Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

Posted on by
21

Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 9.27.39 PM

If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 10.40.39 PM

Aurora – Sailing Sunday

Posted on by
4

image

Aurora

Waiheke Island, March 2018

 

AURORA – Sailing Sunday

The other day I received a note from Bill Brown, the owner of the lovely yacht – Susan Jane, that featured on WW when she was being restored at Colin Brown’s Omaha yard.
Bill is a kiwi but works overseas & was delighted to see that his uncle’s old yacht – Aurora appear on WW (link below) recently. Aurora is a 22′ Harrison Butler design, built & owned by his uncle, Neil Brown c.1940’s.
Bill’s father, James Brown, a salty old dog who spent most of his time going up and down the Whangarei Harbour, in various craft, including Woodys; Sarina, (currently for sale, and whom mum and dad had their honeymoon on) Temptress and Yvonne. James passed away last April, just a few days shy of 90, having sailed his entire life, and selling his last boat at the grand old age of 80.
The timing of the WW story on Aurora was very opportune as Bill had recently been canvassing the extended family for  details – with Bill’s permission I have published below the email he sent out – its an great read. Enjoy.
“I saw Aurora for sale on Trademe yesterday and I thought you might be interested in seeing these pictures of her. As far as I know Uncle Neil built her himself in Dunedin to a Norwegian design. Dad used to tell me she was built like a brick outhouse and you can see that even though she is clearly neglected, she is still a tight wee ship! The photos and advertisement make her seem much bigger than she is. I think she is only 21 feet long, making her essentially the size of a trailer sailor!
Most of you know that Uncle Neil sailed her in the famous Wellington to Lyttelton yacht race that was at the time one of New Zealand’s worst sailing tragedies. That was perhaps the first, but not the last time, that old Gran thought Uncle Neil had been lost at sea!
If I remember correctly, dad used to say that Uncle Neil ran before the storm with bare poles and with a spare anchor warp streaming out the stern. As it states in the article he eventually ended up in clear skies up off the coast of the Hawkes Bay.
The other great story I remember about Aurora that was more directly connected to dad, was that Uncle Neil asked if dad wanted to go on a summer cruise from Dunedin to Auckland to coincide with the Queen’s visit in 1953-1954. Dad said yes and that was the plan they told Gran, however when they cleared the Otago Heads Uncle Neil kept heading east! It wasn’t till then that he told dad that they were aiming to be the first pleasure yacht to visit the Chatham Islands post WW2! Uncle Neil figured that if he had told dad the truth he wouldn’t have said yes and Gran would have worried too much. I remember dad had a handwritten log of the voyage, boasting of the huge crayfish they ate when they finally arrived at Waitangi, Chatham Islands. After a few days socialising with the locals they then set a course for Auckland to visit the Queen!
I have seen her only twice in the real flesh. Once she was waiting outside the Kissing Point Boatshed that we kept the launch Yvonne in. We were returning from a weekend down the Whangarei Harbour and the owner had tracked dad down to have a chat with him about her history. I think she was then based in Tauranga. The second time I spied her she was on a swing mooring in the Tamaki River.  I was at University and I had been out windsurfing and noticed her and that there was a guy in the cockpit. I stopped at her stern and explained that my uncle had built her and found out that the guy in the cockpit was readying her for sale, as her owner had been in some trouble picking up the mooring, bouncing off a few boats in the tide and had suffered a heart attack!
Uncle Neil’s second major build was the modified Woollacott – Katherine Anne, Maraval (photo below), which he built in Whangarei, at Smiths boatyard and sailed around the South Pacific and the east coast of Australia, ending up back in Dunedin. I heard that he received a RNZYS Blue Water Cruising Award for this effort, but I can’t seem to find much evidence of that. An interesting aside to this cruise was when I sailed in the Farr 9.2 Interdominion series in Perth Australia, there was a crew from Wellington, who recounted a story of Uncle Neil on Maraval being in Hobart at the same time as the finish of the Sydney- Hobart Yacht Race that they had just competed in a fully powered up ocean racing yacht. Apparently as the story goes, they left Hobart together and Uncle Neil beat them back across the Tasman!
Back in Dunedin, for summer holidays Uncle Neil would head around to Fiordland, down to Stewart Island, even on one occasion venturing to the Campbell and Auckland islands.  Sometimes just for the heck of it he would throw in a circumnavigation of the South Island. On one occasion he lost Maraval, when she was washed out to see by a flood, after sheltering in Port Jackson, Jackson Bay, West Coast, only for Maraval to float out into the Tasman and a few weeks later return on to a piece of sandy West Coast beach up by Greymouth! The only reported damage to her was the broken mast and the front bollard that the farmer had tied his tow rope to as he hauled her up the beach! He re-floated her, had her towed by a fishing boat to Greymouth, built a new mast and went on his way back to Dunedin.”
Link to previous WW story on Aurora, below
Maraval01

