Dogged boat owner turns sleuth

A super-sleuth is hunting thieves who stole a lovingly handcrafted boat in broad daylight.

But the sleuth is no policeman - he's retired builder Claude Commerer.

The Mt Maunganui man has spent three weeks on the road hunting for traces of the 5.4m white and cerise-striped motorboat he spent four years building.

With an obsession that has even surprised police, he and his wife Maureen have driven as far as Whakatane seeking the uninsured boat they wanted to sell to help fund their retirement.

Now they are about to take their private investigation to Hawkes Bay.

"It's sentimental," Mr Commerer said. "How dare someone come and take something I have put so much work into."

The saga started on April 8 when he took his boat to a Mt Maunganui roadside site on Hull Rd where people advertise cars and boats for sale.

He locked the towbar with a padlock and tilted the motor downwards, to hinder any thief wanting to drive away with it.

Mr Commerer returned to Hull Rd before dark to collect his boat - only to find it gone. He reported the theft to police but also decided to take matters into his own hands.

In the tradition of the great detectives, Mr Commerer returned to the scene of the crime.

Armed with a photo of the craft, he canvassed nearby businesses. This turned up his first clue.

A mechanic said he had seen a dark-coloured, late-1980s Nissan Pajero with the words "builder" or "gib stopper" towing the boat at the intersection of Hewletts and Maunganui Rds about 4pm the day it was stolen.

Mr Commerer also found a combine harvester driver on State Highway 2 between Mt Maunganui and Te Puke who had seen the boat parked on the side of the road with a flat tyre at 4.30pm the same day.

This prompted Mr Commerer to ring tyre shops in the Western Bay.

A dark-haired, clean shaven, European man in his 30s wearing paint-spattered overalls had brought a tyre likely to be from Mr Commerer's trailer into a Mt Maunganui tyre shop and paid cash for it to be fixed.

The boat was next seen near Rangiuru by a businessman from Hull Rd - but this time it was being towed by a dark-coloured Toyota Camry.

A last sighting of the boat that day came again by the man with the combine harvester, who was shifting the machine to his farm between Te Puke and Matata at 5pm when he spotted the stolen boat near Old Coach Rd.

Then the trail went cold.

But, quietly in the background like Sherlock Holmes' loyal sidekick Dr Watson, Mrs Commerer was conducting her own investigations.

She emailed all the places in New Zealand that supply or repair Johnson motors to be on the alert for anyone seeking parts for the boat's motor. She also alerted waterfront police.

Assuming the boat thieves were heading southeast, the Commerers spent last week in Rotorua, Whakatane and Kawerau staking out stores and visiting boat yards.

A relative has posted a $1000 reward for the boat's recovery.

"We will go anywhere," Mr Commerer said. "We're retired, we've got the caravan and we will drift from place to place following up clues."

Police have expressed admiration for Mr Commerer's determination.

- NZPA

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