Tag Archives: Moon Engines

Lady Jess + Woody Workshop

Posted on by
6

LADY JESS

Another woody spotted at Tutukaka Marina by Dean Wright -anyone able to tell us more about Lady Jess?

Input ex Scott Macindoe –

“Lady Jess was commissioned by an Auckland commercial fisherman, Gus Viskovic as a snapper longliner in 1961. She was designed and built by John Gladden at Milford Marina. The kauri came from half of a tree milled in the Coromandel. The hull is carvel planked. The planks are full-length, 32mm. Some demolition kauri from a church in Hamilton was also used in the bulkheads.

Not long after launching, the boat was sold and moved to Whitianga. She was spotted there by Harry Bannister from Whangaroa. Harry bought her and took her north. Since then Lady Jess has been a charter boat based in Northland. Since the 1970’s she has been based out of Tutukaka, owned successively by Doug Schlegel, Trevor Williams, Mike Airey, Peter O’Brynne, and since 1988, Pete Saul.

An open-topped flying bridge was added in the 1970s, with a folding Bimini top and clears. In 1997 Pete added the hard-top bridge. She still has the original dry stack arrangement. Lady Jess was powered by a single six-cylinder Ford for much of her life to date but for the last four years has been powered by a 200hp John Deere with Twin Disc gearbox.

The engine is well forward, in the galley, giving good access to the motor but necessitating a 5.5-metre drive shaft. The forward engine and flared bow make Lady Jess a great head sea boat. Top speed is 9 knots with 8 knots cruising. Fuel consumption for a day’s game fishing averages 8 litres/hour. Diesel capacity is 900 litres, allowing extensive cruising without refuelling. Pete retired from charters in 2019 but kept the boat for family use.“


Woody Moon Engines Workshop

Great turn out last Sunday for the Wooden Boat Bureau hosted-woody workshop at Moon Engines, the MC for the day was James Mobberley who ran a master class on diesel engine maintenance and servicing. 33 boat owners turned out and I will not embarrass him by naming him but this email feedback summed up the day perfectly = “Thank you for organising this enjoyable visit – an articulate, experienced and forthright speaker made James an ideal host for subjects one can never be over-informed about.”

Post the workshop – attendee Alan Sexton sent in to WW a list of minimum spares to carry on-board from YNZ’s safety rules for offshore motorboats that almost exactly per James’ advice. See below.

Alan also supplied the links below for the engine ‘junkies’ amongst us – enjoy. Seaboard Marine as recommended by James: https://www.sbmar.com/tonys-tips/ 

Ford history (Lees get plenty of recognition): https://everythingaboutboats.org/ford-2715e/ https://everythingaboutboats.org/ford-2725e/ I

interesting history about Cummins/Iveco co-operation (for a while) https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?threads/iveco-nef-vs-cummins-qsb.306183/

Falcon Comes Home

Posted on by
Reply
HOME

FALCON COMES HOME
The 1930 Lane Motor Boat Co. designed and built launch Falcon has always been one of the smartest woodys in the classic fleet.I do not have a lot of photos  mainly because she was just so dam quick, always passed me like I was standing still 🙂 Previous owner – James Mobberley (Moon Engines) had shoehorned a beast of an engine (Hino turbo) into Falcon. He did the same transplant on Harold Kidd’s — Romance II and Graham Guthrie’s  – Kailua. Both of these woodys are serious zoom zooms.

Back in 2013, she was sold to a Whangarei owner and later re-sold to another Whangarei owner – the photo below shows Falcon looking a little sad, moored in the Whangarei Town Basin.
In the last few months there has been chat about her returning home to Auckland – well woodys, I can confirm that she has a new owner and is back home on the WaitemataWe look forward to seeing her get the TCL she deserves.We will follow her process closely.


LAST CALL FOR THIS WEEKENDS WOODY WORKSHOP AT MOON ENGINES – WE WILL BE CLOSING THE DOORS TO RSVP’s LATER TODAY – RSVP NOW OR MISS OUT – waitematawoodys@gmail.com

606 Rosebank Road, Avondale

Korora Saved

Posted on by
1

KORORA SAVED

Two WW followers – Ian McDonald and Philip Goddard drew my attention to the the fate of the 28′ launch – Korora that was recently on tme. She has appeared on WW before and there was good chat around who built her and when – link here  https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/10/21/korora-2/

Back in 2015 she popped up on tme, not sure if she sold then but in 2017 she sank on her Auckland mooring during a storm, happened like this – awning blew off > bilge pump not working > boat fills with water > sinks. Korora was hauled out and taken to her owners farm. Time went by and farming tasks took precedence and in early 2021 she made another guest appearance on tme.I’m very pleased to advise that Tony Howse bought her and she now resides at his farm, where she will be restored. We like that, was a pretty boat in her day, see b/w photo below.


PLEASE RSVP FOR THE ABOVE WOODY EVENT – NEXT SUNDAY (23/05) – LOCATION IS 606 ROSEBANK ROAD, AVONDALE – RSVP TO waitematawoodys@gmail.com

Haunui Restoration Update #2 + Woodys Classic Event Dates

Posted on by
Reply

HAUNUI RESTORATION UPDATE #2


Last week myself and Jamie Hudson (Lady Crossley) pointed the car south for a pre-arranged visit to the yard where Paul Tingey is performing his magic on the 1948 Colin Wild built woody – Haunui.It was just over 5 months since I was last there and the project is moving along a great clip – check out the WW link below to view the first visit and to read the scope of the job.

Haunui is a very lucky woody – not every boat gets a second life to the extent that Haunui is getting.
https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/11/13/haunui-restoration/

UPCOMING WOODYS CLASSIC EVENTS ADVICE