RESTORATION OF THE SOUTHERN WOODEN LAUNCH – NANCY LEE
Another woody story from my new hunting ground, the ‘Memories of Abel Tasman National Park’ fb page.
Todays classic wooden launch is named NANCY LEE and the photos come to us from a Sept 2020 fb post by Darryl Wilson, via John Burland.
At the time of the post the NANCY LEE was under going a restoration at the hands of Marc Wilson and Craig Hyland,the location of the work was Port Motueka Marine Services. Looks like a big labour commitment taking her back to bare wood.
Then in 2021 Margaret posted an update, as seen in the 4th photo above, but commented that there was a wee way to go before she is back in the Riwaka Estuary.
Can we learn what happened after 2021, did she get finished and if so where is NANCY LEE now.
AND PROMISE – NO MORE Abel Tasman stories for a while 🙂
TRADITIONAL CLASSIC BOATS MOORED ON THE WAIROA RIVER
Following on from yesterday’s story on the annual Classic Wooden Boat Cruise to the Clevedon Cruising Club, as promised today we share the wooden craft passed moored on the Wairoa River.
Many are semi permanent residents and its interesting to see what (if any) work has been undertaken in the previous 12 months. All too often these back waters can become parking lots for owners that object to lining the back pockets of the Auckland marina owner fat cats. So it was nice to see most skippers are keeping up the maintenance on their craft, and pleasing to see a lot of ’new’ arrivals.
Enjoy the gallery – photo quality varies as the first click was at 6.30am and the light improved as the journey progressed up river. As always click on photos to enlarge.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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