NEW CLASSIC YACHT OFFERED 4SALE – $13k

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NEW CLASSIC YACHT OFFERED 4SALE – $13k

Todays woody isn’t really a project because all the hard work had been done, a buyer just need to decide on the finishing touches and they would be sailing this spring.The yacht was designed by Denis Brown and according to the plans is tagged a ’10.6m Ocean Cruiser Cutter’ and is a sister ship to – TAMARA that has been on WW, link here –  https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/06/04/tamara-sailing-sunday/ (photo also below of TAMARA)
FYI – TAMARA was built by Denis in the Bay of Islands and launched in 1990. He then sailed her to the States and returned a couple of years later.Her cruising pedigree is undeniable and there is a very interesting article in Wooden Boat November/December 1994 regarding Tamara’s trip, “The Evolution of an Ocean Cruiser”. Denis now lives just outside Hikurangi and is still sharp as a tack aged 90 years, what a life of experiences he has lived.

Todays yacht was built in a barn just outside Kaikohe over a period of 40 years by engineer Bruce Edge. Built from treated 28mm kahikatea, strip planked, concave-convex epoxy edge glued. Her deck is laminated timber. Unfortunately Bruce Edge passed away without seeing his yacht touch the ocean.
She is beautifully finished and there really is only cosmetic work, external paint, some internal paint, as well as a mast and rigging needed to complete her.Included is; 

  • main mast extrusion for the gaff rig
  • a steel keel and three ton of available lead for pouring before the keel is bolted to the Keelson
  • a Yanmar motor (condition unknown)
  • four brand new sails made by Willis sails –
  • lots of miscellaneous hardware 
  • two Murray winches for the inner headsail already fitted to the boat
  • a set of plans which Denis has kindly supplied. 

Her current owner (an experienced boat builder) acquired the yacht just over a year ago with the intention of completing her but life circumstances changed and how she is for sale.Her owner had two experienced boat builders check her over and they both commented she is very well built 

The location of the boat is just outside KeriKeri and has good access for transportation.
In terms of price, the owner is only seeking to recover costs to date and mentioned that $13,000 will see her change ownership. That woodys is a very fair price, so do not bother looking if you think a low ball offer will get the boat.
Initial enquires to Hamish at  vcstcere83@gmail.com

Sistership – TAMARA

SPIRIT OF TRADITION CLASSIC DOUBLE-ENDER WOODEN LAUNCH – BONITA

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SPIRIT OF TRADITION CLASSIC DOUBLE-ENDER WOODEN LAUNCH – BONITA

Over the weekend I was mooching around the upper harbour and came across the very smart looking double-ender above.

She is moored just off the old Salthouse yard / wharf and looks very new.

At a guess I would say approx. 28>30’ , would love to see the wheel house sans the covers.

Can anyone provide more intel on the vessel.

Ken Ricketts pointed out the she made a cameo appearance back in Feb 2023, photo below, nice to see the wheelhouse, James Hutchinson also commented that the boats named BONITA, built by Lanes. Details here for a peek inside the cabin. Amazing the difference a paint job makes. https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/07/07/borato/

INPUT ex CHRIS SALTHOUSE – The Vessels name is Bonita not Bonito and yes Eric Lanes of Picton built her in 1923, I bought her 2 years ago, steamed her across the Cook straight then trucked her to Auckland were we are slowly getting her in shape as time permits. Thanks for the interest.

MV FRIENDSHIP – A Peek Down Below

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MV FRIENDSHIP – A Peek Down Below

WW was recently sent details on the 59’ motor launch – FRIENDSHIP by Peter Noble. Peter commented that she was formerly operating out of Deep Cove under the ownership of Fiordland Travel as the company was called 40 years ago.  She was used as a tourist boat, taking people out onto Doubtful Sound.  Nicknamed the Friendly Ship, she originally had two GM 353 diesels, these produced plenty of smoke and noise but not a great deal of power.   Peter also pointed us in the direction of a gent named –  Lance Shaw who lives in Manapouri, who hopefully he will be able to tell us more about the vessel.

