Its Regatta Day – Get Off The Couch

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Its Regatta Day – Get Off The Couch
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The black & white photo above was taken 79 years ago at the 100th Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta. The woody front, right – PACIFIC, is owned by the Classic Yacht Association of NZ, Launch Captain – Nathan Herbert.
You could write a book on this woody, but to me the coolest thing is she was launched in 1917 & ownership remains in the same family – that is 102 years for those of your that failed school cert maths.
Today marks the 179th regatta & Pacific has recently undergone an extensive refit & in my eyes is presented ‘better than new’. Photos below to back that up 🙂
There are not many events in the world that are 179 years old & still running – so today, get off the couch & either hit the water in your boat or nab a prime waterfront viewing spot to see what makes Auckland, our harbour & classic woody fleet so special. Details on start times & viewing locations at the link below.
BIG WW STORY TOMORROW – PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE 2019 MAHURANGI REGATTA WEEKEND 
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Nomad + Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta Details

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NOMAD – Sailing Sunday
Today’s photo is very different from the woodys I was drooling over yesterday at the Mahurangi Regatta , but at WW they come in all shapes, sizes & condition.
Nomad certainly looks like that in her day she would not have been afraid of some blue water. Nomad was photographed by John Burland, in Nelson.
Do we know more about her?
28-01-2019 Input from Gavin Pascoe – 

Nomad started life as a catboat.
Builder:Edwin Bailey
Place built:Wellington
Year built:1914
Construction:2-skin diagonal
LOA:22,6
Beam:11,6
Class:Catboat centreboarder
Owners:E. W. Barnard (Wellington, 1947); W. Taylor (Petone, Lower Hutt, 1914-??)

Notes:Converted to yawl in 1929. Centreboard replaced by deadwood keel 1947, and changed to gaff rigged sloop/motorsailer.

some early pictures: https://tinyurl.com/yckh7udu

And here

http://www.wcyt.org.nz/abode/getCategoryProducts.do/_siteId__708/method__getCategoryProducts/_categoryId__4778

19-02-2024 UPDATE ex John Burland – photo below of Nomad at the Western Entrance, Mapua, Nelson. Rumour has it a restoration is on the horizon for Nomad.

AND A BIG REMINDER THAT TOMORROW IS AUCKLAND ANNIVERSARY REGATTA DAY

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If you are in & around Auckland, a float or on land – make the effort to check out the regatta, its an amazing sight & our woodys are a very big part of the event. Link below for details on what, when & where.
Two events with big appeal to WW motorboat followers – The Work / Tug boat race and the Classic Launch Race, again full details on the above link.
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A couple of weeks ago as part of my xmas/ny cruise story, I posted a photo of a yacht a ground at Man o War Bay, we had not luck ID’ing her, so the skipper escaped being named 🙂 Another photo from John Wicks has surfaced – see below, anyone recognise her?
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MAHURANGI REGATTA – What you are missing

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MAHURANGI REGATTA – What you are missing

If you are reading WW today, chances are you are not at Mahurangi, so to make up for it today we have a totally stunning 16minute video filmed & edited by Roger Mills of the 2018 event. Roger filmed the footage using a drone.
It truly is breathtaking & what makes it even cooler is the coverage of the Classic Launch Parade. I recommend to watch the video in it entirety, but if you are time poor, skip to the 1:50 mark.
This footage could easily be re-branded as a tourism NZ movie.
Enjoy the film, link below – 2019 regatta photos will be on WW on Tuesday.

Mahi

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MAHI 

The photos above of Mahi were sent in by Jeff Norris, whose friend owns her. She is kept on a ‘mooring’ at the Northern Wairoa Boat Club.
She is a very salty looking craft, with I suspect a work boat past.
Can anyone tell us more about Mahi?
And I have to give the owner a 10/10 for the paint job, big call when looking at the paint charts but she looks perfect – well done you. In fact if the skipper is size 2XL or above I’ll give him a WW t-shirt (did a few too many bigger ones in the last print run – but woodies – after size XL , the 2nd most popular size ordered was 3XL)
With good luck – I should be heading up to Mahurangi today for the weekends classic wooden boating event of the year 🙂
WW T's - Sky Blue:Denim

Lady Vee (Laura May)

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LADY VEE (Laura May)

Todays woody is the launch Lady Vee, photo ex Peter Loughlin & taken on Peter Xmas / NY cruise on Lady Margaret (Colin Wild).

