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 A MAN WITH INNOVATION AND AN OPEN MIND BY BADEN PASCOE O n February 2009 Rod Jenden, Paul Courtaney and myself staged the Tree to the Sea event to celebrate the era of wooden boatbuilding in New Zealand. This grew from a list of about a dozen men who worked at the legendary P Vos yard over the years, to a list of about 180 people who were interested in all aspects of the wooden boat culture. The main theme was "meet old friends and make new ones", and that's exactly what happened. The brotherhood in this industry or interest group is something very, very special. Younger ones who attended this event wishing to find mentors who have been there and done that, certainly found what they were looking for. From my point of view my friendship base simply exploded! If you want to find how it was done back in those days, team up with the more senior lads, they simply love to share their knowledge. It's up our generation to keep this wonderful history alive, and there is still a practical use for most of it. One of the people who attended was a retired marine engineer by the name of Keith Peachey. Keith's practical knowledge of marine engineering is hard to comprehend. As well as building good quality innovative boats in New Zealand he has done some amazing things in the field of marine engineering. A lot of these men started their careers on the doorsteps of our amazing little maritime city, and Keith is one of them. Keith grew up in Parnell, attended Parnell School and was attracted to the magnetic pull of the Waitemata. His father Harry, who worked as a watersider was a mullet boat man. He owned the Huia L27, one of the 22-footers. So Keith began sailing at an early age with his father and crew mates Arthur Bone and Pop Ivy. They were all big-time Ponsonby Cruising Club men. In 1944 Harry had organized an apprenticeship for Keith at Kia Ora Engineering. Keith did not kick up any fuss about it as this was exactly what he wanted to do: play around with boats and marine engines and get paid for it! Kia Ora Engineering was a lean-to shed on the side of the Lidgard Bros boatbuilding workshop in the Hamer St, Freemans Bay reclamation. The business was part of Kia Ora Seafoods owned by Joe Cole and George Howarth (see issues 64 and 65). Not only did they look after the engineering side of Kia Ora's fleet but they did outwork for firms like Sanfords and many other fishing boat owners. At that time Kia Ora's employees were the foremen Henry Ashton, a previous owner, and Bill Pardy. There was Mr Tomlinson, Ray New, who was well known in speedway circles, George Gates and Keith. Keith did a five year apprenticeship with Kia Ora, coming out of his time in 1949. Towards the end of his time he can remember a man by the name of Eric Leyland, who owned the little trawler Ngaru, walking into the workshop with a drawing for a trawl winch. "Can ya build this for me?" he asked. Apart from the big steam side trawlers like Sanford's Humphrey and Thomas Bryan, what few little trawlers there were retrieved their nets by hand. It was backbreaking work. Keith's boss ordered him to go ahead and build it right away. As far as Keith knows, it was the first motor trawl winch in the country. Bill Simpson who skippered the little Millar and Tonnage Choice II, ordered one, and then Sanfords put one on Ava. Most of the wire used came from the mooring lines off the mines used during the Second World War. Another local marine engineer, Ronny Campbell, had been 26 Professional Skipper May/June 2012 keeping an eye on the keen young Mr Peachey and as soon as Keith had done his time Ronny offered him a job with attractive pay. Keith could not refuse. RA Campbell Ltd was just down the road in Beaumont Street where Mt Smart Marine is now. Their work involved more ship-type work on small coasters like the sailing schooner Huia, and the motor vessel Piri. These small ships were part of the ICI fleet, formerly known as Nobel Explosives. They had some interesting power plants like semi diesel two stoke Gardiners and two stroke Crossly diesels. More often than not the boys from RA Campbell did work, like drawing pistons and removing big ends in annual inspections for the Marine Department. Pumps and injectors were another routine job and Keith can remember where ICI spared no expense making sure their gear was good order and that a good spares inventory was stowed safely away in the engineroom lockers. He can also recall that they often routinely replaced things as a way of offsetting tax. The RA Campbell staff consisted of foreman Charlie Gleeson, an apprentice whose father owned the fishing boat Melodeon, and Hughie Boggs. Ronny Campbell also had a good relationship with the firm of Collings and Bell and did most of their installations, stern gear and steering system work. One job that Keith can remember well was when the Piri's wheelhouse had to be replaced at P Vos Ltd. The old wheelhouse was removed and the new one lifted on while she was alongside the viaduct. Keith had the job of connecting up the engine controls, steering and electrical work. "This job was rolled out with military precision, and the Piri was back in service before people even had a chance to see what was going on." Keith puts this down to good planning. Another big job he remembers is when they lowered the tail shaft on the WG Lowe-built wooden coaster Kaiwaka. Her propeller was always awash and she never really got good traction. This involved removing the old stern gear, plugging up the hole, and setting up a boring bar to bore a new aperture 8in lower than the old one. Then the huge Polar diesel had to be re-aligned to suit the line of the shaft. Quite a job indeed. Another interesting job was to remove the steam gear from the well known Auckland work boat Presto. Keith thinks she was a new acquisition of Harold George's who owned Auckland Launch and Tow boats Ltd or Blue Boats as they were known. He cannot remember what they replaced it with, one of the diesels of the day. After this, Keith went to sea for a short time as second engineer on the Clansman owned by the Northern Steamship Company. This did not last long as he missed out on weekend mullet boat racing events. By this time Keith had his own mullet boat Wairere N12, one of the 20-footers and took part in all the races and antics that mullet boat boys did. Working hard during the week and playing hard during the weekend was the name of the game. Another chapter emerged in Keith's life when one of Wairui's crew, Wally Shadgate said to Keith one day, "Why don't you go fishing, its bloody good money." So without much thought and a lust for adventure he joined Wally as deckie on the Jack Morgan built trawler Ava, and yes, she had a motor-driven winch by this time as well. They fished the East Coast all the way down to Tokomaru Bay and had some good times. After a while Wally