The listing states that she was built by someone named Robb in 1956 and is made of wood, thats all we know because the ad is all about it being the best live aboard available. Well woodys given the sellers decorating approach thats very subjective, but they do say that ‘furnishing can be separately negotiated’ 🙂

INPUT ex JOHN GANDER ex Dean Wright – “Friendship was built for Les Kenny of ‘Friendship Launches Picton’ by Doug Robb a well known boatbuilder in Timaru. and ran for many years along with the smaller Friendship ( built by Ernie Lane) in Queen Charlotte Sound. Both vessels were powered by G.M. diesels. I remember in the 1960-70s there were three main launch companies, ‘Queen Charlotte launches’ ‘Friendship Launches’ and ‘Red Funnel Launches’ owned and run by Les’s brother Bill Kenny and there was quite a bit of rivalry and competition between Friendship and Red Funnel”

ARANUI – Can You Help Locate This Wooden Boat

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ARANUI – Can You Help Locate This Wooden Boat

During the week WW was contacted by Peter Pickett in regard to a classic launch named – ARANUI, built c.1920>30. I’ll let Peter tell the story. 

“Don’t know if you can help us but several of the families descended from our Grandfather, Jim Ross of Cambridge (in those days  a co-owner of Cambridge Transport) are trying to locate his beloved ARANUI a former and possibly current waitematawoody, in a new guise. Grandpa Ross also crewed on the legendary ARIKI 

We believe ARANUI was built around 1920 to 1930 but we are not sure of the original builder or owner. The Yates family (of seed fame) owned her up until around 1950 when Grandpa JW Ross purchased her. He kept her on a double mooring at Westhaven. ARANUI was originally powered by a 6 cylinder Ailsa Craig petrol engine, but in the late 50’s Grandpa re-powered her with a 4 cylinder Fordson diesel. Our fathers were regular crew but few of the remaining grandchildren ever got to go on board as our grandfather passed away in 1961. We were mainly a little on the young side to be of much use prior to 1960 but most of us are life-long boating enthusiasts and own boats of varying descriptions. 

We believe a Mr Fisher may have purchased her in the early 60’s and taken ARANUI to Whitianga, where she was possibly moored up the river somewhere. We have heard that the Yates family may have re-purchased her at some stage before or since and may even own her still, but the latter aspects are unconfirmed. 

We are extremely keen to track her down again and dependent on various factors, may even consider purchasing/restoring / displaying her. Condition is not necessarily an issue as she could become a display in a Museum created by one branch of the family, that being the Ross Bros Muscle Car (and heaps of other stuff) Museum in Cambridge. Its mighty spectacular and there is an ARANUI  space if that is the best remaining option. 

We would greatly appreciate any help you can offer in this search, and look forward to hearing from you. Cheers, Peter R Pickett, on behalf of the Ross, Peake and Pickett families.”


So woodys can we solve the mystery of what became of ARANUI 

01-07-2024 INPUT ex MITCH PASCOE (via Baden Pascoe)- Yes it used to moored in back bay, Whitianga. Owner by a guy called Des Fisher ,a block layer ,who lived up by Coghill Street . He had a Mk1 Vanguard car made into a Ute .

Used to go out and stray line big snapper , they were always in washing machine bowls stewing in their own juice with no ice in the sun . I think it had a Ford in with exhaust out the side ..

01-07-2024 INPUT ex HAROLD KIDD – She was owned around 1920 in Coromandel then by W.H. Stevens of Tauranga in the late1920s until 1937. It’s possible that she was rebuilt from the hull of a large auxiliary mullet boat ARANUI built 1912-3 by David Reid.

MYSTERY YACHT AGROUND WINNER – Hugh Gladwell with the correct name – NGATIRA. Amazingly 95% of people said LITTLE JIM and gave the location as Rangitoto Island. NGATIRA’s owner STEVE HORSLEY supplied the photo, Steve was given the photo from Ian Littler, his father owned NGATIRA from 1916-1919. Photo is thought to be the aftermath of the 1917 storm off Devonport somewhere. Burgee in the letterbox tomorrow Hugh 🙂

MYSTERY YACHT HIGH & DRY – NGATIRA

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MYSTERY YACHT HIGH & DRY – ITS NGATIRA

Had a few mystery launches on WW high and dry recently so seems fair that we feature a yacht today.

