For 105 years it was known as boat number 6338.
But on Saturday a historic Scottish-built lifeboat was triumphantly launched at Port Chalmers' Back Beach, having been rebuilt and finally named.
Careys Bay boatie Neil Reid spent two years restoring and refurbishing the boat. He named it Heather Dawn, for his wife.
About 50 friends and well-wishers gathered to see the spirited little double-ended clinker-built craft take to the water again.
Mr Reid, a joiner by trade who works as a project co-ordinator at Dunedin Hospital, said it took five years to find the classic boat he wanted to restore as a cruising vessel for family and friends.
The shipbuilder's plaque, still firmly in place, displayed the boat's number, and it was usual practice for working boats like lifeboats not to have names, Mr Reid said, although the boat had been used recreationally since arriving in New Zealand 41 years ago.
The mahogany and oak hull and deck of the boat was sound. Mr Reid added a kauri cabin with living quarters and amenities, and installed a diesel engine.
During a short ceremony to launch her namesake, Mrs Reid said her husband worked in all weathers on the refurbishment, joking that at the "best of times our home has looked like a boat builder's yard and at the worst it has looked like Steptoe and Son's yard".
Since arriving in New Zealand in 1969, the boat had had several owners by the time Mr Reid found it "high and dry" in Whangarei, Mrs Reid said.
• Photos by Jane Dawber; prints available from otagoimages.co.nz.
