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NZ yachts


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It's a shame that we have produced some great yachts, and some not so great, over the years in NZ but it's not easy to find real information on many of them online. Many of the designers and builders have moved on and a number of the class associations have slowly disappeared over time and with them a lot of information. Trying to find accurate specs and plans and even reviews for many yachts is a seemingly impossible task. It would be great if there was a central online repository for all the information. 

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You could do it the old fashioned way and visit the library.

Auckland PL  have Seaspray mags bound in years going back until at least the 1970s and Boating World/Nautical News back into the 1980s. I've trolled through them several times looking for multi hull related articles. You go to the information desk on the first floor and ask them to get them from the basement  (you will need a library card). Takes 10 minutes or so for the mags to be sent up. Good way to spend a rainy afternoon (like today is shaping up to be). 

 

While boat tests can be a good intro to a design when they were new, there is nothing about some of the 'quirks' that become apparent with use and time. Designer John Welsford wrote a series on Buying Secondhand (mainly keelers) in the early 1990s (in Boating World) and John Macfarlane did 'Second Hand News' in the early 2000s, (in Boating NZ)  both series being written with prospective purchasers in mind. Most popular NZ built production boats of the day would have been in one or other of those series. The Macfarlane articles involved a comparison between two similar boats, like Farr1020 and Beale 33, and gave a price range that was current at the time, but is now probably double what you'd expect to pay now.

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Looks interesting. I just downloaded it to read. Here's a direct link for anybody who's interested. 

 

https://www.slideshare.net/WorldofTrimaranEnthusiasts/light-brigade-the-newzealand-school-of-yacht-design-author-gary-baigent

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Try getting hold of a copy of classic yachts of NZ. Doesn't have all designs but covers a broad range.

 

I borrowed Classic New Zealand Yachts: Four Decades of Successful Design, 1950-90 by Bill Endean from the Auckland Library a little while back. As you said, it covers a range but misses a lot. I also borrowed Wrighty: My World, My Boats, and Eighty Years by Alan Wright and I just saw that they also have Beautiful Boats: A Selection of Classic New Zealand Yacht Designs by Robert Brooke.

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You could do it the old fashioned way and visit the library.

Auckland PL  have Seaspray mags bound in years going back until at least the 1970s and Boating World/Nautical News back into the 1980s. I've trolled through them several times looking for multi hull related articles. You go to the information desk on the first floor and ask them to get them from the basement  (you will need a library card). Takes 10 minutes or so for the mags to be sent up. Good way to spend a rainy afternoon (like today is shaping up to be). 

 

 

I'll do that the next time I'm back. Should be some interesting reading.

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On 13/01/2019 at 8:44 PM, 44forty said:

Would be premium if seaspray and boating NZ were archived online

If anyone would like, I have access to every copy of the classic seasprays via the CYA Archive which I store in town. I also have a bunch of 1970s-onward Seasprays at my house.

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