PARAPPA in its early days and original rig.

Images(2)

PARRAPPA in 2009, out of the water for restoration at Kettering, Tasmania

Parappa

Vessel numberHV000429

Vessel Registration Number151544

Builder EA Jack

Date1915

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 15.85 m x 13.72 m x 3.81 m x 1.83 m, 25 tonnes (52 ft x 45 ft x 12.5 ft x 6 ft, 24.6 tons)

DescriptionPARAPPA was built for cray fishing around southern Tasmania for Ned and Jack Pulfer. The name means 'dolphin' in Tasmanian Indigenous language. Carvel planked in Huon pine and rigged as a yawl with a small auxiliary engine, it was sail powered at a time when the engine was just beginning its rapid rise to become the dominant means of power. As a sailing boat it won the fishing boat race in the annual Hobart Regatta of 1921. William Bowtell, a fishmonger from Hobart owned it from 1921 to 1936.

From 1936 until 2004 PARAPPA was owned by four generations of the Jager family at Southport and Dover in south east Tasmania. During their ownership a wheelhouse was added, and by 1946 the gaff rig had been modernized to Bermudan. Then the deck was raised and a new wheelhouse installed in 1964 to make it more seaworthy offshore of Maatsuyker Island where they had located a good area for cray. Finally a third wheelhouse was added in 2002. It changed from tiller to wheel steering when the first wheelhouse was added, and went through no less than 12 changes of engine, gradually moving from a petrol powered auxiliary engine delivering 7.5 kw up to 75 kw of diesel power, by which time the sails and their masts were no longer fitted and it was a motor vessel.

PARAPPA is being overhauled and preserved by its new owner on the principle of maintaining the integrity of the vessel as it exists and therefore keeping the record of changes that have occurred since 1915. In this way it can continue to tell a remarkable story of survival due to continued use and adaptation to changes.
SignificancePARAPPA is a Tasmanian fishing boat built by Ned Jack in Launceston in 1915. PARAPPA worked in the industry for almost 90 years, and was adapted and re-built at various times to keep up with the changes in technology and fishing operations over that time span. These changes are a record of the evolving industry and the evidence of many of them are still visible on PARAPPA in 2010, as it undergoes an overhaul to maintain the vessel as a living example of this long history. EA "Ned" Jack was one of the premier builders in Tasmania, and PARAPPA is an example of the many types of craft he built and the longevity of the strong construction he used.