Had an interesting email this morning. The Koraki's mate, captain, former owner, and builder are now all following the build. Hi guys.
It's the old 'good news, bad news' story.
The bad news is that they will all be able to spot my short-cuts and mistakes in the next few posts.
The good news is that the one of them now owns Thomsom Tugs (4 boats) in Auckland and has offered me any help I need if I want too model one their boats.
When I started on this build I had actually planned to build two boats at once – the other was the Christine Mary (a Thomson boat) – the red one in the photos. However at basic hull stage it and the Koraki were so similar that I put the CM on the back burner and stopped work just before skinning up the hull. Might now be able to get onboard to a get a few photos and resurrect the project.
The Koraki's former owner and builder, Pat Ganly (who is also following the build) is one of New Zealand's best known shipbuilders and has built some very fine tugs. I've already built a couple of models of some of his boats: Kupe (1970) from Wellington, Te Matua (1986) from Tauranga, and the next on the bench is another of his tugs.His old firm is still making some great boats – the PT May is one of their latest
...and the Koraki's skipper has mentioned that I might be able to get a trip on the tug on its cement barge run up the coast.
Not a bad start to the week.