Waikawa Commodore comes from a life on and under the sea
17 August 2021
He still recalls the time. 8am on the 14th of October, 1974. A Monday. Sixteen year old Junior Seaman Dave Kelway reported for his first day of duty in the Royal Navy. Dave’s Grandad served continuously through the first and second world wars and always had young Dave rivetted to the spot, listening to his sea stories. There was never any doubt for Dave; he was joining the navy.
While he probably won’t remember the date as vividly, Dave Kelway became the new Club Commodore of the Waikawa Boating Club in July this year. In most other organisations the position would be the Chairman, but the nautical world has traditions.
Basic and specialist training lasted 24 weeks in 1974; basic seamanship, boat handling and general ship duties. Dave had an additional 12 weeks of training tacked onto the end of his training. Not for misbehaviour or failing in some way, but because he volunteered for submarine duty. Dave particularly recalls, “The submarine escape tank where we would practise escape drills at depths down to 100ft in a massive, big tank.”
After training Dave went on to be a sonar operator for dive duties and a navigator for surface passages.
“All the submarines I served on were nuclear powered and operated in several theatres, from target boat, where other units fired torpedoes at us. Or targeting drug running and smuggling.”
And with a touch of drama, he adds, “Of course we may have done other things which I am not at liberty to discuss.”
Dave undertook operations in the Falklands, Iraq and Bosnian conflicts but says his most enjoyable time was four years as a Sea Trainer going onto different submarines for three or four weeks at a time to get them ready for operational duties after extended periods alongside.
A visit to New Zealand in 2004 for a wedding was a turning point for Dave. He fell in love with the country. On returning to the UK, he found that he already had the only sea draft for a Warrant Officer and being anchored to a desk was never going to work. He promptly resigned and left the navy after 31 years and moved here in 2005 ‘to retire’.
His first landing was in Christchurch and arrived in Blenheim two days later and two hours after that he discovered Waikawa and a crewing spot in the club’s Tuesday night racing. Out of one boat and into another. And then another; he bought a boat of his own before even finding a house.
Retirement lasted for two weeks before securing a job with a builder as a hammer hand. This was a step towards starting his own little business which has grown to a workforce of ten, including his daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons.
He now owns a Beneteau First 456, named Khamsin. In the early part of his time in New Zealand, Dave met ‘the lovely’ Tracey who became his wife and crewmate.