Category Archives: Yachts

Riverhead Hotel Classic Cruise

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Riverhead Hotel Classic Cruise
photos by Alan Houghton & Hamish Ross

Yesterday was a special day – the AB’s did what we all had been hoping they would – won the rugby world cup. After a very early start, up at 4.00am , 1/2hr after the whistle blew we were slipping the lines & heading off on a CYA launch cruise to the Riverhead hotel. A combination of the rugby & the Auckland Marathon (blocking waterfront streets) saw only a small number of classics making the trip up the  river but a good number traveled by car for the brunch gathering.
As always a great trip.

Some stunning photos over here http://buggeritweareoff.com/2015/11/02/classic-boat-day-out-to-riverhead/

Waikato Woodys – Sailing Sunday #1

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P Class yachts, Karapiro Lake, 1949
Easter Regatta, Hamilton Lake, 1949a
Easter Regatta, Hamilton Lake, 1949b
​Idlle Along “Judith” Hamilton Lake c.1949
Idle Along race, Hamilton
Idle Along H2 ‘Judith’ at Huntly?

WAIKATO WOODYS – SAILING SUNDAYS#1
photos & details ex Judith Wallath

Judith has just finished reading Jimmy Gilpin’s book “Winners are Grinners” and was amused to discover that her last year in P Class on Hamilton Lake coincided with his first year (although he was from Tauranga). The Cambridge Boating Club held a Regatta in 1949 to celebrate the completion of Karapiro Dam and the formation of the Lake. The first photo above was taken by Waikato Times/Herald photographer, Mr Fred Louden. Judith is on the right hand end (H11) and Jimmy Gilpin (T23) is at the left end.
Judith says the only remarkable thing she did that day was to break her yacht’s centre board during the capsize race in front of the crowd of spectators. It was her first (and last) attempt at a capsize race 🙂

The 2nd & 3rd photos are from the Hamilton Yacht Club inaugural Easter Regatta in 1949 and Jimmy G was there, well towards the front.  Jimmy and Judith are both in the P Class line-up at the lake edge before the race. Incidentally, the water tower, pictured, had a piece of roofing iron wrapped around it for years.  A memento of the 1949 Frankton tornado.

The 4th, 5th & 6th photos are of the  Idle Along H2 ‘Judith’ that belonged to Judith’s brother Brian. She was built by Brian and their father in the back yard, with encouragement from retired Hamilton builder Harold Martin an enthusiastic yachtsman. Mr Martin towed her to Auckland for the Anniversary Regatta, behind his Model T Ford. On the way back to Hamilton an accident occurred and ‘Judith’ suffered a stoved in side.  Promptly repaired, and back on the lake.

Harold Kidd Input

Harold Martin Sr was briefly in partnership with Chas Collings as “Collings & Martin” from 1907. He and his sons were very important in Waikato and Rotorua sailing in the 30s and 40s with the Idle Alongs IONA (1936), IDA (1939), TAMARA (1940) and WINSOME (1944). They also built and raced the X Class MYSTERY (1922) and the Zeddies TUI (1932) and CUPID (1951) amongst probably several other centre boarders.
Harold Sr lived at Orakei originally and built and/or owned several mullet boats until he left Auckland to live in Hamilton c1920. These included the 22 footer TE ATA and the 26 footer MYSTERY. The name MYSTERY was used by at least three generations of Martins for their yachts from at least 1874.
Similarly the Neilsons of Kawhia, and later of Tauranga, used the name CHARM for a couple of generations including for Jimmy Gilpin’s first Tauranga 7 footer CHARM (to close the circle).
BTW the car towing Briian Wallath’s IA isn’t a Ford T if Judith meant that. It’s a big American tourer of c1924, probably a 6 cylinder Buick. The trailer has 1935 Ford V8 car wheels.

P.S.  – Harold Martin didn’t last long in business with Chas Collings, but then nobody did, neither the Clare brothers, Harold Martin nor Alf Bell. I gather he was “difficult”, but he kept the Bell name in the business long after they parted ways during WW1 when Alf went off to help the Walsh brothers build and maintain their flying boats at Kohimarama.

Updated 03-11-2015 Photo below ex Harold Kidd  of Le Clerc’s IA JUDITH on Hamilton Lake with the 14 footer PERSEUS (Y8) and Frostbite 151, KIRIROA, c1949.

 

 

Tides Out At Collings & Bell

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Tides Out At Collings & Bell
photos & details ex Harold Kidd

When the Collings & Bell boat yard / shed in St Mary’s Bay was vacated due to the Harbour Bridge construction project, a lot of cool items were just left lying around, on a sneaky visit Barry Davis discovered a selection of Chas Collings’ glass photography quarter plates showing St Mary’s Bay during an ultra low tide in the 1930s. The photos show that in the days before dredging most of the launches and yachts are aground.
Even though the plates were cracked & damaged the detail is amazing & they could be blown up to view the boats in detail. To secure these negatives was a great find as most of the plates were tossed into the bay by the apprentices.

