WOODY CLASSIC BOATING 2022 – 2023 CALENDAR Time to get the pencil out and circle a few dates in the calendar. Our 2022 > 2023 classic woody events focus equally on the boats and the people – its all about getting off the marina and meeting up with like minded people. As always, some dates may change and the weather is always a factor – but as the dates approach we will be in touch with more details.
Please feel free to share the calendar with your classic friendly boating enthusiasts. Where tide and draft permits – woody cruising yachts are always welcome to join in, so also share with the stick and rag woodys 🙂
AND TO ENSURE YOU GET A WOODY FIX TODAY – CLICK THE LINK BELOW Video footage from the 2022 Moreton Bay Classic (thank you Andrew Christie)
Hopefully today I’ll be mooching around the same spot as where the above photo was taken – Kawau Island, Mansion House Bay – then later on in Smelting House Bay (KBC).
I’ll put up a WW t-shirt for the woody that can ID correctly the most launches in the photo. I’ll give you starter – the launch on the right at the back (#7) is Nathan Herbert’s Pacific – I only know that because he told me 🙂 Click on the image to enlarge. Entries by email only to the address below – closes 6pm Monday 31 Jan 2022
Below Is Ken Ricketts Crack At ID’ing The Launches Featured Above – All Based On Memory. Better Than Some Of The Attempts Sent In 🙂
“Starting with boat #1, we see the Lane Motor Boat Lady Sandra owned by Len Peckham, with Len visible at the flying bridge.At the time of launching she had a seek coamings profile, but Len discovered shortly after her launching, that that sleek low profile made it very difficult to see from the downstairs helm, so he had the Perspex dome, as seen in the image fitted soon after launching, to overcome this shortcoming.Power at that time, came from 2 x 90 HP Scripps flat head 6 cyl petrol engines, in right at the stern under large hatches, in the built in aft deck, — (she had no cockpit), which faced forward & drove through intermediate shafts to detached Vee drive gear boxes that doubled a 2 to 1 reductions gears to the prop shafts. Lane Motor Boat was one of the very early boatbuilders to fit silencers to petrol engines, & along with the Wanda II, Connie V, Sou East and Nor West, she had almost silent exhausts well above the waterline, out the stern, & in her case, along with the 2 sister ships Nor West and Sou East, built around that era as well, she had side facing cowls over the exhaust outlets directing the exhaust gasses in to the slipstream along each side of the hull, which seemed to work very well. Peckman sold her after only a very few years.
Right alongside her, is Arnold Baldwin’s Lidgard built 46’ Valsan, (Boat #2) which started life, in the later 1930s at 38 feet, with a built in aft deck, which had an additional 8’ added to give her, her cockpit, done just before WWII, for original owner Alex Harvey, who named her after his children, Valerie & Sandy. He sold her around the end of the war to a Mr Annan who renamed her Lady Edith. Arnold B bought her c1948 renamed her back to Valsan, which as far as I know she still is today, & his old boat the Menai passed to Horry Whimp. She had 2 x 90 hp Graymarine flat head petrol engines from new, for the majority of her period of the Arnold B stewardship, but he eventually replaced them with 2 marinised 4 ltr Ford Falcon petrol engines in his later years of ownership.I believe Arnold kept Valsan until around the time of his death, many years later.
Boat #3 is the Reremoana which was built in the mid/late 1930s by Bill Couldry as a 28’ sedan topper but was added to, take her to 36’ by one of the Lanes I recall, but not sure which one, with entirely new coamings with a bridgedeck style around 1939 & that is how she is looking in this image. She was seized by the Police in the 2000s during a criminal investigation & pulled apart inside & out & what was left was bought by a recent post 2000 owner who has rebuilt her along the lines of the image in the pic to a degree. Never knew any owners or engine details.