LV drew a blank with me, but no doubt she will be well known to some of you, so don’t hold back – what do we know about her?

Input from Brian Worthington – She is ‘Laura May’ ( renamed Lady V ) built by Oliver and Gilpin .
Has had a few modifictions on topsides since it was launched.

Photo below of Lady Vee in Chamberlains Bay ex Jason Prew

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Cristina (Vanguard) A Peek Down Below

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CRISTINA (Vanguard) A Peak Down Below

Cristina has appeared on WW before (link below), now thanks to her trademe listing ex Ian McDonald, we get to have a peak down below.

Designed by Athol Burns she was built by Frank Dellabarca, Island Bay, in the 1960’s and named Vanguard, & measures 36’. She had a major rebuild in the 1990’s and was relaunched in 2000. During this period her hull was stripped to bare timber and all new equipment installed. Isuzu 6BD1 diesel, 142hp, then a new gearbox in 2015. Cristina will cruise happily at 7.5 knots with 5.5 litre per hour fuel burn approx. 
I understand she has done a few laps of NZ, so if anyones looking for a classic to ‘escape’ on – check Cristina out.
 
Previous WW story  https://waitematawoodys.com/?s=cristina&submit=Search

Mystery Launch 22-01-2018

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MYSTERY LAUNCH. 22-01-2019

The above photo was sent in by Harold Kidd – the questions for Woodys today are:
1. Location
2. Name of the boat
MAHURANGI WEEKEND – ATTENTION LAUNCH OWNERS
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If you are heading up to the regatta this weekend, drop Joyce Talbot (email address below) at the CYA a quick note to confirm that you will be participating in the Classic Launch Parade on Saturday morning. The crew ’try’ to pull together a listing of boats for the parade. Only takes a minute to click the email link & confirm your boat name, year, length & designer/builder.
admin@classicyacht.org.nz
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Tooroorong > St. Helena

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As purchased 4 years ago

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getting closer.

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Moreton Bay Video – Dec 2017

 

