Big Home-built Trawler Moved To Launching Site

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 August 1950, Page 4

Big Home-built Trawler Moved To Launching Site

The hull of a fishing boat, built m the back-yard of its Blaketown owner, was moved on Saturday to its launching site near the lagoon in Preston road. Though it was without a wheelhouse or any superstructure, the hull was too big to move, under some power lines, and a special instrument had to be used to lift the lines in places. , The new boat, which will augment Greymouth’s growing fishing fleet, represents years of hard work. The keel was laid six years ago, but the building work itself has been carried out in only three and a half years. Much of the timber in the hull, kawaka and hardwood with totara decking, was cut by the owner, Mi J. Kelly, of Doyle street, in the bush, and he shaped the timber before setting it into the hull. To be called the Mamari, the new trawler is 53ft long and has a 14ft beam. It will have a draught of seven feet. On Saturday morning, the hull was moved from Doyle street to a lagoon-side paddock in Preston road. It was pulled by a tractor with a motor-lorry at the rear to prevent breakaways. The hull was transported on a heavy framework of logs mounted on 16 wheels. The deck-house cabin, which has been built, will be assembled during the next six weeks, and then. the Mamari will be launched. A diesel engine will be fitted, and the trawler will be ready for sea. The owner and builder, Mr J. Kelly, is a watersider, but formerly owned the smaller fishing launch, Eileen. His effort is believed to represent the most ambitious boat building project ever undertaken single-handed on the West Coast.