WAIWHARE – MAYBE A WOODY, MAYBE A TUPPERWARE – BUT STILL A CLASSIC 

WAIWHARE – MAYBE A WOODY, MAYBE A TUPPERWARE – BUT STILL A CLASSIC 

Yesterday was another journey on the ‘Holiday Highway’ to Sandspit, spotted a classic craft on the marina that caught my eye – wasn’t sure if its a woody of plastic, or a combination of both.

These ‘Grand Banks’ designs offers lot of boat for the money. A friend once owned one and he always impressed visitors by asking if they would like a bath – technically more a shubb but it was a good break the ice line.

Todays craft is named WAIWHARE, my pigeon Maori tells me the name probably translate to Water House, which is probably a very appropriate name.

WAIWHARE is presented in very good condition – we like that, when an owners cares for their pride and joy.

Can we confirm the vessels breeding and build.

INPUT ex Brian Fulton – “I thought WAIWHARE meant WHY WORRY” 🙂

INPUT ex NIXON FRYER – she’s my grandads launch, Dennis Craig, Ex owner of the 28ft Couldrey Pirimanu. Waiwhare is a 34ft CHB built in Taiwan to the design of a grand banks. Power is by a 120hp Leemans Ford. And yes she is fibreglass hull and topsides but absolutely covered in teak inside and out. Next time aboard I can get some photos for a peak down below.

MAKE LIFE EASY FOR YOUR KINSFOLK THIS XMAS  Tell them to buy you a copy of the 2025 Mahurangi Cruising Club Year Book. Always value for money and choker full of great tales and amazing photos of our classic wooden craft. It will be in store next week at the retailers shown below – $20 well spent. Edited / crafted by design guru Steve Horsley, who has promised me that they is a fair division of yacht / motorboat photos. I know there is a least one launch article – I wrote it 😉

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – LADY ADELAIDE OUT FOR SOME TLC

CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – LADY ADELAIDE OUT FOR SOME TLC

I Have been spending too much time at the Sandspit marina – as an example 4 trips in the last 10 days………

One of the upsides is bumping into a few woodys that I have not caught up with in a few years.

Last week I snapped some photos of the 1922 Dick Lang built 36’ launch – LADY ADELAIDE. Then yesterday there she is hauled out for some TLC. Back in November 2021 when she was for sale we ran a ‘peek down below story’ on her,  link below, and now get to see her out of the water.

LADY ADELAIDE is one of those classic wooden craft that just looks right from any angle. When done to her owner on the condition she presents in and the ongoing ‘investment’ in systems and salty look.

View Previous WW Story Below Nov 2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/11/22/lady-adelaide-a-peek-down-below/

SEEMS MOST OF US SHARE THE SAME VIEW ON WHAT TYPIFIES A CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH – results of yesterdays online poll below.

November 19-11-2024 Poll

MYSTERY CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH AT GREG LEES BOATBUILDERS

MYSTERY CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH AT GREG LEES BOATBUILDERS

Todays classic wooden launch is only a mystery because o one was home at Greg’s Sandspit yard when I was mooching around.

I’m sure Greg will comment soon with details on the vessel 🙂

19-11-2024 UPDATE ex Greg Lees – the launch was once named POLLY and resided at Kawau Island for an extended period. Previous owners include Dave Jackson.

05-08-2025 UPDATE – progressing nicely.

TODAYS THE CUT OFF FOR ORDERING WW GEAR FOR XMAS – Link Below https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/11/09/waitematawoodys-gear-limited-summer-offering-romance-ii-update/

CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT – CAPTAIN BANJO + WW merchandise

CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT – CAPTAIN BANJO

CAPTAIN BANJO is another woody that I spotted recently at Sandspit marina. Her stern shows her home port as Whangarei so maybe she is a visitor.

At first glance she has a southern gal look to her and that exhaust / comms stack is very robust for her size.

Can we learn more about CAPTAIN BANJO

19-11-2024 UPDATE ex Greg Lees – Built approx. 30 years ago by Lidgards, strip planked – powered by a Gardner 6LXB. Sadly her owner passed away last week.

XMAS WW MERCHANDISE – ORDER NOW

DETAILS HERE https://waitematawoodys.com/2024/11/09/waitematawoodys-gear-limited-summer-offering-romance-ii-update/

Stormbird + Boat Boot Sale

STORMBIRD + Boat Boot Sale

The 26′ Roy Paris c.1960 clinker built launch – Stormbird recently popped up on tme , thanks Ian McDonald, and to a brave buyer could be a great gulf cruiser. By brave I mean having the courage to get out the tungsten tipped chainsaw and dropping the cockpit top down some, if you want full headroom and good looks , there is only one solution – buy bigger 🙂

Stormbird is powered by a 60hp Isuzu desel engine that gets her along at 5 knots.                 

Home is the inner estuary at Sandspit and she comes with a swing mooring, which probably justifies the buy price of $12k alone.

Anyone know more about her past.

