The Kestrels last days?

I happened across the grim sight of the Kestrel at the Titan Slipway today. I'd long thought it would make a great sketch subject – when it was afloat – but of course procrastinated and missed out.

Sadly it sank a few weeks back and now I've finally got to sketch it – but as a reclaimed hulk with almost all of it's passenger decks and wheel houses missing! Word is that no one has the money to restore it, and it will be cut up for wood. Very sad indeed.

Here are some illustrations of the Kestrel in happier times. From the book Reflections on Auckland Harbour by Gainor Jackson, published in 1975...