For once I know the answer, so lets make it a quiz – all correct answers emailed to waitematawoodys@gmail.com before 6pm 29-06-24 go into the draw for a WW Burgee.

So correct boat name = one chance in the draw, correct boat name and location = two chances in the draw.Hint > location is Auckland area.

MYSTERY WOODEN LAUNCH AGROUND -C.1960

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MYSTERY WOODEN LAUNCH AGROUND – c.1960

During the week the story on MARISTELLA and her several episodes of touch hydrography prompted Gavin Pascoe to send in the photo above of an unidentified launch run aground on Pukerua Bay rocks in the Wellington region. There are some impressive rollers coming in so I’d be surprised if she was re-floated.

The photo caption had a date of c.1960’s on it and the comment that the photograph was taken for the Evening Post newspaper of Wellington by an unidentified staff photograph. The origin is c/o the National Library collection.

Anyone able tout a name to the launch.


WESTHAVEN COMPETITION – Dockside chat tells me the waterfront marine community are running a sweepstake on when the classic yacht CAPLIN will leave its new berth and venture out on the Waitemata Harbour. One old salt commented that maybe its new prime position was viewed by her new owner as an ornate gift to the neighbourhood…………….. 😉

UPDATE 11-07-2024 – I can confirm Caplin has ventured out 🙂

CLASSIC BIG GAME LAUNCHES HAULED OUT

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CLASSIC BIG GAME LAUNCHES HAULED OUT

Todays photo popped up yesterday on a Bill McQuinn fb feed and shows the Orams yard in Whangarei. The photo is dated 1967.

From left to right the game boats are (1) ’something’ GLEN (Lance Reid has suggested MONA’s GLEN , Lew Redwood says MONS GLEN and Nathan Herbert commented that could be MONA’S ISLE (2) BLUE FIN (3) RUTH.

• Keen to confirm the correct name of launch #1 . From the chat on the fb page it would appear that boat #1 is Monas Isle / Rakanui Read more below –https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/06/17/rakanui-mona-isle-ii/

• BLUE FIN has featured on WW before https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/04/27/blue-fin-2/

• Very interested to learn more about RUTH.

CLASSIC LAUNCH – MARISTELLA – Sinks, Catches fire, Goes on the rocks……

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1953
2015
2020
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CLASSIC LAUNCH – MARISTELLA – Sinks, Catches fire, Goes on the rocks……

The 40’ Sam Ford 1936 built launch – MARISTELLA has made several appearances on WW, one story back in 2019 (linked below) created a lot of chat in the comments section. https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/08/27/mystery-launch-27-08-2019/

Chatting to Nathan Herbert yesterday prompted me to do a deep dive in the WW files and jackpot I came across some correspondence from Murray Bridge back in Jan 2020. Murray’s family owned the boat for approx. 20 years (1959>1999) and he sent me a clipping of an article from Boating NZ. Reading the article it appears that MARISTELLA has been a very lucky boat, if she was a cat she would have used up a lot of her nine lives 🙂 

In her past life she joined the sub-mariner club when she hit a uncharted submerged rock in Queen Charlotte Sound, was successfully re-floated and refitted. Then on another trip caught fire in Bluff, again repaired. And later ran aground on rocks near Mana in Wellington. I have included an enlarged section of the BNZ article below – click image to enlarge.

The good news is she survived all those oops and is still with us today as seen in the above photos. The real reason for the story today is her newish owner is in Nathan’s words ‘rejuvenating’ the boat and needs a pair of opening portholes (approx. size = 8.5”), so we are doing a shout out asking if anyone has some gathering dust. FYI – when we ask for help locating fittings its for woody folk deserving a helping hand, not owners that are doing $100k+ work at professional yards. WW points them to https://www.toplicht.de/en/

SAMPLE ONLY

CLASSIC LAUNCH DELRAY

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CLASSIC LAUNCH DELRAY

During a recent mystery launch story where we were trying to ID a launch moored in the Tamaki River (named NAU MAI) the above photo was recent in by Ken Ricketts , a totally different boat than the one we featured but it did jog the KR memory bank and he later advised the boat was – DELRAY.

She was built by Chris Robertson, in Otahuhu. Her original owner was Lees Bros. Ltd. who were the Ford marine diesel agents in Papakura at the time. KR recalls they used her as a demo boat for the first 2 x 250hp versions of the 6 cyl. Ford diesels that were installed in a boat in NZ.

