The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

English Eccentrics

I always start a search with so much optimism, and then the mishmash of soulless production non entities, unrealistically priced one-offs, and boats than need to be put out of their misery becomes too much, and I switch to the more bespoke sites that have fewer offerings but more potential.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

“What Will Ya Give Me?”

“Every Christmas everyone would go, all those who worked on the water, to all the old boatsheds in the area. You’d eat prawns and oysters there for as long as you like – they didn’t fight, they had a great time together – this was at Bayview – Palm Beach was considered a fair way away then.”

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Interwoven Threads

She sits as a time capsule. She is in a shed with a dirt floor, an ideal environment for a double-planked boat. Her exterior finish is deteriorated but original. Her lovely full-length mahogany planking has checked over the years from drying out and splined, but she still has the clear varnish finish inside and out with which she was launched. She looks to be as original as when she was built. Let’s not forget that her builder, Bjarne Aas, was a legend at the end of his career.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Going Once, Going Twice…

What’s so good about the auction system in relation to timber boats is that the lingering procrastination that is so common in trying to find a new custodian, is eliminated. Sellers who think that their boat is worth what they put into it over the years, and buyers who think they will score the miracle “lowball” come face to face with reality.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Screw You!

I have no desire to turn SWS into a free Trading Post (remember the Trading Post?) for odds and ends from the shed… But these look like they need to be holding a boat together while pounding through Bass Strait… not sitting on someones workshop bench!

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

SAONA is for Sale

In 1942 she was bought by Mr. Len Nettlefold who held the agency for General Motors in Tasmania. He had the quaint ‘dog house’ build aft of the mizzen mast and it is said that the design for this was drawn from the cab of a Chevrolet truck.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Destructive Valuing

If you are looking for someone willing to spend a few million dollars restoring a very beautiful 1910 Herreschoff schooner that’s lying wrecked on the seabed of Osaka Harbour, Japan, would you really ask them for A$161,523?

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

The First Bermudan on the Bay?

Bassett was a forceful and decisive character who found it hard to tolerate foolishness, but was forgiving of ignorance. The uninformed he set out to educate, lucidly and patiently. He had an uncanny knack of grasping the salient problems and of solving them at the outset.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Two Cheap Boats

I can’t help thinking that auctions are an under used way of passing on unwanted timer boats. They provide an accurate way of assessing the REAL value of a particular vessel on any given day. Assuming the advertising is comprehensive, and the bidding system is fair, then the market will speak.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

5 Under 5

Here are five interesting little boats under $5,000, all harbouring within their timber shells thousands of hours of pleasure.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

ATHENA & Len Randell

Although he designed racing and cruising yachts, it was fishing boats that launched his commercial career. The introduction of high-powered diesel engines was a significant change and needed someone able to calculate the power and propeller requirements, along with the best hull shape and construction, if the craft was to achieve its desired performance

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Mason and Salthouse combine

Al frequently mentioned that the greatest praise a yacht designer could receive was the absence of his designs on the resale market. To him, this indicated how pleased the owners were with his designs.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Where’s a Wharram?

There used to be one lying neglected in the corner of every off the beaten track boatyard north of Gabo… but perhaps their desirability has grown over the last decade.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

ALICIA- writing the next chapter

Chris Crerar was a great supported of SWS. He wrote some heartfelt articles that told of the highs and lows of owning wooden boats. Many of our readers were absorbed by a deep seated honesty in his writing style

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

Consider the Options- Opportunities on the Tamar

The boat yard needs a good tidy up, as most good boat yards do. There are two working slipways, quite a few interesting timber boats around in various states of disrepair, and a great big shed that appears to house generations of maritime objects that “might just come in useful one day”. It’s picturesque, it’s mildly functional and just for a fraction of a second, the romanticism the of prospect trumps the daunting realities.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

“The Little Blue Boat”

“Unremarkable little boat lives on a mooring and is little used in recent years, The family finds it too hard to look after. By this time it’s in disrepair and probably too late to sell it as a going concern”

Nothing remarkable there!

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

“After all, tomorrow is another day”

The arrival in Auckland in September 1953 of Eric and Susan Hiscock on the WANDERER III is believed to have inspired SCARLET’s first owner to commission her construction choosing Kauri planking over hardwood frames, Mahogany Cabin and deck of Queensland Beech.

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FOR SALE Mark Chew FOR SALE Mark Chew

FAIR WINDS update

Many Thanks to all those who have contacted us with messages of support (and condolences!) on our decision to move on from FAIR WINDS. In the meantime we have created a dedicated page on SWS with all the information on her that we can muster.

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