The Adventurer II at the site of the old Hatrick Wharf. Photo / Bevan Conley
The Adventurer II at the site of the old Hatrick Wharf. Photo / Bevan Conley
When Hayden Potaka had his riverboat moved to the other side of the Whanganui he didn't know it ended up in a place once bustling with many riverboats.
The Adventurer II is currently moored at the site of the former A Hatrick & Co River Steamer Foundry Workshops and Potakasaid the coincidence was "cool".
The boat he bought at auction was towed to the new mooring about three weeks ago by a barge.
Potaka bought it in mid-June, after Baldwin Adventure Tours was liquidated.
He intends to use it to host tourists for meals of "high end Māori-infused cuisine".
The Adventurer II was moved in order to make its next move - to Whanganui Port for survey and repair - easier. It can only be taken under the Whanganui City and Cobham bridges at low tides, and Potaka wants to get it downriver soon.
He hopes to have it ready for use as a dining room by the summer season, and said he hasn't decided where to moor it long-term.
The place where it was tied up last week is the main site of the former Hatrick workshops, known at the time as the Sedgebrook Foundry.
The A Hatrick & Co - River Steamer Foundry Workshops were on the riverbank near Whanganui's Georgetti Rd from the early 1900s until the late 1950s. Photo / Whanganui River Annual 2000
At the foot of Shakespeare Cliff/Taumahaaute the water is deeper and a series of wooden skids with winches were used to haul boats out of the water.
Immediately upstream on flatter land were the workshop buildings and a temporary wharf.
The Coates family who staffed the workshops had high standards for their boilermaking, fitting, turning, welding, smithing and carpentry.
Writing in the Whanganui River Annual 2000, the late Arthur Bates said riverboats would arrive at the workshops dented, dirty and blackened with smoke from their demanding work.
"Then the foundry staff would set to and a few days later the vessels would be back in service with all their dents smoothed out, their engines running smoothly and gleaming with newly painted metal work."
The riverboat Waione was launched near the place where Alexander Hatrick's workshops were built. Photo / Whanganui River Annual 2000
Straight across the river from the workshops was Hatrick's wharf and offices, where riverboats came and went, and buses dropped off and picked up passengers. Boats often needed a rush trip from there to the workshops across the river, to replace the rivets that held their hulls together.
In the 1960s the former workshop site was cleared of buildings and willow trees and became an extension of the riverbank park.