NEXT SATURDAYS BOAT BOOT SALE AT THE SLIPWAY MILFORD – so we can ensure there are enough bangers on the BBQ, if you are intending coming – seller or buyer – can you give us a heads up email waitematawoodys@gmail.com

AND I WILL BRING ALONG SOME WW CAPS AND BURGEES FOR SALE – SAVE ON POSTAGE. If you are an out-of-towner – shop on line https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/11/11/58095/

Clarionet – Sailing Sunday

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CLARIONET – Sailing Sunday

Woody Alan Sexton sent in the above photos of the yacht Clarionet hauled out back in April at the Sandspit Yacht Club.
Interesting design, Alan suspects from the East Coast, USA.
I know one should never assume anything but we both assume her shallow draft accommodates a centreboard, also assume she sports a bowsprit.
Can anyone tell us more about Clarionet?
Hopefully with good luck as you read this, I’ll be moored a long way up the Wairoa River at Clevedon waiting for the tide to come in so we can make the trip backdown the river. Lots of photos from the Woody Classics Weekend overnight BBQ cruise to the Clevedon Cruising Club on Monday.
And A Wee Bonus Today – some wonderful sailing footage of the then just relaunched – Kelpie of Falmouth

Classic Woodys at Sandspit Marina

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Classic Woodys at Sandspit Marina

A couple of weeks ago I was up Sandspit way & spent an hour or so mooching around the new (ish) marina. Very impressive set up & with the yacht club’s haul-out facilities its a prefect spot to keep a woody. The real win win factor is the proximity of the ‘Greg Lees Boatbuilder’ yard, in recent years Greg & his talented team have rubbed the magic wand over some of our finest classic woodys. Just type Greg Lees in the WW search box to see the level of workmanship & perfection.

I have included a few photos of the motor camp where I stayed with my ex woodys boater – Chris Miller in this stunning motor home. 

A real bonus was the amazing meal & service we had at the Sandspit Yacht Club on Saturday night – I was expecting burgers & fries but no – everything – décor, service & the food was superb – check it out if you are up that way. The scallop entree was as good as anything you would get in Auckland City. Photos below.

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Update: I have been sent by Dean Wright the photo below of the dinghy ‘Tiki’ in happier times 🙂

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Gaza (Astra)

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GAZA (Astra)

Mooching around the wharf at Sandspit a few weeks ago, I spied Gaza tied up alongside the Kawau Island ferry berth.

Any Sandpit  woodys able to enlighten us on her?, she appeared to be a well looked after classic. Next week I’ll do a story on the woodys berthed at the new (ish) Sandpit Marina.

Ken Ricketts believe’s Gaza was previously named Astra & most likely a McGeady design.

 

Kawau Island Boats & Baches

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Kawau Island Boats & Baches

Recently I had had enough of weekends in Auckland so with the wife out of town, I took the opportunity to escape & experience the 2nd to last stage that some of us go thru e.g. yacht > launch> motorhome > death.

An old neighbour & friend Chris Miller, owns a large motorhome, so we headed north to Sandspit – & booked into the camping ground for the weekend.

On Saturday we took the ferry to Kawau Island for what is known as the ‘Royal Mail Run’ – the boat mooches around the island dropping off / picking up passengers & freight for all the private jetties. While not a woody, the ferry trip is a must do, you get to visit most of the bays & can even enjoy a wine or two.

The photos above are a random gallery of the woodys I spotted on the trip & some of the waterfront holiday homes.

 

Waiere

WAIERE

I have been waiting for details, ex the owner, on the above launch for a while & to date have received nothing so thought I would post the photos & see what we can dig up.

I took the photos of this very pretty boat while aboard Trinidad on-route to Greg Lees shed at Sandspit. I understand that she was ‘rescued’ from a farm paddock in West Auckland & has been restored & recently relaunched.

Would love to to hear / see more details about the restoration project 😉

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

FYI – Some interesting waitematawoodys blogsite stats from 2015

1. The ww site was viewed over 830,000 times in 2015
2. The busiest day of the year was Feb 9th with over 13,000 visitors – the post that day was on the 2015 Lake Rotoiti Classic & Wooden Boat Parade
3. In 2015 there were over 400 new posts, growing the total archive to over 1,400 posts
4. The post that got the most views in 2015 was ‘Chris McMullen’s ‘Electrochemical Damage To Wood’
5. The vessel topic post that got the most views was the restoration of the classic launch Arohanui, with over 10,000 in the first 24 hours.
6. ww had visitors from 151 countries – the most came from NZ. Australia & the USA were not far behind. My challenge in 2016 is to improve the UK viewing audience
7. The 3 most active commenters were – Harold Kidd, Whangateau Traditional Boats & Nathan Herbert
8. There are lots of stats on ‘where you came from’ i.e. the web browsers you use & where you have been before visiting the ww site & where you go afterwards – very interesting to a marketer like me, but boring to most of you 🙂 I will say that you not big facebook users 😉