southernman

Yeah true that. Actually the other side around Diamond Harbour was actually really close. Great views also, just a 30 minute drive which by Auckland standards not far.

Nah, the tunnel was closed and public transport provided in order to control flow of traffic. Lyttelton is a small town and parking that many cars would be a nightmare. Also plenty of places to view sail GP in Lyttelton without paying.

Yes but there are two factors most don't have, time and skill. It's all a trade off. Heaps of time then wait for the right wind. No skill stick the iron sail on. End of the day I'm proudly in the camp of have engines use them to save time and add a level of safety. Of course in the first place have a boat that sails fast, be well informed about weather, tides and anchorages and get out there. Regarding cats going to windward, most probably motor on passage pretty normal, I've seen a lot in the islands motor sailing as they are potentially poorly designed, too heavy and too much wett

I bought this: https://star-mountsystems.com/products/low-profile-flat-mount-for-rectangle-starlink-dishy

Good points made it's certainly not just HP but i'm just talking about the general intended use of the boat, Cat 1 up in the islands or further afield, not an Elliot on Auckland harbour. Generally there is enough wind to sail most places. The only times you need a reliable well powered engine are when you have no wind, anchoring or when in the sh*t. The last one, you want to have a well powered vessel. When it's dark and it starts blowing from the wrong direction and you have rocks behind you I can guarantee you will be thankful of having the right power behind you. Having recently sailed

Yeah my comments more about intended use. 30hp is fine for most of the time until it's not. My first offshore boat was underpowered and it nearly meant we ened up on the rocks. You will get away with 30hp no problems until you need the extra punch. Case in point this season we pushed into 45 knots and tide to get the last 1 hour of a 4 day passage. Certainly was very glad for the extra power to enable this with a tired crew, the constant squalls and rain and night approaching. I was not meaning to say 30hp is not a good option, more that if you are comparing boats of the same type

I would also say that 30hp is quite undersized for that boat in my opinion for a boat headed offshore. Loaded up she would struggle to make headway.

You can 12 volt it also. Plenty of tutorials on Youtube about it, i've just ordered a flat mount CNC kit as well. Should make the mounting a whole like tidier. Just be aware of the geofencing that they are putting in place if you go with the monthly rather than the 'RV' plan. Great product, will be interesting to see what pricing does once they have competition soon.

Was pretty simple for us. We simply emailed our insurance broker and said we are moving the boat with a crew of one from Fiji to NZ and more recently from France to the US with two, no problem at all but the excess was more I remember. The cost is higher but hey that's insurance. Self insurance is something I can't afford for high value boats.

Your best option is to also purchase a refundable return flight on top of ships letter. Tonga can be inconsistent with entry and exit. The moment you are checked out cancel the ticket. Border crossing staff are very much a mixed bag of knowledge on this matter.

Singlehanded is possible with insurance. Just notify them I've had not issues.

We have one. Works well. Only thing i'd say is that it's not a replacement for a Raymarine / chartplotter really.

Totally agree was a great couple of days racing, venue fantastic, had my doubts they could pull it off in Lyttelton but it worked well.

Hope you have a big wallet! Foreshore reserve is a bit of a mine field.

Installation of a carbon filter on the outlet will remove most of the taste and odour issues with chlorinated water. It's good to fill the tank with treated water and hold a residual then remove it at point of use. 0.5 micron is good but if you want to make sure that nothing gets past make sure you use a absolute cartridge rather than a nominal one and increase it to 1 micron if you like. Aftermarket standard 10" housings are the cheapest to run rather than smaller 5" ones which are hard to source and expensive. Only issue is that they take more room up! If you want to r