“The Little Blue Boat”
My first reaction to the story below from the ABC was… “Is this really a story at all?”
“Unremarkable little boat lives on a mooring and is little used in recent years, The family finds it too hard to look after. By this time it’s in disrepair and probably too late to sell it as a going concern”
Nothing remarkable there! Then I realised, as is almost alway the case, its not about the boat. It’s about the family story, the community that uses a wooden boat as a marker of place and time and the relentless entropy that we all struggle to keep at bay.
Iconic 'little blue boat' that calls Montrose Bay home up for sale after family makes tough decision
ABC Radio Hobart / By Georgie Burgess
Sea Breeze was launched from Macquarie Wharf in 1976.(Supplied: Colin Attrill)
For almost 50 years a little blue boat has been moored on the River Derwent in Hobart's northern suburbs by the side of a busy highway.
It is known affectionately by many Tasmanians as "the little blue boat", and has floated alone next to the Brooker Highway at Montrose Bay over the decades. Sea Breeze, its official name, was built by Robin Attrill in his Montrose backyard in the early 1970s. His son Colin Attrill said the boat was launched at Macquarie Wharf in 1976.
"It's been on the mooring in Montrose Bay ever since, and that's why it's such an iconic little blue boat," he said.
The boat is an object of fascination for Brooker Highway motorists and foreshore walkers due to it seemingly never moving. Colin Attrill said it was "absolutely amazing" the number of people who would stop and talk to him about the boat when he was launching the dinghy to go and check on it.
"The number of people that talk to me that are walking past and go 'that boat has been there forever' and 'it was there when I was going to school or every day when I've been driving to work'," he said. “Some people say they've never seen it move. Well it used to move all the time. Of late it's slowed up, we're all busy and dad has slowed up. We lost mum and once that happened it impacted on family activities."
Its owner is now 91 and the boat has not been sailed for about 10 years. Colin Attrill said the family had recently made the tough decision to try to sell the boat.
"Dad isn't well and he's gotten old, which we all do, and the boat's got old," he said. “Anyone who knows about a timber boat knows that they need maintenance."
Mr Attrill said the family used to put the boat on the slip at least once a year to clean and antifoul it, and do any repairs.
Robin Attrill's late wife kept a journal about the boat. (ABC Radio Hobart: Georgie Burgess)
"But the past few years Dad has been unable to do anything, and the boat unfortunately has just sat on the mooring," he said.
He said the family decided it was time for the boat to have a new owner.
"Nobody is using it, it needs a new owner who will give it the time and get the enjoyment out of it that we had growing up," he said. “It's a great boat, and there are many years left. Wooden boats just last."
The Attrill family is full of passionate sailors and Robin's brother Peter represented Australia in sailing at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 — Tasmania's fifth Olympian and the first to represent the state in sailing. When Robin finished building the 25-foot river cruiser, known by the family as The Breeze, it was used for trips away around Hobart.
"We used to have family trips down the channel, down to Cygnet, down to Dover, and all places in between fishing and weekends away," he said. "We also used to go to events in Hobart like the Hobart Regatta, the Sandy Bay Regatta. We'd be down the river at any chance, or up the river. She made it to New Norfolk a couple of times. The boat was all over the place, wherever we could."
In years past the family enjoyed sailing Sea Breeze down the Channel. (Supplied: Colin Attrill)
Mr Attrill said it would be a sad day when the boat left Montrose Bay after almost 50 years.
"We will see where it goes and where it ends up and what's the next phase for the boat," he said.
Over the years its owner has been keeping a watchful eye on it just a matter of metres away, across the Brooker Highway from his Montrose home of more than 70 years.
"He's always been there. He'd open the blinds in the morning in the kitchen and look out the window and there's the boat," son Colin said.
"It's always been a part of his life."