Maraval at Takamatua, Banks Peninsula

Mystery Boat – Wairoa District

Posted on by
7

36539679_10215732563402665_6643292251940192256_n

MYSTERY BOAT – WAIROA DISTRICT

Today’s photo comes to us from one of Bruno Redwood’s old fb posts, sadly Bruno (brother of Lew) passed away recently.
The photo shows a group of day trippers, possibly on Lake Waikaremoana c.1880’s
Anyone able to ID the boat & confirm the location?
Harold Kidd Input – KAHURANGI, built for the Goverrnment Tourist Bureau for use on Lake Waikaremoana by Logan Bros August 1903, 36ft loa 10hp Union engine.
The photo below was sent to me yesterday by woody – Tim Evill, Tim was out fishing in the middle of the gulf between Rocky Bay and Maraetai & spotted a bouy in the water (11m depth) on closer inspection there was a yacht attached to it – anyone able to tell us what was at the end of the mast & how it got there?
IMG_7631
Screen Shot 2018-10-26 at 10.37.27 AM

Woody on tour at Opua, BOI

Posted on by
Reply

Christina

Leilani

Donna Maree

Woody On Tour at Opua, Bay of Islands 

Woody Ian McDonald was recently in the winterless north & popped down to the boatyard at Opua, in the Bay of Islands & snapped the 3 woodys above.
The first photo is Christina, a big heavy woody – obviously a workboat in her previous life, & set up for game /tuna/charter.
Then we have the very pretty Leilani, out for a spruce up. WW link here
Last up is Donna Maree, featured on WW as Donna “Marie” with a Dean Wright photo & an article entitled “Some days are just made for a wheelhouse” (link below). She has a very beautiful hull.

Boat or Block of Flats?

Posted on by
5

Screen Shot 2018-10-24 at 8.39.38 PM

Screen Shot 2018-10-24 at 8.41.52 PM

Boat or Block of Flats?
Its been a while since we had a contender for the ‘Boat that looks like a block of flats’ award – the above, shoots to the top of the list. And that is sad because someone has spent a lot of money on this spirit of tradition vessel, in all the wrong places.
Some details – build year is 2006, her specs are 52.5’ in length, with a 14’9” beam. And yes – she is wood. Her zoom zoom is via a Fiat Iveco Aifo 220 hp diesel that will see her cruising at 8.5 knots.

Beverlene

Posted on by
4

Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 4.17.06 pm

Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 4.17.29 pm

Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 4.19.28 pm

BEVERLENE

Beverlene was built in 1968 by Owen Wolley & measures 39’, has a 11’9” beam & draws 3’3”,  & has a kauri planked hull.

Zoom zoom is from a 120*hp Commer diesel engine that sees her cruising at a comfortable 8 knots.

* trademe listing (thanx Ian McDonald) also states 140hp

Home is Tauranga so she is off the WW radar – can anyone tell us more about here?

 

22-06-23 UPDATE – photo below ex tme listing June 2023

Nevada

Posted on by
1

Screen Shot 2018-10-22 at 9.15.36 PM

Screen Shot 2018-10-22 at 9.17.38 PM

NEVADA

Nevada was built in 1942, measures 32’ & is built with split strip kauri planking. Her first role was as a cargo boat for Tauranga Ports, later on she was converted for commercial long line fishing, before being retired for pleasure fishing.
Her zoom zoom is a 135hp Ford Lees diesel.
Home these days is Helensville on the Kaipara & her owner according to the trademe listing (thnx Ian McDonald) was also born in 1942 & the up keep on Nevada is just too much, thence the sale.
Her interior is crying out for some love – for the right price this has the bones of a goof project.
Had a stunning Labour weekend cruise around Waiheke Island, very few woodys out & about, I suspect with the greta forecast, a lot would have headed further north e.g. Kawau Island.
Had the misfortune to get rammed by a rather large vessel that drifted anchor in Man O War Bay on Saturday afternoon – observers say he had very little chain out. A few bumps & scratches, he did come over later on & supplied contact details. Not major damage, just a pain-in-the-ass to have to fix.
Unbelievably I did not take the camera out of its bag the whole weekend. Enjoyed some great hospitality, afloat & ashore. Sunday nights dinners (at the family of good boating friends waterfront island house, was to die for – multiple bbq’s + a smoker = slow cooked beef, chicken & smoked beef spare-rib brisket. Carnivore heaven 🙂
IMG_0012
IMG_0013
IMG_0023
IMG_0020

