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Foreign boat not allowed to leave.


Kestrahl

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Just snapped leaving Opua.... for good perhaps??? :wave:

[attachment=0]IMG_0332-300.jpg[/attachment]

Sorry about image quality - shitty iPhone cam.

I sincerely hope not , last I looked a significant and deepening low is poised to either just miss our east coast, or get very nasty. Either way I wouldn't choose to head off into it.

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Just finished a re-read of Robin Knox-Johnsons "a world of my own", first single handed non stop... No engine in the end, and the photos of Suhaili didnt look great... she must have been a brick shithouse. Fantastic read though. Great adventure.

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Just finished a re-read of Robin Knox-Johnsons "a world of my own", first single handed non stop... No engine in the end, and the photos of Suhaili didnt look great... she must have been a brick shithouse. Fantastic read though. Great adventure.

I suspect RKJ didn't willingly break the law or bludge. To compare the two would be wrong.

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Quite right... I was just thinking about the adventuring spirit (of both). And that after 300 constant days at sea RKJ was also the worse for wear, with a no go motor, dicky radio, broken sails, rigging etc, not to mention that back in the 60's they didnt have quite the same kind of electronic safety / radio gear. Food for thought?

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I'm sure RKJ would have used his time in port to good effect and sail in as good a condition as possible rather than hack free internet, tell lies about immigration officials and overstay.

This thread title needs changing to "Foreign boat allowed to leave despite evidence the owner is a criminal"

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So anyone got any news on -

 

1 - Where was his next port?

2 - Did he make it?

3 - Does he still have the flappy mouth that caused his departure issues ?

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It is interesting to see NZ getting blasted for not spending longer looking for NINA and allowing her to go with what the ex Councillor from Whangarei described as poor or no equipment and then also getting blasted for stopping someone who wanted to leave at the same time as NINA. Can't win. Chatting with those involved in the detention it appears the chap was well treated, got a free antifoul courtesy of other boats doing work there, was well supported by the community (ie looked after), and left in far better shape both boat and personal.

 

It is also a pain to see peoples ability to do things being erroded by those who may no nothing about the activity. We had a complaint (actually several) about a Cav 32 with a person onboard who could not sail, and had to be rescued twice in a week. Went to see the person in my work capacity, had a chat, explained the concerns. Chap responded to the open approach and related about four other groundings, his lack of experience and general plans (contiue south round NZ). I worked with MNZ who were excellent. They arranged a local sailing instructor to mentor the chap, teach him some skills and help him on his way. They also inspected the boat and found it sound.

 

The outcome was a chap completeing his voyage, getting some on on one instruction and a good outcome for all. The authorities are not always the big bad people some expect.

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Yup, same guy, he was doing his bucket list, considering that he hadn't sailed before it took a lot of guts to do what he did, sold his house in Dargaville and bought a boat, plus he was willing to take advise when he found sailing around NZ wasn't as easy as he had thought.

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I am out of NZ. I had a rough passage, which took more than twice as long as it should have. When the wind is strong it is impossible to sail against, and my course is limited to a small range. I was blown east of raoul and nearly to tonga before the wind dropped and shifted enough to allow me to make it west.

 

I was on a 60% head sail and no main for the first 9 days at which point I was within 100 miles of tonga and had sailed over 1000 miles then had to sail about 1000 more miles to reach vanuatu which took another 8 days in much more favorable conditions.

 

Now that I am outside NZ jurisdiction I am no longer afraid to tell the truth as I no longer fear having my boat taken away using force with threats to arrest and deport me based on what I do or say.

 

I must inform you that I feel my safety and well-being was seriously compromised by poor decisions made by maritime NZ and customs and immigration. I also have lost a solar panel and a month of my time as well as a lot of undue stress.

 

I was denied clearance to leave NZ for over 3 weeks based on the assertion by a customs officer named Gary Burton who has no sailing experience that my vessel was "unseaworthy" because it did not look like what he is used to seeing. Eventually maritime NZ threatened to deport me and I would lose my boat if I did not allow them to put it on the hard and inspect it.

 

The inspection proved there was essentially nothing wrong with my

boat, but took 5 days to complete and another day to finally decide

I should be allowed to leave.

 

I was forced to leave 6 days into a weather window or risk losing

my boat and everything I own as the next window may not occur for

well over a month much longer than the 7 days I was given.

 

This pushed me onto a low pressure system which caused for a time moderately high winds (35 knots gusting 45 knots) at the peak of which for a time, some large swells (taller than the mast) arrived from the south and created breakers over a meter high across the sea which I took several direct hits. A large solar panel was smashed, it's secondary function as a storm shudder proved useful or I would have lost my windows, and many electronics.

 

The whole boat shuddered, and some plywood in the interior snapped as well. I believe this is the type of wave strike which could break and sink boats and then kill people.

