CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT CLEVEDON SPRING CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS

Posted on by
2
Very Early Start Up The River
Follow The Leader
Raffle Prizes

CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT CLEVEDON SPRING CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS

A tad weary writing this story so it will be short and I’ll let the photos tell the story.The weekend just gone saw a fleet of classic wooden craft making the pilgrimage to the CLEVEDON CRUISING CLUB for the annual woodys overnight BBQ.

As always the tide wags the dogs tail so we were looking at a very early trip up the Wairoa River, by early try 6.15am. The smart woody skippers travelled down Friday afternoon and anchored overnight at the river mouth. A great sunset delivered some nice photos.

I took photos of the classic woodys moored on route, it is always interesting to view the deterioration of some craft and the new arrivals. Will do a story on the river trip tomorrow.

Most of Saturday was spent boat hoping and catching up on dockside gossip. Rest assured if you weren’t there you were talked about.Captain Giddens hosted late afternoon drinks on ALLERGY and then we moved onto the clubrooms for the evening.

If you haven’t been to a Woody gig at the CCC its an all-embracing old school night shindig – bbq’s, outdoor fires, karaoke with a professional singer that could make even the worst shower singer sound ok. There are raffles, which I have to report the woodys skippers did very well at – Captain Giddens collecting 4 prizes.
Everything is BYO but the club very generously provide additional food and an impressive dessert table.

Departure home on Sunday was almost as early as Saturday and the forecast wasn’t flash eh N>30 knots. I can’t speak for the others but it wasn’t the very pleasant and if it wasn’t bolted down it ended up on the cabin floor 😦

A big shout out to the classic yachts that joined the flotilla this year, with access to the local knowledge of Barry Abel, the deeper draft yachts had an uneventful  passage on the river . Special thanks to all the woodys that attended by car, your company added to the evening.

Enjoy the photos and start thinking about the Spring Splash At Kawau Island on Labour Weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED WOODEN LAUNCH, PT CHEVALIER 1933 – ANY CLUES

Posted on by
Reply

UNIDENTIFIED WOODEN LAUNCH, PT CHEVALIER 1933 – ANY CLUES

Todays woody photo comes to us from the NZ Herald archives via David Tomlinson and is dated April 1933. The caption reads – ‘Looking down from the foreshore at Pt Chev, showing visiting sailing boats on the beach’.
On the original fb post Robin Elliott did a wonderful job of ID’ing the yachts, see below.

But todays challenge is can we put a name to the launch at anchor in the middle of the beach.

“From left the yachts are: S-47 Snipe, an American Snipe class design that failed to gain popularity here and was registered in the open S-class yachts exc 14ft not exc 16ft.; T-41 14-footer Nyria, originally a 14-foot One Design (X-class) built by Colin Wild in 1921 but converted to an open T-class not exc 14ft, in 1929; V-13 Belle, 18ft racing yacht designed by Pt Chevalier identity, A.L. ‘Trotter’ Willetts. V-class was exc 16ft not exc 18ft; S-13 Kittiwake was originally a Logan built yawl that was converted to an S-class and raced with Pt Chevalier Sailing Club by the Thorpe brothers

LABOUR WEEKEND SPRING SPLASH (2)Download

ROOM FOR ONE MORE – CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH KOTARE

Posted on by
1

ROOM FOR ONE MORE – CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH KOTARE

Today hopefully, weather permitting, myself and a collection of classic woodys will be docked at the CLEVEDON CRUISING CLUB for our annual overnight BBQ cruise up the Wairoa River.

Whilst a few boats I’m sure will be slightly over crewed, none will match the photo of the tourist boat KOTARE that we see above unloading passengers at Kaiteriteri Beach, Nelson. Seriously…… how there wasn’t a capsize I do not know, and you can be sure there wasn’t a PFD for everyone 😦

The photo comes to us from the ‘Memories of Abel Tasman National Park’ fb on a posting dated Nov 2019 by Trevor Norriss, via John Burland.

