Category Archives: Yachts

Wynyards (Lushington’s) Bay + Wirihana 1

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Wynyards (Lushington’s) Bay
photo ex Mac Taylor Collection

Now I’m sure to some / most of you the bay in the above photo will be very familiar but not to me. I have a good hunch but I’ll let you all chip in. Remember you can click on the image to enlarge & if you click again on the enlarged photo it will zoom in even more.

Wirihana 1
The 2nd part of today’s post is a great photo, below, I found in Mac Taylor’s album, the launch is the first Wirihana (1) – there is a great story found at the link below concerning Wirihana (1), which most likely became Lady Gay (1) + how Wirihana (2) & Lady Gay (2) fitted into the scene. Great reading & a fine example of the ww blog really working.

Wirihana Who ‘Built’ Her?

Update

Seems everyone is right on the button with ID’ing the location – Harold Kidd sent me a link to the Henry Winkelmann photos (post card) ex the Auckland Museum collection below, taken in 1899. It is ‘Rodmershaw’ the residence of Mr Lushington.

I’m very familiar with the location as early one morning during a Mahurangi Regatta weekend, I had to retrieve my #1 kauri clinker dinghy from the beach after it went walkies in the night & washed up there, undamaged. The gods were smiling on me that weekend 🙂

Update from Harold Kidd
The photo below, ex Auckland Museum collection,  shows Mrs Lushington sitting on the ballast of her husband’s Robert Logan-built yacht MURITAI in 1899 at the property.
The 22ft mullet boat on the beach behind MURITAI is the 22 footer BELLE built by Hewson & Melville in 1883 also owned by Lushington. BELLE was converted to a deadwood keel yacht & later renamed LOTUS.

Muritai & Belle (Lotus) c1899

Pam Cundy Input

Pam sent me the photo below of of her partner, George Emtage, grandfather Captain George Samuel Emtage. They lived in a bay just around the corner from the bay shown above and worked for the Lushingtons and the Chandlers on Motuora. The excerpt from the book Jade River tells the story of how George’s family inherited Motuora island.

The Des Townson Story & The 2015 Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition – Part 2 – Sailing Sunday

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The Des Townson Story & The 2015 Classic Yacht & Launch  Exhibition – Part 2 – Sailing Sunday

Today’s post features the yachts, both keel & trailer, that are on display at the Tino Rawa Trust hosted exhibition & gives you a peek at the collection of memorabilia & models also on display.
The show is open today from 10.00am > 4.00pm at the Viaduct – details in yesterdays post (scroll down). So if you are looking for something to do post chapel ;-), come on down.

I’ll let the photos tell the story. Enjoy

Remember click on only photo to enlarge 😉

Tony Stevenson
John Macfarlane
Sue Townson
Bill Townson
Brian Peet
Martin Tusker, Tony Stevenson, Peter Montgomery, Greg Fenwick

Updated – dropped down to the exhibition late this afternoon, primarilly because Colin Pawson told me I had over looked the best Townson yacht on show – Caper. I did have one photo of her, but most of the time I do what I’m told 🙂 so back I went.

So glad I went back & introduced myself to the owner & had a wee tour – simply stunning, & yes would get my best in show. Check out the bilge photo, I suspect the pump does not see a lot of use, a duster would be all that is required 😉

I also had a peek on-board the launch Aristos, she too is a work of art.

 

The Des Townson Story & The 2015 Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition – Part 1

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The Des Townson Story & Aristos

Yesterday I was privileged to attend the opening of the 2015 Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition, now if you have been living under a stone & are not aware of this annual event hosted by Tony Stevenson & the Tino Rawa Trust, the concept is simple but a winner. Each year one of our wooden boat designers is profiled & a collection of their craft is assembled & displayed. In recent years profiled designers have been – Jack Brooke & Colin Wild, in 2015 the event celebrates the life & work of Des Townson MNZM. In the nicest way, Des Townson was a freak, every boat from a 2.4m pram dinghy to a 12m cruiser/racer he designed was a work of art. A Townson will always be the prettiest yacht in the bay, their classic styling & purity of form was a winner on launch day & remains so to this day, over 3,500 Townson yachts have been built – that alone is impressive.

Today on ww I have featured Des’s one & only motorboat, Aristos, the 11.4m displacement launch built by Noel May. Tomorrow I will open the flood gates & post photos from the opening function & the fleet of stunning yachts on display at the Viaduct.