 

At the time I feared for my life, knowing the weather I set out in was not as I would have liked, but hurried to leave as it still seemed a lot better than dealing with officials any longer. From my digital anenometer, the the wind was stronger than predicted, and much worse than what I had been waiting weeks for only to not be allowed to sail in.

 

Initially there was _nothing_ wrong with my boat and no reason to stop me from sailing when conditions were better.

 

In fact I had been trying to gain clearance for over 3 weeks prior in various other weather windows which proved more suitable as well.

 

None of the repairs completed were actually needed. I did not really need a bottom job, my bottom was clean when they hauled me out. I was not able to make the repairs in the way I would have, instead was given the

direction of an experienced boat builder.

 

Based on the wear of the acetol rudder bearing piece at the base of the rudder, I could probably have circumnavigated without any serious failure. It was fairly loose which raised concern but I believe unlikely to fail. This triggered the motivation to pull the entire rudder out and check the top as well. In fact the two repairs (rudder overhaul and installing additional running lights) proved worse than useless as due to overcast conditions I was unable to run the new incandescent light relying instead on my already installed LED running lights.

 

During the rudder overhaul, the bronze shaft was sanded to remove corrosion and then sanded more to make it look new which made it no longer fit tightly in the piece connecting to the tiller. After a short time at sea it had loosened to about 15 degrees of play between rudder and tiller despite the nut being tightened as much as possible. This is a dangerous amount of play and seriously compromised my safety. I should never have been forced to overhaul a rudder so soon before going to sea, especially when it was not required. This caused the boat to steer a less straight course and put me in much more vulnerable positions to waves as well as backwind the sails occasionally and cause excessive wear on the piston hanks and forestay.

 

In moderate conditions, my boat can keep a course on just the wind vane

without using the main rudder as the servo oar is half the size of the main rudder and much farther aft in the event of complete rudder failure. I also have a sculling oar which can act as an emergency rudder. For this reason I don't think a potential rudder failure is a great concern as I can wait out the high winds on drogues.

 

The real reason to perform repairs was to "play along" with maritime NZ

plans and make it seem like the boat really did have problems and that

maritime NZ had made the right decision to put my boat on the hard and

require unspecific repairs. (to be determined after the boat was on the hard) which proves they did not have any relevant reason, they just intended to find something wrong. Putting me back in the water the next day would have made them look stupid. Every boat that leaves could have major work done on it of some kind to improve it, but performing it last minute without testing the repairs was dangerous and worse than doing nothing.

 

I realize now, that this whole thing had nothing to do with my boat

not being seaworthy. This is simply an excuse to mess with me. Maybe

some of the people in maritime NZ had good intentions, and certainly the

vast majority of people around in the boat yard did, but keep in mind I only encountered one person from maritime NZ, one from customs and another from immigration. Everyone else involved was in Wellington and I never met them nor did they ever see my boat.

 

The real motivation for all of this is that my boat had many rust stains and

mold as well and dirt all over it from my gardening experiments. I had

firewood drying all over the decks and I do not keep a "tight ship".

 

I explained that this enhances the natural beauty of my vessel, and I am

not using excessive chemicals and resources for things that are not important I also had many plants growing on the boat, and many non-standard modifications.

 

In NZ a country which requires most students to wear a school uniform,

you are taught at a young age that it is wrong to look different,

and everyone should look the same. If someone is different,

they are discriminated against and punished for it. I can finally

understand why the feminists in Wellington seemed so extreme.

 

Evidence of this is obvious:

 

I was told I should pressure wash my boat even after I explained that the

ocean would be doing this, and does absolutely nothing to improve it's

seaworthy state. I was given various toxic chemicals to remove mold

and rust from my boat. I normally do not "tape" my waterline before painting the bottom as it generates extra rubbish, but this was needed as well.

 

I was informed by the official that next time I should paint my decks

and I would not "arouse suspicion" which also does absolutely nothing

to improve the boat, only spreads toxic chemicals onto it. Someone else

pointed out that my "plants weren't gaining me any points" while this,

may be true, I believe all of the problems in the world can be solved in

a garden, and I stand by my plants. In fact I am eating from my garden

over the course of the passage and the plants did grow along the way.

 

The current visa rules in NZ are unfair to visitors by yacht.

 

I needed to overstay my visa because I wanted to experience winter

in New Zealand. I believe this is a reasonable request for a visitor

to have, however, the current visa system makes it impossible to legally

do so as arrival by yacht is at beginning of summer, and departure

at the end, (to avoid sailing in cyclone season) so to experience winter

requires staying 18-20 months, and visitor visas are not granted

for this duration. I think it is fairly unreasonable to deny

experiencing an entire season to visitors especially as I had been

craving winter from so much tropical heat.

