yachts
p. 60 · Read in the full issue
Pesi Fonua Re
ports from Vavau , Tonga:
THERE was a celebration in Vavau, Tonga’s prime sailing region, in January when Minister of Defence, Crown Prince Tupouto’a, officially opened the slipway of D. C. Cole man Marine Services.
A local yachting personality, Don Coleman, 48, who ran the South Pacific Yacht Charters out of Vavau for three and a half years, has gone into business on his own.
Coleman will specialise in maintaining small boats and cruis ing yachts, confident of keeping his five-man work force busy, since Vavau is becoming a popular de stination, receiving upwards of 150 cruising yachts each year.
At the time of the opening he had 14 yachts booked in for servicing nine local boats and five ocean crossing yachts sheltering at the Port of Refuge for the hurricane season.
“It’s common practice for cruis ing yachts to find shelter where maintenance work can be carried
out during the hurricane season from November to March, and the Port of Refuge offers one of the best shelters in the South Pacific,” said Coleman, an engineer from Califor nia who has 20 years sailing experi ence in the South Pacific. He taught at technical college in Papua New Guinea and ran a holiday resort in the Marshall Islands before moving to Tonga with his family.
“We also build wooden boats up to nine metres long from Tongan and Samoan hardwoods, and in the near future we’d like to incorporate a shipping chandler and make and repair sails.”
It has not all been plain sailing for Mr Coleman. The local authorities clamped down when his excava tions threatened to undermine the island’s harbor ring road. And he had to cope with the Tongan land-transferring system which often confounds foreigners who want to use land in the kingdom.
But then in January he received confirmation of a 20-year lease for his site on the Neiafu water front, and his slipway, capable of servic ing boats of up to 40 tonnes, began operating.
Don Coleman of the newly established D. C. Coleman Marine Services, Vavau, Tonga, pictured by his slipway. - Pesi Fonua picture.