Four Winds

Posted on by
5

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 9.27.12 PM

C1975

Below Photos c1977

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 9.28.18 PM

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 9.28.29 PM

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 9.28.43 PM

FOUR WINDS

I was recently contacted by Stuart Windross in regard to the 30′ launch Four Winds, built c.1936 by Dick Lang. At the time Stuart promised to send in a selection of photos from the 1970’s, when they  owned her. I have to say I was blown over when I received the email – what an amazing history of the woody. Its a great tale – I’ll let Stuart tell it. Enjoy 🙂

My Mum and Dad and I  (Shirley and Alistair – now both decesased- and Stuart Windross) owned Four Winds from 1975 to 1979. We bought it in close to sinking condition from the previous owner who we understand had a very rough trip back from Barrier and pretty much walked off her.  There were dirty dishes in the sink and a healthy dose of mould on all surfaces when we purchased her.  There was water up to our knees in the forward cabin.  She was very close to both sinking and having water through the engine.  Luckily we got to her just in time.  When we towed her off her pile moorings in Panmure she left a health dust trail from nearly a metre of trailing mussels etc.  
Once restored she was a lovely sea worthy vessel with its original Dick Lang – built dinghy that fitted the davits exactly.  The Mk3 Ford Zodiac petrol engine (shudder) was reliable and cruised at 2000rpm at 2.5 gallons per hour.  The rumble of her exhaust was fairly noisy though!.
Her layout was original except for the galley and a superb use of space (see pics) with: 
  • copper fuel tank across the stern
  • helm to  port aft at the front end of a seat/locker (with its excellent horizontal wheel well placed to rest feet on when sitting on the hatch edge). The steering worked via the vertical shaft, heavy duty rack and pinion, and two rods connected by a idler quadrant in the aft quarter.
  • Galley with fridge and cooker starboard aft.  Remarkable were the ‘Rovers Return’ style hand pumps that supplied water to both the sink and the handbasin forward. They delivered a pint at a time as the brass and porcelain handle was pulled to 45 degrees. 
  • Saloon with full length berths/seating ea side that could be converted to bunks (canvas and steel pole to support the back squab). Forward of each bunk was a cupboard/locker. The starboard one was for crockery, etc with captain’s locker underneath. The port one housed exhaust, header tank, tools, spares etc. Water tanks were under the bunks. The decorative panels around the port holes in the cabin sides were a burgundy style textured type of linoleum in a pebble motif. The squabs initially had their soft brown leather covers but need replacing due to water and mould damage.
  • Engine forward centre in the saloon with tilt-up sides creating a table. The engine was a Lees Marine conversion cooled by both keel tubes and a large brass heat exchanger fed by a Jabsco sea water pump. The pulley for this was corroded away to shaft level when we got her indicating the level of the bilge water. The gearbox activated by a hefty lever at the helm was a 2:1 reduction ‘Paragon’. 
  • The forward cabin was separated by a sliding door forward of the engine and had full headroom for the first metre or so. It housed a double berth to port and a beautiful kauri dresser and wardrobe to starboard. The chrome fiddle rail can be seen in the pics. Under the berth were batteries, switchboard, and massive storage. A chart rack was above between the deck beams with a fascinating range of charts showing the Four Winds had travelled far afield in her heyday.
  • In the bow were an anchor locker aft of which was the heads (copper funnel with outlet to starboard – no holding tanks then) and a handbasin tucked port side (again with porcelain pint pump). Flush (and deck washdown via the overhead hatch) was by a water puppy pump and hose, very effective. The windlass was powered by what I believe was a Spitfire starter motor and a massive reduction box. I recall lifting the stern well clear of the water when trying to free a stuck anchor off the Needles in Onetangi. The head/basin was closed off from the other cabins by yet another Dick Lang masterpiece, a three panel folding kauri panel door similar to that between the cockpit and saloon.
  • The four large chromed ventilators (supplemented by a sliding window in the front of the tram-top, gave the vessel both good airflow and a classy look. The dodger on the rear cabintop was both a fine back rest for those topsides and great shelter from spray for the helmsman in heavier conditions. The flair on the bow was such that Four Winds was a very dry boat.
  • The original mast (which took a steadying sail) and railings added to its balanced look.
For a 30 footer she offered more usable and functional space than many much larger vessels..
We sold her pending my marriage in November 1979; house purchase beckoning.
We re-discovered her in the Weiti River about five years ago. Sadly she was minus her original dodger and railings (replaced by unflattering stainless ones) and was sporting ugly square windows cut into her cabin sides in place of her aft (saloon) portholes. She then appeared on trademe for sale and last time we checked was not visible at Stillwater.
No doubt she is still around and hopefully receiving the care and use she deserves.
Incidentally my Aunt (Valmai Windross – nee Strongman and brother of Merv) took me as a child to visit the elderly Dick Lang in Palm Beach Waiheke. He also built a 12 foot dinghy for my Grandad c1956 which the family used for many years at Onetangi and Howick.
I am happy to be contacted should you have any further questions.  Somewhere I have a log that covers off some of Maughan’s use of her.  If that would be useful I can hunt it out.
Regards Stuart Windross
I love these old sale & purchase agreement 🙂
Four Winds Sale Jordan to Maughan
14-08-2019 Update ex Stuart Windross – Stuart advised her current location is Ngunguru and he uncovered the photo below on line,  the photo is credited to a Arty Green, not sure if he is the owner or just the photographer.
Four Winds Ngunguru Harbour ctsy Arty Green

