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| 'Maggie May' at RI |
Recently, a large cruiser made its way into the Gippsland Lakes on a voyage from Queensland to Hobart, making a scheduled stop at Paynesville before heading off across Bass Strait.
The cruiser, a USA made Carver 530, and at just under fifty four feet is a relatively large boat for the Lakes. ‘Maggie May’ was purchased at the Gold Coast in December last year by proud owners Ken and Becky Sherring and their family who live at Kingston in Tasmania.
Ken grew up in Eltham and visited the Lakes holidaying at Lakes Entrance with the family over Christmas or Easter holidays. “We regularly fished the Lakes starting with cruises on the Bellbird and Blackbird” said Ken. His parents have lived at Swan Reach for over twenty years and his father Ken snr is well known for his active involvement in bird watching throughout East Gippsland. Becky grew up in Hobart and lived in Sydney and Melbourne before returning to Tasmania and is a Registered Nurse at a hospital in Tasmania. She has always had an interest in boating and “sailed when younger and has always been around boats including sailing in open waters on old sailing ships”.
After Ken and Becky’s marriage, they had two children which including children from their previous marriages now totals a staggering eleven children ranging in age from 6 to 28 years old! Having such a large family posed the question for Ken and Becky – do they want a holiday house or a boat for the family to enjoy? The boat option was the chosen one as you can take it anywhere. Ken said he was “every Sunday I would take Noah and Chloe to the local bike park and the reward was an ice cream or lolly, then we would have a look at the different boats in the marina”. Beck commented “We would go out for dinner and after dinner have a ‘romantic’ walk around the marinas admiring the boats!”
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| Ken Sherring Snr, Beck and Ken Sherring |
Ken said “for the past two years, I was always on the internet searching for the ‘boat of my dreams”. The boat was eventually sold and was also over the family’s budget. He found the Carver 530 on the web for sale at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast. After making an offer, it was accepted and the Sherring family’s dream of owning a large cruiser, became reality. Ken was asked “what was the largest boat he had owned before this one?” and the answer was “a three man blow up boat!”. It might sound amusing but Ken’s determination to have a boat large enough for family cruising was the first part of his dream and the second was to gain experience and expertise in boat handling skills to enjoy the cruiser and make as many trips around Tasmania waters as possible.
Leaving Queensland on the 15th December, and to finalise the trip south to Hobart, Ken was offered a short-stay berth at a mooring on Raymond Island and the skipper managed to manoeuvre the large cruiser into the berth. Becky arrived at Raymond Island and was joined by children, Maddy, Pip and Sam. After a few days at Raymond Island and restocking supplies, with a new skipper, Robert Gage, the family set off for the boat’s new home at Prince of Wales Marina, Hobart. Rob has a fishing background including scallop fishing from Lakes Entrance and this will be his first trip to Hobart, one which he and the Sherrings were looking forward to taking.
