Nortrek was built from a design by Bill Lockridge. The design is simple, strong and seaworthy. A wooden "mould" was built first - and became the interior, then the exterior was heavily fiberglassed, giving the vessel the dry interior of a wooden boat with exterior toughness and low maintenance of fibreglass.

What I have gleaned of Nortrek's history is that she, and a sister ship, were built in 1984-85, "on the beach" at Weipa on Cape York Penisula in Far North Queensland, Aust. The original design was reportedly open-decked, and the low cabin was added as a protection from the rain. Her builder was a gold miner, and when construction reached seaworthiness (but not comfort) her builder loaded her to the decks and set off, singlehanded, for the West Australian gold fields, steering from inside the bare-bones cabin by means of a long tiller extension.

Arriving at Carnarvon, sometime in 1985-86 the builder was in a rush to get on with gold digging and threatened to abandon Nortrek in the estuary of the Gascoyne River at Carnarvon, Western Australia. She was saved from a muddy grave when she was purchased by a local sailor. He made a number of improvements before selling her a young German couple.

I had searched hard to find a suitable boat for our work at Shark Bay without success. We had many interesting adventures in our search for an appropriate vessel: a partially finished catamaran stuffed with bibles, another loaded with "tugboat hardware" but no success. We eventually heard a rumor of a boat being sold by a young German couple in Dampier, but details were sketchy and she didn't sound promising. However, on the 16th February 1988 we arrived in Dampier to take a look at 'Nortrek' and it took no time to see that the basic boat was just what we needed.

Nortrek had found her home and begun her contributions to marine mammal research at Shark Bay. She was the ideal boat for our purpose and without her we would never have discovered the dugong lek, seen inumerable wonders in sun and storm, or discovered the wreck of the whaler "Gudrun." She was our home and our laboratory until the end of November of 1989. Twice, since, thanks to the Dolphin Research Foundation I've sailed her again. I think I've now bid her goodbye for the last time. She has contributed much to our lives and her photograph is over my desk in Calgary.

In 1990, National Geographic transferred Nortrek to The Dolphins of Shark Bay Research Foundation/ Dolphins of Monkey Mia Research Foundation. She has been used extensively for four research Projects.

1. Dr. Per Berggren used Nortrek to survey the east side of Peron Peninsula and try to determine whether there were distinct dolphin communities. The data for this extensive long-term study are under analysis.
   
2. Nortrek was used for Dr. Mike Heithaus study of dolphin predators and prey. See the publications .
   
3. Michael Kruetzen, Dr. Bill Sherwin and Dr. Per Berggren used Nortrek to enable DNA sampling of dolphins throughout the eastern bay of Shark Bay. The DNA study will determine relatedness between communities of dolphins and whether the "sponging dolphins" are closely related. Researchers also sampled a number of male-male alliances to determine relatedness and will determine paternity for many of the calves we've come to know. Some of the results from this have already been published and more will be published in the next few years.
4. Nortrek was recently used for a study of mother-calf behavior and communication. Her stable and wide platform was extremely useful to Dr. Janet Mann and Dr. Vincent Janik, who set up a hydrophone array and a fourth satellite hydrophone on Maziwa (Dr. Mann's boat) so that mother and calf whistles could be localized in real-time. This research was supported by The National Science Foundation and was completed in 2001.

Nortrek will continue to be used for research in the coming years. The DNA team from University of New South Wales will return in 2001-2002. In 2000 we raised $40k (AUD) to overhaul Nortrek's exterior. This took many months of hard labor and participation by several researchers.

In 2004, thanks to a generous donation to the foundation, we were able to start the renovation of Nortrek's interior. The repainting and revarnishing process was started and due to the hard work of many people, we we able to scrub the hulls and pull the boat so that anti-fouling could be applied. She still needs some fittings replaced, new cushions and mattresses, and a new kitchen. She is comfortable in a minimalistic sort of way. Small changes will make her a better boat for research by enabling researchers to stay at sea for longer periods. The main sail is getting 'tatty' and will soon tear. Some of the rigging needs replacement. We are delighted to have raised enough money to begin these important restorations and we now aim to raise funds to complete the restoration and to keep her in proper condition.

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