In photo #4 Harold’s father’s schooner TAHITIENNE is at right background out in the stream in RottenRow.

Norma

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NORMA
photos via Nathan Herbert ex Manukau Yacht & Launch Club collection

Three photos today of the 40′ launch Norma. The top one is dated 14-01-1915. The middle one records her in 1929 winning a MY&LC race for launches helmed by ladies. Also featured are the yachts ‘Sea Gnome’ & ‘Sylvis’.
The bottom photo is from 1939 & shows Norma & the 26′ launch ‘Marina’ being off loaded (lorry?) & re-launched into the Waitemata Harbour. I’m sure Harold can enlighten ww followers the reason these launches made the trip from the Manukau.

Can we expand some more on Norma – designer/builder etc?

Harold Kidd Input

There were several NORMAs. This Coulthard NORMA was built at Onehunga for the Jeffs brothers and launched in November 1913. She was a 32ft flushdecker with an anonymous 10hp engine but had a 30hp 4 cylinder Wolseley installed in the winter of 1919. The Jeffs sold her to C. “Shorty” Schnauer in January 1921. In the 1930s she was sold to Whitianga for game fishing. She was owned there by Bill Clark and was in Whitianga until at least 1980.
I don’t know this MARINA under that name. There were many MARINAS, another one game fishing out of Mangawai in the early thirties owned by Franich but it can’t be this one.

SEA GNOME was one of the square bilge 14 footers built by George Honour that formed the basis of the so-called “Sea Class”, 14ft “flatties” most with names starting with “Sea” that latter morphed into the Auckland Y Class. Honour built her in 1921 and she was an immediate champion. Chuck Auger owned her for 14l years and took her to the Manukau in 1927. She raced on both harbours. The Y14 on her sail was her Manukau number.
SYLVIA was a 22ft mullet boat designed by Dick Lang and built by Harvey & Lang in October 1912. She was on the Manukau from 1924 to 1930, mostly owned by C. Paul.

Kiwi – Sailing Sunday

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KIWI  – Sailing Sunday
photos & details ex Peter Midegly

Following up on last Sundays post on the royal p-class yacht ‘Tui’, Peter Midegly sent in the above collection of photos of the 14’ sailing dinghy ‘Kiwi. She was built at the Devonport Naval Base by his late father, Eric Midgley, a shipwright, with the assistance of an apprentice, both employed at the dockyard. ‘Kiwi’ was built in Auckland for members of the royal family, this being the occasion of the wedding of the then Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip in 1947.

Unlike the ‘Tui’, ‘Kiwi’ was well used, as is outlined in the letter below from G.A. Vince of the Sea Training Establishment at Botley, Southampton. This letter describes the workmanship of the boat as first class and her success in racing with other Naval 14 footers. In 1952 George Vince, Director of the Southampton Sailing Centre, also won first prize racing ‘Kiwi’ during Cowes Week that year.

Peter does not know whether the Royal couple sailed ‘Kiwi’ to any great extent, but from the 1950’s she was used by a number of sailing organisations & Sea Cadet Units .

Some years ago Peter made enquiries as to what had happened to ‘Kiwi’, and eventually located her at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth. At the time they told him she was in their offsite store in Falmouth.

Peter’s father started his boat building apprenticeship in 1923 with Joe Slattery. He later worked at Percy Vos’s during the building of the ferry Korea and from 1938 to 1950 at H.M. Dockyard, Devonport. His final employment was with the Auckland Harbour Board as a shipwright in Beaumont St. before retiring in the 1960’s.

Elma

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ELMA
photos & details ex Bruce Pullan

In Thursdays post on ww of the Onehunga Basin, Harold Kidd commented on the launch Elma owned by Bruce’s grandfather, Reg Pullan. Bruce was told that his grandfather was not the first owner of Elma & that her original name was Huia. She was 22 foot & the original engine was a single cylinder De Dion. The suggested builder is Bailey & Lowe (looking for confirmation). The photo above is when she was with a later owner, but still on the Manukau.
Below is an invoice from John S. Gibbons of Onehunga for engineering work in 1923 for work on Elma.

Harold Kidd Input

ELMA was probably the HUIA first owned by W Partridge of Onehunga in 1909 although the raised foredeck is early for 1909. Partridge sold her to T. Higham in 1911 and she disappears from the reports after 1918, probably when Reg Pullan bought her and changed her name probably after his wife-to-be Elma Welch.
There were just so many HUIAs that it’s almost impossible to establish who built this one. Bailey & Lowe built at least one, the 40ft steam launch HUIA for the Seagar Bros in 1902, but I can’t match HUIA / ELMA one to any builder.

A Few Photos From The Start of the 2015 Coastal Classic (click on photos to enlarge)

Woody Weekend

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Waters Fine ww

WOODY’S WEEKEND

At last a long weekend 🙂 Always seems such a long time between the last & the first long weekends. I know my log book says its over 5 months since I went past North Head but in my defense Raindance has had a winter of mechanical maintenance.

