Ian "Shorty" Hayward was urged not to go out in the rough waters of Foveaux Strait but the father of three could not resist.
Mr Hayward, 52, was among six people killed in one of New Zealand's worst marine tragedies last weekend when the 17m trawler Kotuku capsized.
Almost 1000people packed into the Invercargill Working Mens Club yesterday to farewell the "typical Kiwi rugby, racing and beer bloke".
Mr Hayward had joined his great friend Kotuku skipper John Edminstin in the boating trip to pick up members of the Bluff's Topi family who had been hunting muttonbirds near Stewart Island.
Despite Mr Edminstin's best efforts, he could not save his friend, who urged Mr Edminstin to save himself.
Leslie "Peter" Christian Topi, 78, Sailor Roy Trow-Topi, 9, Shain Jack Topi-Tairi, 9, Clinton Allan Woods, 34, and Tania Marie Topi, 41, also lost their lives
Mr Edminstin, Paul Maurice Topi, 46, and Dylan James Topi, 16, survived by swimming to nearby Women's Island.
Mr Hayward's brother-in-law, Denny Enright, yesterday told mourners that concerns had been raised before the boat trip.
"Shorty called in home with a Mother's Day present. And he said to [his] mum: 'I'm going out with me mate on the boat.' Mum said: 'Oh, it's rough, Shorty. Don't go out there.' But he goes: 'I'm away on the boat, Mum.' And sadly that's it."
Bluff community leader Rex Powley said Mr Hayward had a special quality.
"He could make other people laugh. He could make other people feel good. He could make other people enjoy life."
Mr Hayward was remembered as a young troublemaker who went "a bit rough" in his teenage years and crashed his mother's Mini.
He wound up working at the New Zealand Aluminium Smelter at Tiwai point, but asthma brought on while working at the smelter led him into transport.
"He was a hard-case, and if there were fun and games going on, you can bet your bottom dollar he was at the bottom of it," said his transport crew leader Tim Knowles.
With a colleague, Mr Hayward formed a "formidable practical joke team".
"If they weren't playing jokes on each other they were plotting against another poor, unsuspecting victim."
On nightshifts, Mr Hayward would "do the rounds" of local news agents' skip bins to gather reading material. Once the police caught him inside one of the bins. In exchange for a couple of magazines he was sent on his way.
He was a gardener and keen cook, "even if everybody else didn't like the aroma of this rather rich taste".
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