Back in April 2021we ran a story on KOTARE, lots of history and photos  – link here https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/04/24/kaiteriteri-beach-can-we-id-the-launch/

2022 Cruise

EX 1929 CLASSIC WORKBOAT KATIPO

Posted on by
1

EX 1929 CLASSIC WORKBOAT KATIPO 

Seems these days there is a fb page for just about anything and everything – John Burland sent me a link to the ‘Memories of Abel Tasman National Park’ page. There I came across a  posting dating back to April 2023 where a Peter Campbell posted a copy of a Cody  Engineering advertisement from November 1951 , featured in the ad was the 26’ launch – KAIPO. At the time owned by Henry Cotton. She had a 8’6” beam and draft of 2’6”. We ran a brief story on her back in 2023 but didnt learn about, so we try again 🙂

Then we learnt in the comments section(ex Steve Thomas 2024) thatDon Thomas and Boxer Fanslowe purchased KATIPO from Nelson Fisheries mid 1950’s and was then refurbished by Dick Stringer in Nelson.. In another comment in 2024 a Lynda Gould advised the Don Thomas was her father and him and Boxer owned the boat in the 1950”s > 1970’s.

She was originally built by the Juke yard, Wellington and launched 1929.  The Petter 10hp engine was replaced around 1960 with a Ford Dexta 3 Cylinder, 32hp. KATIPO remained in the Thomas family until sold around 1998. 

She’s now sitting in Picton Marina and I believe with the same Dexta engine still going strong after 63 years service. Photo below ex Steve Thomas, taken around 25 years ago.

Do we know what became of KATIPO.

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH JUDITH AIMEE HAULED FOR SOME TLC 

Posted on by
Reply

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH JUDITH AIMEE HAULED FOR SOME TLC 

Back in April 2024 42’ classic wooden launch – JUDITH AMIEE made a cameo appearance on WW and the story generated a lot of chat re her past and photos from c.1960 , linked below – .https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/07/04/judith-aimee-classic-wooden-launch/

jUDITH AIMEE was built at the Percy Vos shed in 1966 to drawings from Ken McCormick. 

Today thanks ro Alan Sexton we get a up close and out of water look at her while recently hauled out at Robertson Boats in Warkworth.

GETTING SHIPSHAPE FOR THE WOODYS CLEVEDON CRUISE THS WEEKEND

Posted on by
Reply

GETTING SHIPSHAPE FOR THE WOODYS CLEVEDON CRUISE THS WEEKEND
Guests aboard the 55’ spirit of tradition classic woody motorsailer – ALLERGY , often marvel at the seemingly bottomless supply of rum, well woodys a recent visit to the Slipway Milford revealed the secret –  Captain Dave has the boating equivalent of a wine cellar.

Joking aside its not too late to join in this weekends Classic Woody Cruise to the CLEVEDON CRUISING CLUB for an overnight dockside BBQ – RSVP NOW to  waitematawoodys@gmail.com for details.

LOOKING FOR A GOOD READ / GIFT


If you’re like me and find most fishing websites and magazine articles a little to fisher bloke talking to fisher bloke, Al Brown’s new book HOOKED is a great guide and reference tool + some easy recipes.  To quote the back cover  ‘Learn how to tie knots, bait hooks, cast lures, and fillet and cook your catch’. No glossy photos , its all illustrations and line drawings – primary audience is children and adults like me. At $35 its a bargain and if you are an expert – its the perfect gift for a grandchild or someone new to the sport. FYI – my local bookshop sold out in 24 hrs.

RSVP – boat name to waitematawoodys@gmail.com

ONE OF THEM IS DREAMING – 17’ V 40’ WOODY

Posted on by
1

ONE OF THEM IS DREAMING – 17’ V 40’ WOODY

An unnamed woody recently sent me a link to a craft on tme with a one line note “wow check this out, you should buy it”.

Well woodys turns out the craft was a 1955 17’ speedboat . Bui;t by someone named ‘Lewis’ and repowered with a 350hp Mercury inboard V8, capable of 90 kph (50 knots). 

Short answer – not for me.

Reading the listing it was all a little OTT eg “Rare vintage boats like this almost never come up for sale”, well thats not correct tme has mutable listings and then this line – “Trade-ins and finance welcome, and transport can be arranged nationwide.”