Next we go to #4, the Ford V8 powered Lady Joan & at the time this was taken it would have been shortly after Stan Headland sold her, when he had just bought #6 the Lady Clare, off Jim Faire, & Stan H can be seen on the bow of Lady Clare talking to Lady Joan’ new owners, I would presume. Lady Joan was also eventually seized by the police as part of another criminal investigation & demolished by them sometime around 2000 or a bit later.
#5 is the 28′ Fred Lidgard built, sedan topper for Frank Pigeon. Frank can be seen with his head out the hatch as if he is looking to tie up.Frank owned Sunny Bay, Kawau Island & Fred built the boat which had no visible name on her exterior that I can recall, for Frank, as transport to & from his property, & general use for collecting stores & visiting friends around the island.
#6 is as above, Lady Claire, she had a large Lycoming petrol engine, which Stan H. later changed to a Kermath a couple of years after he bought her. She is a stunning mid1930s, Colin Wild design & build & while she has a different builder, to me, she has many similarities, to Ted Clarke’s 1939 Dick Lang built Lady Margaret.
Finally we come to #7, Pacific built by Joe Slattery over 100 years ago for the Hobbs Family, who were farmers at the outer end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula, & in the very early days she would have been used for all farm associated work, & other business associated matters, as transport to Auckland, family picnics, & to catch up with the neighbours. She is still unbelievably in the original family & still looking more or less absolutely original as far as I know. When I first went aboard her Christmas in Mansion House Bay she had a 3 or 4 cyl Twigg petrol engine right in the very bow forward of her little bridgedeck in its own little white painted engine room. (She must have had a propeller shaft almost as long as the boat,) & it had 3 or 4 individual cylinder blocks bolted to a separate crankcase with no cylinder heads & the spark plug sitting in the centre of the top of each cylinder block. The engine was painted bottle green. She will have had several engine transplants since then, the latest a new modern diesel fitted recently.” (edited by Alan H)
MAHURANGI REGATTA 2019 – The biggest & best classic wooden boat regatta in NZ – 90+ photos
FRIDAY NIGHT
SATURDAY – REGATTA DAY
SATURDAY NIGHT AT SCOTTS LANDING
SUNDAY MORNING
MAHURANGI REGATTA 2019 – The biggest & best classic wooden boat regatta in NZ – 90+ photos
WoW what a woody weekend – simply stunning on all fronts – sun > wind > location > people & of course the boats. On my estimate, the biggest turnout of classic wooden craft ever. Record numbers for Saturday mornings launch parade.
I’ll go out on a limb & repeat a comment made to me on the deck of Lidgard House, Kawau Island on Sunday night by one of our most prominent & influential classic wooden boat people – “Mahurangi is the real Auckland Anniversary Weekend Regatta” & after cruising back into Auckland today, & not seeing a lot of yachts, I would have to agree.
On Saturday between Jason Prew on My Girl & myself with Raindance we hosted three of the wooden boating world’s superstars – if you read or follow the WoodenBoat magazine, Classic Boat & the hottest property on the block – the vblog, https://www.offcenterharbor.com
then the names Maynard Bray, Benjamin Mendlowitz & Steve Stone will be very familiar to you. These gents were motored around the harbour & very selectively photographed / filmed our beautiful woodys. When I mentioned that I had cancelled my trip to next months Hobart Wooden Boat Festival, one commented “why would you go – it’s all here” & woodys – it was.
I have never attempted to understand the ‘politics’ / issues between the Mahurangi Cruising Club & The Friends of Mahurangi people – but between them they turn on a wonderful day, that equals anything on the world classic wooden boat calendar. As with anything, a few wee niggles e.g. crap PA sound system at the beach prize giving meant most people didn’t know the results – but I can tell you that Tony Blake & the crew on Thelma gave all the other A division skippers as master class in regatta sailing. It was wonderful to see the big 5 Arch Logan yachts – Thelma (1897), Rainbow (1898), Ariki (1904), Rawhiti (1905) & Rawene (1908) all on the same race track together, for the first time ever (I think I’m right – Harold?) The results were:
Thelma, followed by Rawhiti, followed by Ariki, then Rainbow & Rawene.
