Woody Olaf Wiig resides off shore these days but as the owner of the rather imposing 1953,Lidgard built 48′ woody – Ngaro as often as he can he hops on the big silver bird and returns home. Then slips the lines and heads out to enjoy the Hauraki Gulf and beyond.
Over winter Ngaro spent a couple of months in the shed at Robertsons yard having her cabin tops and varnish redone. It wasn’t all lipstick – a new water tank was installed + a major engine service and a full new suit of canvas.As I have commented before Bgaio is one of th few woodys that no matter what angel you approach her from, she looks perfect. Well done Olaf and Emma for the custodianship of Ngaro.
Have had a request from Jackson Lidgard for intel on the 38’ 1955 Lidgard built motor-sailer he and his father are currently doing a major refit/restoration on.
Jackson commented that she was originally named Lazy Days but renamed to Amokura sometime in the 1970’s or 80’s by the second owner. The story goes that the second owner was a Safe Air pilot from Picton who sailed her down from Auckland.
Jackson’s family bought her 2 years ago after she had deteriorated living on a swing mooring in Havelock Sound for the last 20 years or so. When purchased they were told it was a John Alden design but have been unable to confirm this.
Currently 4 months or so into her restoration in a shrink wrap shed on the Waikawa handstand. The top photo above was before the current project commenced.
Any information on the yacht would be greatly appreciated. For those woodys using Instagram there are regularly updates under the blog handle of @todothingsblog A random selection of photos from the blog below.
And for those wondering around the surnames of the builder and the restorer – yes there is a link but very distant.
Down at the Milford Slipway Milford during the week and spotted a woodys that we do not see much of these days.
The 46’ 1948 Lidgard built launch – Valsan, in for some TLC, including a Jason Prew Paint Job. Valsan has been a regular woody on the site but in recent years with her owner, Ian Nicholson being based off shore we haven’t seen a lot of her.
To my eyes the keel > shaft > prop > rudder set up is a tab unusual – interested in others thoughts.
Links below to WW past stories – the 1st (2013) has a lot of photos and intel.
The 1946 38’ Lidgard built launch – Hirawanu has appeared several times on WW and generated chat around the hot-house ‘up top’. I have included below a photo of her as launched to show her on a good day 🙂
Forward motion is via a Ford 120hp diesel, giving her a stated cruising speed of 8>10 knots.
Now thanks to tme & Ian McDonald we get to have a look down below.
Kawau Island 1950’s1954 ex K RickettsEarly 1980’sPost 1989
Maire – What Became Of Her
Woody Greg Philpott is on the hunt for the ex work-boat Maire, Greg has pulled together the below intel on the vessel but the trial drys up late 1998 >> on wards. Greg would also like more inset into when she was operating in Auckland in the 1960’s/1970’s. Have a read and let us know if your are able to close the story off.
Maire was built by Roy Lidgard, in his boatbuilding shed in Smelting House Bay on Kawau Island around 1949. She was approximately 42 feet long and originally powered by a 4 cylinder, 88hp Kelvin diesel.
Maire was used by the Lidgards for their own use, towing and workboat activity mainly to tow logs from the Coromandel and barges of ships dunnage that had been milled by the Lidgards on Kawau Island for supply to Union Steam Ship Company ships in Auckland.
She was acquired in the mid 1950’s by Alwyn (mostly called Allan) Horsfall who was then the owner of the Mansion House property on Kawau Island.
It looks like she ended up in Auckland for much of the 1960’s and 1970’s and ownership possibly rested with a Theo Brian Thomas who was based around Panmure. From there Marie was sold to Andrew Paterson who converted her for charter fishing use in the 1980s and operated her firstly out of Sandspit and later out of Whitianga. During his time of ownership of Maire, in July 1981, Paterson removed the Gardner engine and gear box to install a GM motor and also changed the wheel house windows giving them a forward rake.
Marie was sold in 1985 to Neil Hopkins who also operated her out of Whitianga along with his son Grant. Next owner was Ross Packer who owned her from 1996 until 1998.
It is at this point that the trail goes cold; she was sold and believed to have been relocated up north to either Mangawhai or Mangonui. And her name was changed. At one point, one of the previous owners was contacted by the Marine Department questioning why all identifying pieces from the boat (life rings, name board etc.) had been found on a beach at Great Barrier. She was also later apparently seen up on the hard at Te Atatu as an unfinished project.
INPUT from Grant Thomas
I had also been wondering what had happened to Maire. My Dad was Brian Thomas and he bought her off Horsfall approx. 1962.
