ww. I do this because when you use the ww search box the search does not include content posted in the COMMENTS section. If you want to do a full search of the ww site, use google. Just enter waitematawoodys.com followed by the word / topic you are interested in e.g. waitematawoodys.com clinker dinghy & you will see all the content that relates to those words.
The lack of a full search function is the wordpress site administrators doing, not mine, its done to limit excess ‘chit-chat’ filtering into posts.
When content is factual & very interesting (just about anything that Harold Kidd writes) I repeat it.
So remember if you want to view every single item on a subject, use google as I described above.
BUT REMEMBER TO RESPECT COPYRIGHT
As I post this I’m sure Karen Moren is typing waitematawoodys.com mcgeady into google right now 🙂
SOS 1896 Chas Bailey Yacht To Be Broken Up
The 40′ 1896 Bailey TE UIRA is facing being scrapped in Australia, her owner is offering her free to a good (even bad, if it stops the back hoe) home. She is currently located at Glebe in Sydney NSW. Her hull apart from a leak near the the prop is in sound condition, she needs an anti-foul. Her owner says that above the water line is in ok condition, just needs some TLC Her demise is near so if you or anyone you know are interested, contact the owner, George Lloyd, on the email link below.
glloyd01@gmail.com
Harold Kidd Input
TE UIRA (usually shortened in Oz to UIRA) was built by C.& W. Bailey and launched on 17th October 1896 for Gidgeon Palmer of Melbourne as a 5 rater.
She was taken across by the steamer TARAWERA with Chas. Bailey Jr going with her to settle her in.
She was quite successful in Melbourne but came up against SAYONARA, the bigger Fife-designed cutter.
She raced in Melbourne with the St. Kilda club for many years, converted to a Marconi rig in 1925.
She was sold to Sydney in 1976 and is now languishing in need of a good owner.
SHE NEEDS TO BE PRESERVED.
SAVED – 05-08-2015
Hi Harold, Pam, Alan, Tom, Kelvin and Rhodes33,
Just to let you know that that the task of rescuing Te Uira is under way. Myself and two classic yacht enthusiasts, Colin Grazules and Bruce Harris got together to save her. She has been purchased, scraped, sealed, painted and was put back in the water today. I have gone back to Melbourne with Colin and Bruce towing her across the harbour to Woolwich marina today. She is in a pen waiting for transport to Melbourne which should become available next week. Her hull is in pretty good condition and very solid. Some non structural worm strikes up forward and only a small area of rot in the stern to be dealt with. Obviously that cabin must go and then a new deck and rig. I am the new owner and have a factory to store her in but there is no real plan yet. I would like to gather as much information as possible. If anyone can assist it would be greatly appreciated. The email is p.denniston@celltec.com.au
WAITEMATAWOODYS TRIP REPORT FROM OVERSEAS
Today’s photos & story came in from James Dreyer, who along with the extended family currently have Laughing Lady at the Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard. Jame’s work / travel take him off-shore a lot & in late May he was in the USA & put together a little story on the Southern California wooden boating scene. I’ll let James tell it. Enjoy 🙂
Remember if you click on a photo it will enlarge & you can read the captions. Scrolling over also reveals the captions.
“Back in late May, my father Barry & I headed to San Diego to spend a few weeks working on my Rhodes 33 “Therapy” and to visit the some of the 160 odd small breweries in the County, just to ensure their IPA’s were up to scratch. San Diego is known as the home of craft brewing, with each brewery having a tasting room and kitchen, or if not, bringing in a different gourmet food truck each night. Needless to say the hard work sanding and laying Uroxsys/Awlwood in the Southern Californian heat was well balanced with hydrating activities. And yes, the beer is so good, it was mind bottling (to coin a phrase).
While we were there I got in touch with Ralph Rodheim, the owner of another Rhodes 33 “Madness”.
I was hoping to head north to his place on Balboa Island / Newport Beach, to take some measurements and hopefully go for a sail. As luck would have it, the Balboa Yacht Club’s second inaugural Wooden Boat Festival was on during the final weekend of our visit, and Ralph was both an organising Chairman, entrant, and judge. This was a perfect opportunity to give the worn down finger tips, and high calorie intake a rest, while seeing how economical our rental Prius Hybrid could be heading North on the Pacific Highway to Newport. We left early, and stopped at a diner on the way for some bad coffee and an overcooked bacon muffin. This was California after all.
The show was just brilliant. A very Interesting variety of boats, interesting characters and live music.
I bumped into a number of “Rhodes people” and we swapped stories and info about the history of the class and how our restorations were coming along.
Above are some photos of the various boats, some I am lacking much info on, so my apologies in advance. If anyone wants more info on a certain boat, I am more than happy to respond with what I have, or get some more info from friends.
I thoroughly recommend viewing the following collection of photos from the event: http://bycwoodenboatfestival.com/schedule-of-events/ They are beautifully shot and feature a whole lot of boats I didnt photograph, and many of their interiors.”
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