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OUR PEOPLE ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, SAYS FORMER COP BY CAROL FORSYTH T he idea, "If that guy can do it, so can I," has constantly run through Doug Smith's life. Doug, who is general manager of Coastal Bulk Shipping Ltd, joined the Police as a cadet in 1969. His first post was to Rotorua, then Taupo, where his regular work included search and rescue missions on land and sea. "In those days there weren't the safety aspects like now," says Doug," and with old boats and weather changes it's still the same today!" Although he thoroughly enjoyed police work, after eight years Doug was burnt out and needed a break. His pleasure boating hours allowed him to sit and pass his restricted limits licence with the old Marine Department in Wellington. With ticket in hand, Doug was wondering what to do with himself when he saw the Miss Picton for sale. "She was the one originally named the Charmaine," he says. Miss Picton belonged to Friendship Cruises in Picton, but before long Doug and his family had brought her, renamed her the Charmaine and moved to Havelock. Their first cruises were the mail runs around Havelock Sounds. Built in 1938 as an open-cockpit passenger launch, the Charmaine was soon carting mussels and towing barges, depending on the need at the time. "We'd have 100 bags in the CRANE SALES & SERVICE One-stop-shop for crane sales, service and parts • Leading European manufacturer of marine • Fixed, telescopic & articulated booms available cranes • Manufactured to Lloyds standard on request cabin, 40 to 50 in the cockpit and 40 on the bow to balance it up, then we'd head for home and away we'd go," Doug remembers with a smile. This was the early days of the mussel industry and harvesting was carried out for Talley's, Consolidated Fisheries and Wairau Fisheries. The original harvesting equipment belonged to another operator and was based on two 6m yacht hulls bolted together to convert her into a catamaran. After a couple of years, the harvesting requirements outgrew the Charmain's capability and new equipment was built and installed on the former scow Vesper. The Vesper was used for two or three years until she was retired when a new 15.25m steel barge, the Whakatere, was built in Gisborne. From 1978 until 1986 Doug was busy around the Marlborough Sounds. During this time they also bought the Miss Akaroa, built by G Brasell, a Fiordland fisherman. Her main tasks were towing, fishing parties and mussel farm work, as well as commercial diving parties. Miss Akaroa was also used as a tow boat and she towed the steel barge back to Gisborne for some serious modifications. The barge was cut in half and a 6m section welded in the middle of the hull to house two 471 GM engines. A wheelhouse was also installed. "It struck me that no-one had progressed the tugs and barges operation. Often we'd have two pieces of machinery tied up. In high winds we'd struggle to tow and recover the barge and in confined bays it was difficult for manoeuvring," says Doug. The barge re-construction was just finished when the cruise ship Mikhail Lermontov grounded in Queen Charlotte Sound's Port Gore in February, 1986. Although the ship could not be salvaged, approximately 1500 tonnes of fuel and lubricants was recovered from her tanks. "Our job was the standby tender for the oil recovery and we were three months doing that, along with diving operations." Doug loved the outdoor work and only sold the barges when his personal circumstances changed. "There was so much change going on at the time, so I went back to working for the government for a few years." • Japan's No.1 loader and mini crawler crane • Largest range of straight boom loader cranes 10301 The Cook Strait rail ferry monopoly became Doug's next challenge. "When I owned the Whakatere I was constantly being approached to do trips across Cook Strait to soIve someone's freight problem." With a group of interested people the initial concept was to operate a large landing craft from Picton and Paremata. After looking at one vessel in Cairns and finding she was unsuitable, the group was told about the MV Straitsman, which had recently been retired from service on Bass Strait. After negotiating a lease with right of purchase, she was steamed across to New Zealand's stormy union waters. Twenty- one men were locked up on Good Friday, 1992, after protesting about the non-union vessel entering the Cook Strait run. This was Doug's first serious venue into coastal shipping, and a service which continues to this day. Doug managed Strait Shipping for the first couple of years of its operation, then sold his shareholding and left in 1994. His next venture involved Sea Road's MV Bass Reefer, which 40 Professional Skipper November/December 2011 VIP.S79