A GROUP of craftsmen is breathing new life into the wooden frame of veteran fishing trawler Carmela T.
Matt LeCompte is realising his dream of restoring the 40-year-old wooden trawler, which has just spent six weeks up on the Bermagui slipway.
❏ Click here to check out the photo gallery of the amazing project
While he has not let go of the dream, his idea of what to do with the vessel may have changed due to the extent of work still ahead of him and his helpers.
“When I first started thinking about it, the idea was to sail off to discover surfing spots,” Mr LeCompte said.
“Now by the time we finish I probably will be past surfing and am more likely to take it to a wooden boat show in Tasmania.”
The vessel was sold to Mr LeCompte by Bermagui Fishermen’s Co-operative director Rocky Lagana, who fished her out of Bermagui as a trawler for more than 20 years.
It has been an intense few weeks on the slipway with his team including shipwright Greg McLaren focussing on getting the hull in shape so it could be refloated on Monday.
“We’ve pulled our caulking hammers out from the cobwebs, but now we wish we’d left them there,” they joked about the hugeness of the job still ahead of them.
He said he also could not have down without the help of the community including slipway owners Michael and Patrick Jubb, as well as engineer Craig Hurst who have been assisting.
“Everyone has been helping directly or offering advice,” he said.
A carpenter by trade, Mr LeCompte has returned to Bermagui and his family roots.
His father Reg went to school in Bermagui and Moorhead Beach is named after his great grandmother.
Together Matt and Reg built a modern catamaran Judy-Lynn that has become a fixture on the harbour.
The Carmela T. was built from a northern hardwood species similar to the local spotted gum so renowned for boat building.
And its new owner is now using local timber to repair the vessel.
The timber was sourced from the Narooma sawmill, whose operator and Forests NSW apparently picks out by hand the trees suitable for boat building.
These planks are then cut to size, laminated in three layers and gently steamed and bent into shape using a rustic but effective makeshift steaming device.
Some of the ribs that have been replaced on the 18-metre vessel measure four metres and extend all the way down into its cavernous hull.
Mr LeCompte has secured a replacement engine for the vessel, which will be placed further back in what was the fish hold to make room for more living space.
Similarly, topsides the wheelhouse will be extended back to create more space for a galley, but where possible the original layout of the vessel will be preserved.
The fishing career of the Carmela T
This preservation extends to keeping the lettering and Roadrunner drawing on the vessel, which earned it the nickname “Chook” during her working career.
Work on breathing new life into the old chook will continue on the vessel at its mooring on the harbour.
The Carmela T was built in Ballina, northern NSW in 1971 for the Lavalle family of Ulladulla.
It was first operated by Rocky Lagana’s grandfather Antonio Lavalle and his son Joe out of the Shoalhaven and Ulladulla as a Danish seine trawler targeting flathead and morwong.
The Lavalle family worked their fishing vessels including the Carmela T along the South Coast down as far as Bermagui.
She was one of the first board trawlers to work out of Bermagui and was sold to local Ken Stevenson, who used the vessel to pole for tuna, later converting it to a board trawler.
The Poulos Brothers Seafood company of Sydney acquired the Carmela T in 1987 and she worked out of Eden for a couple of years.
Rocky Lagana and his family purchased the vessel two years later and continually worked her out of Bermagui for the next 20 years.
When the Commonwealth fisheries restructure and later the Batemans Marine Park came into play around 2006, the Carmela T was retired and parked in Bermagui harbour.
“I am very pleased someone is taking the time to restore her back to its former glory,” Mr Lagana said.
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