Tag Archives: Sam Ford

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – AVALON RESTORATION UPDATE #2

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CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – AVALON RESTORATION UPDATE #2

WW has been following the restoration of AVALON the 24’ 1954 Sam Ford built classic wooden launch since late 2021.

Owner Tobias Forsyth has been juggling the project in between family life and a profession that sees him ‘off-shore’ for extended periods of time. I have linked the previous AVALON WW stories below – lots of historical photos.

Late 2021. https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/11/29/resurrection-of-avalon/

May 2025. https://waitematawoodys.com/2025/05/12/classic-wooden-launch-avalon-restoration-update/

Today Tobias has shared with us a gallery of work undertaken in the last 6 months. The size of the project is lofty but when its a one owner family craft you tend to disregard budgets and hours work.

Tobias commented that  he had “made some good progress with interior build, cockpit, side deck glassing, loads of sanding and painting. Also finally finished the forward windscreen mahogany after deliberating on exactly how it should look for a while so I can order the new glass soon. I refurbished the original helm whittled by my grandfather in Manuka from the family farm in Beachaven, finished before he had even commissioned Avalon, I just had to replace the mahogany trim pieces that were made of a veneer and the diamantés”. 

The next phase is a new cabin top and some basic systems installed then final top coats of paint and varnish then she’s good to go. The plan is she will be kept on a trailer making AVALON a very user friendly woody.

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH MARISTELLA  – A Peek Down Below

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CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH MARISTELLA  – A Peek Down Below

At the recent Classic Woodys Boat Show at the OBC Marina one of the stand out craft was the 40’ classic wooden launch MARISTELLA, built in 1936 by Sam Ford. The WW camera got to have a gander down below and today we get a peek at the rolling restoration that is underway.

We have commented many times on WW about lucky boats and lucky owners – well MARISTELLA is a double winner. She has in past lives – sunk, caught fire and been on the rocks, and not all at the same time. A succession of good people have put their hand up to bail the vessel out and what we see today is a reflection of everyones vision and commitment.

In particular her current owner gets the big ups from WW having undertaken significant work to the cabin to get her closer to what Sam Ford sent down the slipway in 1936.

Most recently we had a wonderful visual flashback of MARISTELLA from the 1960’s – link below to that story https://waitematawoodys.com/2025/07/30/a-snapshot-of-the-classic-wooden-launch-maristella/

A SNAPSHOT OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – MARISTELLA

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A SNAPSHOT OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – MARISTELLA

As a result of the photo (see below) of the classic 40’ wooden launch – MARISTELLA, built in 1936 by Sam Ford,  appearing at the recent Classic Woodys Boat Show at OBC – WW was contacted by Katherine Armstrong. Katherine’s parents Roy and Daphine Bridge were previous owners of MARISTELLA.

Katherine commented that she had a collection of photos taken during their ownership. Of course I asked for copies, which today we all get to share.

In the 4th photo above the other launch is AWANUI, which at the time was owned by Bob Goldie. Can we learn more about AWANUI.

In the last photo above we see Roy and Daphine on the ‘flying bridge’ of MARISTELLA. 

One photo is tagged APR 64, so we can safely assume the photos are c.1960’s

27-02-2026 INPUT ex ROBERT WILLS – photo below not long after launching.

CLASSIC SAM FORD LAUNCH – OSCAR – A Peek Down Below

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CLASSIC SAM FORD LAUNCH – OSCAR – A Peek Down Below

Todays post revisits the 34′ classic launch OSCAR, built by Sam Ford in 1970 and still powered by her original 165hp Perkins diesel engine, which delivers a top speed of 12 knots.

