I cannot tell you why specifically, but I always wanted Katana. Whether it was because she was a boat I grew up on or for some other reason, I don’t know. Maybe it was because I was at an age where all I wanted to do was become a boatbuilder?
What I do know is that she’s now back home and working again, albeit not in the industry she was designed for, but as the title suggests, proudly helping people’s dreams come true in their pursuit of the Ocean’s Seven Challenge, along with charter work during the cooler months.
The Oceans Seven is a marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven open water channel swims. It comprises the North Channel (Scotland), the Cook Strait (New Zealand), the Moloka’i Channel (Hawaii), the English Channel (UK/France), the Catalina Channel (California ,USA), the Tsugaru Strait (Japan) and the Strait of Gibraltar (Gibraltar/Morocco).
Katana was designed and built by my father, W. E Orchard, in 1991 in a shed adjacent to the Picton Rowing Club (built bow-out, facing the beach for launch) at an original length of 11.75m, later extended to 13.4m in 2011 at Westshore Marine Picton.
When the Heritage (16m commercial fishing vessel) was launched in 1996, Katana was sold to an entity in Whitianga and continued with tuna trolling during the summer months, as well as scallop dredging and chartering. Two more owners followed before I had the unique opportunity to purchase her back in February 2024, with the intention of bringing her back into survey and at the same time offering up a refresh in the form of a refit with a complete rewire, new paint, upholstery and carpet, plumbing, and new varnish work. She was recommissioned in October 2024, in survey and re-entered into MOSS.
With the Ocean’s Seven Challenge becoming more and more popular, I decided, after being added to the Adventure Activity Register, to fit out my charter boats Katabatic and Katana to facilitate Cook Strait swims, with each vessel being fitted with its own AED, medical-grade oxygen, first-aid kit, and various other lifesaving equipment to support ocean swimming.
The 2024/2025 season started off with a relay of two teams of six all the way from San Francisco’s Bay Area. The weather was perfect for the journey out to the swim’s start point and remained good for the swim itself and the journey back to port across Cook Strait, during which the team sat enjoying the sun eating ice cream on the bow!
During the season, we had a couple of firsts: the first French national, as well as the first Puerto Rican and the first Costa Rican to swim across the strait. We attempted two double crossings – that’s there and back – but both only managed one-way swims. There were also three DNFs (did not finish), as well as the longest crossing we’ve facilitated at a touch over 14 hours!
As the season draws to a close, we’ve only got one more swimmer to get across, so it’s now time to draw up a maintenance and crew training plan to get ready for the next swim season, which opens in November 2025.
