The Fleetwood Motor Trawler Site

My name is Neville McCrindle and I was fortunate to experience fishing for hoki in the Cook Strait in New Zealand, on the Sarfaq. Ex – Argo of Pembroke M74.

I had been beam trawling from Newlyn and was thoroughly disenchanted with the job. It was more like farming than fishing, I was used to bottom, pelagic and pair trawling in my native Firth of Clyde and missed the excitement of big hauls.

The hoki fishery in the Cook Straits was awesome. The Sarfaq was well equipped with modern integrated Furuno equipment. You could overlay the radar onto the plotter etc.

Rapp Hydema Auto trawl was fitted and this proved invaluable whist trawling up and down the two main “Canyons” in the Straits, the Cook and the Nicholson.

The Hoki used to frequent the edges of peaks and to see the individual winches paying out and hauling in at the same time was very strange to see.

The overly large forward superstructure was a nightmare when getting alongside in Wellington, once the wind took her it was frightening. She rolled like a pig in the unforgiving seas in the Straits as well !!

We did make headline news once, in the Wellington newspapers when we caught a Greenland “Sleeper” shark among a haul of Hoki, very rare in Southern Hemisphere.

It’s rather sad to see that she is now an artificial reef, but she had a long and varied career.

Best regards
Neville McCrindle

Images of the Sarfaq

Sarfaq - Courtesy of Neville McCrindle

Sarfaq in Wellington - Courtesy of Neville McCrindle

Sarfaq Deck View - Courtesy of Neville McCrindle

Sarfaq from Astern - Courtesy of Neville McCrindle

Sarfaq in Wellington - Courtesy of Neville McCrindle

I would like to thank Neville McCrindle for sharing his memories of the Sarfaq and his photos.

Alan Duggan