The event runs today & tomorrow, between 10am & 4.00pm at the Viaduct, alongside the draw bridge & in front of the old Team NZ base, entry is free & if you are passionate about beautiful boats you need to be there – the collection of craft on & off the water & Townson memorabilia is amazing.

As part of the celebration – the Tino Rawa Trust have produced a glossy journal profiling Des Townson’s life & designs – its available at the exhibition marquee for $20 & this wonderful publication complied by John Macfarlane, has to  be, a must have in your collection. I have two copies to give away to woodys – I’ll make it simple, the first two woodys that correctly name the design of the Townson yacht that was the most popular i.e the most built (excluding the Electron model yachts)- I’ll give you a clue- it shared its name with a popular model of automobile, wins a copy. Because some of you struggle to work out how to use the ww comments section 🙂 I’ll split the prizes – one via email entry at waitematawoodys@gmail.com & one via entry in the comments section. You can only enter once 😉

Now Aristos – even with the addition of a flying bridge & her once varnished coamings hidden under battleship grey paint, she is a Townson & that means that no matter what angle you view her, she is simply beautiful. Why only one was built I do not know, maybe there is a story there?

So folks, make your way to the waterfront this weekend & take advantage to this once only exhibition that showcases one of our most successful & talented craftsman.

Now the owner of Aristos, Ray Haydon, is a very clever & talented man with his hands – a wee example of his skills can be seen on the bow of Aristos, Ray has designed & crafted an anchor turner (ensures the anchor is presented correctly when retrieving by winch) – it looks a little like a big bottle opener, but I can assure you it will be ‘fit for purpose’. Rather than paying for the imported Italian ones, someone needs to market Ray’s design 😉

Tight Racing – Sailing Sunday

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Tight Racing – Sailing Sunday

photo ex Mac Taylor Collection

Asking woodys to ID the race would be a big ask 🙂 so maybe we just ask that we match the yacht names to the sail numbers. From L>R its – E34 / L18 / A11 / E21 / E11 / A16 / A2 / H6 / B20 .

And if you wondered why we refer the boats as – shes , below might be the answer.

13m Marina Berth For Rent
If anyone is looking for a 13m marina berth at Gulf Harbour? one of the private apartment berths (extra security) is available on a long term / permanent basis. Email address below for details.   kenpat@ihug.co.nz

LA MORENA – Sailing Sunday

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LA MORENA – Sailing Sunday

Sometimes you see a boat & just go wow – now everyone has their own taste but today’s yacht rang my bell. Got to love the dinghy & the solar panel 🙂
La Morena is a 95 square metre Skärgårdskryssare. She is a 1922 masterpiece by Gustaf Estlander, the Finnish architect.
The yacht was built in Germany for a Swedish engineer, Frithiof Dahl. He was a building contractor, at that time responsible for the building of Ragnar Östberg’s famous City hall in Stockholm. Under the name Roxane III, the engineer race her during the 1920’s and 30’s, against Kerma and other famous yachts, probably mostly around Sandhamn and Saltsjöbaden. Then the family Graffman own her for almost forty years. They call her La Morena, “the brunette” in Spanish. They sold her to Arne Fyrk and Bengt Helgesson in the late 1970’s, who moved her from Stockholm to Motala and lake Vättern, were she stayed for 20 years. La Morena was almost 60 years old when they bought her. No age for a beauty, but she had worked hard and was in deep need of recondition. Arne and Bengt’s effort saved her for the future. The year 1998 she was back in Stockholm with new owners, who sold her to the present owner in the summer of 2004.

During the winter of 2004-05 an extensive restoration were carried out. It ends with a new keel plank, a new rudder stem and knee, 50 meter new planking, a new stainless steel rudder, a new modern profile of the keel, and high finish of the whole bottom. Damages in the deck and deckhouse were also repaired, as were damages in the mast. The restoration has continued. With the aim to both have a shining and a fast yacht.

The text is Swedish but the photos of the restoration are stunning – link below
http://www.lamorena.se/restoration/

Also as a bonus – click the link to the on-line USA Classic Yacht magazine
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/ClassicYacht/clasicyacht-septoct2015/2015090801/

MONDAYS WW POST IS A MONTY – THE RESTORATION OF DICK FISHER’S EX. PILOT BOAT, ‘AKARANA’, 40+ photos.