As a result of playing driver for the overseas crew – I’m a little light on sailing photos, but you can see from the gallery above that it was a special day.
Well done MCC and F. of M. for another magic weekend.
If anyone else had the camera out & captured some goodies, email them to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
We bailed out of Mahurangi on Sunday morning & headed to Kawau Island for some family R&R – photos below.
Question – what do you do when there is no shotgun to signal sunset & the lowering of the burgee? – well a few lads decided to bang some pots together, then drop the flags at Lidgard House – me thinks there might be a letter in the mail to certain members 🙂
A WEE BIT OF PR GOING ON HERE – WW T’s & OFF CENTER HARBOUR CAPS 🙂
THERE ALWAYS HAS TO BE A FOOD SHOT – KAWAU BOATING LUB, DINNER SUNDAY NIGHT.
Check out the video below of Rawhiti – sent in from Benjamin Mendlowitz from Off Center Harbour
Update – due to not all launches completing 2 laps of the launch parade – I missed photographing a few boats – photos below ex Justine Ricketts (edited by myself)
AND MORE – link below to the Off Center Harbour video of the 2017 regatta, featuring Steve Horsley’s stunning 1904 Chas Bailey Jnr – Ngatira
UPDATE ex Graeme Finch of the A Class fleet racing Saturday + one of Raindance showing myself & Steve Stone from Off Center Harbour filming / clicking away 🙂
As always – click photos to enlarge 😉
Also from Graeme – one of Bruce Tantrum’s pride & joy – Paramour + Graemes stunning ship – Te Arahi 🙂
UPDATE – An early Saturday morning drone fly-by over Sullivans Bay, Mahurangi. Filmed by Neil Lawton, heads up on the movie from Ian Gavin.
30-01-2019 Update – photos of Laughing Lady ex Jason Prew
Following on from yesterdays story, I’m just back from sliding up the coast to Russell in the Bay of Islands, delivering the 37’ Owen Woolley built launch – Korawai, to her new owners BOI home. After a few unexpected hiccups we eventually departed Gulf Harbour marina late Thursday afternoon, first stop Kawau Island. Had to sprint to hit the Kawau Boating Club before the kitchen / bar closed. Awoke to perfect conditions so dropped the RNZYS mooring at 6.30am and pointed the bow North – 11 hours later we rounded Cape Brett and eventually dropped anchor in Otaio Bay for the night. Saturday we picked up a friends mooring at Russell and hit the cafe for a coffee. The owner / skipper immediately re-fuelled, collected his better half and was off for a few days cruising. Sad to see the boat head north but, her new owners are a cool creative couple that will spend the time and $ to return Korawai to the condition she deserves. The new owners first thing when he stepped aboard was remove the ‘rocket-launcher’ fishing rod holder from the cabin top and toss it in the marina dump bin – so that bodes well for the future of this woody 🙂 We will follow the boat as the rolling restoration happens. As we rounded Cape Brett I got a great view of the lighthouse and ex lighthouse keepers house – 24 hours later my daughter and friends were doing the 32 km walk to the same spot – the sign says 8 hours in and 8 back, they did it in 4 hrs (each way) but split with an overnight in the now Dept. of Conservation controlled house. The report was its a stunning but tough walk, included a few photos.
Spotted a few woodys once we had made it into the bay – • Mike & Robbie Quilter’s Salthouse designed – Tapui • Wild Duck, the 1932 JB Jules built ex flying boat tender • Marline, the Warne family 35’, 1950 launch, designed and built by Leone Warne. Video below of the family heading out for the day, on Saturday – love the jetski being towed 🙂
SCROLL DOWN TO YESTERDAYS STORY FOR INTERIOR PHOTOS OF KORAWAI
Today’s photo gallery of woodys comes to us from the camera’s (phones) of Jason Prew and Nathan Herbert and were taken over Easter weekend in and around Kawau Island. Boats featured are Jason’s – My Girl, Nathan’s – Pacific, Peter & Jenni Mence’s – Eileen Patricia, Jason & Yan Davies – Lucinda. Plus cameo appearance from Paul Tinghy’s yacht -Wotan and Madeline Rundle’s launch Hami (previously Wanda / Wanda II).