Leda A26

Posted on by
5

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 8.48.02 PM

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 8.51.00 PM

LEDA A26
I was recently tipped off by the new CYA chairperson – James Mortimer, about a great tale that was unfolding on the CYA forum. It involves a gent by the name of Russ Senkovich, who owns the 54’ kiwi built, 1949, yacht Leda. Russ & his wife are thinking of bringing Leda back to NZ & ultimately selling her here. Leda left NZ in 1953 & has been off shore ever since – there is an amazing weblog on her travels & maintenance over the years, check it out here   svleda.com
You can also follow the story on the CYAF – link here    https://classicyacht.org.nz/cyaforum/topic/leda-a26/ 
But let me set the scene for you on Leda, it starts with a Christopher Gordon Wilson, better known as Dooley and his brother Alexander, better known as Sandy who were both home from WWII and had a dream of racing the Fastnet.  However, the war had left the NZ dollar devalued and buying a yacht was out of the question.  So, of course, they decided to build one.  They had in their possession a book by Uffa Fox of noteworthy yacht designs.  One of the boats featured in that book was Ragna R.
Ragna R, launched in 1938, was built by Gustav Plym in Stockholm for a British client.  She is a Knud Reimers a design. The Wilson brothers admired the yacht and showed the book to a fellow named Jack Taylor, whom its believed worked for Lidgards.  Jack Taylor developed a full set of construction plans, including the dimensions of all the timbers needed for the project.

So, Dooley and Sandy, had their plan.  Now they just needed to build their boat. The line drawings below are dated June, of 1947.  Sandy would have been 25 and Dooley, 27-years old.  Remarkably Leda would be sailing 29 months later. She is double-planked kauri over mangeao frames with pohutakawa knees and copper rivets.  Leda’s deck is double planked kauri, her cabin is Douglas fir (Oregon pine) and pine.

Thats all you’ll get here today on WW – use the link above to read / view the full story – its a great read.
Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 8.52.15 PM
22-10-2018 Input from Neil Chalmers – Neil commented to me that the Leda post reminded Neil of a story Con Morley told him about his admiration of Knud Reimers yacht designs . 

Con owned and raced ‘Freya’, a 32 foot double ender built in the 1950’s. ‘Freya’ was very similar to  Reimers ‘Stor Tumlaren’ design made famous by the well known British yachtsman / author K Adlard Coles and his yacht ‘Cohoe’.
During a visit to Stockholm, Con called at  the Reimers design office and met the great man himself. Reimers was very polite and formal . He mentioned to Con that he was aware several of his designs had been built in NZ , however he had never sold any plans to NZ !

Lady Ellen Restoration Update

Posted on by
1

IMG_0890

LADY ELLEN  Restoration Update

Just had an update on Bruce Mitchinson’s Lady Ellen restoration project, I wish everyone was a s good as Bruce is in sending in work-in-progress reports 🙂

Bruces words – “Strut and rudder all back in place, below waterline fairing is going on at the moment.

Fairing done on the topsides, final fill and longboard, all over, will happen over the next few weeks.
Toe rails and beltings have been repaired and reinstalled.
Looking to undercoat topsides, deck, and below waterline early next month.
Inside we have stripped the paint off the underside of the cabin top and the decks, ready to be sprayed, along with the rest of the interior, as we move from aft, for’ard.
Cockpit complete with draining floor and seating, plenty of locker space, and gas bottle enclosure.
The existing rod steering, that used to be buried under the old water tanks, has been refurbished and can now be accessed through the new lockers.
Galley and saloon trim underway this week.
Painting inside the hull, to get ready for fitting out below deck.
Keeping the original layout apart from opening up the hanging locker into the for’ard cabin with a McGeady style window opening through the bulkhead.
No guesses as to what I will be doing this Labour weekend.”
Remember – click on photos to enlarge 😉