It never ceases to amaze me where I get sent photos from, woody John Dawson sent me a link to a fb page titled – Golden Days of New Zealand.
A gent named Neil Rawlins post these today from tagged Ocean Beach, Motuihe Island, Auckland, Its dated 1969. Neil commented that folks traveled to the island on the following ferries – KESTREL, TOROA and NGOURO.
A good collection of classic launches at anchor – can we ID any of them. Sorry for the quality of the enlargments.
Check out this link to a very cool on-the- water event in Copenhagen -its the Santa Lucia Kayak Parade. Sent to me by Brent Kennedy ✔️
There is some debate around the provenance of the 35’ bridge deck launch – Saga, featured above, her tme listing told us she was built by Bailey in 1946 and Harold Kidd is going for built and also probably designed by a Val Maxwell. What we do know is Saga is single board, kauri, carvel construction and powered by a Perkins 145 hp turbo diesel engine. These days she calls Kerikeri, Northland home.
Any woodys able to tell us more about her past life.
08-11-2022 INPUT ex Harold Kidd
Val Maxwell was a very experienced launch man. He was a teacher at King’s College (not my school; I went to Takapuna Grammar) and retired as Deputy Principal.
In 1936 he bought the Joe Slattery launch WAINUI which had been wrecked on Rangitoto and fitted a 1918 Studebaker car engine. Just before WW2 he started building SAGA and finished her in 1950. She was bigger than Ken R remembers (refer WW comments section) at 33’x32’x10’x2’9″ and had a Leyland Cub engine as Ken R remembers.
In 1963 Val sold SAGA to A.J. (Jimmy) Osborne of Panmure. In 1969 Osborne moved north to Mangonui and took SAGA with him.
I knew Val’s son Peter for many years. He died just recently. We were both Sunbeam car owners. He had a most magnificent 1925 25hp Sunbeam tourer which I later owned. Peter of course owned for many years the 1937 Dick Lang 34 footer RESOLUTE at Devonport.
My feeling is that because Val’s SAGA is the right size and went North, she is the SAGA above; but I wouldn’t dream of being dogmatic about it.
UPDATE Feb 2024 – Hauled out photos added.
24-05-2025 UPDATE ex Bruce Pascoe – I believe SAGA started out as a sedan . The aft section of the roof has been cut off and raised up to become a bridge-decker. The raised cockpit floor has been built over the old floor. When they fitted the turbo 6 cylinder Perkins they had to raise the wheel house floor 100mm. Unfortunately instead of raising the wheel house roof to maintain headroom they cut a section of the roof out only and built a plywood box on top.
I have stripped many layers of paint off the roof beams and uncovered the Kauri one piece beams, not laminated. All the deck and roofs are planked with Kauri. The cabin sides are plywood. She is a very sound boat, dry bilges.
WOODYS CLASSIC PICNIC AT MOTUIHE ISLAND TODAY – 1PM
Good morning Woodys – The above photo was recently sent to me by John Newsham and is tagged ‘Wendella at Motuihe Island wharf xmas 1987’. I suspect that the yacht in the foreground is Wendella*.
Todays challenge is can we put names to the 2 launches in the photo? The first woody to correctly name them, wins a WW T-shirt. Normal t’s&c’s – entry via email only to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
* more on Wendella below from John Newsham
Yacht on the left in the pic I sent earlier is Stewart 38 Wendella, built by Claude Spooner in f/glassed ferro for his own use c1960. She had been drawn out to 39’ and made centre cockpit. Extra toilet in aft cabin. For’d head had other loo and a small mosaic tiled bath. Had pressurised hot water from the Lees/Ford 6 cylinder diesel with the exhaust up the mast heating the water (to warm in 15 minutes). Bath had to be baled out – no drain. Was used once for a child and then for stowage ‘English’ fashion. Held 2 cartons of ale and the bagged spinnaker. I crewed on her 1968/70.
Wendella was a virtual sister-ship to Bernie Skinner’s ‘Swanhilde’ which circumnavigated the globe. Pic of Swanhikde is attached here. She was wooden. Taken late 1980s/early 1990s at Coro or TeKouma.
Its not a boat but I love the VW Kombi I spotted parked up at Enclosure Bay, Waiheke Island yesterday, I was just about to snap an interior photo when I realise there was a couple ‘having a cuddle’ inside – exit stage right very quickly 🙂
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