CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – BON VOYAGE – A Peek Down Below

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – BON VOYAGE – A Peek Down Below

The 34’ 4” classic launch – BON VOYAGE was built in 1962 by Dave Jackson. Her beam is 9’8” and she draws 2’6”. The go forward is from a 6 cyl. 120 hp Iveco diesel engine that sees her topping out at 9 knots. Her current owner has had her for 10 years and during this period undertaken a significant amount of maintenance and system upgrades.In the 2023>24 period the Brin Wilson yard were commissioned to strip the hull, garboard planks re-caulked, transom boarding platform completely rebuilt, part of cabin top replaced and glassed, complete hull repaint + new stainless steel hand rails.

Given the provenance of the builder and the owners preparedness to commit to regular maintenance , BON VOYAGE appears to be a very good woody, with the bonus of fitting into a 10.5m berth.
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up.

CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLASSIC LAUNCH – MINAMOOKLA

CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLASSIC LAUNCH – MINAMOOKLA

Todays woody photos come to us from the camera of Alan Sexton and show the launch – MINAMOOKLA hauled out at the Sandspit Yacht Club yard.

Alan commented that he believes MINAMOOKLA  is one of Dave Jackson’s builds and that woodys is all we know

More details would be nice, so if you are familiar with the boat, let WW know.

CRUISING UP THE UPPER HARBOUR TODAY FOR THE WOODYS RIVERHEAD PUB LUNCH CRUISE. TRIP REPORT NEXT WEEK

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCHES AT SANDSPIT YACHT CLUB

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCHES AT SANDSPIT YACHT CLUB

Its’ not often we see two Dave Jackson boats together, hauled out side by side. Gregs Lees sent in the above photos from the yard at the Sandspit Yacht Club.

On the left is the launch – KARROS, Dave’s own boat, built in 1974 and on the right LADY BEV, the first boat of his own design, which he built in 1957 for his father. 

Photo of KARROS afloat in this WW story from Oct 2013 https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/10/03/karros/

We get a better look at LADY BEV in this link from a WW story back in July 2022 https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/07/30/lady-bev-cya-heritage-basin-marina-poll-results-revisited/

And a peek down below on LADY BEV in a WW April 2024 story https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/04/13/lady-b-bee/

Brin Wilson 1958 Classic Wooden Launch – Mandalay

Screen Shot 2019-06-25 at 7.42.41 PM

Screen Shot 2019-06-25 at 7.44.18 PM

Screen Shot 2019-06-25 at 7.45.25 PM

Brin Wilson 1958 Classic Wooden Launch – Mandalay

Today’s woody was designed by Brin Wilson and built in 1958 by Dave Jackson, so that makes her a special woody. Carvel planked and measuring 35’9” with a 11’1″ beam and drawing 2’11”.
She is powered by a Moon Engines – reconditioned (2000) Ford 120hp diesel, that sips 7L an hour at a cruise speed of 7>8 knots.
Anyone able to put a name to the boat. I understand her owner has had her for approx. 30 years. Its Mandalay (thanks Geoff Bagnall)

Ngaire – South Island

Ngaio Nelson

Ngaire
The above photo was sent in by Lake Rotoiti (Rotorua) boat builder Alan Craig. Alan spotted the photo of Ngaire on a recent trip to the Maritime Museum in Mapua, Nelson. At the time Ngaire was owned by Jack Marusich and he is waiting for a load of sheep to be rowed out to the boat. I have to saw the sheep look remarkably relaxed given the trip. The photo caption commented that they were most likely used to it and were probably being relocated to fresher pasture.  Given the load it must have been a great dinghy.
Anyone able to tell us more about this launch?
And speaking of great dinghies – check out Martin Howson’s new clinker below, built late 2019 by Dave Jackson. She measures 8’ x 4’6” and It is built out of ply and ribbed and riveted, there is no glue. Her ribs are  North American white oak, the breast hook and the quarter knees are oak, the thwarts are kauri and knees for the thwarts are oak as well
The oars at 7 ft and Martin commented that you can really put your back into rowing or just tack it easy.  The floor boards are scribed and are easily removed
for cleaning and again they are made from kauri.
DSCN1926

Southern Star

20190112-_DHW3469

 

 

SOUTHERN STAR

Southern Star has made the odd cameo appearance on WW in the past but now  thanks to Dean Wright’s camera, we get to see her ‘in-the-flesh’.
SS is owned by Craig Pippen and for a long period she lived at the Milford Marina, Auckland but these days home is Opua in the Bay of Islands.
SS would slide into WW via the Spirit of Tradition category, but unfortunately I can not tell you much about her – hopefully today will be a quiet day at Cater Marine in Opua where Craig works and he will jump on-line and share some details with us 🙂
If you are in the city later today (5pm >), drop down to the RNZYS Dinghy Locker bar for a post race drink with the CYA yacht fleet. Its day 1 of the CYA 3 day Classic Yacht Regatta and most of the fleet will be rafted up at the rear of the Squadron, so it’s a great opportunity to see some of the classics up close, with a beer or glass of Lawson’s Dry Hills wine in-hand.
Input from Murray Deeble – Southern Star ex Ma Cherie from Smelting house bay Kawau , Dave Jackson design and build

Input from Craig Pippen (owner)“Looking to transition from sailing to motoring after the big OE we found southernstar for sale at Kawau (in an unfinished condition). Having previously commissioned Dave Jackson to build a smaller version, the 32ft Telstar, it was an easy decision to purchase her.

As Kathy’s father, sailmaker Sandy Harold had owned a yacht named Southern Star(and to keep the “star” theme going we renamed her. The name change was done in the correct time honoured manner.

Powered by Gardner 6LXB, the dimensions are35ft x 11ft x 3ft10”. She is a capable comfortable vessel.

