Historic scow restoration a labour of love
Left, Geoff Benge. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh
Geoff Benge has found his ultimate project with the purchase of the last operating deck-loading scow left in the country, the 23.7metre (79 ft) Alma, built in 1902.
Since Geoff sailed it down from Hokianga and tied it at the end of Waitapu wharf 17 months ago, the boat has undergone a fair transformation. Most notable is the new roomy cabin, kitchen and awning area that now occupies around two thirds of the 7.8metre (26ft) wide deck space. Big, sanded-down spars have been used to good effect as posts and ridge beams, with copious matai panelling and fine woodwork adding to the pleasing interior.
The next big job on the list is doing up the wheelhouse, along with the four-berth living area and separate captain's cabin below. Mates have helped in various ways, but it's still been one big haul. One of Geoff's first jobs at Waitapu was to strip and sand the existing swimming pool-blue paint off the wide kauri planks and repaint it all grey, in keeping with the ship's earliest paint jobs. Next had to come the flaking and sanding of old tar off the expansive 75mm-thick kauri deck, ready for recorking and repitching.
Literally hundreds of smaller repair and improvement jobs have followed. Even before leaving Hokianga for the four-day voyage down, Geoff spent a couple of months up there reconditioning one of the scow's big twin Kelvin diesel engines.
"It turned into a bit of nightmare when the aging digger we were using blew its motor. I ended up reconditioning that too, because we needed it to lift the sections of the engine back into the boat as we did them up. That engine wouldn't fit through the hatch door in one piece."
Geoff's partner, Bronwyn Billens, says she has come around to the idea of not being so land-based any more. "I'm really looking forward now to when we can start moving around and exploring new places."
Their initial plan is to spend some time around the Abel Tasman over summer, with at least one foray to D'Urville Island's Greville Harbour, where timber scows were once a common sight. Eventually, they would like to apply for hawker's license to be a floating café wherever they go. The boat is licensed to carry 99 passengers.
Launched in 1902 by Nicholls Brothers, boatbuilders of Waiheke Island, the Alma worked mainly the Northland coastline for the next 80 years, although at least one manifest puts it as far south as Dunedin. As there is no cargo space below, the entire 130-tonne load was carried on deck, making it ideal for carting big loads of native timber or sand and shingle, which all had to be wheelbarrowed on and off a plank, often between tides.
As the scow's twin 60Hp engines only use 12 litres of diesel an hour, Geoff and Bronwyn are counting on it not being that expensive to get around. The Alma draws a tad over one metre with a flat bottom, meaning most of Golden Bay, along with all its inlets, will be accessible.
Geoff's plans to restore the ship's masts and sails as they once were, have been shelved for now. "That would be a massive job that would have meant chatting up sponsors, mayors, even MPs for support. I'd rather be pottering round on the boat."
His sentiment is understandable. Brought up in Mahana, Geoff was the second youngest of seven children whose orchardist parents would take to their 18-acre property along the spit at Awaroa every holidays. "At soon as the holidays started us kids would go there and we'd stay till the end. Boats were just a natural part of it all."
It is a real credit to Geoff that the loss of a lower leg nearly five years ago does not seem to have set him back one bit. "Reality does bite though. As much as I'd just love to be working on the boat, driving a bulldozer again for Solly's Freight is what I need to be doing right now. Boats like this and the cost of doing them up don't come cheap."
Gerard Hindmarsh
