Sailing Akaroa to Wellington

[antonahill 0]

I'm considering buying a boat in Akaroa and sailing it back to Wellington. I sailed dinghies twenty-something years ago but beyond that I don't have much experience. Does anyone have any advice.

Thanks

Anthony

[erice 732]

get a skipper? with offshore experience to look over the boat before you go 

 

and they or someone similar to go with you

[WarLord 0]

suggest you round up all the other 1st time posters keen on looking for crew positions and wanting boats delivered. 

 

You should be able to put together quite a  eager team

 

d

[Black Panther 1,776]

erice is on the money.

[antonahill 0]

get a skipper? with offshore experience to look over the boat before you go 

 

and they or someone similar to go with you

 

I was thinking I'd probably have to do that anyway. I was more interested in weather, timing etc.

[antonahill 0]

suggest you round up all the other 1st time posters keen on looking for crew positions and wanting boats delivered. 

 

You should be able to put together quite a  eager team

 

d

Thanks for being so helpful.

[wheels 544]

Take someone with experience. That Coast, (like any part of NZ's Coast) can be either a lovely experience, or it can kick you in the A. 
If you go on a light Southerly, it's ruffly a 24hr trip. A Norwester can be turbulent and unpredictably variable in strength as you move along the coast. There is an area between Kekarengu and Ward that can be really nasty when a strong Norwester or Easterly is blowing. You will often see the entire area covered in White Caps. It's advisable to be some distance offshore around there to avoid it. Which in theory, you should be by then anyway, as a line to Wellington places you well out by then. Those going to Picton tend to be closer in. Be aware that some Norwest conditions will swing to a NEaster at the North end of of Pegasus and eventually swing complete easterly and flow over CHCH as an Easterly. Often experienced early evening or morning, but can be other times if conditions are right.
Remember that it is a shipping lane from Wellington to Lyttleon, Timaru and on downward. Although not a Busy route, do be aware that you may encounter one or two Ships, especially as you approach Wellington. Any Ships going from Lyttleton to Timaru tend to hug the Peninsula, so be aware of that as you round it from Akaroa.

[Island Time 1,313]

Hi Anthony, provided the boat is suitable, and in good order, provided you can wait for a good forecast, this is (or can be) a good sail. As wheels said, in the wrong conditions at best it can be very uncomfortable, and even dangerous. Conditions can change very quickly. What is the boat? Have you had her surveyed? 

I agree with eric, get an experienced sailor to look her over, and then take them (if possible) with you! Otherwise, post some details on here, and some pics, and we can give you some better info...

Cheers

Matt

[erice 732]

i was shopping on trademe for a boat for about 2 years

 

IT"S EVIL

 

would see boats that were exactly what i thought i wanted

 

but they were in dunedin, chch, wellington, auckland, whangarei and the boi

 

and i was overseas

 

finally was living in auckland with boat money burning through my pockets

 

but there was nothing on tm that seemed to compare to stuff i had seen in other parts of the country at other times

 

every month the money leaked away 

 

so finally gave up and bought a sea kayak

 

4 months later a great little boat popped up on a mooring only 4km from the house

 

which turned out to be very important as the motor was completely stuffed and swapping it out taught me a lot about the boat

 

now all is sweet

 

so i'd advise

 

taking another look at what's available locally

 

be flexible

 

be patient

 

something will turn up

[antonahill 0]

Thanks for the advice. It's all very useful. This is the yacht. I'm going to see it tomorrow. I'm trying to work out whether it would be viable in terms of time and money to safely move it to Wellington. I also appreciate that dreams, knowledge, money and reality may not yet have coincided. I have a berth at Evans Bay Marina here in Wellington but  I'm not allowed to have it longer than three months without a boat.

[erice 732]

i'm far from an expert but the design looks pretty sea worthy and with the big engine + tank it shouldn't be too difficult to pick a quiet weather window and motor up

 

if the seller has taken her to fiordland and stewart island they should be happy to sail with you to wellington

 

not esp. impressed by small rusting? shackles holding the mizzen up...

 

but i guess it's only the mizzen...

 

 

heck of a lot of comments at base of ad....not sure i'd get into a bidding war for a 40yo ferro...someone almost bound to pay too much....