While OSCAR has been featured on waitematawoodys before—most notably in April 2024 (link below) —this update shares some new photos from below deck, thanks to a tme listing tip-off from Ian McDonald. https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/04/10/oscar-born-again/

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – AVALON RESTORATION UPDATE #1

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Launch Day 1954
2021

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – AVALON RESTORATION UPDATE #1

Back in Feb 2020 one of the WW spies spotted the launch – AVALON ‘parked’ on a lawn in Auckland’s north shore. From the subsequent WW story , linked below, we learnt that the 24’ AVALON was built be Sam Ford and launched in 1954 . AVALON has enjoyed one extended family ownership since new and at the time Tobias Forsyth (MV Callisto) was planning to give the launch a birthday. The top photo (launch day) above was sent in by Cameron Pollard Feb 2020 https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/02/17/mystery-sam-ford-launch/

Fast forward to Nov 2021 and Tobias gave us an update, link below, which included a wonderful collection of historical AVALON photos over the years. He also shared a design sketch of the thinking re the ’new’ look (4th photo above). Nov 2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/11/29/resurrection-of-avalon/

Then last Friday the gallery of work-in-progress photos above landed in the WW inbox. The Forsyth family, including father Ian (MV MEOLA) are very talented chaps as you will see from the work underway.
Tobias commented that it had “been a busy few weeks with some big milestones but plenty of work has gone on since she was installed outside my kitchen window. Getting onto the shiny bits new with new solid Honduran mahogany cabin sides with a slight more sleek take on Avalons original design, engine is in and things are progressing well. Hopefully she can be in the water for summer 2026 in a rough and ready mode.”

As always – click on photos to enlarge 😉

UPDATE ex TOBIAS FORSYTH – AVALON will be re-powered  new Mercruiser 3.0 petrol engine with new hydraulic transmission. 

The old engine (Morris Naviigator) was too far gone and finding parts made it uneconomical. Its still sitting in my garage if someone looking for parts as there’s all sorts there and spares too including the Paragon box with 2:1 reduction. Would make a good static museum piece as it’s quite neat with the hand crank start etc. it seems too good to take to the scrap dealers. 

The new engine is half the weight, 8 x more HP , narrower and shorter, so gives me much more internal room. And it should be nice and quiet inside the cabin when running. Plus she may boogie a little faster now.

I intend to tow her around the country and visit a lot of the lakes and hard to reach spots right down south in the future so she will be a full trailer boat now. Plus the anniversary races etc.

Tobias also commented that he is the second owner of Avalon, his grandparents had her hull and cabin sides built by Sam Ford in early 50’s and grandfather transported her home on the truck and finished her outside their kitchen window over a period of about 6 months with what ever he could find that would do the job, tounge and groove and canvas cabin tops. They then kept her at their wharf in Helliers Creek that Avalon help build as she towed the logs to Riverhead to be pressure treated and milled before towing/carrying them back rather overloaded at times.  Tobias’s Grandma used her regularly well into her 80’s before she ended up on the lawn . Tobias’s  mum Carol is the baby in Granddads arms on launching day. 

AVALON is a genuine one family owned vessel since new. 

CYGNET – CLASSIC 1931 WOODEN LAUNCH

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Earlier photo
Earlier photo

CYGNET – CLASSIC 1931 WOODEN LAUNCH

The 32’ classic wooden launch – CYGNET recently popped up on tme (thanks Ian McDonald). A Sam Ford design built in 1931, but not sure is also built be Sam Ford. As per most Marlborough Sounds craft she is very well spec’ed and was re-powered in 2006 with a new 53hp Yammer 4JH5E engine that gives her an 8 knot cruising speed. 

Can we learn more about CYGNET (if thats her correct name) and where she has been most of her life.

CAN ME PUT A NAME TO THIS CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – WENNA

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CAN ME PUT A NAME TO THIS CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – WENNA

Trolling thru the WW archives recently I came across a folder from back in 2017, from memory one of the WW readers found an old photo album (below) that had been discarded and sent in a collection of random scans taken from the album. Sorry but I have not recorded the senders name.

A lot of the photos were damaged but several were in good shape. 
Todays woody story features a launch hauled out near Sam Ford’s yard. 

Can we ID the boat

INPUT ex NATHAN HERBERT – boats is WENNA – see WW link below https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/09/17/8768/

INPUT ex HAROLD KIDD – She was built as WENNA for Eric O’Neill of Ponsonby in 1925, probably by Collings & Bell in whose yard she is shown hauled out. In 2014 she was RANGATIRA, owned by George Emtage and Pam Cundy at Whangateau. They reverted to the name WENNA.