Lucinda was built in 1930 by LC Coulthard and has just been re-launched after undergoing some running repairs at The Slipway Milford. Work included re-powering – out went the 50hp Perkins and in went a 100hp Isuzu, giving her a top speed now of 14>15 knots.
WoW what a weekend – perfect weather, perfect location and as always stunning boats. We saw a record turn out for the classic wooden boat parade on Saturday morning – the crowd ashore at Sullivans was a little thin on the ground, but if we are honest, we do not do it for them – its all about us 🙂 , a little like going for a motorbike rumble. We need more events where we just ‘hang-out’ together.
The regatta’s main event – the yacht race appeared to be a big success, the A-Class Logan – Rawhiti, in the hands of her new owner – Peter Brookes, cleaned up all the major trophies. As has become the norm at Mahurangi races, the results process was a total balls up, it was very dark and late into the night before the final, final results were announced – fingers crossed its all kosher, last year it took days and numerous oops lets try that again announcements 🙂
The big band beach BBQ, was a hit, perfect on all fronts – weather, tide, the band, bbq’s and the people. Given the number of boats in Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island, most people headed there on Sunday. The Kawau Boating Boat was bursting at the seams but handed it well. I have split the photos into 4 galleries – Classic Wooden Boat Parade – Yacht Race – Beach BBQ – More (includes Kawau). If I missed your boat, you were somewhere I wasn’t, or in the wrong light , or your’e boats ugly (joking – sort off). Enjoy a peak at the weekend., click individual photos to enlarge. Next weekend I’m off to the Lake Rotoiti Classic and Wooden Boat Parade – its a biggie – they have 70+ entries
Recently I had had enough of weekends in Auckland so with the wife out of town, I took the opportunity to escape & experience the 2nd to last stage that some of us go thru e.g. yacht > launch> motorhome > death.
An old neighbour & friend Chris Miller, owns a large motorhome, so we headed north to Sandspit – & booked into the camping ground for the weekend.
On Saturday we took the ferry to Kawau Island for what is known as the ‘Royal Mail Run’ – the boat mooches around the island dropping off / picking up passengers & freight for all the private jetties. While not a woody, the ferry trip is a must do, you get to visit most of the bays & can even enjoy a wine or two.
The photos above are a random gallery of the woodys I spotted on the trip & some of the waterfront holiday homes.
Rather a large post this morning woodys – the long weekend started around mid-day Friday when I slipped the lines at the marina & headed up the coast for the Mahurangi Regatta weekend. Late afternoon & into the evening, Sullivans Bay started to fill up with classic launches & cruising classic yachts. Given the SW breeze the classic yacht race fleet were not far behind. Makes a pleasant change to get to see the fleet finishing in daylight 🙂
Saturday dawned as a repeat of Friday in terms of the weather – 10/10, & it stayed that way for the next 3 days – maybe summer has arrived.
For the last few years we have been trying to beat the drum & build interest > participation in a classic wooden launch parade as part of the weekends activities – well 2017 was the year that the classic woodys really made a statement – 35+ launches of all ages & sizes meet off Scotts Landing & proceeded to motor over to Sullivans Bay & parade along the beach front in a special lane that was laid for the parade. To all the skippers that made the effort to join in, many thanks for making the event special. To the skippers that remained at anchor, maybe next year ……… 🙂
While I have been told on numerous occasions that its a sailing weekend, the truth is that with the growth of the classic launch movement , the Mahurangi weekend is now the largest classic wooden boating event in NZ. So lets all enjoy the event & celebrate our magnificent classics. I do have one wee bleat about the weekend, but I’ll talk about that at the end of todays post.
