Two Black Holes Many moons ago when I was looking at buying a classic boat, my father-in-law commented “son you already own one black hole, why would you want another”. He was referring to the fact that I owned a 100+ year old wooden house that back then was hoovering up every cent I earned, and in his eyes an old boat would do the same, but quicker. He of course was right and I took his advise and didn’t buy the boat.
Waited a few years and after he ‘left’ us, I was back in the market 🙂
When I was sent the above photo by Glenn Martin of a house in Beach Haven on Auckland’s North Shore, it reminded me of the vision my F-I-L had of what I was going to inflict on his daughter. Anyone know the story behind the boat?
Today’s photo appeared on the cover of a recent issue of the Property Press in Russell. Scan sent in by Dean Wright. The question of the day is = can we ID the woody on the right? Dean is leaning towards ex big game boat – Zane Grey.
Leeway > Melanie Today’s launch photo comes to us from the Andrew Donovan Collection. No name on the flip side so we will hopefully get an ID from some of the Bay of Island woodys. That is assuming its a BOI boat and photo.
Harold Kidd Input – LEEWAY/MELANIE was built by 20th Century Boats (Brian Donovan) in 1959. Last word was in 2015 when she was for sale by a Havelock owner. Brian of course was Andy Donovan’s brother.
TREAT YOUR BOAT OR YOU THIS CHRISTMAS
BOI woody – Dean Wright filmed a short video to show you and I some cool drinking mugs that a Bay Of Islands potter, Lynda Harris, makes and personalise for your boat.
Each one is hand painted from a supplied photo. They are fired in batches of x60, so subject to orders, the lead time can be a little while (that was an Irish answer).
Cost is $45, which is very reasonable for a functional art object. If you are interested in the artists contact details – email me waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys
MYSTERY LAUNCH – WHAU RIVER Today’s photo ex Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection and comes to us via Nathan Herbert. The location is the Whau River and probably dated 1966.
Any one able to ID the launch in the foreground.
Well Auckland woodys – another 2 weeks in lock down – not too sure how I’ll handle that, just about ticked off everything on the To Do list 🙂 So happy I hauled Raindance out in July for the big birthday, otherwise it wouldn’t have happened.
If you have any photos that you’d like to share on WW – email them in – as we say “if it’s wood, it’s good”
MYSTERY LAUNCH 28-08-2021 Todays woody is still drifting around the Waitemata but we do not see enough of her these days. The photo comes to us from the Andrew Donovan collection.
Should not be too hard to ID, hopefully Nathan Herbert will sleep in today……… The big story today is below 🙂
In response to Thursdays call out on this site – to the CYA chairperson, Rachel Orr, the CYA have now made public the classic vessel selection criteria for Auckland’s new 40 berth Heritage Basin marina. The short answer – it will be the same as what applies to the CYA’s existing Silo Park (Heritage Landing) 14 berth marina. Summarized below: (copies of correspondence below) • A balanced display from all categories of vessels
• All of the vessels (yachts, launches and workboats)…..
• Launched before 1950
The Back Story
In response to dock talk and admissions suggesting that launches and workboats would be excluded from the new marina, I asked for clarification at the AGM that all CYA vessels were eligible for inclusion (this wasn’t supplied) and then we requested via subsequent requests -online, email and in person (again wasn’t supplied).
The response from the CYA chairperson was a posting on the CYA website that directed people to a copy of the (many times edited) report (only spoken to on the night by Chad Thompson) that again made no mention of what vessels would be eligible for inclusion at Heritage Basin.
It now appears that a decision has been made to publish what the selection criteria will be. BUT the only people advised of this (refer A below) are those woodys that followed my lead and wrote to the CYA Chairperson on Thursday asking for clarification. Given the significance of this turn around – it seemed only appropriate to share this information with the wider classic boating community.
NOW – DO YOU PAY YOUR SUBS? – IF I WERE YOU I’D HOLD OFF A WHILE – THE FIRST CYA EX COMMITTEE FOR THE NEW COMMITTEE COULD BE INTERESTING
Milford Creek 1960’s – IDThe Boats & Go In The Draw To Win
Today’s photo comes to us from Glenn Martin and shows the Milford Creek c.1960’s. An eye-opener to see the degree of mangroves and ‘mud’ that must have been removed to make the expended marina that is there today. Can’t see anyone getting resource consent for that these days 🙂
WIN WIN
Seeing most of us are in covid lock down, could be a good time for a quiz – I’ll keep it simple and give everyone a chance to win. All you have to do is correctly name the launches that are circled in orange (click top photo to enlarge) – each correct entry equals one chance in the draw eg if you can only ID one boat, that is one chance. ID 3 , that is 3 chances etc. Winner gets a WW bucket hat – have gone with army (karki) green this year. Entry closes at 8pm 20-08-2021. ENTRY VIA EMAILONLY – to waitematawoodys@gmail.com
After yesterdays tidal wave of photos from the weekends Woody cruise, we come back to earth with the above b/w photo of a launch. There is a name on the rear of the photo print, but I’ll leave the reveal until after you all get a chance to engage the grey matter. I can say that its a mystery to me and to the best of my knowledge hasn’t been on WW b4. Photo comes to use via the Andrew Donavan collection
Anyone brave enough to put a name to the boat? Or even better details on her past.
MYSTERY LAUNCH 10-08-21 Today’s photo comes to use via the Andrew Donovan collection, I’m sure a lot of you will recognise the launch, but my grey matter is fried after reviewing and filing 50,000+ photos since starting WW 🙂
Getting a little tired of posting the CYA Tui billboard below – hopefully we will not have to wait until the next committee meeting (Sept 7th) to get some clarification on the committees stance re the vessel eligibility policy for the new 40 berth Heritage Basin……………………..
Today’s photo comes to us via Mitchell Hutchings fb and originated from his late uncles slide collection (PG Parsonson collection). The date is unknown but the collection is from the 1950’s > 1970’s period. Looking at the boats I would be picking the late 1950’s.
Interested on others opinion and can we ID a few to the boats?
LIDGARD 1/2 MODELS – Help Needed Saturdays story on the 48’ Lidgard launch – Ngaro, link below, promoted Donna Lewis to contact WW re three 1/2 models that she purchased from a garage sale on Kawau Island, when she and husband Norm were living at Schoolhouse Bay. At the time she was told all three were Lidgard vessels. The painted one is obviously Ngaro, the writing on the back, supporting this.
Donna and Norm live in Australian the Sunshine Coast, Queensland and took the models with them, hopefully one day they will find their way home to NZ.
The challenge is that Donna doesn’t know which launches the other two models ‘belong’ too, so woodys – big ask today. Maybe an ex Lidgard worker can suggest suitable candidates. Or maybe one of the more talented WW readers recognizes something in the 1/2 model that is specific to a particular Lidgard design.
I suppose I should put a reward to the woody that provides the most credible suggestion. So a WW cap is on offer. For once, let’s do entries / suggestions via the WW comments section. I think the answers will be via a collaborative approach.
12-03-2022 UPDATE The models have arrived back in NZ from Australia, thank you – Donna Lewis, obviously the painted one at the bottom is Ngaro, there was comment on WW that the other two would be
TOP > TAILSMAN
MIDDLE > MELODY
Are we able to confirm the likelihood of this provenance and if so can anyone supply contact details of the current owners ?
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