A grieving Northland widower has used the pain of losing his wife of 25 years to breathe new life into one of the last original and intact World War II navy vessels of its kind.
Maungaturoto’s Scott Perry lost his wife Michelle in 2016 after a five-year battle with cancer, leaving the father of two feeling destitute and desperate for a lifeline.
A few weeks after his wife died, as if by fate, a friend contacted Perry about the sale of a dilapidated old Harbour Defence Motor Launch (HDML), the ex-HMNZS Kuparu P3563.
Perry, 50, said as a former navy mechanic, or “stoker”, he felt an instant connection with the 72ft WWII wooden patrol craft.
After weeks of deliberating on whether to buy it, he said he finally decided to go all in.
“After I lost my wife I just needed to get my head right, and lots of people said I would be an idiot to buy it,” he said.
“But being on the water was my happy place and once Michelle got sick, we had to sell everything so I could be at home to care for her.
“Apart from my daughters Madison and Nikita, I had nothing left, so in the end I just thought ‘stuff it’ ... I needed a project to help rebuild myself and Kuparu was it. I found her as a wreck, a lot like myself at the time.
“We’ve essentially healed each other.”
Prior to buying Kuparu, Perry said the vessel had been sitting on an old trailer in Helensville for around 16 years.
The boat cost Perry $10,000 and he has since spent another $22k of his own money to rebuild the vessel to a seaworthy standard.
He said while the Kuparu was relaunched in December 2017, she was still a work in progress.
“I want to be able to get her to full, original museum condition and to circumnavigate around to each port possible in New Zealand to show her off,” Perry said.
“She is a true piece of living history and needs to stay original.
“I can physically do all the work, but it’s the maintenance costs and upkeep that is the struggle. The last haul out alone was $5500.”
According to Navy Museum researcher Michael Wynd, the HDML (later re-classed as Seaward Defence Motor Launches) were allocated by the Admiralty in January 1942 as a type of motor launch operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) during World War II.
Initially, 24 were ordered for New Zealand but that number was later reduced to 16 and they were delivered between 1943-1944.
Wynd said Kuparu had been commissioned on March 14, 1944, and, in February 1989, was the last of the SDML to serve with the RNZN.
“Getting 45 years’ service from a wartime-constructed vessel is a testimony to the quality of the construction and design of this motor launch,” Wynd said.
“They were built by non-naval boatyards on the West Coast of the United States for patrol work and were used as anti-submarine defence of our ports.
“They were also the first purpose-built motor launches for the RNZN and became the first vessels in the service to be dedicated to fisheries patrol and training of naval reserves- two of which contributed to the hydrographic surveying of New Zealand.”
It was around October 1945, Wynd said, that the vessels were paid off from naval service, with three sold to private owners.
Thirteen would serve with the RNZN in the post-war period (including one operated by the Army) and one was broken up in 1958.
The 12 remaining were given names in the 1950s and 1960s, with Kuparu first named as Tasman in 1948, then Pegasus in January 1956 and finally as Kuparu in March 1968.
A New Zealand Defence Force spokesperson said while the agency could not restore and put on display every example of former Navy, Army and Air Force platforms, they were grateful to those who did.
“New Zealand Defence Force greatly respects and appreciates the work done by countless volunteers and special interest groups in restoring former NZDF vessels, aircraft and vehicles,” the spokesperson said.
“We are grateful to those [people], through their tireless efforts, who bring important military history back to life and put it on show.”
In a further attempt to restore the vessel to museum condition, Perry has set up a Givealittle page to help raise the last $10,000 to complete the restoration.
So far he’s managed to raise a 10th of that goal in less than a week and hoped that by sharing his story, he’d be able to reach his goal.
“I’ve funded all of this by myself and I just can’t keep doing it alone,” Perry said.
“The money will help pay for restoring some of the worn out interior parts of the boat like the timber and paint, as well as some of bench cushions.
“I have put her on the market before but I just couldn’t stand to see her butchered or modified.
“I’ve had a lot of elderly, ex-Navy people come and see her and it’s often very emotional, so that gives me the drive to keep going.”