I never realised she was originally used for towing etc but that would explain the extra lower belting etc. We owned her for 10 years and used her as a snapper fishing charter boat in the weekends plus went cruising on her in the early years. I was told that Horsfall sold her as she drew too much for the Sandspit run. Lidgards then built the Kawau Isle which looked just like the Maire but less draft.
Maire was 40 foot and drew 5 foot 6″ but 6 foot steaming. She was very slack bilged and use to roll badly. We kept her up the Tamaki River at Waipuna Rd on the jetty Dad built. We used to slip her at Owen Woolleys yard but she was 20 tons and really too heavy for that slipway. So Dad built his own slipway which is still operating today. I have a great photo of her on the slip.
We did all sorts of commercial work with her, she was a very capable vessel and she was always kept well painted.At the same time we owned the HDML Alert and so there was always a huge amount to do. I spent most of my younger years working very hard trying to maintain these two boats. We also ate a hell of a lot of fish as my Dad was a top fisherman and Maire was a popular boat to charter.
INPUT from Colin Silby
Maire was sitting awaiting repairs shall we say at the Te Atatu boating club when sold. The new owner renamed her Lola May after his mother and sailed her down to Christchurch. On her return back up she settled on a sand bank off Waihi. As the tide dropped she lay over and flooded. I was involved in her salvage and brought her to Westpark where she was on sold.
Recently I was contacted by Pat Menzies the youngest son of Clive Menzies who bought the launch Menai from Arnold Baldwin. In a previous WW story Harold Kidd refers to Clive as ‘C.B. Menzies’, link to that story below. After reading the numerous WW stories on Menai, Pat decided to share a little more information that he hopes may be of interest to us. It is a good yarn so I’ll hand over to Pat and let him tell the story. https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/09/02/menai-valsan-her-owners/
“First, a little background about Arnold Baldwin “Baldie” to his friends (unsurprisingly). He is referred to as “involerd in the paper and printing industry”. But he was a bit more significant than that. Born in Canada, he emigrated to New Zealand some time pre-war and founded Universal Business Directories Ltd. By the 1950s and continuing through most of the next half-century UBD’s metropolitan provincial editions were the first place to look for detailed information about businesses of all and any sorts and the advertising revenue they engendered had made Baldie quite a rich man. Very rich by the standards of the day. I presume he must have been in the RNZ Volunteer Reseve pre-war and was appointed skipper of the Menai during the war years when it was commandeered the Navy and put to Coastal Patrol duties. (I believe that virtually every harbour which had a fleet of launches had some commandeered by the Navy for this purpose, but the Menai is the only one I know about. After the war I understand Mr Reynolds, the original owner did not want it back and Arnold was able to buy it. By the late 40s he was looking for a bigger boat and bought the Valsan, selling the Menai to my father.
Dad and Arnold were at the time (and for a number of years thereafter) flag officers of the Auckland Motor Yacht Club and were able to organise the various transfers to suit their calendars and cash flow. Dad sold the “Taufale” a 28 footer launch which he had bought in 1944 (I think. May have been 1945.) I was only about 5 at the time so my memory of such details is non-existent.
Dad owned the Menai through to some time in the early 1960s when he sold it to a then well-known local architect – surname Dalton. I did know his first name but have long since forgotten it. He, after quite a short period on-sold it to Alan (I think) Martin who was at the time CEO of TVNZ Auckland and did a lot of work on the boat. It then went through a number of owners before Peter Smith bought it and turned it into the film star beauty she is now.
The reference to Horry Whimp as an owner is quite mysterious. He was, as stated, the manager of the UBD printing works, had worked for Arnold for many years and had the perk of being boat husband, first for the Menai and later for the Valsan. It could very well be that Horry had the use of the Menai over the 48-49 season while Dad and Arnold were trading their paths to each owning only one boat – and that Ken Ricketts (who is/was a couple of years older than me) simply assumed he owned it.
Menai was powered by a flathead Ford V8 with a marine conversion by OSCA, rated at 100hp. Whether that was as a car motor or marine I don’t know. It had a 2 to 1 reduction box and we cruised at 1750rpm on the rev counter. Dad went through about three propellers and numerous re-pitchings and re-cuppings and finally achieved claimed figures of cruising speed of about 6.5 knots and petrol consumption of 1 3/4 gallons per hour. Pushing it up to 7 or 7.5 knots resulted in it squatting at the stern (“digging a big hole in the water” Dad used to say) and consumption soaring to about 4 gallons/hour.