I have broken todays pictorial into five parts – Launch Parade, Regatta Yacht Race, General Regatta, Kawau Island & Trip home / Auckland Anniversary Regatta
At the Regatta prize giving on Saturday night I was chuffed to accept on Harold Kidd’s behalf the ‘John Cole Trophy’ (photo below) – awarded for ‘aesthetic contribution to the Mahurangi Regatta’, when I told Harold about the award he was concerned that it had taken 80 years for people to recognize his good looks, I told him I think his looks were enhanced by the fleet of classics he has presented over the years at the regatta 😉
Not along after walking up to collect Harolds award I was up again – it was my turn this time – I was presented with the ‘Handicappers Trophy’ (photo below) for helping with the Launch Parade over the last 5 years.
I saw lots of cameras out there, so send your photos to waitematawoodys@gmail.com & we will share them (the good ones) with the wider woody community.
AND REMEMBER YOU CAN ENLARGE THE PHOTOS BY CLICKING ON THEM.
LAUNCH PARADE (Hopefully I got everyone, if I missed you boat, sorry but one guy (only me on-board, family joined later) & one camera has limitations
REGATTA YACHT RACING
GENERAL REGATTA
KAWAU ISLAND – in case you did not know – the Kawau Boat Club rocks
TRIP HOME + SOME AUCKLAND ANNIVERSARY REGATTA PHOTOS
DOG FREE REGATTA
As you mooch around classics one of the things you notice is that a lot & I mean A LOT of the boats have dogs on-board, not big scary dogs, 99% of the time they are small / medium dogs & they tend to be very loved & very well behaved – I would estimate that 1/3 of the people that I regularly boat with have a pooch & that pooch is better behaved than most kids. So why would someone attempt to make a classic boating event dog free. Thats what the organizers of the Mahurangi Regatta tried to do this weekend, I say tried because common sense won out & the dogs stayed. But it really does worry me that they are people out there that would send the time & effort to try to change the council rules on a piece of public land just because they do not like dogs. Maybe next time they should try making it Kids Free 🙂 A word of warning, keep this up & you will lose a large chunk of your loyalists.
I will not bother to comment on the stanch of DOC & its apparant drive to make every beach / reserve dog free…….. that is another story.
At last a long weekend 🙂 Always seems such a long time between the last & the first long weekends. I know my log book says its over 5 months since I went past North Head but in my defense Raindance has had a winter of mechanical maintenance.
For woodys looking for some boating this weekend there are a couple options, which hopefully will not be too disrupted by the weather.
Myself & a few others will be mooching around Waiheke Island & at this stage plan to get together somewhere for a catch up on Sunday afternoon (late). Nothing cast in stone & will post something here on ww on Sunday.
For those looking for something further afield its the Kawau Boating Club season opening weekend – plenty to do & I imagine the AB’s game will be screened at the KBC clubhouse. More details below.
And – photos please. Pack the camera & take a few classic woody photos & then email them in to ww.
The weather split the CYA classic fleet in two this Labour weekend with some heading to Kawau for the opening of the ‘new’ Kawau Boating Club. From all reports it was a blast & well done to those that made the trip. The photos below of Kawau are from the camera of Margo & Jamie Hudson (Lady Crossley).
A selection of classic launches mooched around Waiheke Island & with the weather forecast – Onetangi Bay was the most popular spot. We had to share it with a rather large number of plastic boats, I think every Rivia in Auckland was there, but for once they behaved & the hum of the gen-sets was almost bearable 🙂 Waiheke photos ex me (I took a few more ,but they will be ‘Mystery Boat’ posts)
PS If you were away on the boat or at the bach, you may have missed the last 4 ww posts, which featured the boats of Norm Fairlie. Stroll down to enjoy 😉
