MEKONG – A Family Treasure

Mekong – an 8’4” plywood pram dinghy - was my final Shipwright’s trade test job in 1968 at HMAS Nirimba – the R.A.N’s now defunct Trade Training Establishment in western Sydney. As Naval Shipwrights we were trained primarily as Shipwrights, but also highly trained in Welding (to NSW TAFE pressure welding/low hydrogen Class 3 Tickets), marine plumbing, Boilermaking, Blacksmithing, fibre glassing, coppersmithing and locksmithing.

Mekong had to be built to a set of specs supplied by our instructors. She had to be designed on paper; lofted full-size out on the mould loft floor; a materials list developed; then constructed in the Nirimba Chippies’s Workshop – a WW2 aircraft hangar. Built upside down on a timber build jig with a Pacific Maple (Meranti) frame, CEMAC Rotproof plywood skin, Silver Ash gunwale sponsons and false keel, and White Beech thwarts.

All stages of her build were marked for accuracy, including a leak test in the nearby swimming pool. Once completed she was moved back to my family home in Townsville, and was used sporadically for local fishing outings powered by a Johnson 5HP motor and did quite well as a 2-person boat.

At one stage she endured Townsville’s 1971 Cyclone Althea whilst stored inside a 30’ motor cruiser being restored in the family backyard. Mekong survived, the cruiser did not.

When I retired from the Navy, we moved back to Townsville in ’85 and I took possession of her and gave her a minor refit. Just in time for the major floods where I rowed along my street. Since then, she’s been with us in moves to Sydney, then Darwin and now to Cairns some 34 years ago.

Whilst in storage at my place I leaned over her to grab something and put my elbow through her hull. Her ply hull had gotten so fragile it was like an eggshell, so out she came for a full resto. Yeah…..! Turns out she had to be stripped back to her frame, all the frame’s joins pulled apart, cleaned and reglued (the old Resobond glue had failed), and then the new hull sheeting laid on. I decided to double-diagonal strip plank her original frame with 4mm Queensland Maple, and I re-used her thwarts, gunwale and chine sponsons and Silver Ash false keel. All glue has been epoxy, all surfaces have been sealed with a 2-pack epoxy timber sealer, then all surfaces painted with a single pack, oil-based marine paint system.

Mekong retains her original measurements, but has had her transom strengthened properly to take a 4 HP outboard motor. She also been dollied up with a set of bronze folding rowlocks that have sat patiently in my original Chippies’ Toolbox for some 40 years or more, and she now looks an absolute treat!

Perhaps soon I’ll make another bespoke set of oars for her as well, my original 1968 Oregon scoop bladed oars are just a tad too big – and they’re mounted on my office wall.

 

Chris O’Keefe

Cairns, 2026.