The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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coastal characters The Franich Brothers and their Lady Kay – PART 2 BY BADEN PASCOE the last barge note the "Fergie" on Lady Kay hard at it, A fter 26 years George and Johnny thought it was time for a change, and they put the business on the market. What prompted this move was that George had a few health issues and thought fishing was a little stressful. Plus, in 1971 they had Ces Watson build a nice looking fishing boat called Bona-Dea and they thought time was better spent using this boat. Munro Lambley was the next owner-operator of Franich Brothers, but after a few trips Munro decided the game was not for him and he sold out to Gordon Findlinson, who initially ran the business and boat. He soon employed Terry Curel, a local launchman who came from a long line of Kaipara watermen, and he took over. Terry was joined by Doug Pook, as deckie, younger brother of Tom Pook – again coming from a family of workboat people – and quite a few other employees, whose names are now memories. Jim Manderson was the next owner who bought the business in 1982 to add to his existing interests in Avoca Lime Ltd. Jim kept Terry Curel on as skipper and renamed the business Kaipara Water Transport Ltd. Business carried on as normal, Terry employed his son Gary as deckie, and more crew came and went. There were others, Karl Rasmussen, Ian Pike and Ken Beattie who worked on the boat from 1982-2004. As far as changes to equipment, the main differences happened during a refit in 1980; the replacement of Lady Kay's very tired 5LW with a new Scania D11 that developed 182hp at 2,000rpm with a 2:1 twin disc gearbox. All this swung an odd-looking 29 x 20 prop and I understand they replaced some ribs, as well as a great deal of refastening on Lady Kay's hull. The other big highlight was that at about this time the old Northern Wairoa Bridge was being replaced, and Kaipara Water Transport won the tender to supply sand and aggregate for the concrete piles and foundations for the new bridge. Jim and his crew worked Lady Kay and all the gear around the clock to meet the demands. It put a lot of pressure on the gear and crews, but they got the job done. In 2001, Jim had an offer from a syndicate consisting of Morrie Eyles, Tom Brien and Stan Seminoff to buy him out, so Jim accepted this offer and moved on. Morrie was no stranger to this type of business, as he was a sandman himself, starting off on the Waikato River working out of Mercer. To 36 Professional Skipper September/October 2013 cut a l long story short, along with hi son W Wayne, M i ended Morrie d d h l i h his up in Winstone's yard at Helensville. Morrie was later made redundant but Wayne retained his job running their tug and barge out of Helensville, while Morrie took over the day-today running of Kaipara Water Transport. Shortly after the takeover, they replaced the Wakarere with Awaroa; she was originally one of Altas's Barges that was towed up from the South Island by the Tug Revenge. Lady Kay crossed the bar to meet Revenge and take over the tow. This was one of the very few times, if not the only time, she has been across the bar and out in the open sea. The towline was passed over and Revenge headed south again. Wayne and Ron Matich built big wooden bins on her deck out of one-inch construction ply, just like shutters would be built for concrete work, they then gave everything a good coat of epoxy resin and rust was no concern with the bins. In 2004, Wayne finished up with Winstone's as Mike Thomson took over his role on a contract basis. Wayne then took over Morrie's responsibility of running the business and bought his shares as well. Things went along quite well, until about 2009 when the economy slowed down. They hung on, kept the business running and managed to pay wages by being careful. Things did pick up and sales improved when the new Virgin Concrete plant set up in Kamo, Whangarei. Lady Kay puts dig s in and shows her nice lines www.skipper.co.nz