Owner/Operator John Lundmark
Proud owner/builder tells his story

Haparanda was a 45 foot yacht that my parents built in Melbourne almost 50 years ago. It was sailed across the Tasman Sea in horrendous conditions with my father and mother as the sole crew (for more information refer to the history section).  On reaching New Zealand my parents started a family, and shortly after that my father (Lex Lundmark) began the ambitious task of cutting Haparanda in half and extending her length to transform her into a 70 foot schooner.  

Over the next twenty five years my father spent an extensive amount of time, blood sweat and energy redesigning and improving the engineering and layout of the yacht. My parents had separated and later on the yacht had been relocated in an unfinished state to Gulf Harbour Marina, he passed away when I was aged 24, following a two year fight with cancer. When he died he left Haparanda to me and my two sisters. At that time I was a graduate civil engineer having just started my career with Opus International Consultants, I recall that time of my life as one of the scariest. Nothing prepares you for the loss of a father let alone taking on somebody else's unfinished dream. I immediately felt a huge responsibility, and was overwhelmed by the task.  Not being one to want to miss out on an opportunity, I was driven to complete the work that Lex had started and get the yacht operational again.  

If I had known the immense amount of work involved and required to finish Haparanda under safe ship management then I doubt whether I would have been able to get started. But dreams, ignorance and a degree of confidence in my own problem-solving abilities enabled me to begin the long journey of rebuilding Haparanda one step at a time.  

After six years of working with Opus at my civil engineering job I realised that I had made little progress on the yacht and if any thing I felt like I was going backwards, the first shed I built to shelter the boat blew down in a cyclone and it took me months to build another.  There were no working drawings for the boat (being all in my fathers head) and I was completely daunted by the task, at first not knowing where to start. It soon became apparent that Haparanda was in need of a complete refit, as the engineering work that my father had done was twenty years old and redundant now.  

It was a strange feeling having to rip out all the work that my father had spent so much time and energy designing and installing when he rebuilt her, but times, technology, materials and standards had advanced since that era and it was something that had to be done, if I wished her to be in survey.  However, I was very grateful to him for the vision he had had in designing a wonderful yacht and I was able to use much of the original structure, especially the interior teak joinery.  

While investigating the possibility of chartering the yacht I soon learnt from John Harry Consultants that all the welds in the hull had been affected by electrolysis and would need to be ground back and re-welded. The steel ribs and stringers in the forward and aft sections would require strengthening.  And I would also need to install a collision bulkhead to satisfy survey requirements.  

I recall having to go and lie down following the meeting with John Harry Consultants, as this now meant that the entire inside of the yacht including all the teak panelling and insulation would need to be completely stripped and removed so as to prevent a fire risk and the hull repainted both inside and out.  I would need to cut access hatches to all the underfloor tanks in order to repaint.  

It was at this stage I realised I had my work cut out for me.  To finish Haparanda in my life time would require more than after hour work and weekends, I needed to give up engineering and focus entirely on the boat.  

At this stage my sisters, who had not contributed to date, also owned the boat.  As I was only a third owner and already committed I would need to buy them out and become focussed and passionate on the end product.  I formed my own company doing small engineering jobs and shop refurbishments, which I was able to feed into the rebuilding project, and started to pour my soul, heart and energy into the new look Haparanda.  This was my dream now and in order to stay focussed the rest of my life was put on hold.   

When I was not on the boat I was thinking about what the next stage was going to be or visualising what the end product was going to be like.  I suppose when you put that much energy into thinking about something it starts to attract people and circumstances that can help to achieve your goal.   

I couldn't think about the whole thing too much as it was just too huge.  But I couldn't concentrate in one area either because one part of the build would inevitably affect other areas.  It was just a matter of keeping on going with what needed to be done while seeking advice and direction.   

Obviously rebuilding an oceangoing yacht of this magnitude had its fair share of financial challenges. There were many other setbacks too like discovering that the plywood under the foredeck that my father had used was rotten and the whole teak deck needed to be taken up and replaced. I had come this far. And a deep inner conviction enabled me to tolerate a large amount of pain and sacrifice.   

I had expected a feeling of completion at some point, but when I finally got her in the water, some twelve years later, there were other factors that needed to be addressed like building a new rudder to improve the steering and getting her fully commissioned and certified for charter.   

Haparanda is now fit to sail.  She is the culmination of a project started over 50 years ago and she has been the main focus of the end of my fathers life and my adult life pushed my parameters, dreamed big and got out of my comfort zone.  For that I am forever grateful to my father and his vision, all be it as ambitious as it was in designing and building his own ocean going yacht.