KimiMoana & Philip

About 5 years ago Phil visited the town of Russell in the Bay of Islands. With the help of local residents and new friends, he settled.

One day he found the derelict KimiMoana, beached and half sunken. Being a gentle soul, he took pity on her, and, with the help of the redoubtable Butch, she became his true love.
Like all love stories, it was not easy. Kimi was full of water and sludge with lots of funny things living in and growing on her. She had been deserted by her previous lover in a fit of pique and had lain, forsaken and discarded for 15 long years. Gone from her were the sounds of children playing on her decks, the smells of cooking rising from her galley, the contented sounds of a peaceful family at sleep in her strong, safe hull.

The local people rallied to help Phil bucket out approximately two tonnes of salty algae and water, and lots of weird stuff. Mark thought he was helping for a few hours. It took a few days, But they bucketted on. Then, miracle of miracles........she floated.
To her aid came a yacht built by Kimi's builder and she was towed off the sand into deep water.
To Phil and Mark's delight and wonder they found, engraved on a bulkhead, the proof of her former glory, the registration marks of a proud New Zealand SHIP!!!

If you look carefully you can see the marking between the two bedraggled and tired looking grinning faces.

So now, after having her bottom scraped and and antifouled she is moored in deep water while Phil works to buy her new stuff to fix her decks and rebuild her interior. But, at least , she is obviously, a lady.

Mark has gone awandering and Phil starts the long , hard slog to start the next stage of Kimi's refit ..... engine, skin fittings, propellor, fuel tanks, batteries, deck house, more anti fouling. This is no fairy.....this is a full blown 54ft ferro-cement DIVA. But faint heart ne'er won fair lady and all that stuff .

So here she is showing off her true form, and it is beautiful.

As she goes back into the bay, her neighbours look on at the change from a bedraggled ragamuffin to a fine lady waiting for her new clothes. As Phil sits in his deckhouse he knows the end is in sight.

To see a dream coming true is a magnificent sight !!

Goodbye, Bay of Islands, until next time!!