Ken and Dot Smith and their long line fishing device. Photograph by Stuart Munro
Ken Smith is your archetypal Kiwi backyard tinkerer.
Give him a bucket of bolts and he'll probably create the Crown jewels.
But a career in engineering and a mind that can find solutions to gnarly problems, has led him and his wife Dorothy into a backyard business that it attracting a loyal band of followers around the country.
Mr Smith was a keen surfcaster but trying to get his line out beyond the surf break had its problems. He tried rowing out but soon realised that was too dangerous. Then came a reliable small boat with an outboard, yet even then there were limitations.
But a chance encounter on Whanganui's South Beach almost 50 years ago provided his solution.
He watched a bloke launching a contiki, a torpedo-shaped vessel driven by a small petrol engine that could plough through the surf towing a long line of baited hooks behind.
He went home, sketched out a copy of the machine and set about making one.
There were teething problems. The rubber caps protecting the spark plugs melted or caught fire, the propeller would fall off, or the contiki - which looked more like a mini submarine - couldn't bash through the surf. The solution was a bigger propeller and once that was sorted the Mr Smith's contiki was off.
His first model had a two-stroke petrol engine with a timer to determine how long the motor ran to get the line out. But when leaded petrol was taken off the market the engine would overheat. The solution was to find an electric outboard motor.
But probably the most important milestone occurred when Mr Smith was at a seminar in Auckland and saw an image of the keel of the yacht KZ7, made famous by Sir Peter Blake.
"KZ7 had a huge bulbous keel and that was the light bulb moment for me. I realised then that what I needed to do was put the motor in that bulb. It put the weight into the keel and made it much more stable," he said.
They made an battery-powered electric motor by converting a Ford Falcon car fan heater hooked up to a three-speed bicycle gear. It gave the engine enough revs to keep going if it struck a log or rock underwater.
They eventually found an electric outboard motor in Whakatane and in typical Ken Smith style "we hacked it to bits to make it fit, took it back to Matata (where the family holidayed) and tried it. We set the timer to seven minutes and let it go. It was perfect."
That success launched the Kentiki and the first one they sold came out of their Whanganui East garage in 2001. The husband and wife assembly line can put a Kentiki together in about two and-a-half hours.
The small Mercury electric motor powered by a 12-volt battery comes from Australia and the line and hooks are sourced elsewhere but the bulk of the torpedo-shaped machine is made from parts supplied from local manufacturers. Like the plastic body which is injection-moulded at Plast-ax Rotational Moulders.
Generally the Kentiki will take the line out 1.6km. They put 2000m of line on the reel that comes with the kit and they can load up 25 hooks, the maximum the law allows.
The whole kit - Kentiki, reel loaded with line, hooks, sinkers and winch - will set you back $3500 but its remains one of the cheapest on the market.
The machines now come with auto guidance systems. You set the direction and the duration and launch it. About an hour later winch it back in and hopefully with plenty of fish hooked.
They're coy about how many Kentikis they've sold but they remain one of the most popular brands in the market and thrive while other players have folded.
"Some many people think you can make a fortune out of it. You can't," Mr Smith said.
They continue developing and improving the design, always striving to have the best quality contiki with maximum dependability.
"It's been a labour of love. But this isn't about the money. I get my kicks from watching other people enjoy the adventure," Mr Smith said.