Tag Archives: Trinidad

Classic Woodys Cruise To Riverhead Pub

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Classic Woodys Cruise To Riverhead Pub

The NZ Classic Yacht Association (CYA) launch group have amazingly good fortune when it comes to the weather for their events. Saturday was just a day out of the bag – sun, mill pond sea state, cool boats & nice people. The trip was a first for me in that I did not take launch Raindance & instead traveled on Trinidad, Barbara & David Cooke’s magnificent 1965 Salthouse motor launch.

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On the trip up the harbour we passed 2 very cool steam boats – Puke & Zeltic out for a cruise & enjoying the day.

We do this trip 2 or 3 times a year & a few trips ago added a mid trip raft-up meet & greet to the agenda, its a great chance to say hi to everyone before we hit the pub. A little like the American concept of a  ‘rehearsal dinner’ the night before the wedding day 🙂 If you check out the raft-up photos, all the males are enjoying a coffee & the females have a glass of bubbles in hand – how did that happen.

Arohanui
Trinidad & Arohanui
Trinidad & Arohanui
Arohanui
Rod Marler & Arohanui
Arohanui
Arohanui
Florance Dawn & Monterey
Silens
Lady Jane & Bruce Pullan (Ann Michelle)

We had 3 creek virgins making the trip for the first time – Florence Dawn, Lady Jane & Skipper CJ.

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Florence Dawn

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Lady Jane

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Skipper CJ

Interesting to witness the speed of the housing development in the Riverhead / upper harbour area – once all we saw was trees & paddocks, now its houses houses houses. Check out the photo of launches anchored Indian file – the land at the top was all pine trees 6>12 months ago.

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From the top – Skipper CJ, Florence Dawn, Arohanui, Lady Margaret, Monterey, Silens

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Arohanui

Monterey
Skipper CJ
Arohanui crew
Silens
Skipper CJ
Arohanui touch parking
Monterey
Lady Margaret
Arohanui & Lady Margaret

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Lunch at the hotel was more casual i.e. less organized than on previous visits & that was a good thing – in fact the food got a big tick from everyone.

 

The day was not without a few oops – two people enjoyed an unplanned swim, no damage other than bruised ego’s & a lesson that when on-board always have two points of contact 😉 My lips are sealed on names, photo below of the 1st oops, no photo for the 2nd – I was doing the Piha Rescue.

Wave goodbye
oops

Publicans Paula & Stephen Pepperell came out to inspect Trinidad, given their history of wooden boat ownership / travels I suspect a classic could be on the shopping list.

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Paula Pepperell, David Cooke, Stephen Pepperell

Spotted this smart bridge-decker (Lady Thelma) anchored off Hobsonville Point.

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Arohanui Restoration – Watch it ‘live’

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Arohanui Restoration – Watch it ‘live’

The above video records the renovation of the classic 1965 Lane Motor Boat Co. built launch Arohanui. The refit work was undertaken in 2015 at the Sandspit yard of Lees Boatbuilders for owners Fiona Driver & Rod Marler. Greg Lees & his team have established themselves as the go to yard for the application of Awlwood MA (Uroxsys) the flexible polyurethane marine clear coat finish. But I have to say that the yards craftsmanship & attention to detail prior to the final applications was second to none. Lees is a very classic friendly yard & whether the vessel is sail or motorboat, large or small its in good hands.

The short film was produced by Gareth Cooke (SubZero) who also filmed the restoration of Trinidad at Lees, refer below videos.

 

A Woodys Weekend

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Manapouri,Lady Crossley,Silens,Trinidad,Raindance,Wairiki
Raindance & Wairiki
Wariki & Raindance
Silens
Silens cabin
Wairiki. Raindance & Trinidad
Raindance
Peter Mence
Peter Mence
Otira
Otira
Not really classic 🙂
Mokoia
Moana
Maristella
Manapouri
Manapouri
Lady Crossley
Lady Crossley
Yum
Lady Crossley

A Woodys Weekend
photos ex Alan H

Just back from a really great woody weekend. The CYA hosted a gathering at Fairway Bay Marina, Gulf Harbour that saw the boats all rafted up in the ‘gated’ upper lagoon. We were greeted by Grant the marina manager in his tender that made berthing easy for those without bow-thruster ;-). In fact Grant was the perfect host & made the weekend extra special.
I have to say that rafting up & boat hopping is such a cool thing, perfect way to catch up & tell fibs about your boat while enjoying a refreshing .
When I slid Raindance alongside Trinidad the smell was amazing, bread baking – the latest additional to Trinny is a ‘fitted’ bread maker. It doesn’t get much better than waking up to the smell of bread baking 🙂
Nice to see CYA vice chairman Peter Mence mooching around in his rather cute gaff rigged clinker.
After an afternoon of socializing we all went ashore for a BBQ at the marina bar. Nathan Herbert & Jason Prew were the the chefs on the BBQ & did a superb job, its not often I trust someone to cook my thick-cut aged sirloin steak.
Special mention to the CYA members that turned up by road, Sue & Mark Edmonds (Monterey), Ian Miller (Alpheus) & the new owners of Young Nick.

Included are some random photos of woodys I spotted along the way. Enjoy.

ww is not the place to air ones dirty laundry but I have to say that despite the amazing job that CYA launch captain Nathan Herbert did promoting & hosting the weekend – 7 boats is a p_ss poor turn out from a fleet of 200+ vessels. For those that did not attend, again you missed a great event. Maybe next time………………………?

Photos below from Ken Ricketts taken at arrival & departure.