The Wellington Scene

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Phyllis
Phyllis
Doris
Wai-iti

THE WELLINGTON SCENE

photos & details ex Harold Kidd & Gavin Pascoe

Some Wellington launches for a change.

Harold recently bought a postcard of a “launch on Auckland Harbour” which was clearly Wellington. Harold keeps in touch with Gavin Pascoe of the Wellington Classic Yacht Trust on anything Wellington so sent him off a copy. Between the two of them they identified her as Phyllis but in passing discussed images of two other similar craft, Doris and Wai-iti.

You can see that they all have a modest  ketch rig and similar configurations.

Phyllis was a 21 footer built at Kilbirnie to a Rudder Mag design by G. Dennis, starting in December 1910 and launching in August 1912. She was still around in early 1916.

Doris was built in Auckland as the 28ft mullet boat Dorothy but was sold to Charlie Moore in Wellington in 1912. He converted her to a deadwood keeler with an auxiliary but she became solely a power boat pretty soon. She was still around in 1929.

Wai-iti was built by Simmonds and Hutson of Wellington in late 1924 and they also built her semi-diesel engine. She was 28ft x 9ft. She lasted until at least WW2.

Harold Kidd Update

PHYLLIS certainly is very pretty, but you’d expect that of a Rudder design.
DOROTHY/DORIS’s cabintop is a bit lumpy, but it was put on in Wellington after she had been converted to a Cook Strait-capable launch from a very basic Auckland-built 28ft fishing mullet boat and form follows function most adequately.
WAI-ITI’s hull form is very sweet but I still can’t get my head around the way her cabin ports are placed, equidistant from the top of the coaming rather than in the middle between the top of the coaming and its bottom (sheer) as is the case in most boats of the time. To me, that’s a little awkward and unsympathetic. This has been commented on before in WW in relation to a possibly amateur-built Wellington launch.

Mistletoe – Sailing Sunday

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Mistletoe – Sailing Sunday
photo ex Jason Prew

Jason snapped the photo above in August 2015 in Tauranga Harbour. Can not be a lot of ‘these’ down there so hopefully one of the woodys will be able to ID her.

Harold Kidd Update – 16/09/2015

Fred Mann built two 24 footers called MISTLETOE. The give away really is the narrow stern which betrays her early build. This is said to be MISTLETOE I which Fred built in late 1904, first race Auckland Anniversary Regatta January 1905. MISTLETOE II was built in 1914 and had very similar lines.
Frankly I am undecided which of the two this one is. Some authorities reckon she’s the 1904 boat, some the 1914. The APYMBA registration of MISTLETOE (sic) as I7 recorded her as being built in 1911, which merely shows how much confusion there has been since the second MISTLETOE was built.
Whichever one she is, she’s another survivor of Mann’s excellent design and craftsmanship.
I did most of my early keel yacht sailing on Lincoln Wood’s Harrison Butler-designed and Mann-built MEMORY and was regaled by Linc with Mann stories (as were most of Devonport’s young water rats he took as crew).

The  photo below was sent to me by Judith (Le Clerc) Wallath & is of a punt built in Whangarei for her brother Brian by their Dad, Godfrey Le Clerc.  The picture was taken at Onerahi with Limestone Island in the background. The punt was made out of a salvaged board that had borer and planks from a wooden case.  It was painted with tar from the gasworks but still leaked through the borer holes, and had a sail made from an ironing sheet, complete with iron-shaped scorch mark. Brian took it, against instructions, over to Limestone Island.  His Dad removed a plank from the bottom until there was a promise to behave.   Brian went on to become a champion P Class and Z Class sailor, and his sister (Judith) also sailed a P Class (on Hamilton Lake). Definitely a classic woody 🙂

Where is this woodys gathering?

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WHERE IS THIS WOODYS GATHERING?
photo ex Harold Kidd

Today’s photo was taken in the period 1895-1905 & is ‘around’ the Waitemata.
What say you woodys – whats the location?

Article ex Paperpast from the NZ Herald 3 Jan 1896 (ex Harold Kidd)

Also a wee bonus today – Martin Turnwald, son of CYA member John Turnwald (MV Robyn Gae), who now resides in Switzerland, has sent in a c.1993 video of the William C Daldy. We see the crew was firing up the boilers to turn the old girl around on the wharf and Martin and then girlfriend, (now wife) were on board to watch.

