Patsy Jean

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  • Olli Silk in blue shorts
  • Don Silk on the bow

THE LAUNCHING OF PATSY JEAN

The above gallery of photos ex Lew Redwood ex Te Papa ex Eric Lee-Johnson, show the 1950’s launching of Don Silk’s yacht – Patsy Jean off the beach at Opononi, on the Hokianga Harbour. Given the turnout and attire it must have been a big day in Opononi.

Input from Hylton Edmonds – Born at Whangaroa, Don Silk was the country carrier in the Hokianga, he built Patsy Jean, and set off in 1959 for Rarotonga (c/w with wife and baby daughter), where not long after, with good mate Bob Boyd set up a successful inter island shipping company. Years of great adventure later, Don came ashore to be Harbour Master and Port Safety Officer, sadly he passed away in 2012 aged 84. A born raconteur, he wrote a great book of these days and the shipping company he co-set up, called “From Kauri Trees to Sunlit Seas”, its a great yarn, very humorous, and a very hard book to put down once started!

CLASSIC YACHT EYE CANDY

For those that missed getting a varnish fix at yesterdays CYA NZ regatta, due to races 3 & 4 being cancelled (wind & rain) – the link below to a dockside camera ‘drive-by’ at St Tropez in Dec 2019 comes to us via the Yachting World website. 

Buccaneer Moves North

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BUCCANEER MOVES NORTH


Waiheke Island residents Tim & Michelle recently purchased the 1966 Brin Wilson designed, Fred Lidgard built launch – Buccaneer from Wellington and will / have relocated her to the Waitemata – we like that, far too many woodys disappear south and it takes years to get them home again. Buccaneer has spent the last 15 years in Wellington and its rumored she has crossed the Cook Strait more than 180 times. She measures approx. 34’8″ x 10’8″ v 4′ and is powered by a Ford diesel engine, HP unknown.

It has been noted that when launched she may have been Brin Wilson’s own personal boat. Keen to learn more about Buccaneer, ideally in the launch date > heading south period.

Input from Terry Gosden – In the 70s Buccaneer was berth in Milford Marina under the ownership of Graham Shaw(owner of Shaw Motors in Milford). The fly bridge was put on by John Gladden.I remember Graham been a first glass painter, the finish he got on the topcoat was like a spray finish.I also made and fitted the frd cabin top hatch for Graham. I also think she call back to the creek later under a new owner


MOBILE BOAT BUILDER

Recently I have had several people inquiring about the availability of a crafts person for small jobs e.g. repair cupboard doors, fix broken shelf, fix loose boarding platform etc.Someone that travels to the vessel and does the work on-site. Can anyone recommend someone (Auckland based), might be suited to a semi-retired person. Drop me an email if you can help waitematawoodys@gmail.com

HUIA – Needs A New Owner

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HUIA Needs A New Owner
Huia the 37’ 1919 built kauri launch has just celebrated her 100th birthday and was destined to receive some serious TLC from her owner her bought her in Jan 2020, but a speed bump got in the way – the owners are expecting a an additional to the family and its not another boat – this one has arms and legs 🙂

So woodys – Huia has to move on to a new owner, who has the time and determination to take on a cool project. Huia is powered by a 60hp Ford Lees diesel and appears to have most of the boat bits needed to be an good woody. Price is very realistic – so anyone keen on taking her on?
Back in 2014 – Huia featured 4sale on WW and I took the liberty of pointing out how bad the tme listing was – link below 🙂https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/09/08/how-not-to-sell-a-classic-wooden-launch/


NEXT WOODYS WEEKEND UPDATE – the date has been pushed out, will come back next week with details on our upcoming events.

WAITEMATAWOODYS ON MOBILE DEVICES eg if you read WW on our mobile (smart) phone, hopefully it should now be loading faster and you’ll be able to find the sections that appear on the right hand side of the screen (on computers), examples below, highlighted in red, at the bottom of the stories.

Spirit – The Waitemata’s Newest Woody

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Spirit – The Waitemata’s Newest Woody
Over the Easter break Olaf Wiig and family headed out to Great Barrier Island on the families classic launch – Margaret Anne, photo below. Margaret Anne is a very smart looking woody but this trip she was overshadowed by a new addition – Spirit a 2.4m dinghy that Olaf built at the NZ Traditional Boat Building School. Spirit is a rowing version of the 2.4. dinghy (prototype number 4) of the boats that the NZTBS are hoping to form the basis of a modern Wooden boat building course. Olaf is a trustee at the school and as you’ll see looking at the dinghy a very talented gent.
Olaf built this one as a first boat for my daughter and she chose to call it Spirit. 


