Old boat wrecked in storm
An old whaling boat thrown ashore in wild weather has dashed any dreams of it one day being preserved in a museum.
The 80-year-old ‘‘whale chaser’’ was ripped from its mooring in Waikawa Bay, near Picton, on Thursday as high winds and king high tides hit the Marlborough Sounds.
Picton paua diver Allan Buckland said he was ‘‘bloody gutted’’ his boat, the Sea Raider, had run aground.
‘‘I’m spewing. I thought it might be a salvage job, but it’s history now.’’
Harbourmaster Luke Grogan said his team turned up intending to salvage the Sea Raider, but quickly realised the boat was beyond saving.
‘‘The boat sustained significant structural damage when it came ashore,’’ Grogan said.
‘‘It became evident it was breaking up on the foreshore, so we mobilised a wreck removal process.’’
A barge with a digger on board was sent to collect the pieces, and they were loaded onto a dump truck.
Buckland’s grandfather was a whaler in the Tory Channel, several decades ago, so the Sea Raider had sentimental value, he said.
‘‘I only got it about six years ago. It was just sitting in the Sounds there wasting away, so I bought it. It’s been waiting while I saved up the money to do something with it. I was going to start on it this year and fix it up.
‘‘There’s lots of boats that age in the Sounds, but not whaling boats. That one’s been floating for 80 years, and I’m the one that’s killed it.’’
Two other boats washed ashore on Thursday morning; one at Whatamango Bay in the Queen Charlotte Sound, and one near Havelock in the Pelorus Sound.
A fourth boat was beached at Okiwi Bay on Thursday night, but the region escaped much of the damage felt by Nelson, where huge waves crashed across roads and homes were flooded.
Waikawa resident Grant Hutchings saw the digger removing the Sea Raider on Friday, and felt the boat could have been saved.
‘‘But instead of getting a crane, they just smashed it up. It’s a historic boat. It could easily have been lifted up and put in a museum or on the foreshore or given to the National Whale Centre,’’ Hutchings said.
‘‘They just destroyed history, doing that.’’
‘‘It was just sitting in the Sounds there wasting away, so I bought it. It’s been waiting while I saved up the money to do something with it. I was going to start on it this year and fix it up.’’ Allan Buckland