Wish4Fish: $2.5m boat custom-made for people with disabilities is a dream come true
Friday, 5 November 2021
Bryce Dinneen has been a keen fisherman ever since he was a kid.
He started out fishing off a wharf with his family when he was about 5 years old, progressed to fishing off the beach, and then from a boat.
Getting out on the water – and having fun in it – soon became a favourite pastime of his. It was something he did every other day over summer.
“But I’d take it for granted. You could just go and jump on a boat, jump on a mate’s boat, go for a swim, go for a dive.”
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That was before Dinneen’s shallow water diving accident in Wellington 14 years ago, when he was 29. It resulted in a high level spinal cord injury.
He is now a C4 tetraplegic.
A few months after the accident in 2007, Dinneen was in Christchurch Hospital’s Burwood Spinal Unit when he looked up and had a thought.
“Part of the rehabilitation is they encourage people to put photos on the ceiling. And one day I was having a really tough day in the spinal unit – you’re trying to deal with the fact you’re not going to walk again –and I looked up and there were two common denominators on the ceiling.
“One was family and friends and having an amazing time, and the other one was fishing.”
He started thinking about how he was going to go fishing again. He asked around, and was told he was dreaming.
“It’s hard for us to function on a day-to-day basis, let alone get accessibility to a boat.”
It turns out Dinneen was dreaming, but that dream has just come true – more than a decade later.
A $2.5m boat custom-made for people with disabilities.
The boat has been named Wish4Fish, after the charity Dinneen created in 2011.
He was the architect of his own dream.
The boat was made by Alloy Cats and is a Roger Hill custom-designed 18-metre alloy high displacement catamaran, powered by twin marine diesel engines.
It can take 50 passengers at a time and has a specifically designed loading system to allow for wheelchair access from a wide variety of berths.
The boat includes, for example, a wheelchair access lift to the fly bridge and a full-loop gantry crane to allow bathroom access for all levels of wheelchair users.
The Wish4Fish charity has provided more than 300 people with disabilities and illnesses access to the ocean over the past nine years.
The organisation fundraises and uses the money to charter boats that can meet various accessibility needs.
However, now that Wish4Fish has its own fit-for-purpose boat, it hopes to take as many as 1000 people on ocean outings each year.
Dinneen says the end goal was always to have a custom-made boat owned by Wish4Fish.
“Because then you control your own destiny,” the 43-year-old, who lives in Tauranga, says.
“The barriers are broken down.”
He says he feels a sense of fulfilment, and closure. He set out to achieve something, and now he has.
“My dream is fulfilled now. It is a tangible asset. It’s not some guy trying to sell a dream on a piece of paper. It’s there for the whole of New Zealand to benefit from moving forward.”
Wish4Fish general manager Tony Pearce says, although the boat is based in Tauranga, plans are already being made for it to pick up passengers in Auckland, the Coromandel and ultimately further afield.
The first trips are booked for December.
The boat will be fully kitted out with fishing gear, bait and remote-control fishing rods and electric reels for people with limited mobility.
The trips are free of charge for Wish4Fish beneficiaries, and they do not have to fish – they can simply take in the salt air and enjoy the view.
The Wish4Fish boat was made possible by fundraising, a large grant from the New Zealand Lotteries Commission, and financial support from the Lion Foundation, Grassroots Trust, Pub Charity, and others.
It costs about $180 to get one beneficiary (and carer) out on the water, and so the fundraising continues.
A campaign has been started to help raise funds for 1000 beneficiary trips each year.
“Donations will empower 1000 individuals with a physical or mental disability, illness or financial hardship, to benefit from the confidence building and therapeutic freedom of being out on the ocean,” Pearce says.
“A day out on the water can bring so much joy and provide our beneficiaries with lifelong memories – we call these magic moments.”
Dinneen says this all would not have been possible without countless New Zealanders who supported his dream and vision over the years – people who bought raffle tickets and sausage sizzles, or contributed to one of the many other fundraisers, big and small.
He says he also couldn’t have done it without his family and a small but passionate group of friends who “have always believed”.
There is also the boat builder, a dedicated group of people involved in the Wish4Fish charity, and one man in particular who made this boat his mission – Ray Lowe.
“He spent the last six or seven years supporting the organisation and spending so much time with me to understand what it’s like to live with a disability,” Dinneen says.
“His philosophy is always making the wheelchair king or queen on the boat, and I’m confident that he’s done that.”
Dinneen says he is looking forward to spending more time out on the water now, where he will continue to help empower people with disabilities and illnesses.
“For me, nothing really celebrates being a New Zealander like the sun on your face, the wind in your hair, that taste of the salt water. It’s game-changing,” he says.
“I believe it’s every New Zealander's birthright to experience what I used to take for granted.”
- People interested in making a donation or booking a boat trip for someone can visit the Wish4Fish website – www.wish4fish.co.nz.