Boat care the family way
Words Alex Stone
Robertson's Boatyard has been a staple in the Warkworth marine industry since 1932. Writer and avid sailor Alex Stone, along with his wife Lesley, make their regular and much-anticipated ritual with their sailing catamaran, Skyborne, during its annual maintenance haul-out at Robertson's Boatyard.
Now this may sound odd, but for the week or two that we spend at Robertson’s Boatyard, and its attendant challenges of working with difficult materials, it’s also the opportunity to further steep ourselves in the finest traditions of kiwi boatbuilding, and to learn from the masters of the game who work at the yard. So, for us, it's a holiday with a difference.
It starts with a deep foray up the Mahurangi Creek, usually after anchoring for the night down at Mathesons Bay or Scotts Landing to prepare for the best timing of the incoming tide, for Robertson prefers to lift the boat out at or around high water.
It’s a wee adventure in itself, and after a few miles heading inland, the boat’s chartplotter gets a tad confused: Hey! We’re heading through the paddocks here! But the channel is well marked, though some turns appear scarily close to the shore. Trust them – they’re following the deeper water on the outside of the curve.
Getting closer to Robertson’s, the starboard side of the channel is mostly native bush, all the way to Warkworth, dominated by some large tōtara. At low tide, the mud banks are alive with crabs. And symbiotically, lots of happy kingfishers.
Up beyond the best swimming hole in the world, there’s one more bank-hugging turn to get to Robertson’s Boatyard. It’s a surprise to see a massive 85-tonne Travelift, capable of lifting a boat of 8.5m beam – and a lot more cost effective than the haul-outs in Auckland. We’ve seen some surprisingly big boats up on the hard there, Fullers Ferries, ocean tugboats, and commercial fishing boats.
Drew Robertson is the young face of the yard. He’s there waiting in the elevated Travelift cockpit, ready to lift the boat, while his trusty crew stand by on ground level, adjusting the slings and guiding the boat in with long, soft-tipped poles.
“It goes back about four generations,” says Drew of the yard. “My grandfather’s uncles (Roy, Fred, and Mike Lidgard) started a boatbuilding business called Lidgard Bros in 1932. My grandfather, Chris Robertson, did his boatbuilding apprenticeship for them. In 1960 he started his own business, which was based in Target Road on the North Shore. In 1981 the business moved to the site it occupies in Warkworth. The site was an old limestone quarry which
took a bit of tidying up, and the shed had collapsed, which they rebuilt and used for the construction of boats (same shed that is there now).
“In 1995, my father Conrad bought the business and has owned and operated it since. He designed and built the Travelift and dock, and developed the hardstand area which went into service in 2000.I would be the fourth generation in the business.”
Conrad was also an Olympian rower, winning gold for New Zealand in Los Angeles, 1984, in the coxless four. The recreational rowing boats you’ll often encounter on the river (some equipped with groovy rear-view mirrors) are a result of his influence – and output.
Working on a boat at Roberston’s has other advantages; from the yard, it’s only five more minutes up, at five knots, to Warkworth town. Past a kayak-launching floating jetty, a slipway, and there’s the town dock, with the Jane Gifford tied alongside. A hop and a skip, and you’re at a nice café or sushi place for lunch.
And at the end of a hard day’s work on the hard, five minutes downstream behind the crumbling old cement factory ruins, there’s a superb swimming hole. It was once the limestone quarry for the works, but it eventually filled with sparkling fresh water – a far cry from the muddy creek just behind you – and a leafy green surround has grown around it. The nice folk at Warkworth council have placed picnic tables on a lawn. It’s a cool family hangout.
www.RobertsonBoats.com | Email:info@RobertsonBoats.com