Woody Classic Gatherings

WOODY CLASSIC BOATING 2022 – 2023 CALENDAR
Time to get the pencil out and circle a few dates in the calendar. Our 2022 > 2023 classic woody events focus equally on the boats and the people – its all about getting off the marina and meeting up with like minded people.
As always, some dates may change and the weather is always a factor – but as the dates approach we will be in touch with more details.

Please feel free to share the calendar with your classic friendly boating enthusiasts. Where tide and draft permits – woody cruising yachts are always welcome to join in, so also share with the stick and rag woodys 🙂

AND TO ENSURE YOU GET A WOODY FIX TODAY – CLICK THE LINK BELOW  Video footage from the 2022 Moreton Bay Classic (thank you Andrew Christie)

Workboat Wednesday + Garage Sale

Starlight 1984 @ Woody Bay Rakino Island

WORKBOAT WEDNESDAY

I was sent the above photo by Gary Stanborough whose family owned the 32’ Des Townson designed and built yacht Starlight from 1978 to 2016, so any other namesake boats would always catch our attention.

Gary took the photo in 1984 in Woody Bay, Rakino Island but knows nothing of the history of this salty looking old timer. She’s tied alongside another fishing boat. Does anyone know of her past or what’s become of her? Reg # is AK14333.

A great example of the amazing work the Rakino Island residents have been doing on the planting front. 

LOCK-DOWN GARAGE SALE

One of our followers is using the enforced lock-down to clean out a home workshop.There are a few bits and pieces up for grabs and a project boat that never got finished, but it’s very close to being done though. It looks to be around 14ft, and a sailing and rowing skiff. Design is called a Phoenix 3. Comes with a rig and centre board but not the trailer. Offers around $500 will see the boat oft a new owner.Plus a woodworkers tool cabinet & a few misc. tools
Drop me an email if you are interested waitematawoodys@waitematawoodys

Woody Summer Boating Cruise

Rakino Island (West Bay on left – Woody Bay on right)
Raindance & Morgana
Marise

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT ON RAKINO ISLAND – click to play – the singer, Jennie Cruse is Auckland based and available for hire – 021 266 4330

Liberty
Windhaven II
Manuroa
Waiari
Raindance @ Garden Cove

GARDEN COVE – 360 deg Video – click to play

WOODY SUMMER BOATING CRUISE
The WW story today is a photo gallery from the 2020/21 holiday period cruise on Raindance, the photos are not always that sharp, it was more like “look there’s one” and I would grab the camera and snap a photo. Click on the smaller photos to enlarge 😉


We mostly mooched around Waiheke and Rakino Islands – had 11 great days afloat, a little blowie at times but tucking away in the right spot with a good book was just what the doctor ordered. Only had 2 hours rain on one day, so can not complain. General observation was that it was quiet in most of the bays. I understand Great Barrier Island was very popular.As always there are a few food pix to break things up. The discovery of a pop-up pizzeria in Woody Bay, Rakino was the culinary highlight of the cruise 🙂


Thanks to help from several woodys sending in photos, we were able to continue the WW stories everyday over the holiday period and the viewing / reading numbers were strong thru-out. I think that one of the few positives from CV-19 is that a lot more people have either upgraded their digital devices or are now more tech savvy and are on-line more often.

Enjoy the photos – the next big woody event will be the Auckland Anniversary long weekend at Mahurangi.

Surprise and Delight on Rakino Island

Surprise and Delight on Rakino Island
On Wednesday afternoon we made the call to remain in Woody Bay, Rakino Island, even though the forecast was for a swing to the SW, well that happened but it did luckily die off later in the evening. Our weather call was rewarded when we went ashore late avo to take the dog for a pee – we spotted a sign that promoted a pop-up pizza shack, just up from the beach. For the overseas WW readers – Rakino is off the grid e.g. no power, water, sewage, no shops etc and a very irregular ferry – sometimes only once a week. Situated in the Hauraki Gulf.