 

I had been told by two immigration officials (in wellington and palmerston

north) that if I overstayed for a few months it would not be considered a

big deal. I also know of several cases where other people on yachts overstayed for a similar period with no concern. There are over 16,000 people overstaying visas, and it was explained to me that they choose to target certain individuals.

 

As a further analogy so you might understand why I believe injustice has been dealt:

 

If someone gets a parking ticket, would you then proceed to strip-search them for illegal contraband? In other words.. if someone breaks a law does this give enforcement the right to break all other laws about completely unrelated issues? Overstaying a visa has nothing to do with a boat being sea-worthy or not. Foreign boats have no requirements. Making requirements for them violates international law. This was proven in the high court of New Zealand in Sellers vs Maritime Inspector in 1998.

 

Gary Burton's (Custom Official) initial judgement was based on outside

appearance. This type of logic is equivilant to judging a book by it's cover.

This view would allow a boat like Nina (recent tragedy with 7 lives lost)

to sail without question as it did. Nina was immaculate from the outside.

 

I have talked to other boaties, and apparently Gary's level of respect toward the people he deals with is based on the appearance and monetary value of their boat. He was very rude to me, and never once did a single thing to be helpful, instead he stirring up a lot of trouble. In fact he likes to repeatedly ask (me as well as various other people I have spoken to)

if they have any dope, clearly indicating that he intends to incriminate people.

 

I asked for clearance 5 different times from Gary over a period if 3 weeks.

I was legally entitled to clearance each time and every time denied.

 

Eventually my clearance was granted by someone else.

 

Customs Service NZ should be ashamed to employ a man of this nature.

I urge any boaties to consider checking in at ports other than Bay of Islands to avoid encountering this unreasonable person, or request a different officer at initial contact as he is unqualified for these duties.

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I am out of NZ.

Good, now HTFU and show some respect for the countries you visit by obeying their laws. You might not find Vanuatu authorities so accommodating, we already have our share of dissolute yachties here.

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What a pile crap. When you are finished wallowing in self pity, how about waking up to the real world.

In virtually ANY other country you would have been arrested and deported. Likely your boat would have been sold after being classed as abandoned - as you would not be allowed back in.

No country I've ever been to makes visa allowances for yachts. The law is the law, you must comply.

I'd also say that, seeing you had issues in only 35-40 knts when leaving, the NZ authorities were correct in their assessment. It can be significantly worse than that off the NZ coast at any time of year.

NZ authorities actually spent time and money trying to help you. You'll likely never see that again, anywhere.

You complain about NZ, yet you wanted to stay longer. Be good for both parties if you don't come back...

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I won't address the visa issue - 'nuff said on that already, BUT...

BA, for your own sake, it might pay to consider that most boats which _LOOK_ like a piece of crap _ARE_ a piece of crap.

It arouses natural suspicion as to the vessel's seaworthiness and your own competence and attitude.

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I'm glad you're safe,I have admiration for anyone able and capable of doing what you do as far as cruising is concerned.

However,when you left there was a deep low forecast to trend SSW back in towards NZ and then down to east cape.These can often be vicious. Fortunately it stayed a bit further offshore than forecasted ,so you didn't feel the full force of it. I don't believe that any 'official' would expect anyone to sail off into that, you could have easily waited a few days until it passed before you left.

The thing is , I don't think you would have had any trouble if you weren't an overstayer. And I don't think any govt officials would have been aware of you at all if you hadn't stuck your head up, waved and screamed at the top of your metaphorical lungs when you ' went missing' and became national news.

If you want someone to blame other than yourself, blame your family for getting you national news coverage, virtually forcing immigration to take an interest in you.

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Glad you and your boat are in one piece, and get an update of your journey. Perhaps in a few years time you may look back and realise that you were largely responsible for the position you found yourself in. I agree with other posters that in many jurisdictions your overstaying would have had more serious and immediate conseqences. Uncompromising officials are part and parcel of travelling to other countries, We had Gary clear us in when we returned from the islands last year, we found him very reasonable, he did ask us if we had drugs on board, as i'm sure he asks every skipper of every boat that he comes in contact with. He has to judge every book by the cover, that is what he sees first, See yourself as others may see you! life can be hard or it can be easy, your choice.

One damaged / lost panel can be considered par for the course, I know of another much larger yacht that lost 4, and he sailed with a good weather window!

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Glad you made it... BUT

 

As mentioned above if your boat didn't cope well with 40klts you should be thanking the people who tried to save you from yourself.

 

I've also been cleared by Gary. Never asked about drugs but he did remind us about the arrival conditions at our intended port. He was 100% professional and good to deal with.

 

Why don't you tell everyone the real truth of how it all started? Your problem was 100% a case of reaping what you sow and you proved yourself to be a shite gardener.

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