Well-known and loved by many of the Deni Boat Club faithful, the Moroco has been a part of the boat club for over 50 years.
The boat was donated brand new to the boat club in 1969 by the Reid family from the ‘Moroco’ property.
The most recent custodian of the boat, Deniliquin Boat Club member, Mick Summers, said he was only one of many people to have been well-acquainted with the boat in learning how to ski over the last 60 years.
“A lot of people learnt to ski behind it.” he said.
“For reference I can still remember being in primary school at eight or nine years old and learning to ski behind it and that was over 50 years ago.”
“At the time it was a big donation to the value of around $4000 or $5000 back then, but it would now be worth over $100 000.”
“At the time it was state of the art and a very flash boat.”
The boat formed an integral part of the formal beginning of ski school in the 1970s, which continues to this day, teaching many hundreds of people from all over Australia to ski.
Previous custodian of the boat for 30 years Bob Lloyd after retiring passed on the boat to Mick Summers with the wish that it would always stay in the club’s ownership,
“Bob Lloyd looked after it but once he retired around the mid-90s he was looking to pass it onto someone and I had become involved with the boat club and had the space to take care of it.” he said.
“After passing it on in the driveway, his parting remark was, please don’t sell it, its always been with the boat club, and I’d love for it to stay with the boat club.”
This led to many more fruitful years as a ski school boat before the club got two ski school newer boats and its eventual retirement, but Mick made sure to keep Bob’s wish and it is still in great condition but will now lend its name to a new space at the Deniliquin Boat Club, the Moroco History Room which is to be officially unveiled at the 80th anniversary event this Saturday.
“The Boat Club has restored it three times.
“Last year it was finally restored with a major refurbishment to its current state, and now its new home is in the clubhouse.
“We also had the spare room which we renovated and had memorabilia to go with it, so it will now be what will be called the Moroco History Room.”
While the boat is in good enough condition to take to the water, Mick said the boat is much more valuable as a nostalgic conversation starter at the boat club, which will be celebrated on Saturday.
“The room is built so that it could go back onto the water with a motor, but there is no real need to take it out of the boat club, especially if something happened to a boat that old with that much significance and history.
“Its real value is while sitting across from the bar, have a drink and look at it and sharing a lot of stories about how so many people learned to ski behind it.”
At the 80th anniversary event, the club invite all the people who learned to ski behind Moroco to come and have a look at the boat and share their ski school stories this weekend.
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