They did not keep her terribly long & sold her to Mr. Ah Chee the owner of NZ’s first supermarket in Otahuhu. KR commented that there was a story told at that time, that he went away for his very first trip in her and the master stateroom, happened to be right above where the chine enters the water and the story goes that he didn’t get a wink of sleep all night, because of the little ‘plopping sound’ of the waves in the bay on the chine. He was not at all impressed, having just spent a lot of money buying her.

Do we know what happened to DELRAY post the Ah Chee ownership period.

UPDATE – As Murray Deeble pointed out in the comments section – DELRAY is the boat on the slip. I assumed KR was talking about the moored boat. The slipway boat probably wouldn’t have passed the woody test i.e. too modern in appearance and sporting a ‘block of flats’. So the question is whats the moored boat?

CLASSIC LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #3

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CLASSIC LAUNCH – LADY CAROLE RESTORATION – UPDATE #3

Again co-owner Patrick Crawshaw walks us thru the latest work

“First thing, I would like to say a massive thank you to Ron Trotter who after last week’s post got in contact with waitematawoodys to say he had the original cowl vents. He posted them up to the Bay of Islands and I had them on Tuesday.  This website is incredible for putting the right people together and after spending literally hours and hours searching the world online for these things, I was very happy that I have the original ones back. One closer inspection when they arrived, I could see they were made back in the day by hand, hence the reason I could not find them and even more of a deal that we had the original ones to go back on LADY CAROLE.  They will get panel beaten and tidied up and then have to go to be re-chromed.

This week has been a little more challenging, not in what LADY CAROLE has thrown us, but more in what mother nature has. 

We are working through the Winter and have a limited time frame at the yard. The slipway closes during the Summer season because of the cruise ship passengers, which tender to the wharf there.  So, we ordered a large – very large – piece of plastic, the type of which is used for tunnel houses, to cover the boat and then we waited on a certain freight company who shall remain nameless,  and we waited…. 

On Monday the weather delivered very low lying persistent fog, which hung around for most of the day. The boat was so wet, no sanding could take place, then on Tuesday and eight days later the plastic arrived. We tented the boat just in the nick of time and the heaven’s opened –  it hasn’t stopped raining since then. Then the power went out…., but luckily we could press on…

Now she is tented, we can remove things like steel/glass hatches (wooden ones need to go back) and the windows, which was done yesterday. 

The windows were a tricky one as I am trying to keep as many of the original elements of the boat as possible and did not want to remove them, but we discovered over the years that they had been replaced as they broke, or as they were changed. The boat had a complete mix of different tints and types of glass and most were leaking, so they all had to come out. I decided after much deliberation to go for clear glass. The objective of this restoration is to try and get LADY CAROLE back to her launching look, and she would have had clear when launched, so that’s what we are going for, but in safety glass of course. 

Sam, the Wynn Fraser rep has been helping with the colour scheme, which was posted previously.  The inspiration behind the colour scheme is the reddy brown she had in the 70’s on the side section, with the added addition of a deep blue hull with white pinstripes to break up the blue and make her lines pop even more.  It’s crucial that the blue works well with the reddy brown and that the white is not a bright white, more subdued almost like a mellow antique white.  The finish will be low sheen, not gloss as I think that belongs to the modern boats with their perfectly finished hulls.  The low sheen will give her more forgiveness.  The whole boat is getting a flexible two pot system for strength and durability.  Sam supplied the paint cards and test pots shown below to make sure they work on the boat and in the outdoor light.  The test pots were glossy, so the finished look will be more subdued than the photograph. 

The ceiling in the forward cabin had to come down to sort a hatch that had been put in the wrong place.  When the boat was reconfigured a past owner put a hatch in the centre of the forward cabin (to let light in I think) and then covered over the forward hatch. They then moved the mast to the top instead of the centre of the forward hardtop. So, in order to correct this back, we had to remove the ceiling as one of the ribs had been cut to allow for the hatch and this was compromising the integrity of the roof. The new ceiling will have insulation and show the ribs to give a little more height. 

Meanwhile a lot of sanding has been taking place and we are almost there – well, first sand anyway.”