On the subject of the New Zealand Traditional Boat Building School , I called in on Tuesday and was saddened to see the team packing up as they have to vacate the building due to funding issues – hopefully the school will reappear one day soon as part of the elusive waterfront Vos boatshed project, probably squeezed in between dragon boats and waka ………. I’ll leave the room now 🙂

Margaret Anne & Primadonna

Easter Weekend – Bay of Island Woodys

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Easter Bay of Island Woodys
Two good looking classics out and about over the Easter long weekend – the 1920’s 34’ launch – Darleen. Read and see more at the 2016 WW story belowhttps://waitematawoodys.com/2016/05/20/darleen/And the yacht Tuahine, that we known only a little about. She made a cameo appearance in the 2018 WW story below, and Simon Smith and Harold Kidd commented about her provenance.https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/01/09/woodys-holidaying-in-the-bay-of-islands/
Speaking of good looking woodys – the 1st mate on Darleen is rather cute 🙂


Would You Buy This Boat
No names, but sometimes you have to wonder if people really think they will sell their boat when they post photos like the one below on trademe. And this was one of the better photos……………. 🙂

Maroro

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MARORO
Back in November 2020 I spotted Brian Thomas’s launch – Maroro, tied up at the marina in Thames, top photo. Over Easter Angus and Charlie Rogers came across Maroro cruising in Te Kouma Harbour. Nice to see her underway. A very salty ship, love the deck-chair on the stern – perfect spot to take in the scenery.


Link below to previous WW story
https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/11/03/maroro-3/

Manaia – A Peek Down Below

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MANAIA – A Peek Down Below


Manaia has made several appearance on WW, link below the backgrounds her early days . She was designed by Alex Collings and built in 1965 by Percy Vos. Now thanks to a nudge from Alan Sexton and tme – we get to see the results of some of the recent work on her. She is looking very smart for an ex Harbour Board Pilot boat 🙂

Currently offered for sale but you’ll need a 25m marina. Contact waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Previous WW story link below
https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/01/26/manaia/

Oyster – 1980’s

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OYSTER – Sailing Sunday
Bay of Islands woody – Dean Wright, sent me the above photo of the 1903 Charles Bailey Jnr. built yacht Oyster that John Gander has sent to him along with the comments below. Oyster has just changed hands, new owner – Gavin Pascoe and now resides in Wellington. In late Feb we back grounded the boat https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/02/28/oyster-sailing-sunday/

The above photo I took of her in about 1980’s she was owned by an old guy, Dick Young. He kept her in Curious Cove out from the holiday camp were he had a job, the camp accommodated school parties and often Oyster would be seen loaded with a crew of school kids that Dick would take sailing. He was an interesting fellow with a wealth of knowledge of wooden sail boats and always seemed to keep Oyster in good shape.

Sunday is the last chance this year to partake in the best wood fired pizza i have ever had. Woody Bay, Rakino Island

Garlic Pizza bread

Mystery Run-About

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MYSTERY RUN-ABOUT
The above photo is dated 1965 and that rig (car & boat) would have been very special back then. The location is outside Pomeroy’s Garage in Hamilton, that later became Dominion Motors and then MZ Motor Corporation. Photo and details ex Lew Redwood.


Quite a distinctive car and boat – anyone able to tell us the design of the boat ?

Rakino Island This Weekend? See below – All happening in Woody Bay (open Friday & Saturday as well)

Milford Creek

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MILFORD CREEK (aka Wairau Cove) 

Very early start yesterday – left the marina in the dark, no issues with that but it was a 3.60m high tide so the harbour was full of junk / driftwood. Just off North Head there was a loud clunk, followed by multiple clunks – had collided with a 12m+ very bendy Pohutukawa branch, thankfully it was dispatched without having a relationship with the propeller.  The reason for the early departure was a quick trip to The Slipway Milford for a trip to the beauty parlour – 2 hour turnaround – water blast the bottom, fix a few scrapes and dents – Raindance was starting to look tad like a work-boat 🙂 Amazing what you can achieve with the right tools, product and a heat gun 🙂 thanks Jason Prew.

 
Along side Raindance on the #2 railway slip (there is 3) was Eileen Patricia, also getting some TLC, heads up – never ask EP’s owner to ice a cake for you…… 😉


As I was heading out of the creek, I had to wait while the very smart ex workboat – Te Hauraki came into the marina, on route to The Slipway Milford for some work to her decks. She always looks the part – her shape and paint scheme work perfectly.