Mitch Pascoe – Director

Mitch’s interest in boats started as a small child, something handed down from his father Howard. From playing with model yachts & learning to row a dinghy at an early age, things developed into learning to sail & generally playing about in boats. After finishing school at Mt. Albert Grammar, & not knowing where to go from there he moved into the fishing industry. After some 2 years, & his parents not wanting him to be a fisherman for the rest of his life, he became an apprentice diesel mechanic. After he gained his qualification he decided once again to become involved with boats & worked with Howard. After several years he decided to move away from Whitianga & work elsewhere in the marine industry as both a mechanic & a woodworker.

In 1988 Mitch moved back to Whitianga & went into partnership with his father repairing boats & general boat maintenance, as well as building dories & a 30 foot Chico yacht. In 1995 the Whitianga Marina hardstand opened & the majority of work was then undertaken there rather than the workshop at 1 Dundas St. With the evolution of the NZ fishing industry & the reduction in the number of fishing vessels, the emphasis has moved from servicing the fishing industry to the pleasure boat & charter industry. With the advent of production GRP vessels, the maintenance tasks have changed over the years from wooden repairs to boat painting & general boat maintenance and cleaning & polishing.

Mitch is qualified with Trade Cert Diesel Mechanic, Trade Cert & Advanced Trade Cert Boatbuilding, Yachting NZ yacht inspector & MNZ SSM auditor.

Mitch’s interests are flying his PA-18 Piper Cub aeroplane( he has held a fixed wing Commercial Pilots License since 1982), tramping, fishing, a longtime NZ Deerstalkers member & above all hunting Sika deer in the Kaimanawa & Kaweka ranges, a very special part of NZ.

Phyll Foster – Administration

Phyll has been in the service industry all her working life, starting in the BNZ, then to Bond & Bond, then moving to the shipping freight industry for a few years. Then she spent 16 years organising the freighting of horses, deer & other livestock by air, including being lucky enough to travel with them on many occasions.

After such an interesting job became old hat, she became a Sub 60 courier for a few years until the Auckland traffic became unbearable. She moved to Mercury Bay in 2003 & met Mitch a year later, becoming his life partner. She began helping him with the administration side of his business which freed Mitch up to concentrate on the "hands on" work.

Phyll has always been involved with the sea and the land, riding horses from an early age. She grew up with Mercury Bay as her holiday home, with the normal fizz boat that goes with a bach by the sea. She was involved with the Spirit of Adventure Trust for many years doing various weekend & 10 day youth voyages as a watch leader on both the Spirit of Adventure & the Spirit of NZ. Her other loves are tramping & their Weimaraner, Bodie, who is a regular visitor to the marina.

Karl Storey – Boat Builder

Karl grew up in Whangarei. He has been boat building for 11 years and did his apprenticeship at Austral Yachts/Friendship Yachts. During that time he was part of the team that built & fitted out boats such as 100ft Sportsfisher, “Lanakai 11”, 72ft Warwick cruising yacht “Concerto”, 15 World Class Friendship 40’s, a Friendship 53ft and 72ft Dixon design “ Hanseat 111V”. He decided he needed a change, so he then worked for Geoff Locke Cabinet Makers, making some of the cabinets for a Friendship 75, until he made the move to Whitianga with his wife, Cushla & started working for H&M Pascoe Boat Builders Ltd in January 2009.

His passion for boats started with his growing up playing on family & family friends’ boats. He then became interested in the different boat designs & what makes them work. He decided to combine his talents of working with his hands & his interest in boats and become an apprentice boat builder. His qualifications are Certificate in Boat Building Composite Level 4 & Certificate in Boat Building Wooden Level 4. He also now holds a Certificate in Exterior Marine Painting Level 4.

His other interests are: watersports - especially wakeboarding, any form of motor racing, racing go karts, restoring cars & spending time with his wife who has very similar interests. They just welcomed baby Cooper into their lives in July 2011.

Part Time Members of the Pascoe Team

We are very lucky to also include in our team some permanent part-timers - a few of them being family. They bring with them skills gained over their working life and are all hard working & cheerful members of the team.

Last year we were lucky to find Brad Hamilton who helps us with sanding, grinding & whatever else we find him to do. He's a great addition to the team.

Phyll's sister, Prue Morley, works with Phil Agar, a relative by marriage, in doing a lot of our boat valet and polishing. We have a few photos on our site of this hard working duo. More recently the "polishing team" has expanded as we now have Judy, Brad's partner helping out when Phil is needed elsewhere. She is also prepared to do wet sanding & grinding and we're very happy to have her working for us.

Prue's husband, Chris, who normally does building renovations, often finds himself helping out in the yard wherever he's needed! Phil's wife, Sue, comes in to help when we have a brush & roller painting job or helps Prue, Phil & Judy when they need a hand.

We also have another couple of hard working people that we call in when we need an extra hand, when they aren't busy elsewhere.