Blokes & Their Boats - December 2011

STEVE RADICH

Jim Tayler – angler and diver

Knysna, a pretty estuarine town about halfway between Port Elizabeth and Capetown, was where Jim Tayler first wet his whistle.

Crewing as a six-year-old with Dad on a sailing dinghy was an early damp memory. Jim reckons water temperatures were pretty similar to ours, with the local kids growing up pretty much like Kiwi kids at the beach – plenty of boating, fishing and swimming. Dad also shared his love for free-diving early on.

Jim can’t remember what kind of sprats he caught off the causeway between the island (on which his grandparents lived) and the mainland; he just remembers them as ‘kid-size fish’. Faded images of Uncle’s larger species, such as kingfish-like yellowtail and ‘elf’ also clamour for attention. A little research reveals that the yellowtail is kin to our own yellowtail kingfish. As for the elf, I found this to be a local name for tailor or bluefish, another common Australian sport fish species, apparently growing to 13.6kg (30lb), but fish over 6.8kg (15lb) are pretty rare these days.

Arriving in New Zealand in 1978 at the tender age of 19, Jim took to the blue water with an uncommon vigour, passing his dive qualifications in Akaroa Harbour near Christchurch within six months of arriving. Reckoned his South African free-diving experiences had inspired him to stay down longer and dive deeper and deeper.

He especially wanted to hunt crayfish and shoot kingfish, so after settling in Auckland, he did so regularly, resulting in kingfish to about 15kg being weighed. But he has never seen a decent snapper when diving with bottles. He explained that apart from little schoolies, bigger snapper are very shy and frightened off by the sound of a diver’s bubbles.

Memorable dives are difficult to pinpoint, as Jim has dived many of the world’s top sites. However, he ranks our own favoured spots as up there with the best. One that remains particularly special is a 1980 dive with kid sister Rosemary on Leigh Reef near Goat Island. Jim explains that the water quality and richness of marine life were especially impressive, probably because the reef is cBlokes & Their Boats - December 2011 lose by an established marine reserve. The experience helped him to develop an enduring affection for this reef, but warns that timing the dive to coincide with still water is essential to avoid being swept away by very strong tidal currents.

Another diving highlight occurred on a Great Barrier Island frolic. First, he picked six crayfish from a cliff cluttered with bugs, then swam over a sandy bottom decorated by an almost endless carpet of side-plate sized squirting scallops, to eventually climb back on board with his dive bag chocker full of kai moana.

Jim has also dived for scallops at numerous other Kiwi locations, including Omaha just north of Auckland, Kawau Island, Manukau Harbour and at several Far North locations, including the Bay of Islands. He also once observed crayfish on the march off the mid-northern Takatu Peninsula. He reckoned they were all big ones, and next day when he returned they were all gone.

His worst time was running out of air during an ascent from 70 feet (21m). Jim explained to me that he managed to survive by following the correct safety procedures of taking only half-breaths and emptying his lungs fully between intakes. Apparently, since the air in your lungs expands as the pressure falls during an ascent, it can be fatal if not properly managed.

Boats, primarily to enable his diving ambitions, have been many. However, Jim assures me that he rarely takes a dive trip without including a bit of fishing, actually preferring to feast on fish than shellfish. Also, due to a very recent dive-related ear problem, Jim thinks his scuba days may be coming to an end anyway.

The first boat off the ramp was a 14’6 (4.42m) Sea Nymph Wasp. Although the classic gull-wing ride was soft, he found a load of big guys with heavy bottles was a little too much for the vessel.

The purchase of a GRP Buccaneer 450ET powered by a 70hp Yamaha solved the Wasp’s lack of buoyancy at the stern. Jim really rates the Buccaneer, explaining that she was very economical, sea-friendly and well designed for his needs. Of special note was the large, clear cockpit with plenty of space for four blokes, dive bottles and gear, as well as fish bins and tackle. A ‘boys only’ diving and fishing workboat with minimal fancy fittings is probably an apt description of this little boat.

As is a common occurrence in the life of most adventurous blokes, the advent of a woman triggers the search for creature comforts at sea. So after three good years, the trailerboat gave way to Jim’s first launch, a 28-foot (8.5m) GOP Vindex powered by a six-cylinder 180hp inter-cooled turbo-diesel Ford. Although she could plane at 16 knots, Jim found they got around at 12 knots most of the time without excessive fuel consumption, normally a feature of wave pushing just off the plane.

