barge Hood. Right time, right price, so they bought her and added
her to the growing fleet. They also bought a second Fergie, rigged
up the same as the first and further reduced their loading time.
Wa
Watching the berthing of these barges was an example in
logist
logistical excellence and often George did this by himself as
Johnn
Johnny was shark fishing. Once off the landing, the two smaller
barges were moored to a set of piles opposite the main
berth, then Hood was brought in, moored and then the
remaining two barges brought alongside. Once Hood was
u
unloaded, she was used as an access pontoon to unload the
t
two small barges with a front loading Fordson tractor.
George and Johnny did have challenges. The main areas
th
they were working were Waikere and Okara Bay and in
19
1961 some of the locals down the harbour did not like them,
an
and other operators, landing on the beach and loading sand.
So the answer was an eight-six Warman sand pump, the
sam
same brand used by Parry Brothers on all their barges. They
fitte
fitted this to Hood and once she was loaded, they pumped
the smaller barges full using Hood's pumping gear and some
woo
wooden shoots. In hindsight, this was a massive step forward.
By 1967 the wooden barges were getting very tired, so
they had a new 120 yard barge built by Smith and Ramsey of
Whan
Whangarei and named her Wakarere (Flying Canoe) and fitted
her o with a new eight-six Warman sand pump. All these
out
impro
improvements were good, but one little machine was paying the
price for all of this – it was a huge ask for Lady Kay's little 70hp
5LW and timing was critical to get one trip in on one tide. One
mista
mistake and they added 12 hours to their journey, but the brothers
did ha tricks up their sleeves to save time and often a full day.
have
By this time Johnny had another fishing boat, named Mi Jay,
and w back into shark fishing. He would meet George and his
was
P o w e r fo r m a r i n e p r o f e s s i o n a l s
WHEN HEAVY
DUTY MEETS
THE FUTURE.
A personal accident would have
been fatal … and records show good
old common sense prevented these
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wife Colleen at a given dredging location, anchor Mi Jay and
operate Lady Kay while George manned the pumps and covered
all the barge work. Once loaded, Johnny would go off shark
fishing and George and Colleen would start the steam home.
This must have saved an extra wage, keeping the bottom line
within the family, very smart.
By now, most of the sand they dredged was pre-ordered by
Avoca Ltd and the odd yard they sold to locally. Apart from
dredging sand, they did other work such as live stock transport:
Cattle from Hukatere, sheep from the Little Beacon Maori
Affairs Block and more stock from other blocks like Pouto
Point. They not only landed sand at home base, they often made
landings at Helensville for the Kaipara Dairy Company and
Kaiwaka. Sometimes they had a back load of road metal and
some of this went to destinations like Oneroa Bay. Johnny and
George even did the odd house removal job as well.
A personal accident would have been fatal to their operation
and records show good old common sense prevented these – they
did not need a foot-thick risk management folder to tell them
what to do. However, George did lose the tip of his finger in
the belts of the sand pump one day. He had to get off the boat at
Ruawai and travel by road to Dargaville to have the remains of
his finger re-engineered – then George brought the tip home
in a matchbox to show his family!
Do you think that advanced and electronically
controlled diesel engines are not heavy duty?
Think again.
