Charles Lucas Huon Pine Fishing Boat 1914

Opportunity to become the custodian of Curlew - a traditional Tasmanian fishing boat steeped in history. She is featured within (and on the back cover) of the book serving as the record of significant Tasmanian Vessels: "Those That Survive - Tasmania's Vintage and Veteran Commerical and Government Vessels"

Curlew was launched in 1914 from Charles' Lucas yard at Battery Point in Hobart, Tasmania. She was yawl rigged gaff cutter and typical auxiliary fishing vessels of the time. The first report of curlew was when she raced in the fishing boat class at the February 1915 Hobart Regatta.

Curlew worked as a fishing boat in Storm Bay and the D'Entrecastaux Channel and remained in commercial survey until approximately 10 years ago, which must be one of the longest continuous commercial operation and survey records in Australia. Curlew is also one of the more authentic remaining early Tasmanian-built fishing boats -- she still retains her wet well which gives her incredible sea-holding and stability - something that is often lost in conversions where the wet well is removed.

Starting from the stern:

Aft deck: Sitting area aft of the wheelhouse and a fold down extendable stainless ladder that is less than 12 months old. Currently has a Weber baby Q on a custom rail bracket.

Wheelhouse and Galley: Wheelhouse is above her Ford diesel. The wheelhouse includes seating for 2-3 with the bench seat folded down, a chartplotter and depth sounder. Her Ford Lees/Lehman/Bowman 4 cyl diesel starts on the button and runs beautifully the engine compartment is very well layed out and accessible for maintenance. The webasto heater is installed here and ducted to both the wheelhouse and the focsle. She comfortably cruises at 6-7.5 knots and will run at over 8 if you are in a hurry. The Wheelhouse has good headroom, I'm 6'6" and stand between the beams.

Galley: Step down aft from the wheelhouse and you enter the Galley. Her Galley has pressure water, heaps of storage and a new (Dec 2023) 73L MyCoolMan fridge that is powered by a seperate house battery and new (Dec 2023) 200W solar panel, Victron Regulator and Smart Battery Monitor. We find this to be more than enough 12v power when away on longer trips and have never had to deal with a flat battery. With the fold down table the galley is very nice place for us to relax with a whisky after throwing the kids in bed! For cooking we just use a camping gas stove or a weber baby Q (potentially included with the boat by negotiation).

Midships: Midships has the wet wheel which has sunken covers that results in a very comfortable area to sit and our most used part of the boat for meals and entertainment. This includes a brand new dodger & shade cover that I had custom made my channel canvas in April this year at a cost of $7,300!!! This provides much needed shelter on the boat but is designed very smartly to not obstruct any vision from the wheelhouse. Sorry that there are not many photos of the dodger, most photos here were taken over summer before it was installed.

Forecastle: Her forecastle includes comfortable sleeping for 3 - 4 adults or as we have currently configured her, 2 adults and 3 small kids. If you are just two people, her focsle would be 1 large bed for both of you plus a large lounge area for you to use for relaxing, reading, meals, etc. I've had a new pipe bunk built and installed in April which is only in one of the photos. This folds up.

She has high bulkheads and rails and is very safe when underway and easy to move around on. She has a hugely powerful hydraulic windlass coupled with a CQR anchor and chain - both larger than you would generally see on a vessel her size, which is a very good thing and makes secure anchoring very easy and unstressful.

Condition. Curlew gives any experienced wooden boat person alot of confidence that she has been well looked after all her life. She is very sound. There is ongoing maintenance as should be expected with a wooden boat and currently has patches of primer paint in various places to make sure she is protected through winter and I was planning on repainting her decks and bulwarks this summer. To my understanding she is all Huon Pine - Planking, Ribs, & Deck so she was built to last and with ongoing love she'll still be floating in another 100 years !

Does come with some sails, though not a full set and will need some rigging work to get sailing.

Regretful sale. Reason for sale is that my wife wanted something with a bit more ammenity for the kids and I don't have the spare time available to upgrade Curlew's accomodation, also I think she's pretty perfect the way she is so didn't want to modify her. If you'd like to find out more, call me!