It is only a mystery because the owner doesn’t think a vessels name is part of its history…….
The woody featured above is approx. 33’ in length, with a carvel hull and powered by a Ford 75hp diesel engine. And that woodys is all we know so keen to learn more about her other than home is Nelson.
I suspect her owner has some basic engineering skills – the stern davits suggest a DIY addition, practical I’m sure but maybe better suited to a workboat.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW -THE FATE OF THESE CLASSIC CRAFT
Todays classic wooden launch photos once more come to us from Robyn Kellian via Tobias Forsyth so we can safely assume the location is the Leigh region. The question today is what’s the background to this series of photos – we have a work (fishing) boat donating her wheelhouse to another classic woody that appears to be a recent pleasure boat refit.
So can any of the Leigh based readers enlighten us on what became of both vessels and put an approx. date to the photos.
INPUT ex GRAHAM ROWE – The first boat featured (fishing boat 3621) is La Vega. She was built by Millar and Tunnage using Totora planks on Pohutukawa ribs, launched 1965, and fished from Leigh until 25 November 2009 – the last entry in her Log. I know little about her ownership but on her last commercial fishing trip she was crewed by Nick and Jarrod, and hearsay suggests that her owners were two brothers nicknamed ‘Swampy’ and ‘The Animal’ Walker?
Sometime later she was bought to Helensville by Dave Cook and I purchased her from Dave after she had been sitting from 2016 with a non-functioning Mitsubishi 6D-14 engine in 2020. Since then, I have been restoring her. La Vega is 11m LOA, 3.9m beam and draws about 1.2m. She displaces about 11 Tonnes.
The doghouse being removed is possibly to enable an engine replacement. The doghouse shown is the one that was on her when I purchased her, but alas is no more, due to extensive rot. The sliding door however was salvageable and will go back on her in due course.
MYSTERY CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH
Today classic wooden launch photo is once more from Robyn Kellian via Tobias Forsyth so we can safely assume the location is the Leigh region.
No names to help us but I’m sure we will get a positive ID from the readers.
IF YOU NEEDED PROOF CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS ARE COOL – my daughter tells me that over the weekend one of New Yorks biggest (1.1 million followers) fashion socialites – Brigette (the bride) got married and the couple arrived at the ceremony aboard a very smart classic wooden boat – link here for those with instagram https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db6HX-nBHkA/ Screen grabs below for those that dont 🙂
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – A BLAZE (past event)
Todays rather disturbing photos again come to us via Robyn Kellian and Tobias Forsyth.Unfortunately WW knows zero about how the wooden double-ender came to be (1) aground (2) a blaze.
I could be wrong but at first glance it appears to have the makings of a ‘Beehive restoration’ eg a box of matches was involved.Whatever the situation its a sad end to what would have once been a fine classic wooden boat.
Can we learn any more eg boats name, date of photo, location and what actually happened.
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CLASSIC WOODEN WORKBOAT AT LEIGH
As mentioned last week Tobias Forsyth located a treasure trove of old photos from the Leigh area, a mx of workboats and pleasure craft.
Todays photo shows a small workboat (Reg # 15156) with an interesting mix of steading sails. She looks a little too smart to be a commercial fishing boat, but there does appear to be a long-line set-up on her stern.
Vessel name unknown, but the Reg No. must make ID’ing her easy for someone with a reference of vessels ‘v’ numbers.
The photographer is listed as Robyn Kellian.
CLASSIC WOODEN BRIDGE-DECKER AT LEIGH – WONDABYNE
Recently Tobias Forsyth located a treasure trove of old photos from the Leigh area, a mx of workboats and pleasure craft.
Todays photo shows a bridge-decker sporting a steading sail. Vessel name unknown, the photographer is listed as Robyn Kellian.
In my eyes the classic wooden launch looks like LADY JOYCE , refer WW link https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/03/22/lady-joyce/ but I’m wrong more often than I’m right, so hopefully we can put a name to the launch.
INPUT ex NATHAN HERBERT – its WONDABYNE – SEE BELOW https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/03/02/wondabyne-pakatoa/
MYSTERY DOUBLE ENDER MOTOR BOAT
Todays classic wood launch popped up recently on the NZ cars, boats, motor bikes etc fb , via Lew Redwood. The photo comes from the Auckland maritime museum collection and the photographer is unknown.
Reviewing the photos the 2nd one above is minus flagstaff/s and ensign / burgee, so safe to assume different days.
Are we able to ID the launch.
24-07-2026 HAROLD KIDD INPUT – What a pretty boat! I’ve asked Gavin Pascoe of the Wellington Classic Yacht Trust to look around. I have some ideas. I think she’s an Auckland-built launch, about 20-22ft, 1907 or so and would pick Bailey & Lowe, maybe Logan Bros or Chas Bailey in that order. If my woolly suspicions are correct she was built first for Picton.
CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCHES ON THE KAIPARA
Over the weekend Travers Reynolds was mooching around the Kaipara Harbour (Pahi / Whakpirau) in his kayak and snapped the gallery of photos above.
As Travers commented there is a mix of presentation on display – some on the way out and some in fine fettle.
Very sad to she the current condition of the launch SWANEE, she appeared on WW back in August 2015 , link below. The last decade hasn’t been kind to her, hopefully its just paint. https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/08/29/swanee/
Other woodys sighted are WEONA, AVALON and an unknown, well at least no name displayed.
MYSTERY TIM WINDSOR DESIGNED CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH
Recently the prolific fb poster Lew Redwood has been sniffing around the Maritime Museum photo archives and has discovered ( I use that term because so much of the museums treasures are ‘hidden away’ ) a treasure trove to old b/w boating images from the 1940’s.
Today thanks to Lew we get to see a 26’ classic wooden launch that was designed by Tim Windsor and built at the Shipbuilders yard in Auckland.
The photo is dated 1948 and the photographer is most likely Tim Windsor.
Can we put a name to this classic wooden launch and learn what became of her.
MYSTERY CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – 1933
Last month I was a mission to locate some bronze/brass cowl vents for the classic ex workboat PRIMADOONA, owner James Hutchinson is the son-in-law of one of my oldest boating friends (Dennis Ross) – we go back 40+ years. So James gets auto access to the WW Aladdin’s cave of cool boat bits. I knew I had some of varying sizes but just where in the lock up was the challenge. Fast forward and on the 2nd deep dive jackpot (photo below)
During our chats James mentioned he had been scanning some of his late mother-in-laws old photos and came across some very cool ones of the MIL’s brother’s boat. James believes his name may have been Remy Burridge, but the name of the craft isn’t recorded.
Most of todays photos are dated 1933. James commented that the family would just pull the boat up in front of their house in Garnett Road to clean it.
Interesting ‘tram top’ that may then been original or added soon after launching as a flush decker.
I have teased Nathan Herbert on this story several times in the last 2 weeks – but I suspect he will ID the launch before I’ve consumed my first caffeine shot of the day 🙂
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