TOOROORONG > St. HELENA

Hello woodys – today’s WW story is a goody, it started off with an order from Australia for some WW t-shirts, several emails later I discover that the recipient of the t-shirts, Andrew Christie is a serious woody. I will let Andrew tell the story of his acquisition of the classic launch Tooroorong (later to be re-named St. Helena), read below. Enjoy – I did 🙂
ps check out the cockpit canopy ‘wings’, new to me but with the hours of sunshine they get in Australia, they are a great idea.
“St Helena is a 32 foot long timber cruiser.  Her hull is Queensland Beech glued with resorcinol and clenched with copper nails. Her decks are ply sheathed in dynel and her cabin top is made from Australian Red Cedar.  Her hull is also dynel sheathed below the waterline.  She is powered by a Yanmar 4JH3-HTE turbo diesel. When built she had a petrol Chrysler.  She has a two burner Force 10 stove in her galley, and two refrigerators, one forty and one eighty litres which run permanently from four solar panels on the roof.  Her electronics are built around a Raymarine 12 inch Axiom pro.  I have hunted the internet for classic fittings like the half mile ray on the roof a new old stock genuine morse controller.  Many of the brass fitting were cast on patterns I had made or from old ones I found in boat yards or boot trunk sales.
I believe she was designed by Clem Masters (RIP) a prolific designer and builder from Sandgate, but the builder is unknown.  Her registration papers say she was built in 1968.  Although I don’t know the builder, she is however built to a very high standard and was completely rot free and sound when I bought her.  It is better to be lucky than smart.  The long term owner before me, Mort Hudson, sadly had developed alzheimers which meant he had to sell her, but this also meant he could not recite her history.  Mort had named her Tooroorong after his wife’s peanut farm. It seemed to be a tactic that had worked for him and a theme which would follow.
Her original name might have been Venetra.  Mort’s wife Barbara mistakenly recalled her name was Helena during the restoration which resulted in the decision to change it back. My wife was keen to go back to the original name before we learned of the error but we decided on St Helena as many classic Moreton Bay boats bear the names of local places and by that time we thought of her as Helena.  It is important to keep your wife happy as we see below.  
I believe St Helena was a southern boat as before I spent two years restoring her she was enclosed and had a small trunk cabin aft which was pretty difficult to live with and not suitable for a sub tropical climate.  The restoration is a whole other story.  We had planned some quick work and a $15,000 ceiling.  I should run a government with my ability to blow out a budget. Two years later in an enclosed slipway on Breakfast Creek is proof enough of that …
As it turned out, brother in law loved wooden boats.  He is an intellectual but also an artisan.  He had a peculiar wooden shoal draft sailing boat to I think an Ian Gartside design which he kept in Cabbage Tree Creek.  He had also built a beautiful strip plank canoe of cedar which was bright finished.  And he collected Wooden Boat Magazine.
Anyway, my wife’s sister, who, what shall I say, might be viewed by some as a hard hard woman, took a dislike to his boat.  She was embarrassed because the purist in him would not use an engine and crunched into the jetty on docking and she found the sailing experience uncomfortable. This whole boating business was a folly and an annoyance. She started speaking at family gatherings about how it made good financial sense to be rid of the boat.  Whatever (said slowly and with bitterness) I thought. More noise.  
I did however become concerned when I heard Johnny start parroting her narrative.  While she wore the pants he told me that he was not worried it would sell because it was such a peculiar boat that it would appeal to very few people. Who knew that the only other person in Australia who would be interested was looking for such a boat to try an experimental junk rig on.  I said to him after the event, “why wouldn’t you just have made a typo with your phone number in the advertisement – your wife would never realise”.  We are all wise after the event.
Shortly after it was advertised my wife came to me, “Jimmy’s sold the boat”.  “That’s not good”, I said. “You watch, this will be the end of them”.  Well within months they had separated and the blood letting began.  As part of his punishment boxes of Wooden Boat Magazines were hidden under my house.  
And so I came to stand on the top of that very slippery slope.  I read those magazines.  One by one. Then religiously.  The 18 foot catamaran I had in my late teens whispered in my ear.  My favourite book as a boy was The Dove.  This was going to be bad.
I started looking at sailing yachts.  I wanted a Herreschoff. It had to have a bright mahogany house, teak decks and brass, brass, brass.  Anyway, as I stood on the most lovely one in Sydney Harbour about to make my dream a reality I remembered just in time the lesson above.  In my family a sailing boat is a divorce. I decided a cruiser would be more likely to keep me in the family business.  God bless my wife. She put up with the restoration while I told her outrageous lies about how much it was costing. But despite this now she suggests we use the boat more than I do. Provided we take the dogs.  Those damned dogs and their hair.  On my beautiful boat.  Never mind, happy wife.  Happy life.  I think I got the good sister.
She doesn’t know I am still looking for a yacht.  I saw a lovely Dark Harbour 20 in England the other day.  The quote to freight it out here wasn’t that unreasonable.  Surely the house renovations can wait a little longer.  What could possibly go wrong?”

Beatnik + Mahurangi Regatta Reminder + Details On Sunday River Cruise + Auckland Anniversary Regatta Launch Race

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BEATNIK

Woody Colin Pawson sent in the above photo of the sloop Beatnik that he snapped during the week at Great Barrier Island. She is flying a CYA burgee, but doesn’t ring any bells with me, maybe a name change or a very new member?

Her ‘cockle shell’ clinker dinghy is rather cute.

