When the Image Boats-built Seastar isn’t deployed on commercial workboat duties or tourism charters in the spectacular waters of Fiordland, she is hunting for one of the world’s most famous and sought-after shipwrecks, the General Grant. Story by Mark Timmerman.
With the first set of OXE Diesel outboards installed on a vessel in New Zealand, Bill Day’s multi-purpose monohull vessel Seastar may very well achieve another ‘first’ if its hunt for the famous General Grant shipwreck is successful.
As Chairman of the Seaworks group of companies, Bill is well versed in the job of providing services to offshore, subsea, aquaculture and hydrographic industries with a fleet of specialised vessels and equipment.
But when possible, Bill’s other passion is finding shipwrecks.
“To be honest, I probably didn’t want to be the first to be trying out the OXE Diesels, but I couldn’t be happier with their performance,” Bill says.
Having recently returned from a six-week expedition searching for the General Grant around the Auckland Islands, the twin 200hp OXE Diesel outboards on Seastar proved just how well these relatively new players in the outboard market perform.
“We’re towing a magnetometer behind Seastar close to the cliffs around the islands there,” explained Bill of the General Grant search, “so the engines are running at lower speed towing that equipment behind at around three knots for long periods.”
Working in close to the rock cliffs of the Auckland Islands requires vigilant skippering, and Bill says the vessel operates in those tows with one engine doing the work “and the other engine just running at idle – they’ll happily run like that all day if you need them to and we keep the other engine running in case we need to move out of danger quickly.”
Seastar is not exclusively a ‘go-slow’ vessel. Built by Image Boats in Invercargill, her top speed is a respectable 27 knots, but she will happily hold 20 knots with the OXE Diesels running at 3,800rpm. The twin 200hp outboards deliver real horsepower right through their rev range, says Bill.
“She is comfortable at those revs and fuel consumption is very impressive. We’re only using 30 litres per hour on each engine at 20 knots.”
Bill reports the outboards are quiet at cruising speed and describes their low-speed trolling abilities as “very good”.
“We set the engines up to get speed out of them, but if the vessel’s work tasks were to change and we needed more torque than speed, the OXEs are easy to reconfigure.”
Bill is referring to the unique belt-drive system on the OXE Diesel outboard that runs a drive belt from the engine down the outboard leg to the propeller shaft. This system allows not only interchangeable gear ratios suitable for workhorse duties or high-speed operation, but also counter-rotation and crash-stop robustness.
The already impressive diesel torque of the two-litre engine (415Nm @ 2,500rpm) is doubled at the propeller shaft (around 900Nm). Try getting those torque numbers out of a petrol outboard!
At 10.75 metres and with short-term live-aboard facilities, along with carrying 200 litres of water and 1,000litres of fuel, Seastar is a serious piece of aluminium work/tour boat.
“We had her built in 2021 with plenty of under-canopy area because it’s pretty much always raining down this end of New Zealand,” Bill said.
Nothing beats local knowledge, and among other custom additions is a unique water collection ‘funnel’ system on the vessel that allows the skipper to position the boat’s bow under one of the many waterfalls that empty off cliffs into the fiords to fill her onboard water tank.
“We’ve set up the canopy system to be a rainwater collection system too, so we can replenish our fresh water easily, which saves on weight and improves performance,” Bill said.
Bill loves many features of the OXE Diesel outboards on Seastar.
“Every boat is a compromise, but we really tried to avoid too much compromise with Seastar. There were some teething issues with the engines, but OXE made sure they were solved,” Bill says.
“The longer service intervals are handy for us too. We’re remote down here in Fjordland and bringing in mechanics is a difficult logistical exercise,” Bill said.
The biggest advantage with the OXE Diesels for Bill’s operations is the fuel – the safety benefits, plus easier storage and transport, of the much less volatile diesel are welcome, as is single fuel compatibility with larger mothership operations.
“There’s no doubt the diesel advantage is a big factor for us since petrol can be a problem to transport into these areas, but the OXEs are an incredibly well-designed engine too, with the pumps and service points all at the top and front of the engine,” Bill says.
“They are also quick to react in gear changes – but I have to say I haven’t dared testing their limits, even though OXE say the electronically-controlled gearbox protects itself against a mistake by the skipper.”
Bill is referring to OXE Diesel outboard’s Quick-Shift-Capability (QSC) and Low-Speed-Control (LSC) features. These ensure smooth control over the vessel with full manoeuvrability, even at speeds below four knots. The gearbox is above the waterline, so less vulnerable to accidental impact damage, and its QSC and LSC electronic controls protect against transmission damage from inadvertent or panicked gear shifts at high revs.
Bill also likes the fact he hasn’t lost interior volume to inboard engines in a relatively small 10m boat.
The search for General Grant
Conditions in the sub-Antarctic at around the 50-degrees latitude south are like those in the notorious and better known ‘roaring forties’, only worse!
These are cold and very unforgiving waters – as the 83 souls aboard the sailing ship General Grant found out first-hand in 1866 when their ship went down (with a reported 2,576 ounces of gold in her cargo) after striking the cliffs of the Auckland Islands.
The 1,005-tonne, 180-foot General Grant is one of the most sought-after wrecks in the world and perhaps none are keener to find it than Bill Day.
“On our last six-week expedition, we probably only had around seven days where the seas were calm enough to search – keeping in mind that a ‘calm’ day still puts up around a 1.6 to 1.8-metre sea,” Bill explains.
A keen wreck hunter for many years, Bill has discovered two other historic wrecks dating from the 1830s and 1860s in five expeditions to locate the General Grant he’s undertaken so far.
Bill doesn’t just lead these searches – he is very hands on, including donning specialist dry-suit diving gear to investigate the bottom when Seastar’s magnetometer indicates a possible wreck site.
Five expeditions without finding the General Grant have not discouraged Bill in his quest for this elusive wreck.
“If anything, it has probably just made me more curious about what strategy we use next,” Bill says.
“Has she disappeared under a landslide perhaps? Or is the information about where she went down inaccurate?”
Just like Edmund Hillary and Mount Everest, Bill is determined to “knock the bastard off”.
“It’s the wreck to find in the South Pacific,” he says.
