SHENANDOAH Q03

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

SHENANDOAH Q03

The 1929 Chas Bailey & Son built motor launch – Shenandoah has made several appearances on WW and we have seen her – as launched, in her war fatigues, restored and sadly neglected – way too many mentions on WW to list the links, just type her name in the WW search box to view.

Today thanks to Bruce Papworth we get a look at Shenandoah at sea and her crew war crew ashore – in the 2nd photo we get a rare sighting of the photographer – Tudor Collins, that is him second from right. He would have been on board Shenandoah in his role as photographer. Bruce P commented that he believed Hick Goodfellow was the captain. In the third photo, showing the Whangarei Town Basin there is a great collection of craft that had been commandeered by the NZ Navy for war service – that I can identify- we have:

Q03 – Shenandoah, Q08 – Lady Margaret, Q01 – Wirihana, Q02 – Maristella, Q12 – Lady Shirley and Z38 – Ranoni. In the last photo we have L>R Lady Margaret, Maristella and Wirihana. For more background on these craft, click on this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/11/23/whangarei-town-basin-1943/

Round Rangitoto Island Classic Race and BBQ

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

ROUND RANGITOTO ISLAND CLASSIC RACE & BBQ

Saturday was a first (in a long time) on the classic launch scene – we had a launch race around Rangitoto (+ Motutapu) , now a race is not that unusual , but female skippers only (helms person) is – the winning skipper on Kumi would have failed a chromosome test but the race committee (Jason Prew) was swayed by the skippers attire 🙂

The post race BBQ at Islington Bay proved more popular than the race and 11 woodys dropped anchor in the bay for the BBQ. We all tend to forget about this location, great sunsets and easy anchorage. Cool video of My Girl sliding back down the harbour at dusk. On route I caught the tail-end charlies in the yacht fleet who also raced around the island – photos below.

A question – if you’re a large A-Class gaffer (no names but its painted black) and you constantly finish at the back of the fleet, as you did again on Saturday, why would you sail so close to a mark that you hit it? The rules say you are out of the race for that – BUT what makes it worse is when the mark is a classic launch and it is the finish boat, and all the yacht crew do is laugh 😦 The invoice for repairs will be in the mail. Yachties wonder why launch owners do not put their hand up when asked to perform this task, I suspect they will struggle even more for ‘volunteers’ in the future 🙂

UPDATE– Combine the above with another A-Class yacht (no Prize for guessing which one it was) colliding (yacht in the wrong) with a very large classic launch at Mahurangi and the yacht skippers / crew post collision arrogance – the CYA maybe needs to have a wee chat re rules and manners. Just because your are a classic yacht you don’t get any special privileges 😉

Mahurangi Regatta – Woody Weekend – 196 photos

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

MAHURANGI 2021 REGATTA – 196 WOODEN BOATING PHOTOS & VIDEOS

WoW what a weekend – perfect weather, perfect location and as always stunning boats. We saw a record turn out for the classic wooden boat parade on Saturday morning – the crowd ashore at Sullivans was a little thin on the ground, but if we are honest, we do not do it for them – its all about us 🙂 , a little like going for a motorbike rumble. We need more events where we just ‘hang-out’ together.

The regatta’s main event – the yacht race appeared to be a big success, the A-Class Logan – Rawhiti, in the hands of her new owner – Peter Brookes, cleaned up all the major trophies. As has become the norm at Mahurangi races, the results process was a total balls up, it was very dark and late into the night before the final, final results were announced – fingers crossed its all kosher, last year it took days and numerous oops lets try that again announcements 🙂

The big band beach BBQ, was a hit, perfect on all fronts – weather, tide, the band, bbq’s and the people. Given the number of boats in Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island, most people headed there on Sunday. The Kawau Boating Boat was bursting at the seams but handed it well. I have split the photos into 4 galleries – Classic Wooden Boat Parade – Yacht Race – Beach BBQ – More (includes Kawau). If I missed your boat, you were somewhere I wasn’t, or in the wrong light , or your’e boats ugly (joking – sort off).
Enjoy a peak at the weekend., click individual photos to enlarge. Next weekend I’m off to the Lake Rotoiti Classic and Wooden Boat Parade – its a biggie – they have 70+ entries

CLASSIC WOODEN BOAT PARADE

YACHT RACE

BEACH BBQ

MORE + KAWAU ISLAND

Bay of Islands – 2021 Tall Ships Regatta

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

BAY OF ISLANDS – 2021 TALL SHIPS TROPHY RACE

The above photo essay from the 2021 (Jan 9th) Russell Boating Club’s Tall Ships regatta were sent in by Dean Wright, as always stunning camera work. Dean commented that there wasn’t much breeze on race day so it was a bit of a dawdle. I’m sure that didn’t dampen the legendary post race festivities ashore.

Dean is a good lad and always tries to include a few launches in the mix, even if its a sailing event. #e like that
The photos of the Colin Wild launch – Wirihana, just go to show that if you are a looker, no matter what you hang off her (SUP/Sailing Dinghy/RIB) – you’ll always be a looker 😉
As always – click on the smaller photos to enlarge.

The Best of Colin Wild + Herreshoff Steam Launch

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

The Best of Colin Wild + Herreshoff Steam Launch
The top two photos of the Brooke families 1927 Colin Wild launch – Linda comes to us via Mitchell Hutchings fb ex the Williamson Family Collection. Linda at the time was moored at Herald Island.

The bottom photo I took today of Wirihana tucked up in Chris McMullen’s shed for her winter TLC. Wirihana is another of Wild’s big motorboats, built in 1933.

It was great to see that CMcM’s Herreshoff steam launch (below) is coming along – engine installed 🙂

Woody Waitangi Day Picnic – Photos

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Alan Houghton - waitematawoodys.com founder

Scott Colville

My Girl & Pacific

Monterey

Centaurus

Mana

Ann Michelle

Trinidad

Arohanui

Eileen Patricia

Sybil Frances

Tusk

Shango (Ani)

Awatere

Sea Fever

Ngaio

Silvery Main

Tuna

Wirihana

Centaurus

Very smart new mast on Pacific 🙂

WOODY CLASSICS WAITANGI DAY PICNIC PHOTOS

Another great Woody Classics Woody event yesterday, we had 20+ classic woodys anchored in Wakalabubu Bay, Motutapu Island. Most came ashore for the picnic and while the camera stayed in the bag, I can report that these casual events are a winner, so nice to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Youngest age would have been around 6/7 years and the oldest was 92 !

If I missed getting a photo of your woody, I apologise, but with people coming and going all afternoon I suspect someone missed out.

The breeze picked up later in the day and so most had the old wind against the tide coming home – but it was worth it.

Big thanks to everyone the rocked up – see you all at our next event – details soon 😉

Off to Lake Rotoiti (Nth Island) on Saturday for the Classic & Wooden Boat Parade – Monday’s WW story should be a goody 🙂

Oops nearly forgot anyone know the launch below, we crossed paths of Rangitoto – terrible photo, grab the phone and unfortunately had it set on some weird setting. Name is something like Tautai ??