No more unfinished projects
Matthew Keen is a bloke who is clearly good with his hands.
The Bulls local is one of three winners in the Speight’s Unfinished Projects campaign, but his project tops the bill for ingenuity – he has turned a dumped boat into a portable spa pool.
Back in 2011, while surf lifesaving at Himatangi Beach, Keen pulled a dumped boat out of the river.
‘‘My mates joked that maybe it could be repaired,’’ he said. ‘‘We saw all the water in the back and I thought ‘what about a spa pool?’.’’
And he proceeded to do just that, mounting the boat on a trailer that he also acquired for nothing.
Keen says the project has taken five years, two girlfriends, 15 mates and two hospital visits to finally knock off. ‘‘I had to go to hospital with a metal shard in my pinky, and later a metal splinter in my eye,’’ he said. ‘‘And there was a whole bunch of near misses.’’
Working as a composite technician for the air force has clearly been a help for Keen, who says he redesigned everything at least three to four times. ‘‘I tried a wetback woodburner mounted in the boat cabin to heat the water in the spa, but it wasn’t really practical.’’
His heating solution is a gas califont, which heats up water from a garden hose. Once the pool is filled, the hose and califont are turned off and another switch turns on the pump to circulate the water.
‘‘I designed it to be simple to use, and it’s not expensive,’’ he said. ‘‘It runs at about $1 an hour, which is pretty good.’’
But this is also a spa boat with all the bells and whistles. Keen has introduced a sound and lighting system. ‘‘The frequency of the music determines which of three colours are projected onto the water.’’
He has also custom built an ice box cooler for the beers, which is made from an engine cowling that was widened, reclad and insulated with fibreglass. ‘‘There’s even a drainage hole in it. But there was about 24 hours of work in that small box.’’
Keen has taken the spa boat on a couple of tours, where it creates plenty of attention. Not surprisingly, he says he is chuffed to be recognised with the new award.
The other two winners in the Speight’s campaign were The Kerrytown Country Club and Restore My Sedan Delivery projects.
The Kerrytown Country Club project was initiated by David Fennessy of Timaru, who put out the call for his mates to help finish a cricket pavilion in his back yard.
Restore My Sedan Delivery was Meric Hoffman’s project. Hoffman, who lives in Dunedin, had been gradually restoring his Ford Sedan Delivery for more than 20 years and said he really needed to get it done ‘‘so I can get the chance to enjoy driving it while I still can’’.
Each of the three winners receives Speight’s Well-earned Weekend vouchers worth $10,000.
‘‘We saw all the water in the back and I thought ‘what about a spa pool?’.’’ Matthew Keen