A grieving Northland widower has used the pain of losing his wife of 25 years to breathe new life into one of the last original and intact World War II navy vessels of its kind.
Maungaturoto’s Scott Perry lost his wife Michelle in 2016 after a five-year battle with cancer, leaving the father of two feeling destitute and desperate for a lifeline.
A few weeks after his wife died, as if by fate, a friend contacted Perry about the sale of a dilapidated old Harbour Defence Motor Launch (HDML), the ex-HMNZS Kuparu P3563.
Perry, 50, said as a former navy mechanic, or “stoker”, he felt an instant connection with the 72ft WWII wooden patrol craft.
After weeks of deliberating on whether to buy it, he said he finally decided to go all in.