CLASSIC LAUNCH – MARISTELLA – Sinks, Catches fire, Goes on the rocks……

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1953
2015
2020
2023
2024

CLASSIC LAUNCH – MARISTELLA – Sinks, Catches fire, Goes on the rocks……

The 40’ Sam Ford 1936 built launch – MARISTELLA has made several appearances on WW, one story back in 2019 (linked below) created a lot of chat in the comments section. https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/08/27/mystery-launch-27-08-2019/

Chatting to Nathan Herbert yesterday prompted me to do a deep dive in the WW files and jackpot I came across some correspondence from Murray Bridge back in Jan 2020. Murray’s family owned the boat for approx. 20 years (1959>1999) and he sent me a clipping of an article from Boating NZ. Reading the article it appears that MARISTELLA has been a very lucky boat, if she was a cat she would have used up a lot of her nine lives 🙂 

In her past life she joined the sub-mariner club when she hit a uncharted submerged rock in Queen Charlotte Sound, was successfully re-floated and refitted. Then on another trip caught fire in Bluff, again repaired. And later ran aground on rocks near Mana in Wellington. I have included an enlarged section of the BNZ article below – click image to enlarge.

The good news is she survived all those oops and is still with us today as seen in the above photos. The real reason for the story today is her newish owner is in Nathan’s words ‘rejuvenating’ the boat and needs a pair of opening portholes (approx. size = 8.5”), so we are doing a shout out asking if anyone has some gathering dust. FYI – when we ask for help locating fittings its for woody folk deserving a helping hand, not owners that are doing $100k+ work at professional yards. WW points them to https://www.toplicht.de/en/

SAMPLE ONLY

OSCAR – Born Again

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Screenshot

OSCAR – Born Again
Back in May 2022 Oscar made an appearance on WW, link below to that story, back then she was in a very sad state and being offered for sale via ‘As Is Where Is’ condition.At the time we learned that the 34’6” Oscar was designed by Sam Ford and commenced the build c.1968>70. Sadly Sam passed away and his son Trevor completed the project. When launched the she was named – Shimca’. 2022 WW Story https://waitematawoodys.com/2022/05/01/classic-boat-barn-find/

Recently I was contacted by Mark Pearce who purchased Oscar and undertook to refit the launch (see Marks words below) – as seen in the above photos. Currently 4sale on tme.

“I’ve stripped the outside from the deck down. I re-fastened the hull bottom and sides to the frames and put thousands of screws into the inner diagonal and outer horizontal planks which are about 12mm thick on the topsides and 15mm on the bottom.
I replaced a small part of one rotten plank but the rest are in great condition.
I then glued and screwed 6mm ply strips on the bottom and topsides and cut out ply to shape for the deck. I glassed the whole boat with 200g cloth and two pot inter protect followed after lots of sanding filling and fairing.
I replaced the cutlass bearing after dropping the strut 10mm to line the shaft correctly.
The boat has new paint from cabin sides to keel.
We had to hiab the engine up to remove and repair some holes in the cast aluminium sump.
New electric toilet was fitted along with a new gas stove, VHF and an am/fm radio.
It has a new electric anchor winch as well.”

2022

Lady Karita Needs Some TLC

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Lady Karita Needs Some TLC

The magnificent 43’ Sam Ford built (1934) launch – Lady Karita is looking very unloved on her Nelson marina berth. Sadly her owner passed away earlier this year and the southern sun is starting to have its way with the finish 😦

Someone needs to buy some shade cloth. 

(photos ex J. Burland)

Boatshed Parties Getting All Trendy

The Slipway Milford had their end of year bbq bangers in bread + few beers yesterday – Here I go getting in trouble with the Human Rights Commission again – but the additional of some workers with two X chromosomes has stepped up the calibre of the fare 🙂 Two of the below graced the lunchroom table – well done Jan B.