Nobody died and the boat didn’t sink. But nonetheless, the return of the Signa to Kiama Harbour managed to create quite a stir, with locals braving the drizzling weather to occupy vantage points along the foreshore. 

Many people have memories of the Signa, and a significant number of them showed up in Kiama on May 8 to commemorate its return after two years in dry dock at Albion Park.

After an estimated 12,000 hours of volunteer labour, the boat, which was originally launched in 1970, has been lovingly restored to its former glory with new windows, new engines, and new fittings.  

Those showing up to mark the event included former charter operators, fishermen who used to hire the boat on weekends and even the children of the original builder of the boat, Bob Riddell, who built the boat in the coffin factory his boss Jack Paton owned. 

It was one of the first dedicated game fishing boats ever seen in Australia, and large by the standards of the day.

Signa being lowered into Kiama Harbour. Photo: John Stapleton.

The boat is named after Jack’s wife, Signa. 

Bob Riddell’s daughter, Jane Dove of Woy Woy, drove down to Kiama for the event. “Just to see the boat is fantastic, my father built it and 50 years later, it is still going,” she said. “We never got a trip on it. My father was a very quiet person, he was just going to work building a boat.”

Son Greg Riddell remembers to this day the boat being launched near Silverwater Bridge in Sydney. “My father would have loved to have been here,” he says. 

The Riddell children might never have gone out to sea in the boat, but plenty of other people did, including, famously, actor Lee Marvin of Hollywood fame, along with Bob and Dolly Dyer of Pick-A-Box, a television program familiar to any Australian old enough to remember the 1960s. For a time, the boat was owned by the famous Sydney restaurant Doyles, which used it for their high-profile customers.

A clearly delighted John Hansen, who funded the project, wants above all to pay tribute to the many people who helped restore the boat.

Those he wishes to thank by name include his wife Sandra, who has been an enthusiastic supporter, Rex Jones, Richard Roman aka Don, Peter Rook, Lawrie Lovegrove, Graham Williams, Rob Hoffmeister and Geoffrey Farrer. 

“It was ten times bigger than we thought,” he says. “It was a labour of love. We were all retirees, they all played golf together. And once they started on the boat it was a labour of love, they just loved doing it.”

Sandra and John Hansen. Photo credit: John Stapleton.

As to how it all came about, John Hansen says he and a friend Rex Jones had previously rebuilt a small fishing boat and as retirees were looking around for another project. The Signa came up for sale, and the rest is history. Except they had no idea quite what they were buying into. 

The boat was in poor condition, having basically been rotting in the harbour for some time, and having been officially declared unseaworthy. 

“We suddenly realised when the boat was ours how complicated the project was,” he recalls. “We have basically rebuilt the entire boat.”

As Sandra recalls: “The bones of Signa, the hull, was good, it was a good boat, it just needed attention. The deck and the roof and parts of the floor inside were just rotted. We took out nearly two tonnes of rubbish.”

Signa is expected to stay at mooring in Kiama Harbour for the next several weeks as the timber boat adjusts to being back in the water, the new engines settle in and the final bits of cosmetic work, including cabinetry and carpeting. “Cosmetic stuff,” Sandra calls the final adjustments. “The kitchen’s been done, the bathroom, all the hard stuff has been done.”

Sigma being maneuvered. Photo credit: John Stapleton.

And there it is, back in Kiama Harbour, a boat full of memories, as many of those in attendance were quick to recall. 

Kevin Adams, who went out on the boat with his father, Bruce, who helped build the original refrigeration, said his father, too, would have loved to have been there. “It is amazing what they have done with the refurbishment,” he says. “They have done a great job. At the time Signa was a master, it was one of the biggest boats around built out of wood.” 

Wayne Hollingsworth, who before he retired to the South Coast used to come down from Sydney with a group of mates and hire out the boat for fishing trips, says: “Seeing it brings back a lot of memories. It was a good boat, solid in the water. I used to see it in the harbour in recent years, it was just rotting away.” 

One of the most obvious things about the freshly restored Signa is how good the woodwork, including the original teak, looks. Retired carpenter Lawrie Lovegrove, when asked why he was prepared to spend so many hundreds of hours on the project, including countless hours sanding, just shrugs: “Silly old bastard.”

Well, thanks to a lot of silly old buggers, Kiama now has a beautifully restored and intriguing part of Australia’s maritime history in pride of place.