Length: 9.5m, Beam: 2.6m, Draft: 0.7m
Propulsion: Inboard
Engine: Volvo 2002 18hp diesel
Construction: Carvel planked hull, (NZ Kauri) deck : laid Queensland Beech, combing steamed King Billy
Owner: Paul Churchman, Sarsfield, Vic.
Gowrie was built in Paynesville by Peter Tierney in 1902 at his boatyard (now the site of the Paynesville Ports yard) for the MacArthur family. I believe Peter Tierney also built Ranui around the same time (although I think a few years earlier?). Gowrie has retained the same name for the past 121 years through her various owners. I purchased Gowrie in 1990 from her mooring in Chinaman’s Creek (Metung). She had recently been owned by Metung Fisherman “Patsie Mollito” who had modified Gowrie extensively for use as a working fishing boat on the Gippsland Lakes. Therefore when I purchased her she wore a cumbersome 1 1/2 cabin of heavy plywood with large square aluminium-framed windows and had a painted plywood deck. She was in pretty poor shape and in need of a major injection of TLC. With the expert help of local shipwright Richard Blake I rented a disused factory near Melbourne docklands and we spent most of 1992 restoring Gowrie, including addition of a fully-laid Queensland Beech deck, recreation of the cockpit area bounded by King Billy pine coaming boards. The end result was quite faithful to Gowrie’s original appearance - albeit minus the head-height wooden canopy of 1902 (similar in design to other local boats such as Mayflower). I kept Gowrie on a berth outside the Wooden Boat centre for the next 18 months as I lived in Melbourne at the time. Unfortunately she was stollen from a mooring on the Yarra River in 1993 and after being damaged in a joy-ride was then set alight and pushed out into the middle of the Yarra to burn. Fortunately she was visible from the freeway alongside the Yarra and the Fire Brigade was called in to douse the fire. Long story short we spent the next 15 months restoring Gowrie for a second time, again with the expert help of Richard Blake, and this time including complete re-ribbing of the hull as all the copper roves had stretched from the heat and the original ribs were past their prime to begin with. After recovering from this disaster I decided it was time for Gowrie to return to her home on the Gippsland Lakes so we transported her back to Metung in 1996, where she has resided ever since. I believe Gowrie is one of the oldest surviving local boats on the Gippsland Lakes and we have no plans for that to change.