Hi my name is Neville Jones, I need your help..

I have brought an Eventide here in New Zealand, it has a strange story to go with it so I’ll try and tell you some of it. She is called ‘Home and Away’

I bought this boat off ‘trademe’ a N.Z online auction, all I saw of this boat was an old pic, that was all I needed, it is beautiful so I brought it without physically ever being closer to her than 600 miles and across that vicious stretch of water called the Cook Straight, well that wasn’t going to stop me.

I made a decision to go and have a look [we do have ferries for this crossing], well I arrived to see something  that looked like a floating Chinese junk. 4+2 nailed up and plywood over the top sitting on a mooring in a marina, no motor, no rigging, mast or anything, but oh so beautiful.

Well I have to go back a bit now, you see the person I  brought this off, he only had it a month, he also had brought it off ‘trademe’.  The only trouble was he got it just to strip it and sell it for parts on ‘trademe’, so knew little of her history, so when I got it I contacted the earlier owner. Then on the way up to look at it, I picked him up to help me with it, as it had to be moved out of the marina.

Well this was when I learnt how it got to be in this state. It seems the guy I had with me had been given it, stripped of mast and motor and had started to build it back up when after a year of living on it, family commitments made him walk off.

The guy he got it off had had the major problems, he had been having an affair with another mans wife, so this person took it out on the boat. He took a brace and bit, drilled holes below the water line and sank
her!!

Well the then owner had her brought back up, lifted her out and plugged the hull. It cost him a Yamaha 20hp motor and marine box but this wasn’t enough for the hurt party, he went and petrol bombed it!! It burnt it out from the stern cabin back to the bow.

   
Anyway to carry on, we needed to move the boat. Well all I had was a 4.5 hp Seagull and we had to move it 18 miles! Well what a performance!

The bow was covered with a tarpaulin and so to keep the outboard full of petrol we had to tie the tender along side and then get into it to refuel and restart the outboard each time! This I had to do at least 5 times before we got to were we were going… We did at night with just a chart to go by and the channel lights, but we had to stay outside the channel as our nav lights weren’t going….. We could have done with a depth sounder but that had been removed as well!!

We made it!!!

It’s now on a swing mooring in Urquarts Bay in Whangerai.

So that’s my story!! So Far……….

Thanks Neville Jones

Well what a story! We could not let Neville down so I have let him have a look at my plans for my Eventide 26 ‘Fiddler’s Green’. I sincerely hope that Neville will be able to salvage this brave little boat; she has gone through so much she deserves another chance!

John Williams

Hi John.

I just received your email thank you.  I need drawings from the end of the back of the forward cabin back to the bow as this is where it has been hacked about most there seems to be a few structural pieces cut out around and behind the motor mounts. My motor mounts are on around about a 30 degree angle so knowing how it all fits together will really help.

Thanks again,

Neville

Drawings sent, good luck!