Embodying a boat-styled platform, his design was intended to be an interactive vessel for the event's memories and a way to link the land and sea where the tragedy happened.
A slightly abstract design evoking the skeletal remains of an old craft, the uprights were to be built from recycled timber to make it look like it had been there for a long time.
Mr Trubridge said he hadn't been aware of the sinking before the design competition and hoped the sculpture's "interactive quality" would help people engage with the site's history.
"We want people to engage with the site and memorial and to see them exploring the story, thinking about what life was like on those launches cutting across the bay in the night."
The site had a particular importance for Mr Trubridge; the mouth of the Ahuriri harbour being the point where he first entered Hawke's Bay after a long voyage from Europe on a yacht in 1991.
"It's poignant that this very place will have the sculpture."
While the council is partially funding the commemorative sculpture, anyone interested in contributing to the cost of the work was welcomed.
Mr Trubridge said he hoped to use timber from old wharves for the sculpture and asked that anyone who knew where to get this timber come forward.
In a feature published last year Hawke's Bay historian Michael Fowler wrote that one watersider, James Joseph, swam about 135m to the eastern pier to raise the alarm when the Doris collided with the lighter, the Tu Atu.
Quick reactions from those aboard a tugboat located behind the vessel, the Coralie, meant most but not all lives were saved.
The 10 men who died were buried in a mass grave at the Park Island Cemetery, where a memorial gravestone was laid.
Mr Fowler said Mr Trubridge had "captured the essence of the Doris project by creating an artistic connection to the sea where the drownings of the 10 men occurred".