We decided to give the steaks to the dog and went ashore at 6pm. The place was humming, not many boat people (given the weather) but the locals were out in force. Which is always a good sign. The surprise was discovering the place – the delight was the pizzas were a 9/10 and there was a live soloist entertaining the crowd – lots of Nancy Sinatra songs, so an instant hit with me 🙂 See video below. The singer, Jennie Cruse is Auckland based and available for hire – 021 266 4330

Its open daily until Jan 24th and then from Jan 25 > April 5th its – Fri/Sat/Sun. So woodys if you are at Rakino or are looking for a great location to cruise to – check out the ‘Woody Bay Pizzeria’. I can see a potential – Woodys Classic Weekend Cruise on the horizon.
The ‘carpark’ is a hoot – no Audis or BMWs here 🙂

Man Sets Launch On Fire – Wairangi
I was sent the link below by my friend John Burland to a story by Tim Newman that surfaced on the STUFF website.  Sounds like a relationship that went west and one party sadly took revenge. Have a read. My question is – is the boat in the article – Wairangi, the same boat in this WW story? https://waitematawoodys.com/2016/10/10/22920/  I know the STUFF article says the boat was 7m long, but in the photos below it looks bigger than that. Any Southern woodys able to enlighten us?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/123874234/man-sets-boat-on-fire-after-latenight-argument

Easter Classic Wooden Boat Cruise

P1060047

Waiari

 

 

P1060051

Mapuna

P1060043

 

Easter Classic Wooden Boat Cruise

If you stayed at home this Easter, you missed one of the best long weekends, in fact probably the best Easter weather I can remember.
We headed out early Friday morning with the plan to spend Friday night at Rakino Island and then slide up to Kawau Island early Saturday. We arrived at Rakino mid morning and dropped anchor in Woody Bay (great name), conditions were perfect, only complaint a few too many plastic boats had the same idea. Caught up with a few friends for late avo drinks and took in the sunset – it was up there with Fiji on the visual wow rating.
Saturday morning dawned and a we had a wee anchor / winch problem – reverted to the days of old & pulled it up by hand – but then had 18+m of chain on the deck. Didn’t fancy going to Kawau as I was unable to let anymore out (even manually) as the winch was jammed. So decided to hang around Rakino – tried a spot of drift fishing – as normal no joy.
Decided on West Bay for the night (with my 18m of chain) and we got invited to dinner (fresh snapper) on a friends plastic boat. He was surprised and deleted that we turned up with a roasting dish of crunchy roast potatoes – their rather large boat has no oven – just electric induction hobs and a microwave 😦
Another 10/10 sunset.
Next morning, despite my best efforts the winch remained jammed so a restful day in the bay reading and headed home later on Sunday.
Not a lot of woodys at / around Rakino – I suspect Kawau and Great Barrier islands were the destinations of choice.
The 1962 Owen Woolley sedan launch – Waiari was looking stunning in West Bay after its 2017 top chop that say a flybridge despatched to the dumpster. Anchored nearby was the 1961 Jack Brooke built launch – Mapuna, enjoying a family cruise.
On the unsuccessful fishing trip we passed another Owen Woolley launch – the 1965, Adonis. Whats with all the 1960’s boats…….. even had Andrew Millar off Rorqual (1959 Jack Morgan) & Geoff Diggle off Florence Rose (1960’s Billy Rogers) over for a drink, sorry guys no photos, both were on the other side of the bay, with a lot of white plastic between us. Check out Flo Ro here   https://waitematawoodys.com/2019/03/21/florence-rose-launch-day/
When Andrew can get around to writing me a draft story, there will be a WW feature on the extensive renovation of Rorqual.
Also snapped a photo of the very salty looking ex? work boat – Kowai off Home Bay.
And just so I’m not accused of being one-eyed, I spotted a very pretty yacht when we were leaving West Bay – Hinemoa. Can anyone tell us what she is?
25-04-2019 Input from Harold Kidd 

HINEMOA was designed by Eric Cox for C.T. Jonas of Auckland and built by Lidgard Bros in 1948.
Jonas sold her to Norm Galbraith in 1955. Jonas had owned a couple of great yachts, CAROLYN (Coulthard, 1937), MATATUA (Lidgards 1938) the launch HIRAWANU (Lidgards 1946) then HINEMOA.
Lidgards built the Cox-designed SNOWGOOSE for Ian Titchener in 1948.
I recall that Ian Titchener (once Mayor of Devonport) was Paul’s uncle.
Ps I sorted the winch problem out back at Bayswater on Monday – two links had locked together on an angle – involved a wee bot of open heart surgery, best done at the marina v’s at sea.