Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Former Wahine lifeboat seeks new home
A former lifeboat for the Wahine will soon retire, as the disaster’s 50-year anniversary approaches, but there’s life in the old girl yet.
The Matakana was built as a spare lifeboat for the Wahine, but was still sitting in a shipyard when the passenger ship ran aground at the mouth of the Wellington Harbour on April 10, 1968.
Outdoor education school Outward Bound opened at Anakiwa, in the Marlborough Sounds, four years earlier and staff were desperately short of boats.
Outward Bound maintenance manager Vic Koller said the ‘‘poor old girl’’ was gifted to the school by the Union Steam Ship Company in the early 1970s.
‘‘After the sinking, she was surplus to requirements. She was just a sad little girl waiting for some action. So the director at the time asked if we could have it,’’ Koller said.
‘‘We were struggling financially at the time, in the early days and being a not-forprofit [organisation], to get a boat like this, and especially in such good shape, was fantastic.’’
The Matakana was converted into a launch and used by instructors to keep an eye on the cutters as students sailed or rowed through Queen Charlotte Sound.
It also took students to their solo adventures, a highlight for a budding explorer, Koller said.
‘‘They usually get dropped off at night, so it’s very spooky, and they don’t really know where they are. They stay there for two nights and then the Matakana will go back and pick them up.’’
The boat came with a Fleming hand-propelled system, which drove the boat by pumping levers instead of using oars, as getting passengers to row in tandem while they were in shock was near impossible, Koller said.
Outward Bound staff Len Baxter and Bruce West, who have since died, removed the Fleming system, added a four cylinder Ford engine, decked her with plywood and added a wheelhouse.
But as the Wahine’s 50-year anniversary approached, the Matakana was struggling to keep up with modern students at sea.
Three new cutters replaced the old fleet after an old cutter was rammed by a catamaran and badly damaged in 2011.
‘‘Back then they were all secondhand boats on a shoestring budget. These days, of course, we’ve got a fleet of very reliable boats bought new, with donations,’’ Koller said.
‘‘But the new cutters are very fast. Times have changed, and she’s not the glamorous boat she once was. But for us, she’s been absolutely awesome.’’
Two new Tortuga boats were bought to monitor the new cutters, and the school was hoping to replace the Matakana with a third Tortuga during Project Refresh Anakiwa, the largest fundraising project since the 1980s.
‘‘Having all three boats the same would make it easier to maintain them, and to train new instructors,’’ Koller said.
He was now looking for a new home for the Matakana and said he would prefer to see it spend the rest of its life on the water, rather than going to a museum.
‘‘It’s a good work boat. I can still see it doing some work in the Marlborough Sounds, she’s still quite strong. I’m sure there will be a new owner that won’t neglect her. She’s got quite a bit of life in her yet,’’ Koller said.
‘‘But it could be the last of the Wahine lifeboats so maybe one day it should end up in a museum, if she’s the only one left. It was one of the big maritime disasters of New Zealand.’’