The nostrils started to twitch , smells like a car dealer…… well reading on turns out it was being sold by a car yard. And with a $40>45k price tag someones been sniffing the fuel tank.

So what’s the real story today – well this listing just illustrates the current divide between classic wooden motorboats and zoom zoom recreational trailer craft. 

For the same $$ you could own the 40’ Miller & Tunnage classic woody below and do laps of NZ.

RESCUED YET AGAIN – THE CLASSIC LAUNCH NANA

Posted on by
Reply

RESCUED YET AGAIN – THE CLASSIC LAUNCH NANA

I decided to lead off todays photos with a great looking photo of the classic wooden launch – NANA , why? While most of the many WW stories on NANA show her either damaged and close to being broken up or during a restoration. They say cats have 9 lives, well NANA most have been a cat in another life because I do not think there is vessel on WW that has had as much misfortune as NANA has. Use the WW search panel to view her eventful past.

But today is a good story day – first some info on NANA – was designed by C. Bailey Jnr. &  built by C. Bailey & Sons for Mr F Alison of Matiatia, Waiheke Island in1934 & launched in late November / December. She is 35′ with a 8′ beam & a 3′ draft. She was very quick in her early days e.g. 17 knots.

In June 2023 WW was ran an SOS story looking for a new custodian and John Woodcock stepped up to the plate and took ownership of NANA and commenced the restoration. Aside from the electrical work John has / is undertaking the work himself , with help from a few friends. The plan is to have her back in the water by Christmas.I’m sure a few woodys will be asking the question – why has this launch been ’saved’ from the back-hoe so many times, well the answers simple – 1. She’s a Bailey and that makes her special 2. She’s a drop dead looker.

So woodys enjoy the peek into John’s work and be grateful that there are still folks like John prepared to do the hard yards and save some of our fine classics.

Over the weekend I received the photos below of a Lidgard yacht named NAOMA that was cut up at the Milford Cruising Club Auckland yard last week – story goes the owner just ran out of $$, time and motivation. Made a cameo appearance on WW back in April 2025.https://waitematawoodys.com/2025/04/13/what-happened-to-the-classic-wooden-yacht-naoma/

IN SEARCH OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – KALAMERA

Posted on by
4

IN SEARCH OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – KALAMERA

Todays woody story comes to us from Denis O’Callahan via the November 1958 edition of Sea Spray magazine.One of the craft featured was the 34’ motor launch KALAMERA, built c.1958 by Alan (Snow) Water in Takapuna, Auckland. She was built for a gent named Jack Bennent of Paeroa. Her intended home port/s was listed as Coromandel /Whangamata, where she was to be used primarily for sport fishing.

Built of single skin (full length) 1″ kauri carvel planks, her specs were 34 x 10’6” x 3’6”.

When launched a 40hp Ford diesel powered her and given her size, gave a respectable 9 knots.

The question today woodys is what became of her post launching – did she get to Coromandel, and where has she been since. Maybe a name change. Keen to learn more.

AHEADS UP ON THE POPULARITY OF WAITEMATAWOODYS.COM

Just received the latest report on the visitation / viewing numbers for the month of August. 

VISITORS – UP 13%

VIEWS – UP 84% – The highest month ever, a WW record.

Great growth with Australian readers – has been climbing for the last 3 months – 385%+ growth and maintaining the new readers. Still can’t crack the UK market 😦  get better numbers out of Italy ✓

Thanks for logging in each day. And as always please send in any woody related content.

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH FLASHBACK  –  JOHN GLADDEN’s LADY JESS

Posted on by
Reply
2021
2025

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH FLASHBACK  –  JOHN GLADDEN’s LADY JESS

LADY JESS the1961 John Gladden built classic wooden launch last appeared on WW back in May 2021 when Dean Wright took the top photo of her berthed at Tutukaka Marina, link below to that story. At the time Scott Macindoe sent in a great piece on the boats provenance, also in the link https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/05/25/lady-jess-woody-workshop/

Then in June 2025 we saw her on fb (2nd photo above), via Lew Redwood. Now retired from commercial big game fishing. Fast forward to yesterday and woody John Dawson sent in the great photos below from her early days, before the addition of a 2nd story.