Group offers to bring slain sailor's yacht home from Panama

Thursday, 30 May 2019

Paua diver Alan Culverwell in the Chatham Islands.

A not-for-profit organisation has offered to bring the yacht of Alan Culverwell, killed by pirates in Panama, home to New Zealand for free.

Among The People has reached out to the family ahead of Culverwell's memorial service on Friday, saying it would 'respectfully' manage the relocation of the family's yacht, the Aqua Lobo, if so desired.

Culverwell died on May 2, aged 60, while defending his wife, Derryn, and their two 11-year-old children near Morodub island in Panama, a popular tourist area.

Friend Jeremy Cooper said he first met Culverwell while working in the paua industry in the late 1980s, and was in constant awe of his diving skills.

Culverwell is remembered by friends and family as a great laugh.

The boat of Alan Culverwell, left, moored in Allen Cay in the Bahamas in 2017.

* Panama pirate attack: Alan Culverwell tried to prepare his family for the worst, sister says

* Teen detained after Kiwi man shot by pirates in Panama**

Culverwell with his wife, Derryn, who was injured during the attack.

'When you went fishing with him, he'd spend six or eight hours in the water, diving for paua, then you'd see him come back with a deep-sea fish,' he said.

But Culverwell was more than just a 'diving legend', Cooper said. He was also a 'big sustainability advocate' and a 'real laugh'.

Nelson Boys College U16 Harlequins and Blues team say a prayer for the Culverwell family after the Harlequin's coach, Mark Culverwell, lost his brother in the Panama pirate attack.

Cooper recalled the chuckle he got after finding an old picture of Culverwell with a shirt that read in small writing 'nosy little f*****'.

'He had others like it. That was typical Alan, just take the piss out of it and don't care about what other people think,' Cooper said.

Culverwell was a proud Kiwi who was on the trip of a lifetime.

Two things he valued highly were a glass of over-proofed rum with cold cola, and his family, he said.

Culverwell and his wife Derryn built a house in the Tory Channel, in the Marlborough Sounds, where they hosted 'legendary' shooting and biking competitions.

Decades later, in 2002, the paua industry boomed and Culverwell headed east to work in the Chatham Islands.

The family decided they were ready for a new adventure and left for the United States on December 20, 2016.

They had spent two years sailing around the Caribbean, and were on their way to the Panama Canal, before finally making their way back to New Zealand, when Culverwell was shot by attackers.

'He was always there for so long. He always had his hand out to help … the biggest impact he's had on my life is how he's not there anymore,' Cooper said.

Cooper would attend the memorial 'boots and all', and expected a 'big turn out' of people, including a few from the Chatham Islands, he said.

Friend Dave Baker said his friendship with Culverwell started about 39 years ago when the pair began paua diving together.

'He was well-sought after as a person and in the paua industry,' he said.

'He was a hard worker, a good mate. That all played out with how tragedy struck, and how people have rallied around to support him.'

Baker said the morning Culverwell was killed, he was diving in the same area Culverwell had taken him after Baker's family first moved to Marlborough.

'I was thinking about him that morning. There was no premonition, but it was a sad phone call to receive,' Baker said.

Marlborough District councillor and friend Nadine Taylor said Culverwell had been a 'big part' of her life since the two met 15 years ago.

Culverwell taught her that life was an adventure, and to see the positive in everything, she said.

'All sorts of words spring to mind when you think of Alan; energy, enthusiasm, lover of life,' Taylor said.

'But, at the end of the day, they're all words to describe a really good bloke.

'What struck you about Al is the way he would get in and do something. He was a real leader.'

Culverwell reflected everything that was 'good and wonderful' about the sea and the Marlborough Sounds, she said.

Paua Industry Council chairman Storm Stanley described his friend and colleague as a 'loving family man' with a 'great, dry sense of humour'.

'His heart was absolutely set on making sure the fisheries were OK before anything else,' he said.

A GoFundMe page for Culverwell's family had raised more than $29,000 from people all around the world.

Three people have been arrested in relation to the attack. One, a teenager, has reportedly been given provisional detention for his involvement.