Troubled waters ahead of old tug

Press, 26 October 1984, Page 7

Troubled waters ahead of old tug

NZPA staff correspondent, CHRIS PETERS Sydney The veteran steam tug Lyttelton 11, hailed on both sides of the Tasman after an epic stormy voyage from New Zealand three years ago, is sailihg into another rough patch, this time financial. The 45-year-old former Lyttelton Harbour Board workhorse was sold to a group of Australian enthusiasts in 1981 and sailed, in part literally, to Sydney for a prospective . career running charter cruises round the harbour.

But divisions among the 10 owners and the lack of an estimated sAustsooo needed to pay for a survey for another certificate, mean that her future is now ucder a cloud.

Her owners have decided to cut their losses and the Scottish-built vessel, believed to be the only oceangoing steam tug in Australia, is up for sale at a price of sAust7o,ooo. Nibbles have come from several parts of Australia, but a part-owner, Brian Flood, yesterday denied reports that the Lyttelton II could be headed for the breaker’s yard. “We will make sure she goes to a good home,” he said. “She has been beautifully maintained and kept up, and she is not going to a breaker.”

But the fact remains that the Lyttelton II is keeping her owners out of pocket and will make an even bigger hole in their bank balances before she can begin to pay her way. -ly

The New South Wales Maritime Services Board insists that the tug undergo a survey to qualify for a certificate before it will allow her owners to run the planned charter cruises on Sydney Harbour. To be surveyed properly, the board wants the vessel dry-docked or put up on a slip. Slip charges run at between $2OO and $5OO a day. The certificate costs about $5. Mr Flood estimates that he and his fellow owners will be out of pocket another $5OOO by the time the board is finished with them and claims bias on the part of officialdom against old craft for keeping the Lyttelton II out of commercial action.

“We got a full Lloyd’s survey done in New Zealand before we brought her here — and that cost us SNZSOOO

at the time — and she now has a Lloyd’s 100-Al rating which is the top of the list,” he said. “When she was surveyed they checked her hull, engines, boilers, propeller shaft and bearings, and her steam line. She had been beautifully maintained by the Lyttelton Harbour Board and we have kept her up.

“All the plans are here and they are all clearly marked and stamped, but the (Maritime Services) Board said such tugs were turned out like railway carriages, there were so many of them, so they wanted her out of the water to measure her and check her over. “We took her out instead for cruises without charging people, but accepted . any donations. She was the central .feature of a television called the ‘lsland

Trader’ made off Pittwater — it was going to be a series but it never got off the ground. “The board says the vessel must come up to 1984 specifications, but 60 per cent of the ferries on the harbour would not come up to that. The wooden Karribee sank three days after she had been inspected. The board just does not want veteran boats on the harbour and I think they believe that if they pass the Lyttelton II they will have paddlewheelers and all sorts here.

“The board's ruling was the beginning of the end, but there has also been infighting among the owners over what we should do and how we should go about it, so we have decided to sell up.” The group was the highest bidder of three tenderers for the Lyttelton 11, ‘paying

$NZ20,500 at the time for her, but estimate that by the time they paid for the New Zealand survey, coal, and insurance to get her to Sydney plus import duty, they were sAust42,ooo out of pocket before they even tried to get her working on the water. The strongest interest in the tug has come from Melbourne, but there have also been inquiries from Adelaide and from Perth where there was talk of using her during the America’s Cup yachting challenge in 1987. The Lyttelton II thrust herself into the news in 1981 when as the first steam vessel to cross the Tasman for 30 years she ran into a storm six hours out of West-, port on her delivery voyage to Sydney, and battled the elements on poor-quality coal for most of the voyage.

Mr Flood said yesterday that the group had studied the tug’s records and ordered a mixture of Charming Creek and Strongman coal from Westport, but “maybe there was a mix-up, but what we got was rubbish.”

Past performance showed that the tug would go through up to seven tonnes of coal each 24 hours, but with the inferior fuel she ate up 17 tonnes a day and her master decided midway across the Tasman that the 100 tonnes in her bunkers and on her deck would not be enough unless drastic measures were taken.

When the wind swung round behind the old tug he hoisted 1000 ft of sail made from hatch covers and canvas covering coal on her deck, and got to port with just six tonnes of coal to sparei,