HEATHER
The 40’ carvel planked – Heather was built in 1965 by Doug Robb and spent her first 35 years as a commercial fishing boat. In 2000 Miller & Tunnage converted Heather to pleasure boat and installed the 1996 Gardner 6LXB, which was brand new at the time. Like all good Gardners she is very efficient e.g. at 5.5 knots, running at 800rpm, she sips 1L pnm. Normal cruise speed is 7.5 knots, but can be taken up to 9.5 knots max.
To use the old car dealer term – Heather comes with all the fruit, incredibly spec’ed and all set for some serious cruising.
Thanks to Ian McDonald for the tme heads up
04-10-2022 INPUT FROM Philip Trow
“Hi, Philip here….the present owner of Heather (2022). It is great to see a correct and largely accurate report on Heather. A couple of things to add: MV Heather was originally built by the Heberley family of the Marlborough sounds. She is named Heather after Heather Heberley (NZ author of some note).
Heather has been a particularly reliable and forgiving vessel for myself and previous owners. I have taken her around most of the South Is and I know previous owners have also used her for some great trips around the North is. She is very economical to run (1l/nm @ 800rpm/5.8kts exactly and circa 9l/hour at 1050rpm/ 7kts average.) Large 1200l+ tanks give her a very usable range. She also has a 6kw gen set and 800watt+ solar panels to handle long periods at mooring or unattended. As of writing she has less than 3600 hours from new on the Gardner 6lxb. That is very few hours on a Gardner.
Heather was rebuilt around 2000 and a great deal of heavy duty good quality equipment was installed. All of the fittings and equipment are much more robust than you would typically find on a pleasure vessel.
MV Heather has benefited from myself and previous owners who have maintained her to a good standard and also spent significant amounts keeping her up to date with features like AIS, drip free shaft seal and Blackwater.
I have retired from aviation, and now have a larger “Bluewater boat”, hence Heather is somewhat regrettably on the market.”
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Updated details added. Alan H
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Hi, Philip here….the present owner of Heather (2022). It is great to see a correct and largely accurate report on Heather. A couple of things to add: MV Heather was originally built by the Heberley family of the Marlborough sounds. She is named Heather after Heather Heberley (NZ author of some note).
Heather has been a particularly reliable and forgiving vessel for myself and previous owners. I have taken her around most of the South Is and I know previous owners have also used her for some great trips around the North is. She is very economical to run (1l/nm @ 800rpm/5.8kts exactly and circa 9l/hour at 1050rpm/ 7kts average.) Large 1200l+ tanks give her a very usable range. She also has a 6kw gen set and 800watt+ solar panels to handle long periods at mooring or unattended. As of writing she has less than 3600 hours from new on the Gardner 6lxb. That is very few hours on a Gardner!
Heather was rebuilt around 2000 and a great deal of heavy duty good quality equipment was installed. All of the fittings and equipment are much more robust than you would typically find on a pleasure vessel.
MV Heather has benefited from myself and previous owners who have maintained her to a good standard and also spent significant amounts keeping her up to date with features like AIS, drip free shaft seal and Blackwater tank….To name just a few….
I have retired from aviation, and now have a larger “Bluewater boat”, hence Heather is somewhat regrettably on the market.
Philip Trow.
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I worked on the Heather as a young deckhand for about three and a half months in the summer of ’78-’79.
She had a raised foredeck and a reasonably large fo’c’sle that housed the galley. One of my duties on the way out to the fishing grounds was to cook up the skippers breakfast, which was always the same fare…chops and bread, both fried in lard. Now imagine a heaving fo’c’sle, the air thick with the fatty haze of lard globules and the smell of burning chops…I remember it as a baptism of fire.
It did help develop a cast iron constitution which has served me well to this day.
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Whilst on our travels around NZ in 2018 we came across Heather in Preservation Inlet. The story goes that her then owner was an airline pilot who flew for an Asian airline. On leave he lived aboard Heather for weeks at a time. As there are no roads as such to Preservation one can only assume he hitched a ride on a fishing boat from Bluff or perhaps a helicopter to reach Heather with his supplies etc. When not occupied she was moored securely in a little inlet, well sheltered from the raging storms that arrive in the Fiords with little warning. The caretaker at nearby Kisbie Lodge would keep an eye on her until the owners return weeks later. We were impressed with Heather, she appeared well maintained and was clearly a hardy, robust little vessel, capable of handling the Southern conditions during her working years. Hopefully she will go to a good home.
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Built by Doug Robb (not Doug Reid, who is a famous and clever chap but not a boatbuilder).
OOPS – Corrected 🙂 Alan H
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