Tag Archives: Lady Margaret

Woodys On Holiday @ Waiheke Island

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Woodys On Holiday @ Waiheke Island

 Good morning Woodys – the 1st ‘live’ post in 2 weeks & I have to say I have enjoyed the break from the daily task of creating a WW story. Sometimes with everything else that happens in life its been a challenge, I’ll keep on with the daily stories but just a heads up, the frequency may change……… but business as usual for now.

I was amazed at the viewing audience over the Xmas / NY period, there were some huge days – the “Gunk-Holing Up The Weti River’ story had over 6,000 views in 24hrs, not bad for a ‘re-run’.

Despite the weather forecast & a broken freezer we got away on Raindance for 8 Days, came back a little early due to the weather bomb, & so glad that we did. 

For the 8 days we just mooched around Waiheke Island & had stunning launch weather + the water temp was amazing, warmest I can recall in a long time. 

I spotted quite a few woodys around the bays, if I missed getting a photo of you, either the light was all wrong or I was doing something else – so sorry in advance.

Last ones of Raindance were taken by Richard Darke from aboard his launch ’Seafarer’, many thanks Richard, I do not get many of Raindance, normally she is the camera platform.

A word of warning, last weeks storm has deposited some very ugly logs around the inner harbour, so keep a look out. It amazes we no-one (Akl Council etc) gathers them up, they will find there way back into the water & be an even bigger hazard. The one below was on Cheltenham Beach, Devonport.

If you have any photos from the holidays – email them in to waitematawoodys@gmail.com

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While ashore at Oneroa I picked up a flyer for The Island Grocer store, very clever piece of creative 😉

Island Grocer

Woodys Cruise To Riverhead Hotel

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Blue Fin

Blue Fin
Blue Fin, Lucille 1993 Logan 33, Silens
Lucille, Silens, Endeavour
Raindance
Endeavour – 1953 A. Couldrey
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Silens – 1912 Harvey & Lang

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Volantis – 1965 & Raindance – 1928 Lane MB Co.

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Lady Margaret – 1927 Colin Wild

Woodys Cruise To Riverhead Hotel

Talk around the dock was that a few woodys were itching to give their classic woody an airing prior to this weekends CYA Xmas Party at Patio Bay, Waikehe Island. So a few of us decided to mooch up the harbour to the Riverhead Hotel for lunch & a fizzy beverage. Conditions were perfect & we had a great time, sometimes fewer numbers are good – you get to talk to everyone & the expended wharf, hosted most of us. 

Nice to see new CYA member John Mildenhall make the trip on Blue Fin. The 1935, C. Bailey Jun. designed & built by C. Bailey & Sons launch Nana, was at the meeting spot at Lucas Creek but didn’t do the creek trip, I passed them heading back & for once didn’t have the camera out – very smart classic. There is a great story about her rescue & rebuild – read here https://waitematawoodys.com/2017/02/01/nana-resuced-restored/

Publician Stephen Pepperell’s 1965 launch – Volantis, was berthed at the wharf & her refit is coming along nicely, the plan was to have her finished for Patio Bay weekend but completion is a little way off, but she will be a stunner when finished. View more on her history here https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/04/20/volantis-joins-our-classic-launch-fleet/

On the return trip I snapped a few photos of some classics moored on-route – see below 

 

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Te Hauraki – 1920 William Clare

Lilian -1920 Collings & Bell
Lillian
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Safari – c.1940 Trevor McGuire

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Maude – W. Fife

My Girl Restoration

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MY GIRL RESTORATION UPDATE – June 2017

If you are not following Jason Prew’s restoration of his 1925 Dick Lang, classic motor launch, ‘My Girl’ on his weblog (link below) you are missing a great woody project. The man is a very talented craftsman & has a cunning knack of being able to press-gang some of the wooden boating movements best minds & hands into helping at the right time 🙂
The project has really come along over the winter months – the photos above are just a taste of whats on show. Jason posts regularly so you can experience the work vicariously 🙂
http://www.my-girl.co.nz/mygirl/Restoration/Restoration.html
A Handy Hint: if you type My Girl in the ww Search Box you will get an overview of all the ww stories on My Girl.

