Mystery Boats & Location
photo ex Scott Taylor ex ‘Old Auckland’
Today’s post is a wee bit of a mystery, from back in the days before we had acres of marinas. The one thing I do know is the mooring fees would have been affordable, these days you have to sell of a child for medical experiments to afford to berth your boat close to the city.
So woodys where is it & can we ID any of the boats?
WAINUI
photo ex Jason Prew
Photo from Jason Prew’s during his trip up the Tamaki River with Otira to the Chris McMullen workshop CYA visit. Jason photographed some of the many moored wooden boats moored on-route.
Today’s launch is an ‘interesting’ mix of styles…………. I can just make out a shortish name on her stern starting with W, can anyone ID her & supply more details on her past?
Input from Cameron Pollard
“Wainui” 33ft x not a lot x 3ft. Two skin kauri, built around 1900 .
We have owned her for close to 20 years and was the start of our obsession / illness of collecting old boats.
Steamed from New Plymouth to Onehunga wharf after fishing down there for years.
We rescued her as a half sunk hulk at Te Atatu after the cabin had been fitted in back streets behind K’Road by previous owner.
Replaced quarter of her stern. (Counter already shortened by then)
Fitted a 3LW Gardner of course to replace the old ford. (No clapped out Jap import truck engines go in our fleet)
Used her as our taxi up and down the Tamaki river.
Got tired of the 3LW shaking the coke out of the rum so 6 or more years ago we pulled her at Half Moon Bay and gave her a birthday.
Eased up the window shapes that had previously been fitted retaining the main structure tho as room inside is ample for her size.
Removed the 3LW and fitted a rebuilt 4LK light weight high revving (2000rpm) Gardner. Engine very rare ex ww2 midget submarine but that’s another story on its own.
Relaunched and now a very smooth and quiet wee launch.
Due for her 3 yearly tidy up but will always be part of our clan.
21-07-2015 Photos added – Wainui at Onehunga wharf in 1987 after her trip from New Plymouth & 2 showing her out of the water.
Mystery Boat 20-06-2015
photos & details ex Jason Prew
Now the remains of the small double-skinned boat pictured above will test the Lake woodys – to quote Jason’s uncle, Kevin O’Hara, “she was pulled up from Lake Taupo last year & is now sitting at Will Shirer`s place at Kuratau”, near Turangi. Photos from Will’s camera.
Now if we get a proven ID on her – I’ll give the winner a ww t-shirt, as below. Note: the raspberry pavlova is not include 😦
MYSTERY BOAT 30-04-2015
Been a while since we had a “who can ID this boat” on ww. All I know is that the photo was taken in Auckland. Her colour scheme is quite distinctive & the location says Clevedon to me, so hopefully we can uncover some info on her.
In my eyes a nice sedan, without the fruit on top 😉
MYSTERY BOATS AT LAKE TAUPO
photo ex Ken Ricketts
Ok, one for the train spotters today – Ken sent me the photo above but has know idea the location or date. His guess on the date is late 1930>1940. He also believes that Lady Ava is 3rd from the right on the hard stand.
What say the rest of you on where & which boats?
Update from Paul (& Nigel) Drake
In consultation with brother Nigel, here are some more details. Starting from the left, we have ROTHESAY – previously discussed on WW. This is Don McLeod’s “new” ROTHESAY. Behind her is MOANA (Sam Ford). Don’t know the next one. Then we have DESTINY (Coulthard) – then MOANA ROA, locally built of totara and now in Whangarei. On the slip is ARCADIA, still at Taupo. Then WAIHAHA now AVALON, now at Rotoiti as previously discussed.
Across the river we have VICTORY, built locally by Jack Taylor during WW2 without power tools, and still at Taupo (Kinloch Marina). Astern of her the 1907 Logan double ender PONUI, On the hard behind Jack Taylor’s house is EL ALEMAIN, now RANUI, built at Rotorua for a rehab hospital for returned servicemen and still at Taupo. Astern of her is ROMANCE (Bailey and Lowe 1914). In the water, second from the right, is NOMAD, now thought to be at Rotorua. Further upstream, above ARCADIA, is CHAMPION, ex IONA,, now in Brown’s Bay, Paremata, Wellington, under another name.
A remarkable photo – thank you Ken!
Mystery Launch 15/07
photo ex Nathan Herbert
Another old lady from the Whau River that appears to have dodged the hand of the wood butcher.
Any input on who she is & her past?
waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news - updated daily - 14+ million views 