In between lock-downs in June 2021 I had cause to do a trip to Tauranga and took up Doug Owens invitation to visit the yard to get a peek at the refit of his 1937 Colin Wild built 55’ yacht – Nereides. The project was well underway and the commitment to best in class and standard of workmanship was already on display.
Yesterday Doug made contact to let me know that Nereides was back in the water and aside from some final interior work the refit was complete.
The gallery of photos above says it all, the pilot house just glows – well done to Doug and son Mohi. We will keep you updated as the final items are ticked off the to-do list.
The 44’, 1906 Arch Logan designed / Logan Brothers built yacht – Frances is one of the lucky classic woody yachts on the Waitemata Harbour, in 2004 she came into the Classic Yacht Charitable Trust fleet and became one of the most regularly sailed yachts in New Zealand. But as we all know wooden boats need regular TCL and Frances returned to the water on Friday after a visit to Wayne Olsen’s yard – Horizon Boats ready for the next 100 years.
Todays’ photos come to us from Angus Rogers, a trustee of CYCT
Link below to the CYCT website where you can read and see more of Frances and the rest of the CYCT fleet.
During the week I was up Warkworth way and did a fleeting visit to the Sandspit Yacht Club yard. As always lots of activity happening but one boat that took my eye was – Lady Bev.
I know very little about her other than in November 2018 she joined us on one of the Woody trips up to the Riverhead Tavern (on the water photo above).
Hopefully we can learn more about Lady Bev.
INPUT ex Nathan Herbert & ‘tao38’ – Lady Bev was built in 1957 by Dave Jackson for his father. Later extended by 4′.
HERITAGE BASIN MARINA ACCESS POLL
Back in Dec 2021 we ran a poll across the WW readers asking whether they supported access to the new Heritage Basin marina area being open to all CYA classic vessels or just pre-selected yachts. At the time 85% of people voted for all classic vessels e.g. yachts of all sizes and ages, work boats, launches. I suspect at Tuesday nights CYA AGM we will learn that the grey headed ones have paid no attention to what the classic boating movement wants and are continuing to pursue the Heritage Basin marina to be a yacht only area.
Always an amazing collection of traditional craft on display at the Thames Traditional Boat Festival, from the electric Slipper launches to a fleet of Little Ships of Dunkirk.
Today we have David from the blog – Cruising the Cut, taking us on a tour of the festival at Henley-on-Thames. Enjoy Thanks to Colin Pawson for the link
THE NZ CLASSIC YACHT ASSOCIATION – IT’S NOT JUST ME – The WW comment below is from someone that should/ could have been one of the next generation of CYA leading lights – sub 50 in age and very talented and most importantly – a seriously good guy – BUT – LOST
“I started to write a long comment about this and gave up. I withdrew my 10+ year CYA membership in protest last year and my 2 other family members will be following as none of our boats qualify and because of the way applications (invites) have been handled.
Unfortunately this means I won’t have an opportunity to comment, listen or vote on something that has forced a large number away from the CYA.
The vessels at heritage landing have reaped benefit for many years – many hardly getting any use. When previous sub-committee members suggest a change or review of criteria – they end up giving up and resigning due to the way things are handled.
No transparency, nepotism and a committee that rolls over too easily despite nervously agreeing off record that it’s a farce.”
The 40’ carvel planked – Heather was built in 1965 by Doug Robb and spent her first 35 years as a commercial fishing boat. In 2000 Miller & Tunnage converted Heather to pleasure boat and installed the 1996 Gardner 6LXB, which was brand new at the time. Like all good Gardners she is very efficient e.g. at 5.5 knots, running at 800rpm, she sips 1L pnm. Normal cruise speed is 7.5 knots, but can be taken up to 9.5 knots max.
To use the old car dealer term – Heather comes with all the fruit, incredibly spec’ed and all set for some serious cruising.
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up
04-10-2022 INPUT FROM Philip Trow
“Hi, Philip here….the present owner of Heather (2022). It is great to see a correct and largely accurate report on Heather. A couple of things to add: MV Heather was originally built by the Heberley family of the Marlborough sounds. She is named Heather after Heather Heberley (NZ author of some note).
Heather has been a particularly reliable and forgiving vessel for myself and previous owners. I have taken her around most of the South Is and I know previous owners have also used her for some great trips around the North is. She is very economical to run (1l/nm @ 800rpm/5.8kts exactly and circa 9l/hour at 1050rpm/ 7kts average.) Large 1200l+ tanks give her a very usable range. She also has a 6kw gen set and 800watt+ solar panels to handle long periods at mooring or unattended. As of writing she has less than 3600 hours from new on the Gardner 6lxb. That is very few hours on a Gardner.
Heather was rebuilt around 2000 and a great deal of heavy duty good quality equipment was installed. All of the fittings and equipment are much more robust than you would typically find on a pleasure vessel.
MV Heather has benefited from myself and previous owners who have maintained her to a good standard and also spent significant amounts keeping her up to date with features like AIS, drip free shaft seal and Blackwater.
