Tag Archives: Banshee

Classic Woody Boating Long Weekend Cruise

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Moturekareka Island
Sunset – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Sunrise – Smelting House Bay, Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island
Lady Adelaide
Vivian Bay, Kawau Island
Ngaio
Meola & Whio

Classic Woody Boating Cruise

For all the wrong reasons I didn’t do a lot of boating (on my boat) this past winter, so the looming long Labour weekend was always going to see me leaving the dock even if the weather was ‘inclement’. Luckily it wasn’t and I slid away early Friday afternoon with the ultimate destination being Kawau Island. The boredom of mostly straight line motoring was broken up by Team NZ cutting up the gulf in their AC40, so so quick.

Decided to spend Friday night anchored at Moturekareka Island, the resting place of the wreck REWA (unsuccessfully scuttled as a breakwater) , not the most settled of spots but the sunset and the bird song made up for it.

Moved on earlier Saturday to Smelting House Bay and picked up a pre-booked mooring, now before you all call me a softy, we had the new dog onboard for its 1st trip and wanted to be close to shore – didn’t want an oops on board. I can report she was an angel – woke me at 5.30am for a row ashore. Sadly she also seems to think the #1 bunk is hers 🙂 The bonus of the dog pee row ashore is catching the sunrise, almost as fine as the sunset.

Mostly just relaxed mooching around, had a drink and dinner catch up with the crews off Meloa, Ngaio, Lady Adelaide and Golandrina at the Kawau Boating Club, which had just taken the shutters down after the annual winter hibernation. Food and service was first rate – if you are not a member – join, they need good support to keep doing what they do so well. The next day we dropped the pick in Vivian Bay – very quiet and later in the day several woodys arrived – seems to be the go-to destination for the Sandspit marina crowd.

I spied a stunning villa on the waterfront in Vivian Bay – photos below, will need to keep buying Lotto 🙂

Trip home on Monday was just about perfect for a straight stemmer e.g. wind and tide on the nose – 3 hours 45 min from KBC > Bayswater, that’s a good clip for my 94 year old girl.

UPDATE 03-11-2022 – Photo below of Rewa as scuttled (incorrectly). Comes to us from Auckland War Memorial Museum libray via Maurice Sharp fb.

SUNDAYS MYSTERY LAUNCH QUIZ WINNER

Well done Ken Ricketts, the winner from the many woodys that correctly ID’ed the launch as Sobrine. The pool was reduced significantly by a large number spelling the boats name – Sabrine. Link to a previous WW Sobrine story below https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/05/31/sobrine/

Waitanguru

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WAITANGURU

In the top photo we see Waitanguru in the Milford Creek, just off the AW Williams boatyard* in Omana Road, Milford. Waitanguru was a ‘Banshee’ design built by Williams. At the time of the photo the launch was owned by Gerry Dawson, he purchased her off Peter Peterson.
The November 1965 photos come to us from Lew Redwood’s fb and were taken by Dawn Heathwaite.. In the 2nd photo the kids on the jetty are Bill and Ian Heathwaite. Bill Heathwaite has commented that the photos were taken post a successful game fishing trip to Great Barrier Island. Bill’s father is holding the tail of a record breaking yellow-fin tuna he had caught. From recalls it was 135lb on a 30lb line.
The crew are L>R – skipper Gerry Dawson, Roy Heathwaite, Scotty, Alan Odell, Jim and Bruce Woods.
Do we know what became of Waitanguru?
* yard later became Geoff Bagnall’s and is now The Slipway – Milford. Interesting to view the area on the right of the shed that would be developed at the Milford Crusing Club haul-out yard.
CORRECTION : The yard is John Gladdens yard, the Allan Williams original yard was against the road and slip by the bridge. (thanks readers)
DOUBLE CORRECTION: Thanks to Nathan Herbert we learn the the spelling was wrong, the boat is Waitanguru and has featured on WW b4, link below
FYI – the WW section box only works on perfect spelling, so we did not pick this up 😉

Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

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Working Waterfront Boatbuilders Shed – 50 photos

As I’ve send many times before, if your want a stunning day weather wise, schedule a Classic Yacht Association event – the hit rate must be 9/10.

Over 100 CYA members & friends made the trip north to Lees Boatbuilders at Sandspit – our host for the day, Greg Lees, turned on a brilliant woody event – we had everything – woody projects underway, the best collection of 1/2 models I seen outside of the RNZYS walls, a photo montage recording the history of the yard & the vessels built over the years.

 Center stage was Jenny & Angus Rogers – Mahanui, in the shed for a new deck, alongside her was a very original Chris Craft that was getting a restoration. 

The varnish guru Dale has already applied 23 coats, with 6 more to come. Compared to our old girls, these American woodys are very lightly built, amazing that so many have survived.

Outside we had Anna & Nic Davidson’s – Juanita, on one slip & Barbara & David Cooke’s woody flagship – Trinidad, alongside the wharf. In midstream was Yvonne, waiting her turn in the shed.

On the hard was a selection of small craft built by either Greg, his father Tim or other local craftsman. Not woodys but certainly classic were Greg’s two English built, aluminium Albatross runabouts – the very rare 4 seater is next on Greg’s to-do list. Included are a few photos of other woodys in or out of the water.

Greg gave an articulate talk on his families boatbuilding history & how they came to be situated on the Sandspit foreshore. At the end he announced the official launch of the 2018 Rudder Cup launch race to be run on Friday 14th December to Sail Rock & back. See flyer below, I encourage all woody owners to consider participating. At this stage we (I’m on the race committee, along with Jason Prew, Nathan Herbert, Baden Pascoe & Barbara & David Cooke) are calling for expressions of interest in racing – entry to the race is by invitation, as per the original race format in 1908.

 Big ups to Greg & family + staff for turning on the day, including BBQ. Special thanks also to the CYA committee members that pulled it all together. 

Lastly a little something below for the petrol heads – Greg had on display his Jesser BSA 500cc twin, hill climb racer. Built in 1962 by Les Jesser, she is a 2 time Australian  class champion. 

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CYA Rudder Cup 2018 flyer

Banshee

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BANSHEE

Built by Allan Williams & launched in 1972, this 34 ft launch is built with a mix of kauri and teak. The story goes that Williams built the boat for his personal use and  due to its popularity the design was replicated several times in the following years.
Banshee was re- powered in 1994 with a 210hp Cummins that gives her with a max speed of approx. 14 knts.
A very practical ‘modern’ classic, her varnished coamings get a big tick from me. Currently for sale.

16-07-2021 Update – for sale again – photos ex May 2021 at Sandspit Marina

 

Alan Williams Sedan Cruiser

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Alan Williams Sedan Cruiser

Reputedly designed & built by Alan Williams in 1972 for his own use. Williams built several more of this 34’1″ sedan cruiser to the same design, which were known by the design name ‘Banshee’.

Currently for sale on trademe

Harold Kidd Update

Alan Williams built BANSHEE for himself in 1966. She was built at a time when Williams was fighting the Takapuna City Council to remain in business with his existing use as a boatbuilder in Omana Road, a predominantly residential area. There were allegations at the hearing of noxious noise from “shipbuilding” on the site, with overtones of clanging steel and grinding, when he was in reality producing lovely wooden thoroughbreds like this.
I acted for the local residents and regretting taking that brief!