The cheers literally turned to tears in some cases when the 113 year old launch Psyche returned to the water on Saturday.

The former Lyttelton tug slammed into the Aerodrome Bridge, where the old toll plaza used to be, immediately after her re-launch at the Bridge Marine, where the cream and green kauri hulled launch has become a fixture over recent years.

Psyche bumps the Aerodrome Bridge as it backed out of the Bridge Marina dock. Photo: Chris Callinan.

Speaking afterward, owner John Taylor says he was considering postponing the re-launch because of the cross wind, but some of the 100 or so family and friends and onlookers had travelled from Wellington for the long anticipated event.

About 100 people were watching when John reversed Psyche out of the travel lift dock.

Before he could put the Gardner in forward gear, the launch was blown into the bridge.

A loud crunch was heard along with many in the crowd wailing 'oh no”. Some were actually in tears.

Psyche powered away from the bridge and was secured to a Bridge Marina berth about 10 minutes later.

The nudge has given John more work to do, but nothing that can't be done alongside.

The towing post on the quarter deck that used to secure tow lines to the sailing ships arriving and departing Lyttelton harbour in the early 20^th Century has been has been knocked adrift and split down below, says John.

Pulling it back into positon will also realign the deck house. It's a minor job after the restoration work he's already performed.

After repairing the damage and wear tear to the former tug and trawler, John built a new deck house, splined the Kauri carvel planked hull, glassed and strip-planked it with 6000 feet of Canadian oregon, before fairing and painting.

Other projects came between the man and his boat during the nine years or so Psyche has been on the hard.

The Marion Kennedy Centre in Palmerston North received a bit of a refurbishment and additions, John's done the odd shed here and there, building an office space over a carport, and Psyche's rebuilt deckhouse has doubled as a classroom for students taking their boatmaster's certificate.

Psyche is a 48ft, (14.6m) solid Kauri former sailing trawler built in Port Chalmers in 1903 at the yard of Miller and Tunnage. She's 10 feet (3.048m) wide and draws about five feet, 1.5m.

In the 1920s Psyche was believed to be piloting out of Lyttelton Harbour, bringing the sailing ships in. Then after the ships grew bigger, Psyche returned to trawling.

She fished out of Otago and Southland for many years, says John. She's fished out of Riverton and Bluff and round to Fiordland, which he believes is an explanation for the 6cwt (304kg) of coal he found under the bunks. It was fuel for the pot belly stove in the foc'sle to keep the crew warm on the cold southern nights.

During her working life, Psyche has been involved in every southern fishery, including cray fishing, and oyster dredging.

The current engine, a 4LW Gardner, was installed in 1962.

'I met with an old guy in Port Chalmers,” says John. 'He was in his eighties and said the motor never missed a beat. It runs at a gallon-and-a-quarter every hour, which is quite economical.”

She can be tow started. You lift off the compressors and drop them again when the propeller begins to rotate, says John.

After her re-launching Psyche will be moored off The Strand on the town reach. It suits John because it's a 45-minute row down from Welcome Bay – and a similar row back at the other end of the tide.