For those mechanically inclined, a technically-minded Jim (an electrical engineer by profession) explained to me that the Vindex’s Ford is the same block as the conventionally-aspirated 120hp Ford so common in Kiwi displacement launches. As well as the common 150hp turbo, there’s even a 135hp version in which the injectors have been tweaked.

Eventually, the typical boatie’s aspiration of forever onward and upward saw Jim and Gay looking for their second launch a few short years later.

A visit to an Auckland boat show inspired the next purchase, a bargain-priced 32ft (9.76m) GRP Gulfstream.

With the addition of a portofino stern, duckboard and flybridge, she was a stretched version of a 28-foot Mariner hull from the Riviera design stable. Glassed around a balsa-wood core, so extremely light, she could cruise on the plane at 18-20 knots, with a maximum of 26 knots. Powered by an under-floor 220hp Mercruiser diesel (most likely a Cummins, so I’ve read) through a Mercruiser leg, she provided the exceptional fuel economy of around one litre per nautical mile at cruising speed. With all the bells and whistles, including autopilot, Jim, Gay and their mates from the Panmure Yachting and Boating Club regularly spent their summers rafted up in Great Barrier Island’s Port Fitzroy.

While Jim reckons issues around stern-leg maintenance were part of the reason they went in search of the next big thing, partner Gay recalls a nightmare storm at Fitzroy, during which the wind threw their light Gulfstream hull around as if it was made of papier-mâché. No sleep that night, for sure!

A much heavier and more modern design GRP 33-foot (10.1m) Riviera was their next big boating venture. Less than two years old at the time of purchase, Jim rates the Riviera as his best boat. Powered by two under-floor 220hp Cummins, and much heavier than the Gulfstream, fuel consumption was proportionally compromised. However, to compensate for the extra fuel consumption, Jim and Gay reckon they found it sea-friendly even under the most extreme conditions the outer Gulf could produce. So, for example, when it comes to spending a weekend at the Barrier, Jim reckons he could set the autopilot once out of Gulf Harbour and rain, hail or shine, within two and a quarter hours they’d be at the Barrier.

Apart from the extra grunt, Jim puts her performance down to a combination of hull design and the extra weight and rigidity of the solid-glass hull.

Selling up and relocating to Kerikeri, with good fishing within relatively easy reach, they moved on to a GRP 35’ Pelin Sterling in 1989 with a 135hp conventionally-aspirated, six-cylinder, under-floor Ford. With a similar double-couple accommodation configuration to his previous launches, full walk-around decks, a huge flying bridge and poop deck, self-draining cockpit and self-servicing live-bait tanks in the duckboard, once again Jim couldn’t imagine himself without his favourite autopilot technology. Only at eight knots this time.

He caught his first and only marlin in 2003, a huge blue from the Sterling, and was made a bit of a star by fishing media. Apparently, of the crew of three, one was a back-packer friend, another had gamefish experience, and Jim had none. So when the fish struck on Jim’s watch, the near five-hour struggle proved particularly epic. For a while, his 256kg fish was the Whangaroa Gamefish Club’s biggest fish for the season.

Also, having been landed on 24kg line, because of the line-weight to fish-weight ratio, Jim found himself a pleasantly surprised new member of the internationally elite sportfishing ‘10X Club’.

Having been there and done that on the Kiwi fishing front, a few years ago Jim and Gay sold their Sterling and bought a beach bach at Kaimaumau on the north side of the Rangauna/Awanui Harbour. The new boat in the yard is an aluminium Ramco 5m Tear-Away powered by a quiet, clean and economical four-stroke 60hp Yamaha. Easily beach-launched and recovered by Jim and Gay in the harbour, great fishing grounds are even closer than they were in the Bay of Islands. Set up with a split duckboard, dive ladder, aft side rails, live-bait tank, with under-floor fuel and buoyancy, tread-plate cockpit floor and a swinging middle window in the windscreen for anchor access, Jim and Gay are pretty pleased with their Ramco’s value for money. Also, same as for many other owners of the marque, the boat’s relatively high gunnels help inspire feelings of safety when leaning into a fish in a choppy sea.

Apart from the big blue marlin, a best Puwheke snapper of 90cm in length was landed, photographed, measured and released last year. Best estimate for the length is about 13kg. Like many of the more mature hunter-gatherers, Jim is finding ever more pleasure in releasing the big breeding fish, now that his more youthful rootin’, tootin’, son-of-a-gun days are well past. The most recent release was a huge porae estimated around 9kg (20lb).

These days Jim likes nothing more than to catch fish for a meal with nieces and nephews – even if that means coming back just an hour or so after departure.

- © Fairfax NZ News