I have retired from aviation, and now have a larger “Bluewater boat”, hence Heather is somewhat regrettably on the market.”
HEADS-UP CLASSIC LAUNCH, WORK BOAT & CRUISING YACHT OWNERS (shared with the entire WW community as it should be of interest to all)
Next Tuesday (2nd August) the Classic Yacht Association of NZ will hold its 2022 AGM – 7pm @ RNZYS
On the meeting agenda the only item under general business is ‘Report on the status of the expanded classic vessel marina / dock’, while on face value this might be seen as a positive sign – it will not be – let me give my view of the probable gist of the report.
1. Given the agenda item is after the election of a new committee – the previous committee will have already pushed flush on this e.g. ‘’it will be up to the incoming committee to…….”
2. The report should be dubbed the toffee apple report i.e. it will have layers of sugar coating on / around it
3. The report will be a test of the genuiness (I made that word up as I need to be careful what I say) of the situation i.e. what’s not said rather than what is.
4. There will be mention around everything still in negotiations etc etc but the reality is that a small group of CYA members have been working on a new waterfront marina for the exclusive, long term use of classic yachts i.e. primarily A Class, ideally gaff rigged. This goes against what has been ’shared’ with the other stake holders (Panuku and Maritime Museum) – fyi one of positives of living in an open society is that almost anything tabled in / around the Auckland Council can be viewed – below is taken from a report published in a late 2021.
5. The new Heritage Basin discussion will be verbally rolled into an umbrella waterfront discussion – that we will be told will cover all classic vessels – I’m only interested in the Heritage Basin area – what should be New Zealand’s waterfront home of our vibrant , traditional classic wooden boating movement. The real loser in all this is the New Zealand public who will miss the opportunity to experience our classic boating heritage. Instead they will see a classic yacht ‘car’ park.
IF THE FUTURE OF NZ’s TRADITIONAL MARITIME MOVEMENT / FLEET INTERESTS YOU (and you’re a CYA member) PLEASE COME ALONG NEXT TUESDAY AND WITNESS WHAT WE WILL BE TOLD.
SIDE ISSUE – I believe there won’t even be a need to vote on the election of a new committee – there are only enough people standing to fill the available positions. A little sad that the role/s have so little appeal. Personally I think it Is actually a strategy to keep the fiefdom functioning.
RELAX – There is always a woody story
Today’s woody is Delmar, that when I first got involved in the classic boating movement was very much on the scene and participated in some of launch events.
While mooching around East Tamaki last week I spotted Delmar fresh from a visit to the beauty parlour – looking very smart.
Not a woody and not a boat but after yesterdays weather it seems very fitting for a story 🙂 Amazingly the story of this Marton, Manawatu NZ Airbnb popped up in the Financial Times (FT) Weekend Magazine. Sleeps 4 and has a very nautical fit out.
Link below if your in the area and looking for somewhere to stay…….
In the interest of keeping you all abreast of the process of the restoration of 1948 Colin Wild built launch – Haunui, last week I paid a visit to master craftsman Paul Tingey. It has been 8 months since my last visit (where does the time go) and Paul and his team have made big advancements on the project. At first glance – lots of glowing timber either on display or peeking out from behind masking tape, but oh boy the focus is on systems, and the team are performing magic in terms of the available space and keeping it out of sight.
Check out the anchor winch, serious bling. And at the other end of the scale – the original ships clock has been retained – we like that.
I wasn’t brave enough to ask about an estimated re-launch date – but I’ll be back well before that happens 🙂
The above photo popped up in my ‘odds and sods’ file – it is dated late Jan 2022 so may have been from when I was helping deliver – Korawai to the BOI. But the photos code tells me it was taken on a Samsung device and I do not touch those, so maybe one of the other crew.
Anyway the launch is most likely named – Blue Seas, can anyone tell us if that is her name and any more intel about her.
INPUT ex Graham Hunter – She is still named BLUE SEAS Waiheke Island is also on the transom. She is now on a Mooring in Whakatakata Bay By OBC
25-07-2022 Input below from Chris Cotter (co-owner)
MY LIPS ARE SEALED – NO NAMES
If you need more proof on why not to bond your wooden boat and attach anodes – have a look below – luckily it was very localised. Very scary, the rudder shaft and surrounding area was VERY close to just not being there and you can guess what would have happened.
And if you need more read the most referenced story on the WW site – link below
During the week we have been refreshing the story as more content on the vessel, her crew and the passage have been uncovered. Most of the ’spade work’ was done by Deidre Brown, the daughter of Albert (Jim) Brown who was one of the crew on the delivery voyage. In conversations with Deidre she mentioned that her father in and around the 1960’s owned a yacht and whilst the family had photos, they have no record of the boats name, design / builder etc – so today woodys we are asking if the name Jim Brown and the above photos ring any bells with you.
The woody that supplies the best intel will receive a WW t-shirt and cap – I’m feeling extra generous today 🙂
Replies either via the WW Comments section or to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
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