Now thanks to tme (and Ian MacDonald) we get to have a peek down below.She was built in 1919, is approx. 33’ and powered by a 35hp BMW engine, that gets her along at 8 knots.
Rakino Island (West Bay on left – Woody Bay on right)Raindance & Morgana
West Bay, Rakino IslandMarise
Woody Bay Pizzeria – Rakino Island
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT ON RAKINO ISLAND – click to play – the singer, Jennie Cruse is Auckland based and available for hire – 021 266 4330
LibertyWindhaven II
MariseManuroaWaiariRaindance @ Garden Cove
GARDEN COVE – 360 deg Video – click to play
WOODY SUMMER BOATING CRUISE The WW story today is a photo gallery from the 2020/21 holiday period cruise on Raindance, the photos are not always that sharp, it was more like “look there’s one” and I would grab the camera and snap a photo. Click on the smaller photos to enlarge 😉
We mostly mooched around Waiheke and Rakino Islands – had 11 great days afloat, a little blowie at times but tucking away in the right spot with a good book was just what the doctor ordered. Only had 2 hours rain on one day, so can not complain. General observation was that it was quiet in most of the bays. I understand Great Barrier Island was very popular.As always there are a few food pix to break things up. The discovery of a pop-up pizzeria in Woody Bay, Rakino was the culinary highlight of the cruise 🙂
Thanks to help from several woodys sending in photos, we were able to continue the WW stories everyday over the holiday period and the viewing / reading numbers were strong thru-out. I think that one of the few positives from CV-19 is that a lot more people have either upgraded their digital devices or are now more tech savvy and are on-line more often.
Enjoy the photos – the next big woody event will be the Auckland Anniversary long weekend at Mahurangi.
Earlier this month I featured the launch Liberty on WW, the story generated some good chat around her provenance and some b/w photos from her past (link to that story below).
In the WW comments section Tom Morris mentioned that he had a photo of Liberty still with her wartime number on bow. Today that photo arrived in my in-box, and its just too good to ‘bury’ in the existing WW story.
Tom commented that the launch was built by Lou Burns and Stu McCallum at Te Papapa Onehunga. In the photo above we see Lou at the helm, and Tom’s late mother standing, Tom’s grandad is sitting in cockpit.Tom believes that Lou and Stu also built the launch Pirate and Stu McCallum built Avanti.
Liberty is for sale – someone needs to buy her & using the above photos reference, bring her back to ‘as launched’ condition. She is a looker and with the right engine appears to be a zoom zoomer 🙂
Last year on the Woody Classics weekend cruise up the Clevedon River I spotted the launch – Liberty on a pile mooring. Recently her owner contacted WW and advised that he has owned her for 30 years and believes she was built c.1928.
As you move from the bow to the stern there is an interesting ‘gallery’ of styles on show – nothing that a sharp skill-saw couldn’t correct 😉
Currently powered by a BMW 35hp engine.
And woodys – she’s for sale.
Any woodys able to tell us more about Liberty?
17-02-2020 Update ex Philip Goddard
Philip has advised that his father has emailed him the photos below of Liberty. Probably taken late 1960’s when the family had purchased her.
His father recalls that she had no pulpit when purchased, so he had one made. He is certain it looks like the same one in today’s photos.
Harold Kidd Input – I have always thought she was the LIBERTY built by F & S Shaw in Devonport in 1919 when both brothers got back from WW1. She had a 12hp Regal originally. I suspect she’s been lengthened as well as had a couple of tophamper additions. L.R. Matthews had her in 1947 when Commodore of PCC and Noel Mitchell owned her in the 1960s.
Stephen 46′ – USA Classic Liberty was built in the USA & imported into NZ from California last year (2013).
She is for sale on trademe for $275k & in my eyes is great value for money – to build her would cost 3x that price & then some.
Other than the motors – she has been extensively refurbished:-
New fridge and freezer, New hot water cylinder, New electrics, New switchboard, New LED Lighting , New engine room insulation , New anchor winch motor, anchor and chain, New batteries 700 amph, New inverter – shore power, New stove and hob, New upholstery and carpet’ New toilet’ New Large Raymarine chart plotter – fish finder.