Since taking to the water as a teenager, Aaron John has enjoyed a host of boating experiences. He's pictured here during a 10-day voyage on a tall ship.
Since taking to the water as a teenager, Aaron John has enjoyed a host of boating experiences. He's pictured here during a 10-day voyage on a tall ship.
It started with a packing pallet that he manoeuvred awkwardly around Whangārei’s Town Basin using a stick as a paddle.
Not a sleek vessel or a polished dinghy - just a weathered wooden skid dragged from the side of a street, destined for a school project.
Aaron Vinod John,17, remembers the moment vividly. It was the first chapter in a sailing story that must be one of the most unconventional to emerge from Northland.
“I didn’t care that it was sinking, I just wanted to be on the water. I never had a boat in my life. I never knew how to swim,” said the former Indian national, who moved to New Zealand with his family in 2023.
Aaron Vinod John says he badly needed to get out on the water after his family moved from India to Whangārei in 2023.
Inspired by a classmate’s wooden motorbike project, he asked to help, hoping to learn enough to build a raft.
However, the collaboration soured and ended with Aaron dragging the heavy pallet on his own to the Town Basin, where he tried to launch it from the dinghy dock.
The pallet started to sink as soon as he jumped on board.
“I got soaked, laughed it off.
“An old sailor warned me to be careful. I didn’t even know what I was doing — I just knew I wanted to float.”
Undeterred, he rested the pallet on the dock rail overnight and asked a live-aboard sailor to keep an eye on it.
But Aaron wasn’t trying to cross oceans - not yet. He just wanted to be on the water.
The next morning, marina staff posted a notice asking him to remove the pallet. That could have been the end of the story, but instead it was just the beginning.
A sailor saw Aaron at the dock and encouraged him to keep going. He pointed him to the marina’s recycling area, where Aaron collected plastic bottles and shoved them under the pallet - no ropes, just simple physics. The weight of the pallet held the bottles in place, pushing them down rather than sideways.
The spectacle drew attention. People filmed him and laughed. Aaron kept paddling.
Soon, a sailor handed him a spare oar - a game-changer.
Another day, five police officers waved him down. A nervous Aaron “felt like Jack Sparrow” and braced for trouble, but the officers were amused and supportive, he said.
That moment, captured in a now-viral Instagram reel, changed everything.
The community rallied behind the teenager who refused to give up. He found himself a permanent bit of dock space that was too shallow for bigger vessels.
A big step up from his homemade pallet and water bottle raft, Aaron was keen to get paddling his kayak "Bob", after it and boating gear were kindly donated to him by two Northland businesses. A stranger donated a life jacket.
Soon, he also had a kayak to tie to the dock, after it was donated by a local business.
“I was on the water every day after school.
“Even in rough weather. Just lying on my kayak, smiling at the sky, dreaming about living on a sailboat.”
In March this year, that dream came true when his parents bought him a Farr Platu 25 — a high-performance sailing boat that Aaron named SV Trashman.
He began living on it full time, left traditional schooling and switched to correspondence, dedicating his life to sailing.
Currently moored for the winter in Whangārei Harbour, Aaron thinks he’s probably the youngest Indian to live full time on a sailing boat.
His goal? To become a naval architect, design his own boat and sail around the world, including extreme destinations like Antarctica.
“I want to inspire others to chase freedom.
“Do what makes you happy. Even when others think differently of you. Because in the end, you’ll be living to tell the tales, not regrets.”
His story, shared through his Instagram and YouTube channels under the name TrashmanCrew, has attracted thousands of viewers. It’s proof that even the most unconventional beginnings can lead to extraordinary journeys.
From a sinking pallet to a sleek racing yacht, and now in the market for a bigger boat so he can share his dream with a crew, Aaron is proud to be charting a course that’s entirely his own.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, much of which she spent court reporting. She is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.