It’s almost 2 years since we ran the story below on the missing My Girl Motor Boat Trophy. In the last 2 years the readership of waitematawoodys has increased by x14, so we have run the story again in the hope that one of the new readers might be able to shed some light on the missing trophy – read below.

LOST – The MY GIRL Motor Boat Trophy (August 2015)

This ones going to test the collective memory base of the all the woodys out there. We are looking for a trophy that was linked 80+years ago to the NZ Power Boat Association, I’m talking here about the old NZPBA, with races that involved real wooden boats – not the lumps of fiberglass with oversized outboards on the back they race today.

The trophy was the ‘My Girl’ trophy & was donated by a Mr. C. (Tui) Waldron to replace the ‘Burt Cup’. There are numerous press clipping that mention events where the cup was contested, won or presented. I have attached copies below for your reference / interest.
Despite all the searching no photo can be found of the cup.

The present-day owner of the launch ‘My Girl’, who the cup was named after, Jason Prew would like to track down the whereabouts of the cup &/or any information on what became of it. While the cup itself may not have survived, someone out there must know something about its past. Launches that have won the trophy include – Taura, Tasman & Crusader. Crusader was owned by the Rev Jasper Calder & was steered to victory by Miss Edna Herick. It appears that in several of the events that the trophy was offered up, one of the conditions of racing was the vessel had to be steered by a woman.
Launches that have raced for the trophy include – Taura, Aumoe, Edwina, Tasman, Nautilus, Ramona, Crusader, Wailani, Lady Margaret & Wanderloo.

So folks anyone able to help out in the hunt??

16-03-2018 Update – the other day Jason sent me the video clip below of the 130hp Volvo that will be sliding into My Girl. Shows the green lump running on a pallet – he would have happy that 1. it started 2. no knocks 🙂 With Mr Volvo at full chat, he will be buying a  set of water skis 🙂

Update 11-08-2020 Two and a bit years later there is a transplant underway – as they say in Thailand ‘same-same’. Just new and better 😉

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Mystery Launch 24-05

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Mystery Launch 24-05
photo ex Harold Kidd

Harold has been trying to ID the above launch & to date had no luck, so Woodys the question today – can any one put a name to her or even the location, that would be a big help in the process.

AN APOLOGY

For some reason the ‘WordPress’ platform who I host the ww site on has been having a few hiccups & keeps re-setting its internal clock – end result is that a few posts that I have had loaded into the system have appeared at random & then disappeared – don’t worry, they will be back 🙂
Cheers Alan Houghton

The floating art work, Lady Margaret (Dick Lang), was hauled out last week at Okahu Bay for some serious bottom cleaning. The X-Foul-E-8 team were applying their magic to her, that kauri looks as good as the day she was launched in 1940. A little birdie tells me we will not be hearing the purr of her Fodens for much longer, some open heart surgery is on the cards – the Lady always was very quick so will be interesting to see how she performs with 2 new light weight zoomers 😉 The Foden installation was a sight to behold so expect no-less with the transplant. (Peter B would kill me if I did not point out that the pile of mussels alongside LM came from another vessel)

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Miss Helen

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MISS HELEN
details ex Harold Kidd

We headed out at lunch time Saturday for an overnight trip to Waiheke Island. While Oneroa was like Ponsonby Rd on a Friday night we had talked ourselves into a pizza for dinner from the beach front wood-fired pizza wagon in Little Oneroa, so Oneroa it was. When the fizz boat day trippers departed at days end things were not too bad, still had to use strong words to question the intention of a Bayliner that was about to anchor on top of me 🙂
Highlight (after the pizza) of the weekend was getting to see the recently restored Miss Helen up close, she is one very good looking classic. I will let Harold tell us about her past.

She was built in 1930 by COLIN WILD for L.E. McQueen of Wairiki Road, Mt. Eden as AUDREY M and had a 125hp Lycoming 8 cylinder engine. McQueen had her dodger raised to give 6ft 6in headroom in October 1931 and had fresh water cooling installed. He then sold her to A.L Davenport who renamed her MAHSEER. Davenport sold her to Whittaker in 1934 and he renamed her LADY HELEN. He sold her to L.A. Marquet who sold her to A.E. Fuller of Russell in August 1937. She was altered for gamefishing. In August 1942 she was severely damaged coming ashore in a gale at Russell and substantially rebuilt again. Again she was renamed, MISS HELEN to tie in with the rest of  the Fuller fleet, MISS IDA, MISS KNOXIE, MISS RUSSELL etc.
BTW the Register of British Ships says she was built in Russell, which is incorrect, although she was re-built there once or twice.
McQueen, of course, had WILD build WAIRIKI in October 1934.

