Four mates buy crayfish boat on night out and sail it from Dunedin to Whanganui

A night at a Whanganui pub ended in four mates splitting the purchase of a 39ft crayfish boat together.

The only problem was that the boat was a 55-hour voyage away in Dunedin.

Brian “Smitty” Smith pitched the idea to his friends at the Commercial Hotel after spotting the vessel listed online for a low price.

“I saw the boat on Trade Me so we go into the pub and everyone thought: ‘oh s*** that’s a good idea’,” he said.

Aaron Littlefair hadn’t seen the boat before he decided to go in on it, but came around to the decision pretty easily: “After five or six jugs it changed.”

The group travelled to Dunedin by car to test out the boat and decided its CAT V-8 engine and hull were in good, seaworthy condition.

Smith and Jim Rison have boat-building experience so touching up the ex-crayfishing boat would not be an issue.

Caius Weber (left) who joined the voyage and the four mates Brian Smith, Peter Olding, Aaron Littlefair and Jim Rison beside their new boat after arriving in Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley

Cruising into clear, crisp skies in the Whanganui port upon their arrival, the four men were “pretty chuffed” with the purchase from their night out.

“It’s all good - I just haven’t told my wife yet,” Rison said.

But the 55-hour voyage back from Dunedin’s Port Chalmers took a fair amount of grit.

There were bad northerlies on Sunday afternoon and “sharp, lumpy” conditions all the way through Cook Strait, Smith said.

“It was sloppy. [The waves] were stacking them over the top of the wheelhouse, no trouble.”

There was water in the berth, all the mattresses got soaked and they had to deal with a blocked toilet.

“On a trip like that, you can’t just stop.”

Littlefair said the voyage was “a marathon.

“I’d never done anything like that before.”

Smith said the crew didn’t lack experience.

“I’ve taken boats over to Samoa and that, and I’ve commercial fished for 45 years so it’s just a bit of fun.”

The cheap price of the boat was what drew Smith to it.

“The guys in Dunedin said if they knew they could have got it for that price, we wouldn’t have been getting it.”

The Trade Me steal is now docked in the harbour awaiting its first fishing outing with the group.

Littlefair said they were knackered after the voyage and ready for some beers.

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.