Blokes & their Boats - November 2011

Steve has been a strong advocate of recreational fishing rights, doing his bit to ensure ‘more fish in the water’.

Steve Sangster and his current boat Big Bird, a 4.4-metre Fyran which he finds easy to launch and handle.

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Steve Sangster and Big Bird

An image of a huge groper looms up out of the mire of childhood memories.

The giant fish is lying on the deck of a Castlepoint bach, where a wild ocean provides an ominous background presence.

Then there’s his first fish – a trout taken in Lake Taupo. Only four years old at the time, Steve Sangster later discovered a well-meaning Dad had discreetly secured the beast to his hook.

Last, but not least, there’s the American Indian-style canoe with a Villiers lawnmower motor in which he and his siblings explored and fished the northern side of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

In addition to the motorised canoe with its rope starter, rope ‘n’ pulley rudder and engine-mounted throttle – which must have been a wonderful toy – Dad also built a bicycle-powered catamaran for the boys. The novelty of this pedal-power vessel used to attract plenty of attention, both on and off the water. It also supplied its fair share of nautical thrills and spills. Apparently Dad had a good 40 years’ worth of the fabled Popular Mechanics magazine in his workshop and had a go at a number of the novel projects contained in their pages. A 12ft (3.66m) ply rowing dinghy was another of Dad’s Popular Mechanics projects.

Built while living in Wellington, a 16ft (4.88m) Hartley cabin-cruiser was Dad’s biggest project to date. Powered by a 35hp Johnson, for a while it was the family’s primary means of maritime transport, more often than not towing lads on water skis, but also used for family vacations on the shores of Lake Rotorua.

After some foot-loose early years, the family settled in Manly on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of Auckland, when Steve was 14 years of age. In those days Steve estimates there were fewer than 500 people living permanently on the peninsula. However, summer saw the population explode with the arrival of more than 20,000 holidaymakers.

Dad purchased a 13ft (4m) glass Sea Nymph – she was used for Whangaparaoa-based family skiing, fishing and diving expeditions. So as well as the motorized canoe and bicycle cat, the boys had the opportunity to explore the outer fringes of the peninsula, which in those days provided excellent snapper fishing in close to shore. Indeed, nine times out of 10, an early morning in the canoe produced a fishy breakfast.

Steve recalls with great clarity a boys-own late-adolescence trip to Kawau Island. The vessel, a double-ended converted clinker lifeboat, was powered by a single-cylinder air-cooled Yanmar diesel. He recalls that the single banger struggled to make headway through Tiri Channel and that the 15-mile trip took a good half-day.

Once anchored in the boy’s heaven of Mansion House Bay, the lads took to the beer with typical adolescent enthusiasm – and even managed to land a girl or two. But let’s not forget the fishing. A dive over the side to recover a sinking fillet of snapper proved a rude shock. Above the surface the world seemed so idyllic, whilst the bottom of Mansion House Bay was one vast and ugly rubbish dump. Steve likes to think we have all moved on from those careless days. I wonder?

Boating/fishing trips on board the launches of family friends were a feature of late adolescence and early adulthood. Steve recalls feasting on piper and red moki with Scott Macindoe whilst on board the Macindoe family launch and, later, fishy trips to both Barrier Islands on board the 52-foot (15.9m) bridge-decker Lady Clare, owned by friend John Farrow. Memories of a 27lb (12.2kg) Barrier snapper, beheaded and smoked over a fire of pohutukawa and mangrove branches, still sets his nostrils a-twitching.

A 6.2m Rayglass called Obsession became Steve’s pride and joy in 1996. Steve reckons the Rayglass could take a bigger beating than he could, describing the boat as “safe in any conditions” – unsinkable and ‘bomb-proof’. (He’d been initially impressed by a demonstration that actually proved the design to be un-sinkable, a gaping hole having been cut through its cockpit floor yet still afloat, even though it was full of water and had eight men on board.)

Apparently its monocoque construction (which relies on the shell for structural strength, rather than structural supports like bearers and struts, etc) of an engineered glass-foam sandwich is responsible for both the structural resilience and astonishing buoyancy of the Rayglass design. And, according to Steve, the fact that the Rayglass also had a lady-friendly loo was another valued feature.

A 20lb (9.06kg) noddy was the highlight of one Rayglass weekend trip to the Barrier, with a busy afternoon fishing Wellington Head outside Port Fitzroy also filling their electric chilly-bin with snapper, kahawai, trevally and tarakihi. There was a memorable trip on board Obsession, where a session was spent catching and releasing rat kingfish on 2-3kg gear in close to Little Barrier.

Then there were the Furuno fishing contests, during which they drank more beer than they should have and caught fewer fish than they could have – but sure were great fun!

Since matrimonial strife forced the Rayglass from Steve’s life, he has taken to fishing with Bob Sumner and his sons. The most recent of a long line of boats built by Bob, the current 65ft (19.8m) Malcolm Tennant-designed glass-composite cat is powered by two 250hp diesel Hinos and cruises comfortably at 16 knots.

Annual week-long trips have included memorable sojourns as far south as the Mercury Islands off the eastern Coromandel and up to North Cape.

Highlights with Bob include sightings of whale sharks, whales, sunfish and dolphins, with fishing for food and fun a feature. Species that have ended up in human bellies range from the ubiquitous snapper and kahawai to the more humble trevally and albacore tuna, through to the now ‘rare as hen’s teeth’ yellowfin tuna, feisty mahimahi and giant blue marlin.

His current boat, a 14’6” (4.42m) Fyran with a 35hp Johnson, is a pretty basic affair. At least he can launch and retrieve it solo, and post-trip maintenance requirements are very minimal. She comes with a bevy of rod-holders, a fish-finder and VHF – all that’s required to meet the current sheltered waters fishing aspirations of Steve and wife Annie.

In 2005, a chance meeting with his old mate from teenage years, Scott Macindoe, drew Steve Sangster into fighting for the rights of recreational fishers. Most times you mightn’t notice him behind the camera while recording Hokianga Accord meetings at various marae.

Concerned about ongoing challenges to the rights of Kiwi fishers, Steve insists we all need to be a lot less apathetic about guarding the treasure that is our public fishery. He’s particularly incensed at the way commercial interests have secured an entitlement that’s more than is considered biologically safe by marine scientists. And, on top of this sanctioned excessive allowance, commercial fishers can still catch over and above this excessive quota, pay the deeming costs of over-catching, then carry on fishing regardless. The fact that this excess catch isn’t then discounted from the following season’s quota means that many fisheries are being legally over-fished every day. In a nutshell, he reckons we recreational fishers have got the short end of the stick, and each fish caught over and above quota is one less available for us.

Steve requests that all recreational fishers check out www.legasea.co.nz and contribute $20 to the NZ Sports Fishing Council, which is working so hard on our behalf to deliver healthy fisheries. Cheers to that!

- © Fairfax NZ News