For woodys looking for some boating this weekend there are a couple options, which hopefully will not be too disrupted by the weather.

Myself & a few others will be mooching around Waiheke Island & at this stage plan to get together somewhere for a catch up on Sunday afternoon (late). Nothing cast in stone & will post something here on ww on Sunday.

For those looking for something further afield its the Kawau Boating Club season opening weekend – plenty to do & I imagine the AB’s game will be screened at the KBC clubhouse. More details below.

And – photos please. Pack the camera & take a few classic woody photos & then email them in to ww.

Islington Bay, Rangitoto Island

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Islington Bay, Rangitoto Island

photo ex Scott Taylor ex ‘Old Auckland’

Today’s photo shows a collection of craft anchored in a bay with a wharf & waterfront baches. The land does have a Rangitoto Island look to it but the baches appear too substantial for the island.

Who can ID the location & some of the boats?

 

Cyrena

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CYRENA
photo ex Mac Taylor Collection. Details ex Harold Kidd

Cyrena (on the left in the photo above) was built by Peter A Smith, the Alpha marine engine agent in St. Mary’s Bay for himself in 1923. Like W R Twigg, Smith contracted to build launches, his input being the engine which usually cost over half the total price. He contracted out hulls to local builders, usually those handy to his premises in St. Mary’s Bay. This hull was built by Dick Lang before he left for Sydney during the transition of his business to Sam Ford so Sam Ford took some credit in advertising. She was 37ft x 9ft and was fitted with a 25hp Alpha (Danish) engine. Smith named her Cyrena and she was launched around Christmas 1923.
Smith sold her to the Manukau in September 1924. F G “Boy” Bellve of Herne Bay bought her and brought her back to the Waitemata in January 1926 and had her until he commissioned the keel yacht Cyrena from Collings & Bell in late 1938.

Bellve sold the launch Cyrena to A M White of Ngatapa, Gisborne who renamed her Maritza and had her trucked over to Lake Waikaremoana on 6-7 October 1938.

Whats say the woodys re the dark hulled launch on the right on the photo above? And the yachts E24 & A17 ?
The photo below ex classicboatsnz shows her being launched at Lake Waikaremoana.

Harold Kidd Input

E24 is LOLOMA, my old boat and Jason’s too. The twist in her counter is quite evident. She got it when she was teeboned in a race at Whangarei in January 1915 and cut to the waterline. The repairs to her double-diagonal hull starboard amidships were botched. It took me a lot of effort to (almost) get rid of it 70 years later. She was built by J.J. O’Rorke as WARATAH at Arch Hill in late 1909 as a transom-sterned 26 footer with a varnished hull but had a solid counter fitted shortly afterwards,
A17 is NGA TOA built by Colin Wild for the Winstone brothers in 1926. Oddly enough, Boy Bellve, who owned the launch CYRENA and later the Collings & Bell yacht CYRENA, bought NGA TOA with A.G. Taylor in 1946 and owned her almost until he died.

25-09-2016 – photo below from the Tudor Collins collection, emailed to me by Ken Ricketss.

cyrena-1930s

Patiki Yachts – Sailing Sunday + a trip to Waiheke

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PATIKI YACHTS – SAILING SUNDAY
photo ex Michael O’Dwyer

The rather serene photo above shows a number of Patiki yachts tied up in Ahuriri Lagoon, it was taken just 4 days before the February 3rd 1931 Napier earthquake. The earthquake reduced the size of the lagoon considerably when the seabed in the area lifted (up to 2.7 metres just north of Napier) spelling the end of lagoon sailing to the far Poraiti hills. The photo is hanging on the wall at the Napier Sailing Club.

Updated – to appease Robin E I have added a wee bit more sailing to ‘sailing sunday’ 🙂

Kahurangi (below x2) at Napier – Michael O’Dwyer commented that the Patiki Kahurangi was last owned by a current NSC member Peter Parvin, about 30 years ago. He had replaced some broken ribs and had it moored in a creek awaiting further work. Unfortunately some scallywags deciding to go for an adventure untied it and let drift off into a storm grate which destroyed it.
Peter told Michael they had sailed her once in about 10 knots of breeze and recalls it being quite scary with her massive rig and no ballast.

Maroondah (below) off Westshore Beach

 

Some Chat
Yesterday several classic launch owners & friends went to Waiheke Island for the inaugural Oyster Festival held at the Rangihoua Estate Olive Grove, the day was a brilliant mix of live music, fine local wines & craft beers + the most succulent Te Matuku Bay oysters cooked every which way. And for the non oyster lovers there were plenty of other dishes to sample.
On route we had a a little scare that thankfully was a false alarm, while motoring along approx. 1k from the island we spotted something in the water & turned around. It was a body & the mood on board sobered up pretty fast, closer inspection revealed it was a dummy that Coast Guard had planted as part of an exercise. There was a note explaining this attached to the dummy. All very relived that the day was not going to be distributed by a ‘floater’.

A peek below at the venue & food.

Passed Nereides heading home