Boat's reappearance astounds former owner

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Aucklander Max McCamish marvels how a fishing boat he owned before it was abandoned off Samoa five years ago ended up 2000km away in the eye of Cyclone Zoe.

The Mt Roskill builder was staggered to be confronted by a photograph in yesterday's Herald of his 10m twin-hulled aluminium vessel, the Streyka, high and dry but looking relatively intact on storm-battered Tikopia in the Santa Cruz group of the Solomon Islands.

New Zealand cameraman Geoff Mackley, who took the photo, says the boat was hurled about 200m inland by 10m waves driven by winds of up to 360km/h before being found on sand above buried homes.

Mr McCamish said he knew instantly that it was his vessel from its name above the logo of a witch of European legend called Streyka, painted on the wheelhouse to amuse his daughter.

It also carried its original green and white paintwork and the name of the Samoan boatyard which built it for a long-line fishing business Mr McCamish established with a New Zealand expatriate friend in Apia, Lawrie Burich, before it overturned in rough seas early in 1998.

The boat's five-member crew were rescued almost 24 hours later but conditions were too wild to tow the boat ashore and it was given up as lost despite strenuous aerial attempts to find it in calmer weather.

"It was upside down in water, the last they saw of it," he said.

He could only assume the uninsured vessel, which cost him about $100,000 to buy and fit out with fishing equipment, was salvaged and patched up by others before being taken to the Solomons.

After staring at the evidence of its survival, he phoned Mr Burich yesterday morning, urging him to look in the Herald while keeping the reason a surprise.

Samoan-based Mr Burich is visiting Auckland with his wife, Shelley, who said the couple were shocked to see the Streyka complete with its original paintwork.

"We thought it had come back to haunt us," said Mrs Burich, who recalled answering a mayday call from the vessel's skipper, former Christchurch man Brian Hood.

Mr Hood said from Samoa last night that he still had nightmares about his ordeal, and was amazed by the boat's discovery.

"That's amazing - when we were picked up she was just about out of flotation. We managed to keep one hull above water but the other one was submerged."

The vessel had a directional beacon, but a faulty signal sent a chartered spotter plane looking in the wrong places.

Mr Hood recalled being repeatedly washed off the overturned vessel by waves and being dragged back by his four young Samoan crew members as sharks shadowed the boat.

They were attracted by its catch of albacore tuna, so one brave crew member dived down to release the fish from its holds.

"The fish-holds were open and they were in there packed with ice but every so often one would drop out and a big white shape would come along and grab it."

Mr Hood spent several weeks after his ordeal unable to walk, and has only recently returned to line fishing, in shallower waters.

But Mr McCamish said it was his first and last fishing venture, and he was resigned to probably having forfeited his ownership rights to the vessel under international salvage laws.

A Marine Safety Authority spokeswoman said the first person to board a boat abandoned by its owner in international waters was entitled to keep it.

An equally surprised Mr Mackley, who was resting yesterday in Vanuatu after four flights to Tikopia within a week, told the Herald that the Streyka appeared to be the only modern vessel on an island of dug-out canoes.

He could not tell whether the islanders had been using it, but some had spoken of visiting Anuta Island about 130km away.

His photo also intrigued former Auckland coachbuilder and panelbeater Tony Hill, who built the Streyka and about 20 other vessels in Apia and agreed its survival may have been a good advertisement for his handiwork if he hadn't closed his marine business.

Cyclone Zoe - classified as Category 5, the most powerful nature can generate - passed almost above Tikopia island and close to Anuta island on December 29.

A third ship carrying emergency supplies was due to leave the Solomon Islands' capital, Honiara, yesterday for the two storm-shattered islands.

Chartered by Australia, the Japanese freighter Hamakyomaru was waiting for a detailed report from aid teams before leaving for Tikopia and Anuta, more than 1000km to the south.

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/marine