Andrew Hardy
Vessel numberHV000338
Vessel Registration NumberR15
Builder
Frank Burnell
Date1965
DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 14.86 m, 30 tonnes (48.76 ft, 30.48 tons)
DescriptionANDREW HARDY was built in 1965 by Frank Burnell in Smithton near Stanley on the north-west coast of Tasmania, but was perhaps not launched until 1966 as noted in its register papers. Burnell was well known in the area and had built other craft such as the ANGELA K. Tom Hardy knew from experience that he wanted a vessel with a rounded stern. The design rides the swell better in following seas than craft with a broader flat transom or tuck stern, such as ANGELA K. Canoe-sterned craft and similar variants such as used on the ANDREW HARDY can, however, be a little more difficult to plank up.
ANDREW HARDY is planked in celery top pine, and was built with a wheelhouse and mast on the foredeck. In 2009 it remained in this configuration and the only changes have been to modernise some of the fishing gear and revise the internal layout of the wheelhouse.
The vessel was used in the Bass Strait area over many years for shark fishing and then cray fishing. It worked from Bass Strait around to the rugged west Tasmanian coast, a region the Hardy family had pioneered for cray fishing. The Hardy family had over 20 fishing craft all named after wives and daughters, except for the ANDREW HARDY, which was named after Tom Hardy's son. Ironically, young Andrew Hardy was not a keen seaman and did not follow the family into the fishing trade.
In the early 1980s Tom Hardy retired and set up a take-away shop called the Craypot in Stanley, (still doing business in 2009) and sold ANDREW HARDY to John Oakley in Kettering, south of Hobart. Oakley continued to operate the vessel on the east coast, but ventured north into Bass Strait as well. On returning from one fishing trip Oakley accidentally hit White Rock between Maria and Schouten Islands, badly damaging the bow; however the craft was not lost. John Oakley later sold ANDREW HARDY to Brian Creswell who fished for crays and abalone all around the Tasmanian coastline.
ANDREW HARDY is still based on the east coast of Tasmania and continues to work commercially as a fishing craft, working the west and south coasts for crayfish.
SignificanceANDREW HARDY is a wooden cruiser-sterned fishing vessel from north-west Tasmania built in 1965 which has fished continuously for over 40 years. Built for Tom Hardy, the second of three generations of the Hardy family who have fished in north western Tasmania, it is typical of a style of seaworthy vessel, purpose-built to the owner’s requirements.
1934
1931