The Register of British Ships says she was built in 1932, which is also incorrect. The RBS is a very dodgy resource, especially where the vessel was registered well after she was built, as here.

To read more on Lady Helen & view older photos + restoration photos click the link below.

Miss Helen

Dropped the anchor near Lady Margaret (Colin Wild) & enjoyed a cleansing ale aboard with Peter Loughlin & partner Nicola. LM is looking very smart these days, with Peter doing a rolling restoration.

Lady Margaret PL

Classic Woodys Cruise To Riverhead Pub

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Classic Woodys Cruise To Riverhead Pub

The NZ Classic Yacht Association (CYA) launch group have amazingly good fortune when it comes to the weather for their events. Saturday was just a day out of the bag – sun, mill pond sea state, cool boats & nice people. The trip was a first for me in that I did not take launch Raindance & instead traveled on Trinidad, Barbara & David Cooke’s magnificent 1965 Salthouse motor launch.

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On the trip up the harbour we passed 2 very cool steam boats – Puke & Zeltic out for a cruise & enjoying the day.

We do this trip 2 or 3 times a year & a few trips ago added a mid trip raft-up meet & greet to the agenda, its a great chance to say hi to everyone before we hit the pub. A little like the American concept of a  ‘rehearsal dinner’ the night before the wedding day 🙂 If you check out the raft-up photos, all the males are enjoying a coffee & the females have a glass of bubbles in hand – how did that happen.

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Trinidad & Arohanui
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Rod Marler & Arohanui
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Florance Dawn & Monterey
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Lady Jane & Bruce Pullan (Ann Michelle)

We had 3 creek virgins making the trip for the first time – Florence Dawn, Lady Jane & Skipper CJ.

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Florence Dawn

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Lady Jane

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Skipper CJ

Interesting to witness the speed of the housing development in the Riverhead / upper harbour area – once all we saw was trees & paddocks, now its houses houses houses. Check out the photo of launches anchored Indian file – the land at the top was all pine trees 6>12 months ago.

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From the top – Skipper CJ, Florence Dawn, Arohanui, Lady Margaret, Monterey, Silens

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Arohanui

Monterey
Skipper CJ
Arohanui crew
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Skipper CJ
Arohanui touch parking
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Lady Margaret
Arohanui & Lady Margaret

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Lunch at the hotel was more casual i.e. less organized than on previous visits & that was a good thing – in fact the food got a big tick from everyone.

 

The day was not without a few oops – two people enjoyed an unplanned swim, no damage other than bruised ego’s & a lesson that when on-board always have two points of contact 😉 My lips are sealed on names, photo below of the 1st oops, no photo for the 2nd – I was doing the Piha Rescue.

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oops

Publicans Paula & Stephen Pepperell came out to inspect Trinidad, given their history of wooden boat ownership / travels I suspect a classic could be on the shopping list.

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Paula Pepperell, David Cooke, Stephen Pepperell

Spotted this smart bridge-decker (Lady Thelma) anchored off Hobsonville Point.

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The Sail ‘v’ Power Relationship

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The Sail ‘v’ Power Relationship

In a ww post back in August 2013, I (tongue in cheek) stated that I had found photographic evidence of the exact day & event when the relationship between power & sail soured– 29 January 1953, Auckland Anniversary Regatta. View photo & story here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/08/01/yachts-versus-motor-boats/

Well folks I got it wrong, it was much earlier than that – it was early December 1930. In the above photo ex Peter Loughlin’s (current owner) facebook page, we see Lady Margaret (1928 Colin Wild), described in the NZ Herald, 11th Dec 1930, article as a fast cruising launch ‘passing’ some of the M-Class sailing fleet. Passing was a rather polite term for ‘going thru at full chat’ 🙂

For the train spotters Maratea is in the lead (& won) followed by Mercer?? & Manu

Thankfully most classic motorboat owners are a wee bit more considerate these days, can not say the say about the average Riviera owner & a remarkable number are flying a RNZYS burgee 😦

Colin Wild Launches at Waiheke Island – 1927 or 2015 ?

