Historical Naval vessel restoration

I lost my wife of 25 years to cancer in 2016. I needed a project to help rebuild myself and Kuparu was it. I found her as a wreck, a lot like myself at the time. I rebuilt her to a seaworthy standard and relaunched 19th December 2017.

She is still a work in progress to get her to full original museum condition. She is the most seaworthy original one left in the southern hemisphere. She needs to stay original, work done on her to original specs. I can physically do all the work, its the costs for maintenance, and upkeep that is the struggle. The last haul out alone was $5,500.

But she is in sound condition and an amazing piece of New Zealand Naval maritime history. There was 16 imported from USA during the war as Harbor Defence Motor Launches (HDML) out of 463 world wide. There is only two in original seagoing condition. HDML Medusa in the UK and HDML Kuparu in New Zealand.

Any money donated goes to a dedicated account. That can be audited at any time. Its purpose is only for the maintenance and upkeep of Kuparu.

Kuparu has her own Facebook page under HDML Kuparu. Which is full of videos and photos of her progress and adventures since I have owned her