The world is Sean's oyster

SEAN Kelly quickly tells you that he's just a little guy who grew up on an island with nine houses just off Ohope - but he had big dreams.
He wanted to be a fisherman owning his own boats, but after he left Ohakana Island in the Ohiwa Harbour the world suddenly became bigger.
Mr Kelly became a leading hand and electronics technician in the Royal New Zealand Navy, the chief engineer for Sir Peter Blake's schooner Seamaster, a shipbroker in Auckland - and now operates a $4 million fleet of four aluminium work boats out of Tauranga, at the age of 36.
His business, Western Work Boats, established in 2000, provides research, survey (hydrographic and seismic), patrol, towing, filming and diving services for clients, particularly in the oil and gas industry.
The company's motto is "No job too big or small" when it comes to marine contracting.
Last week, Mr Kelly flew back from Darwin after making sure one of his boats, the 23-metre Tranquil Image, arrived safely at the Blacktip gas field, 110km off the coast in the Timor Sea's Bonaparte Gulf.
That passage represented a milestone for Mr Kelly, the managing director of Western Work Boats. It was the company's first overseas contract and now there will be more.
"Before the financial crisis, the business was going steadily, but then our major clients in the oil and gas industry lost confidence in exploration, and we had to find new work. That's when the tough get going," said a confident Mr Kelly.
Over the next six months, the Tranquil Image will be a support vessel for the tankers taking the oil and gas to shore after it has been processed by the FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) ship that sits permanently over the well.
The Tranquil Image has a crew of four including skipper Shag Gibbs from the Great Barrier Island. Shag was onboard the inflatable powerboat that circumnavigated New Zealand in record time in March 2007 - it took them just under three days (69 hours, 44 minutes, 56 seconds).
After Mr Kelly arrived back in Tauranga last Wednesday, he jumped on to another of his boats, the 19-metre Star Keys, and sailed up to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula for a Navy exercise.
The inshore patrol boats HMNZS Pukaki and Rotoiti used Star Keys for boarding exercises. Western Work Boats has a permanent contract with the Royal New Zealand Navy's Project Protector fleet of seven inshore and offshore patrol vessels whenever they need to undertake training at home.
Western Work Boats will tow targets for the Navy to fire at and will supply support vessels during Waitangi week in early February.
After Mr Kelly returned from the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of Auckland on Friday afternoon, he sat down at the Bridge Marina and talked about his colourful life. He described it as a "rags-to-riches" story.
Mr Kelly grew up on Ohakana Island with his grandparents and rowed to shore to attend Ohope School.
His mother wouldn't let him become a a fisherman so he rode his motorbike to Auckland and joined the Navy at the age of 17.
He served on four frigates, HMNZS Southland, Waikato, Wellington and Canterbury, and finished off spending the last 18 months onboard the HMNZS Tarapunga, an inshore patrol vessel that completed hydrographic surveys.
During his seven-month spell on the Canterbury, he circumnavigated the world including the Panama and Suez canals and attended the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Atlantic near Liverpool.
"There were 100 warships parked up there for the celebration," he said.
In the Navy, Mr Kelly completed 8000 hours of an electronics engineering apprenticeship and obtained his New Zealand Offshore Master skipper licence at the age of 20. He is also a First Class Diesel Trawler Engineer and a trained Dive Master.
He left the Navy after six years to follow his "childhood dream" of becoming a fisherman. He fished out of Tauranga for two years from his own boat Seafari but struggled.
"The quota system had just been introduced and I was young and dumb ... I didn't understand how it worked. The large fishing companies dominated the small guy," Mr Kelly said.
He found a new owner for Seafari and moved to Auckland, joining shipbroker Laurie Collins Marine at Westhaven.
He sold fishing boats, tugs and LPG tankers, assisted the High Court in disposing arrested Russian ships, and then decided to start his own business, Sean Kelly Shipbrokers.
He created a team of three brokers who reached a peak of selling $2.2 million worth of boats in one year - "we were the kings of fishing boat sales in the country".
He sold the broking business to Hauraki Marine Brokers in 2003 to concentrate on Western Work Boats.
 Its first major job in 2000 was a seismic survey in the Taranaki Basin and Mr Kelly took a call from Sir Peter Blake, asking him to be chief engineer on Seamaster.
Mr Kelly had earlier laid the top mark for the America's Cup course from his work boat, Vickie II, built by the Geros brothers, Mike and Phil, in Tauranga.
Mr Kelly decided to put his own business on hold and signed a five-year contract with Sir Peter and spent nine months aboard Seamaster, crossing the Southern Ocean, on an environmental exploration programme, monitoring global warming and pollution for the United Nations.
He fell out with the autocratic Sir Peter and was sent home, with the Seamaster cook, from South America. Sir Peter, the captain, had intercepted one of Mr Kelly's emails.
The rest of the crew was aboard when Mr Kelly received the news months later than Sir Peter had been shot and killed by pirates on the Amazon River in Brazil on December 6, 2001.
"My phone started ringing at 5am that day and my first thoughts were for the crew," Mr Kelly said.
Arriving back in Auckland, Mr Kelly decided to rebuild his Western Work Boats operation.
 His 16-metre Macy Gray boat was built in Palmerston North and went to work on short-term contracts.
After five years, Western Work Boats moved to Tauranga with the promise of becoming part of the new marine precinct in Mirrielees Rd near the harbour bridge.
"Tauranga wants to develop the marine business and it was an opportunity to be closer to home," Mr Kelly said.
He bought the former crayfish boats Star Keys in 2006 and Tranquil Image in March 2009, refitting them with deck cranes, new engines and generators, and the latest satellite and wireless internet technology.
The Western Work Boats fleet is completed by the little Jack Sparrow Mac 4.2 runabout which conducts surveys on inland rivers and lakes.
Western Work Boats has provided support for some of the world largest survey companies - Fugro, Discovery Geo, Southeastern Geophysical, WesternGeco - and been hired by the major oil companies to scope the oil and gas regions around New Zealand.
One of Star Keys' last jobs was a hydrographic survey by Tauranga's Discovery Marine around the Hen and Chicken Islands off Northland for Land Information New Zealand.
But now Mr Kelly is thinking more about overseas. He has formed an alliance with a bigger competitor, Wellington-based Seaworks, and this should lead to opportunities in Australia, the South Pacific and South-East Asia.
Seaworks operates six vessels, three ROVs (remotely-operated underwater vehicles) and is having a 44-metre catamaran built for its survey and support contracts in the Middle East.
Western Work Boats and Seaworks have bought a shareholding in each other. "It's better than banging heads," said Mr Kelly. "They have vast resources and now I have people to talk to about my ideas."
On his own initiative, Mr Kelly is confident of picking up a year-long hydrographic (charting the seabed) contract off Singapore, starting in the New Year.
And what gives him that confidence? "There were four tenders and we are the last one they are talking to. This could lead to other opportunities, even in the Middle East," said Mr Kelly.
Now that's something for "the little guy" from Ohiwa Harbour to talk about.