The History of Ocean Addiction Charters
Jim Ritchie
After a few more years, Jim and Pat now had four kids, Malcolm, Christina, Brett and Sharon. They came to be known as the Knobby Head Kids! Both Mal and Brett worked with their Dad, Jim, on the family boats..."Pattina" and then later on "Pattina II". These boats were named after Jim's wife, Pat, and first born daughter, Tina.
In 1974, along came a surprise, another son, Daniel. Dan made his entrance into the world and the four Knobby Head Kids became five!
Times changed over the years and Jim eventually retired from the crayfishing, but Mal stayed in the industry. Years later, Dan and his oldest brother, Mal, teamed up as skipper and deckhand again.
Jim and Pat Ritchie
At the start of the 1960's, Jim Ritchie was crayfishing out of Geraldton, WA at the Abrolhos Islands. In the early days, things were very isolated out there with no contact with the mainland except for mail delivered occassionally via carrier boat.
When Jim and his wife, Pat, welcomed their first daugher, Christina...or as we all know her, Tina...into the world, Jim decided he needed to find new waters to fish from the mainland. After a drive up and down the coast between Leeman and Dongara, on an old dirt track, Jim and his brother, Bob, had a beer upon a cliff, looking down onto what is now known as Knobby Head and the Knobby Head anchorage between Leeman and Port Denison was born, in 1961.
The Knobby Head Kids Today
Back Row: Malcolm, Brett, Daniel
Front Row: Christina, Sharon
Dan and Kate
Time again for Dan to make a change just like his dad, Jim. He has decided he wants to be closer to home and his family. Together, Dan and Kate have started "Ocean Addiction Charters", which will not only keep them closer together, but also brings back the Ritchie family into the crayfishing industry...the industry that brought them to this place in the first place!
Cheers to Jim and Pat Ritchie and the Knobby Head Kids!
After approximately 12-13 years in the fishing industry, Dan decided it was time for a change. Not a change from the ocean, just from crayfishing. He moved into driving Tug Boats and Multi-purpose Work Vessels in the north-west of WA.
Dan now has 16 years experience in that industry and nearly 30 years overall as a commercial mariner.
Fast forward to today...Dan met Kate, his now fiance, in 2015. Engaged to be married in 2020, until Covid hit and messed up those plans! The wedding is still in the waiting and as a team, they are unstoppable!