 

Ngaio – Sailing Sunday

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Ngaio – Sailing Sunday
photo ex Nathan Herbert

Todays photos were taken in early Jan 2015 by Nathan & are from Tutukaka. The hauled out ‘yacht’ has an interesting set up – 2 masts + game poles 🙂
I have to say it looks a great spot to haul out.

Anyone able to shed some light on the boat?

No longer a mystery – its Ngaio, designed by Jim Mason in 1941 – photos below from Dean Wright

Harold Kidd Input

In case Ian doesn’t post, she was designed and built by Jim Mason at Grey Street, Whangarei from a half model and launched in 1941. She was partly mobilised in 1942 by NAPS and crewed by Jim Mason, skipper, Tom McKinnon, deputy skipper, and Jack Carpenter, Bob Baker, Peter Roberts and Ian Crawshaw. Her NAPS number was Z40.
These NAPS boats did a great job during wartime when German commerce raiders and minelayers were busy around New Zealand at the start and were followed by Jap submarines checking us out. The Whangarei boats were in the most likely place for trouble.
Lovely boat.

Input from owner & son of builder, Ian Mason

A following up on Harolds post on Ngaio,all correct I might add. She was built over a two year period. She is carvel planked in kauri over kowhai ribs and pohutukawa stem, stern and floors. Her first engine was a 6 cylinder Delage out of a car owned by my father. When it was replaced in 1957 by an air cooled Enfield they got more for the scrap than Dad originally paid for the car. When she was built kauri was 3 pound 15 shillings per 100 super feet and the copper nails were the equivalent of 75c per pound. The original suit of sails cost 25 pound from Sails and Covers. In those days she carried 750 sq ft of sail. Since the Enfield she has been powered by a Ruston, Bedford and now a 6BB1 Isuzu. I installed this in 1995  and we have had 7000 trouble free hours since. I first went aboard Ngaio when I was 4 months old. I have 4 children and 9 (to date) grand children and they all love her as much as those  that have gone before. I think she will keep the same name and family ownership for a while yet.

 

Tomif – Sailing Sunday

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TOMIF – Sailing Sunday
photos & details ex Don Kurylko & the WoodenBoat Forum

Now I have been a fan/follower of the USA WoodenBoat Magazine’s on-line forum for a long time, it was my go-to place for advice & guidance on most things to do with classic wooden boats. The secret was being able to ID who was handing out advice based on experience & who was sitting in a farm house 5,000 from the sea & had never owned a boat. There have been some amazing build projects & some real characters on-line. If you have not visited the forum I would encourage you to.

Everyone has their favourite stories (called threads) but one of best & longest running is the tale of Don Kurylko & the build of his 45′ cold moulded, topmast gaff cutter.  Below you will find the link to the WBF thread on Tomfi – lofting started back in 1981 & she came out of her shed earlier this year, yep thats 34 years 🙂  Don says that works out at close to 16,000 hours or 8 years of full time labour.

The story of Don test lofting in the snow is just one of many amusing tales – I’ll let Don tale it :-

“One day, a couple of winters before I started building, I found myself going a bit stir crazy and needed something to perk up my spirits. We were living in a small log cabin out in the boonies, without electricity, and there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment to be had. So, I grabbed a set of plans I had bought from designer Tom Colvin and headed out to the small pasture behind our place. I made up some long battens and “lofted” out the accommodations plan full size to see how it would fit. The snow was perfect. It had been really cold and the surface was so hard and crusty that you could walk on it without fear of breaking through. Once I got all the lines laid out, I filled them in with ashes from the wood stove. In a few hours I had a virtual boat that I could walk around in. It was fun and the drawing lasted for several weeks before it snowed again and covered it up. I guess there are some advantages to Canadian winters after all”.

The above photo collection is just a selection from the 100’s on Don’s Tomfi thread – if its raining today, I’ve probably ruined (or made) your day.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?123343-More-photos-of-Don-Kurylko-s-new-boat

SPECS:

LOA: 45’
LOD: 34’
DWL: 29’
BEAM: 10’
DRAFT 5’
DISP: 18,000 lbs
D/L: 333
BALLAST: lead – outside 5,600 lbs – inside 1000 to 2000 lbs, as required
B/D: 36% @ 6600 lbs; 42% @ 7600 lbs
SA working: 800 sq. ft. (SA/D: 18.5)
SA 3 lowers: 695 sq. ft. (SA/D: 16)