Thanks to Dave Jackson for building such a good boat and to Dean Wright for the great photos.
Cheers Craig. PS- it is always busy at Cater Marine”

Screen Shot 2019-03-01 at 1.02.17 AM

A Peek Inside Dave Jackson’s Shed

IMG_0032

IMG_0033

IMG_0034

A Peek Inside Dave Jackson’s Shed

Woody Dave Walker recently sent me these photos of Dave Jackson at work in his Warkworth workshop.
In the above photos we see Dave working on a 8’ clinker (ply) dinghy of his own design, in the background (more photos below) is a 16’ day-sailer he built, again own design.
It’s great to see that such a talented man is still turning out fine craft. Dave would list is age as 80+ so well done I say. The dinghy looks ace.
IMG_1106
Need A Trailer?
image1
Laughing Lady’s owner James Dreyer, has kindly made an offer to loan his beast of a trailer to anyone starting a restoration & needing a trailer.
It currently has Jason Prew’s – My Girl onboard (see below) but will be free very soon.
The trailer can easily deal with 35′ x 10′ and 12 tons.  Pintle eye type trailer hitch.  New wheel bearings and great tyres.
Disclaimer is the air brakes are not operational nor is it road legal.  It has covered Tauranga > Whangateau > Auckland with ease behind a large truck. James is happy for the bunks to be modified as & where needed, as long as it is returned to as found when done.
Anyone interested can contact James as below:
jamesdreyer@hotmail.com
IMG_0052

Lady Jade

LADY JADE
photos & details ex John Sankey & John Pryor

A ‘new’ classic was launched last weekend at Hamilton’s Landing on the Mahurangi River.

Lady Jade at 39′ is a Dave Jackson design and there are a further 3 sister ships currently under construction locally.
Her hull was started by local boating identity Col Bell and purchased by Andrew Hamilton when Col struck health problems.
She was worked on by both Andrew and his son Grant over the last year or so. The Hamilton Family have been boat builders and farmers on the Mahurangi for at least 5 generations, starting as scow builders and there are currently 3 generations still living on the property. They have been launching boats at this very un-marina launch site for 150+ years.

The mast on Lady Jade came from the wrecked (rescued & restored) Logan yacht Gypsy. Her bow roller is from the ex Logan lifeboat Tuna. She is powered by a 6lxb. Gardener, an ex show engine from Gardner UK. Supposedly, the last Gardener ever built.

The story of the Round NZ Cruise of Karros II

The Round NZ Cruise of Karros II
told by Jillian Inglis & sent in to ww by Jamie Hudson ex Peter Berrett

Click the blue link below to view the story 😉

Ernie’s gone fishin

The above folks is an exceptional read – 3 blokes – Ernie Seagar, Bill Boulton & Dave Jackson (owner skipper of Karros) in Feb 1985 undertook a 7 week circumnavigation of NZ that they loosely describe as ‘Gone Fishin’.
Its 18 pages long so grab a coffee / tea & find a comfy spot – I guarantee you wont be able to stop reading. Make sure you view the photos on pages 15>18. Teaser below

Screen Shot 2014-10-31 at 12.57.33 PM
I understand the story surfaced for the 80th birthday celebration for Ernie Seagar. In the photo below, Ernie is pictured in July 2014,  on-board Margo & Jamie Hudson’s classic launch, Lady Crossley, holding a photo of LC on her launch day, Ernie’s father had LC built by Colin Wild. Ernie’s grandmother launched LC.

 

Cyvette

CYVETTE

details & photos ex Sea Spray April 1962 edition, supplied by Ken Ricketts

Built for Mr Doug Ellis of Northcote, by Dave Jackson, she is 30′ 6″ long, 9′ 6″ beam & draws approx 3′. She was built in a shed adjacent to the northern Harbour Bridge approaches, at that time, which was reported to have been quite historical & used by Bill Couldrey & before him Bob Brown, designer of the Z-Class, in days gone by.

She was originally powered by a 100hp Scripps marinised Ford V8 driving a 20×18,  five bladed propeller through a 2 to 1 reduction gear.

She is single skin full length Kauri with Tanekaha timbers deck beams & coamings with extra trim in Mahogany.  She sleeps 6.

In the photo above Mrs Ellis is pictured christening Cyvette..

Harold Kidd Update

Dave Jackson built CYVETTE to his 1957 design for LADY BEV which he built for himself and kept for many years. CYVETTE was later renamed BONAVENTURE.
Dave built a huge number of boats in the Sulphur Beach shed in which Bob Brown had built many craft before he drowned trying to save a child in the early 1930s Brown built a number of mullet boats, ARETHUSA and designed and built the first Zeddies. After his death, Bill Couldrey took over the yard and built all those great keel yachts and launches there. Dave Jackson took over the yard when he set up on his own after leaving Collings &  Bell. Mrs Brown still owned the site. Ernie Seager also operated his marine engineering business from the yard alongside Dave.

17-04-2016  Could Cyvette be Bon Voyage ?
photo & details ex Ken Ricketts

Bon Voyage is based at Gulf Harbour & is powered by an Iveco 6 cyl diesel & has been owned by Richard Barrington for a around a year. He bought her as Bon Voyage off Keith Williams & believes she was built around 1960 & could be originally have been Cyvette.

Keith Williams told Ken he had her from c.2000-2001 & sold her to Richard B. a little over a year ago & she was at Gulf Harbour when he bought her. She was called Bon Voyage & also had the  Iveco at that time he bought her. Keith can’t recall who he bought her off & thinks he bought her as result of a sign in the boats window. He recalls the previous owner was working in Albany at the time & thinks he may have lived in East Coast Bays.

Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 7.59.51 PM