Any of the woodys able to tell us more about Beatnik?

MAHURANGI REGATTA NEXT WEEKEND

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If you’re a serious woody you will have already made plans to be at Mahurangi this coming weekend. As I have told you b4 it is the single biggest gathering of classic wooden boats in New Zealand. Lots to do & see for both yachts & launches + Saturday nights BBQ / dance ashore at Scotts Landing is huge.

You can find out more details at the link below. But for the launches, the classic launch parade meets off Scotts Landing at 10.15am, with a parade start time of 10.30am.

On Sunday at around midday there is a trip up the Mahurangi River to Warkworth – the Jane Gifford will lead the way, so we effectively have a pilot 🙂 It is a great trip & the event is being run to demonstrate support for the dredging / improvements to the basin. Details below.

http://www.mahurangi.org.nz/2018/01/26/2019-mahurangi-regatta-programme/utm_source=CYA+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=0f35421837-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_15_12_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_539b169589-0f35421837-67897225

I’ll post more during the week.

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Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta – Classic Launch Race

If Mahurangi was not your scene or you get back early from the Mahurangi, this event is a must do to the ‘petrol-heads’ amongst us. After 100+ years the organisers of the AADR have resuscitated the regatta classic motorboat race. Details below ex Joyce Talbot

“It’s been 100 years or more since a race for power craft was part of the Auckland Anniversary Regatta. But this year, for the first time since the early 1900s, the regatta will feature a classic launch race – and we’d love for you to be part of this historic revival.

This “new” (old) event is the perfect opportunity to show off these wonderful vessels in front of a huge audience of spectators, and a chance to prove once and for all – who has the fastest launch of them all.

Time’s running out to enter the Ports of Auckland Anniversary Regatta and put yourself in the running to win cash, a huge pool of spot prizes including a holiday in Hawaii, and your name on our historic trophy collection.

Entries cost just $30, and every entry received will go in the draw to win a holiday in Hawaii plus loads more.”

Enter now at www.regatta.org.nz

Enquiries: 0800-REGATTA   Email: admin@regatta.org.nz

 

Is This The Future Of Woody Boating?

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Is This The Future Of Woody Boating?

Normally on Boxing Day you would expect a boatbuilders yard to be very quiet – but if your were anywhere near Greg Salthouse’s Greenhite yard on the 26th Dec you would have witnessed a very special event. The yard launched two sister 10m weekender boats – ARIHI and GRACE.
Below is the story behind these two stunning launches, as told to me by Delayne Salthouse –
“Nick Peal has been with Salthouse Boatbuilders for over 38 years, and in that time construction methods have morphed and developed to achieve better this, faster that, lighter these or more efficient those. While those improvements are important and incorporated where needed, for the likes of Nick there is nothing better than getting back to the beautiful basics of a traditional build.
You can imagine the excitement when the yard received a brief to design & build two traditional looking 10m craft  that would reclaim some of the classic lines and charm of New Zealand’s coastal cruiser. This is in sharp contrast to the imported ‘plastic creations’ we see so many of in New Zealand boating in these days.
The concept plans and line drawings were done by Chris Salthouse, from these Nick has crafted Arihi & Grace utilising double skin ply, with solid timber keelson and gunwale, The boats were then heavily sheathed with double bias glass to make a robust, strong and lightweight boat.”
They are powered by a Hyundai 270hp stern leg, will cruise at 25-30 knts, and top out at around 37 knts. There is a huge super king front island berth + quarter berth with ample saloon seating that can also be a berth. Head, shower, simple cooker, fridge, large cockpit. PLUS Trailerable !!!
The boats are very easy on the eye and I have already had people asking me – who, what, where in terms of the designer / builder.
Well done Greg, Delayne, Chris, Nick & the team at Salthouses – I think you are onto a winner here.

The Launching

Arihi Splashes

Grace Splashes

Photo below sent in by Steve Finnigan – lots of zoom used on the camera/phone

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Grace