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Colin Wild Launches at Waiheke Island – 1929 0r 2015 ?
photo ex Peter Loughlin

This photo just ticked so many boxes I had to post it. Tasman on the left & Lady Margaret on the right – both built by one of NZ’s best – Colin Wild. Lady Margaret was launched in 1928 & Tasman in 1929. Photo taken two weekends ago at Kauakarua Bay, Waiheke Island by Lady Margaret’s owner Peter Loughlin.
You can see that magazines like ‘The Rudder’ were having a big influence on motor-boat design in NZ at the time.

I wonder if Colin Wild ever imagined the 87 years later these two would be side by side & looking this smart.

To the CYA boats doing the Motuihe Picnic today, play nicely together & enjoy the day / weekend. Photos please.

Same weekend – both boats heading home. Photos from CYA member John Bertenshaw’s very cool ‘First Boating Weekend of the Season’ post on the WoodenBoat Forum – its been running for several years & is loaded with great photos.
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?120476-First-boating-weekend-of-the-season&p=4439832#post4439832

 

Lady Margaret (Oliver & Gilpin)

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LADY MARGARET – WHANGAROA

photos ex Dean Wright

There have been numerous Lady Margarets featured on ww, it was a popular name & must have been a good luck charm, as most as still afloat.

The above LM is 42′ in length & was built in Tauranga by Oliver & Gilpin c.1958. Harold would say ‘she has the typical O&G flair for dramatic style’.

She spent a lot of her life chasing game fish. The photos above were taken by Dean Wright in the Whangaroa Harbour.

Maro

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MARO

photos from Helen & Richard Andrew’s family collection (grand daughter & her husband of Henry Allen -Tiromoana) ex Ken Rickitts.

Ken is fairly certain this is Maro, his thinking is based on the fact that he saw Maro regularly in the mid to later 1940’s & given that the owner of Maro (Les Webber) was close friends of Henry & Alma Allen whose photo collection this photo came from. The NAPS number (329) should provide the answer.

Ken is uncertain who built her but suggests she is 34 – 36 ft long, circa 8 ft 6 inches beam, possibly built by either – Baileys, Dick Lang or even the Lanes (not Garth). Or perhaps none of those.

Les Webber, owner & founder of the Plummer Hat Company in Auckland, owned her in the mid to later 40s until 1950, & possibly for a period before that. He replaced her with the Amakura eventually, in 1950 -1955.

When Ken knew her she had a Graymarine 6 cyl approx 90h.p. petrol engine. She was used very regularly & had not been “fiddled with” as far as I could see, at that time.

Help with a positive ID & any details on her would be appreciated.

Remember – if for what ever reason you can’t reply in the comments section or if you have photos of a vessel – you can email me on the link below – 

waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Harold Kidd Update

It’s MARO all right, but certainly was “fiddled with” and Ken is “Wildly” astray.

1. She was built as the 33 footer THISTLE by M. Forsyth of Bayswater in late 1909, early 1910 

2. Harold Wiles and Percy Howden bought her in the winter of 1922.

3. Wiles seems then to have taken over ownership.

4. Wiles re-engined her with a 40hp Stearns, for which he was NZ agent.

5. Wiles handed her to Colin Wild to rebuild in November 1925, replacing her “compromise stern” with a tuck stern and lengthening her by 3′ 6″ in the process.

6. After the rebuild Wiles renamed her LADY MARGARET.

7. When Wiles commissioned Wild to build LADY MARGARET II in 1928, he sold this launch, LADY MARGARET I, to Dr. C.J. Long.

8. When LADY MARGARET II was launched, Long changed her name to MARO, took out the high-powered Stearns, which went into MOLLIE (later ALCESTIS/RAIONA) and put in a Universal 4 cylinder.

9. She remained in Long’s ownership until just before WW2 when L R H Webber bought her and was her skipper with NAPS in 1942-3 as Z25.

and so on…………………