[antonahill 0]

The person selling it didn't sound interested in helping post sale when I asked. I can see it could easily reach a price at which it no longer makes sense, especially if I pay someone to help me shift it. It doesn't come with any safety gear either; lifejackets, epirb, harnesses? liferaft? How thoroughly equipped in that respect do I need to be?

[too_tall 15]

FC's can be great ( que Wheels ) 

 

But they do not hold value well. Which means second hand they can be a truly great buy. Erice does have a valid point - those shackles don't appear to be the best there. They look, to my untrained eye, like simple galv unrated shackles, which would mean they will pull apart with not a hell of a load on them. Probably adequate for a small mizzen, but does this indicate the general state of the yacht?

 

Not my area of strength, but looking through the photos I picked on that before noticing Erice had done so already.

 

Get someone experienced to look over it with you.

[Brendon 0]

You get a lot of boat for your money with a Ferro Cement. They got a bad reputation in the 80's or so but mainly because so most of them were home built and build quality varied a lot so water got into reinforcing and blew out the hulls. But as a FC owner told me once, most of the bad ones are now are the bottom of the sea. Generally heavy and slow, they make good cheap liveaboards.

Anyway, I am in Wellington, have a yacht in Evans Bay marina. Have years of experience sailing Wellington, to Sounds and Nelson/ Tasman bay area and have sailed Tonga to NZ once. I could be interested in helping with delivery. Providing I was happy with safety issues. And we would have to meet and make sure we got on 

 

You could also ask for opinions on the Ferro Cement group of this forum.

[w44vi 18]

Look carefully at the motor picture, House hold plumbing fitting, cable ties holding pipes. Not deal breakers but should be replaced before doing a "big" trip. I would suspect it would need a bit done to it before I would do any costal passages, but if it can be got for the right price it could be a good boat?   

[curly12 1]

Last time I did that trip we had 20 knot NE for the whole time. Due to time constraints we couldn't wait and it was a uncomfortable trip. Motored into 2m chop for thirty six hours to get to Wellington. First time I did that trip we had 40 knots SW and it was a blast, put up a bag as soon as we got out to sea and never took it down till we turned in Wellington Harbour.

 

So make sure you pick your weather and are confident in the reliability of the boat and yourself

[Dtwo 157]

Talk to Steven, new owner of Duende, a steel boat that he has just bought to Akaroa.  He has a contact for a helpful guy down there.

[antonahill 0]

Thanks everyone.

I did fly down to look at the yacht on Saturday. The picture of the engine is misleading. The yellow string is  the engine stop and the cable tie is there to tidy things up. Other than that the engine setup is very clean, well organised and easily accessible compared to others I've seen. There is superficial rust on the shackles but up close they look more than adequate. After seeing the boat , the rigging was my biggest concern although the shackles themselves looked fine and more than adequate up close apart  from superficial rust. I thought, with my very limited experience, that the rigging needed work but was still good for the trip to Wellington. 

 

On Sunday night I bid on the auction, went well past my limit, saw common sense and was outbid which made me feel relieved although also peeved at having lost.

Three minutes before the end of the auction I received an email from Trade Me to tell me "Trade Me Admin has removed the bid above yours for the auction "35ft ferro cement keeler Collin Archer design", meaning your bid for $21,700 now leads."

In short, the other bidder drove the price up $10000 and then called Trade Me to have his bid/bids removed moments before the auction closed leaving me to win the auction. Eventually I managed to get though (they make it very hard) to Trade Me but they were not helpful. 

I don't think the seller had anything to do with this. I suspect I had a recent interaction with the other bidder and I'm tempted to say more about his possible motives but I suppose I'd better not say anything libelous at this point.

The seller is also unhappy with Trade Me's actions and I think we may yet come to an agreement on the sale of the yacht.

 

Does anyone have any idea of the cost, time and other difficulties involved in hiring a skipper to shift the yacht from Akaroa to Wellington?

 

And thanks Brendon. If I end up owning the yacht  I may be in touch. I have a berth at Evans Bay too.

[erice 732]

weird

 

tm has been getting some grief lately

 

for letting the mongrels run riot

 

I dealt with three people. We were on a first-name basis. They thanked me "a million" for getting in touch and "felt" for me. They were understanding and empathetic.

 

They were also useless.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=11556599

[Brendon 0]

That really sucks, sounds like someone drove the price up and then backtracked when they saw you had reached your limit. Not a fair auction. And even if the auction is re run they know your limit.