Dad also fitted a Ford 8 auxiliary motor following a rather nasty experience when the motor stalled (a scale of rust in the fuel line, I believe) and left us powerless on a lee shore, either down the Bottom End or over on the Coromandel. I was about 11 or 12 and getting ready to drop the 45lb big pick when the motor fired up again. He also fitted another smaller motor to charge the batteries so we didn’t have to go cruising to have electricity. He also fitted a gas powered freezer box under the starboard seat in the bridgedeck. Larger boats such as the Valsan generally had such facilities but the Menai was well up-to-date for its age and size. One of the perks of being one of Arnold’s friends was that ownership of the Valsan came with one of the boatsheds on Ngapipi Rd – the third from Tamaki Drive. Arnold ran a tight timetable. He had the shed from about Easter to near to Queen’s Birthday and then Dad and several other of his friends each had about 2 weeks or so, during which we worked hard to complete the season’s maintenance. Dad would go to the shed each evening direct from work and I would pitch on at the weekends working from dawn to as late as we needed. I remember varnishing the coamings in half-light of a winter evening was a truly awful task. But better than doing it in the open at Vos Bros or any other shipyard. At least we didn’t have dust to contend with”.
Mystery Lidgard Launch A question – why are so many mystery launches, Lidgards? Todays woody is double diagonal kauri with f/glass on outside, and is 26′ in length with a beam of 8’ and draws 2’. The engine is a Ford 60hp diesel. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up. WW would like help to uncover more on her past.
I know I’m tempting fate with the headline, but who can remember when it last rained? Todays gallery of woodys comes to us from the camera of Nathan Herbert (Pacific) as he mooched around the Hauraki Gulf last week. The last 5, are from Peter Loughlin (Lady Margaret -CW) doing the same thing.
We see Tasman, Viveen, Pacific, Arihi, Escape, Chandos, Zoe, Motunau, Waiari, Juanita, Pacific, Lady Margaret (CW), Rehia, Ngaro and a few that I can’t put a name to.
A question – did Colin Wild ever design / build an ugly boat?
It was a pretty wild and woolly weekend in some parts of the north and reviewing the news and photos, Tutukaka took the brunt of it – sad to see the carnage. Angus Rogers sent in the photo below from Russell last night – tagged ‘After the Wind’ showing the Russell ferry and the launch Miss Brett, bottom right closer in.
At the start of the month, we got a glimpse of the 1968 John Lidgard designed and built launch – Pescador. WW link below to that story. At the time I was contacted by Phil Vining with the promise of more details on the boat. https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/12/01/pescador-a-southern-woody/ True to his word, Phil contacted me yesterday – I’ll let Phil tell the story:
“The WW story about ‘Pascador’ – A Southern Woody certainly brought back some fond memories for our family. I have also noticed Pascador in the Motueka Marina looking very smart and well looked after – she is a real credit to her current owner. The last time I visited the area I also took a photo of her to show my father who owned her back in the early 1980’s. I have good memories of taking my very young family out cruising on her in the Sounds at the time. Not long after dad sold her she went to Havelock and was lengthened by the next owner to create a bigger cockpit. At this time I owned Vining Shipbrokers Ltd and we had her listed, probably late 1980’s. Early this week I visited the Vinings Office and owner Ian Michel has done a great job of keeping the records from back in my early days. He has digitized all the old typed up listings so good to find a listing for Pescador in the system. As you can see, she was a quality design & build by John Lidgard back in 1968 … the good thing is she looks in better shape now than back then.”
TOMORROW ON WW – THE NZ CLASSIC WOODEN BOATING MOVEMENT – WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE?
Over the last 48 hours I have had a lot of calls from woodys that spotted the 30’ Lidgard built yacht – Taioma on trademe as an abandoned vessel. Current bid is $10.50 and the reserve has been meet. The auction closes on July 19th. You are bidding on the hull only, and the motor is unknown condition. But the wooden mast and boom + a mainsail have been located and will go with the boat, if wanted (stored in a different location).
Woodys, someone will ’steal’ this boat and as a last resort that hatch has to be worth what ever the purchase price the boat ends up at. I do not do this often – but here is the tme link
Bill Brown commented to me that Taioma was restored in the 1990’s by Gary Underwood and pointed me in the direction of Gary’s blog, details and photos below:
“Taioma is a 1936 Fred Lidgard kauri sloop of 28 ft. We bought her for $5000 in 1995 and did a 60 day full refit at the ‘Bolthole’ in Auckland. She was a great live-aboard for a year alongside our boat shed in Whangarei while we were building ‘BOOTSTRAP’. Note the full bulkhead at the mast which gives an end to the saloon and provides support for the table, which lowers to give us a full double bunk athwartships. Its like a kind of ‘dresser’. The f’csle has a portapotti and bosubs store, access thru the fore hatch. Also stiffens the boat up as she had a big rig.”
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