Lady Crossley
Silens
Raindance arrives
Otira enters the lagoon
Lagoon closes

OOPS
Now heading back I got a call on the mobile from Jason Prew to say Dolphin had entered Milford Creek (marina) on the wrong side of the channel mark & was aground & could I try & tow them off. When I arrived it was looking like a long day/night for the crew of Dolphin………., Milford is intimidating to even the locals so I was on high alert as we nudged Raindance in VERY close. Robyn was on rock watch & telling me “they are right in front of us”. We managed to get a line bow to stern but she would not budge – not surprising when you look at the photos from later in the day, with the tide out. Hopefully she re-floated last night. She was on-route to Geoff Bagnall’s boat yard so any damage will not be a problem to Geoff & his crew. One negative was that in the process we pulled the outboard off the stern 😦

With outboard
Those rocks look close
Minus outboard 😦
Holy cow – thats scary

 

A Woody Labour Weekend

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Lucille & Ngaio – 2 Logans

A Woody Labour Weekend

The weather split the CYA classic fleet in two this Labour weekend with some heading to Kawau for the opening of the ‘new’ Kawau Boating Club. From all reports it was a blast & well done to those that made the trip. The photos below of Kawau are from the camera of Margo & Jamie Hudson (Lady Crossley).
A selection of classic launches mooched around Waiheke Island & with the weather forecast –  Onetangi Bay was the most popular spot. We had to share it with a rather large number of plastic boats, I think every Rivia in Auckland was there, but for once they behaved & the hum of the gen-sets  was almost bearable 🙂
Waiheke photos ex me (I took a few more ,but they will be ‘Mystery Boat’ posts)

PS If you were away on the boat or at the bach, you may have missed the last 4 ww posts, which featured the boats of Norm Fairlie. Stroll down to enjoy 😉

WAIHEKE ISLAND

Raindance
Sea Fever
Lucille
Ngaio
Happy Dog + a Rivia owner

KAWAU ISLAND

Trinidad – Lady Crossley
Ferro

Somethings wrong here – why is the oldest rowing?

Dick Coughlan

Keeping Fine Company

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Keeping Fine Company

photos ex Brian Fulton
Anchored this morning at Rotoroa Island along with a fine collection of classic woodys. Yesterday after lunch at Man ‘O War vineyard (Waiheke Island) several of us where motoring across the Waiheke Channel when we were ‘joined’ by the rather grand 300′ super yacht Nahlin, owned by British industrial entrepreneur Sir James Dyson. Truely a magniciciant 1930 ship.
The CYA gang all went a shore for a BBQ dinner at Rotoroa & later a very shinny black chopper landed to collect Sir & Lady James who had spent the day on Rotoroa.
We were treated to a stunning sunset.

Video footage of the varnishing of Trinidad with Awlwood MA (Uroxsys)

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How did Trinidad get that look?

If you have seen Trinidad in the last few months you would have gone………….. WoW……………… thats amazing. Well now thanks to the wonders of modern technology (a time lapse camera & Gareth Cooke’s photography & editing skills) you can watch how the team at Greg Lees Boatbuilders, working with Awlwood MA (Uroxsys) achieved that amazing finish on her topsides.

The process went like this –
1. Old coatings removed
2. Yellow primer applied
3. Two coats rolled / brushed on
4. Three days of heavy ‘wet on wet’ spray applications, with a good block sanding between coats
5. Final coat applied as a single coat to achieve best leveling

Now this is all stunning but do not think its a pro-only product, the results us amateurs can achieve with 6 > 8 coats using a hand brush is pretty wow.

Trinidad at Mahurangi Regatta 2014

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Trinidad at Mahurangi Regatta 2014

Trinidad
I have posted lots of photos of Trinny since my winter visit to  Lees Boatbuiders but this is the first one ‘on-the-water’. I went for an early morning row & snapped the lady looking stunning in the early light.

Trinidad

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TRINIDAD

CYA members Barbara & David Cooke have had 52′ Salthouse built Trinidad hauled out for the last 4 months in the boat shed at Lees Boat Builders, Sand Spit.

The original intention was to take the cabin top back to bare wood, replace all the glass & give her the Awlwood MA (Uroxsys) treatment. As happens, the to do list grew just a little & just about everything that could be painted, polished or re-chromed was given a birthday. The attention to detail & workmanship from Greg Lees & his team has impressed every classic boater that has passed thru the shed. The end result is simply magnificent, but you would expect that from Barbara & David as they set a pretty high bar when it comes to Trinidad.

She slipped out of the shed yesterday (12/12/13), with a little help from the little classic work boat ‘Karewa’. At 56′ Trinny was a tight fit & the shed sure looked bare post launching.

My photos will give you a good idea of the ‘new’ Trinny but there were more camera’s there than on a Japanese tour bus so there will be better ones to come.

Also David Waddingham (Mr Uroxsys) commissioned marine photographer Gareth Cooke to film a mini movie of the complete Uroxsys process, so once that has been edited I will post that on ww.

if you enter Trinidad into the ww search box you can view previous posting on her, including a peek down below

Around the yards

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Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe

Which one would I choose  – Trinnidad, Ngaio, Waimiga ?

Well unless, one the owners gets a bang on the head & Big Wednesday smiles on me this week, its a hypothetical question . The answer – any of them could slip into my berth at Bayswater.

Three of the CYA’s prettiest ladies are about to leave the shed after a winter of pampering, o-boy the launch fleet bar just got raised a few notches 🙂

My spies tell me that Lady Crossley is also due back in soon & is also looking very smart.

I’ll post more when they splash.

A mini wooden boat show.

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A mini wooden boat show.
Popped down to the Salthouse yard on Sunday to catch up with Barbara & David Cooke & got a very pleasant surprize – 3 of our best classics tied up at the wharf looking pretty wow in the afternoon light. Linda was glowing from her recent coat/s of Uroxsys. (photos ex the iphone) . From left – Trinidad, Linda & Luana.