Innehållsförteckning för November 2017 från Boating NZ

British Antarctic Survey scientists are among a team of experts planning to investigate the seafloor uncovered by A-68 – the trillion-tonne iceberg that calved from the Larsen Ice Shelf in July. Aboard the Royal Research Ship James Clark Ross, they plan to visit this summer and hope to find never-seen-before species on the newly-exposed seafloor – an area they believe has been covered by ice for 120,000 years. “We don’t really know what we’ll find; that’s what’s so exciting,” says marine biologist Dr Katrin Linse, the team leader. “This area’s had no sunlight and so has had no food coming in through phytoplankton.” A-68 – some 6,000 km2 in size – is one of the biggest ever recorded in the Antarctic. Scientists estimate its average thickness at 190m, though there…

Whitianga Waterways For the uninitiated, Whitianga Waterways (WW) is a custom-designed, lifestyle refuge in the heart of the Coromandel. A couple of hour’s drive from Auckland, it’s a residential development for the boat owner who likes being able to step on to his pride-and-joy from his front lawn. The WW’s dominant feature is its attractive network of canals, around which the homes are built. This means many – but not all – of the homes have water frontage, complete with an exclusive, walk-on jetty able to accommodate vessels of up to 30m LOA. While road bridges provide easy access into and around the ‘village’, residents often use the canals to visit neighbours or nearby shops/amenities, in small power boats or kayaks. It’s a bit like Venice – sadly without the…

Arvor 755 Weekender The new Arvor 755 Weekender, along with its larger 855 sibling, is something of a departure for this European builder, best known for sea-kindly, diesel-powered cruisers modelled on a style of a small fishing vessel popular in Brittany, France. Unlike most Arvor models, which retain a certain work-boat style, the Weekender range is a rather more conventional design with a family-boating focus. Arvor’s Weekenders are built in a different factory, too. Unlike the Arvor 810 (see sidebar), which is built in Poland along with similar models in the Diesel Power range like 690D & 730D, the 755 Weekender is manufactured in Portugal with components sourced from all over the globe, in keeping with Brunswick’s supply chain philosophy. Arvor Boats’ head office is actually in Belgium. COMFORTS OF…

Opinion Boats have shape and form. They’re probably humanity’s longest unchanged design... There’s absolutely no comparison for living in a boat. The flowing lines and graceful curves of most vessels may have been dictated by strength and seaworthiness – or the strictures imposed on boat designers by various yacht racing handicap rules – but no mere building can aspire to a boat’s grace and elegance. A boat is a living habitat, immersed in a living medium, it rarely sits still and is neighboured by living wildlife, an entire ecosystem. House dwellers live their lives indoors, estranged from their surroundings by walls and windows – but boat people tend to live outdoors to watch what’s going on around them. Most major cities host liveaboard communities, generations of whom are born, raised,…

In most of the great sailing destinations in the world it is possible for an experienced sailor to hire a vessel ‘bareboat’ and go off and explore someone else’s ‘patch’. With the beauty, benevolence and bounty of the Hauraki Gulf and the Northland coast on our doorstep, there is certainly demand from both local and international sailors to do that here. While the short season doesn’t make it worthwhile for the big overseas charter companies to be here, there’s a great opportunity for local owners to cater to this market (and make a dollar or two!) through a linking organisation. Charterlink is a Kiwi company which has been in the business of putting well-qualified charterers and vessels together for the last 25 years. Operating a small fleet of yachts ranging…

Cementing family bonds Breath-takingly impressive is the thought that comes to mind when seeing the tall ships sailing into Warnemünde, the Baltic Sea river opening leading into Rostock port. In August, the venue was home to the 27th Hanse Sail, one of Europe’s largest annual sailing regattas. A highlight of the event is the ‘Windjammer Parade’ – it draws the tall ships from all over the world. This year’s historic fleet – around 200 ships – included the likes of the Mir – the pride of Russia, the Cisne Branco (White Swan) all the way from Brazil and the Sedov, the oldest tall ship in attendance. There were also around 50 motor vessels, among them the Norden (built 1870), and the Stettin, an 83-year old icebreaker. More than a million…

Safeswim aims to give the public as much information as possible so they can make informed decisions about where and when to swim. This includes realtime alerts advising of risks to public health and safety at the city’s beaches. The programme provides forecasts (up to three days ahead) of water quality based on rainfall and a range of other factors including tide, sunlight and wind. It also uses data from remote sensors that have been installed to capture unpredictable events such as overflows due to power outages or mechanical failure. This information will be communicated to the public via electronic channels – primarily via the Council’s website. Monitoring programmes have been in place in various parts of Auckland for the past two decades. These show that water quality at the…

To get their hay to market cost-effectively, Bangladeshi farmers near the town of Sirajganj have to think creatively, even if dangerously. Without mechanised transport – or even roads – the Jamuna River serves as the perfect highway. But because the market is three day’s travel by boat, multiple trips are too time-consuming and costly. Single-delivery voyages are much more profitable, and if the load is bigger than the carrier – well, the advantage of using two boats is that it more than doubles carrying capacity… Rafted together, the two flat-bottomed boats are skilfully packed and demand precision, synchronised manoeuvring from the skippers. The mobile haystacks are 12m wide and 6m high.…

America’s Cup racing pays dividends. That’s the message from the New Zealand Marine Industry following the announcement of the 36th America’s Cup protocol last month. “More than $700m was injected into New Zealand after the Cup was last held here, 14 years ago,” Peter Montgomery told an industry meeting, following the protocol announcement. Adds Peter Busfield, NZ Marine executive director: “When New Zealand won the Cup in 1995, the marine industry was instrumental in convincing the Ports of Auckland, then owners of the Viaduct Harbour, to make provision for superyachts in addition to the syndicate bases. “This gave Auckland a new ‘front door’, with the building of the Viaduct Harbour, and its superyacht and charter boat berthage, open public spaces and restaurants. “AC36 has the potential to attract an estimated…

Regardless of what vehicle you use, beach launching always runs the risk of getting stuck, sometimes with disastrous consequences. But there are ways to launch and retrieve a boat off the beach – and ways not to. As I proceeded to pull my boat out of the water at Hatfields Beach recently, a family attempted to do the same with their new 5.5m fibreglass cabin boat. Things didn’t go well. As I watched the drama unfold, it was clear the group was inexperienced – certainly they hadn’t done a lot of beach launching. The upshot was that they got their near-new AWD vehicle well and truly buried in the soft sand, the sea having its way with the vehicle every time a wave rolled in. Luckily it was calm and…

Boat Therapy Her Majesty’s announcement back in mid-2011 came out of the blue and as a bit of a shock. “It’s time to get a boat,” my wife Anna said. We were burnt out from earthquakes, aftershocks, magnitudes, liquefaction, Richter scales and EQC. There was no question we needed a positive kickstart in life and, if we’d learned anything over recent months, it was to value life even more preciously than ever before. A boat will help, she said. While purchasing a boat had long been a goal, Anna and I had instead focussed on downsizing our mortgage and setting up a home for our three sons. I’d grown up around boats; with a family bach on Banks Peninsula, every summer was spent on the water in boats of all…

America’s Cup Dalton stressed this protocol is the product of mutual consent, a negotiated settlement between the Challenger of Record, Circolo della Vela Sicilia (CVS) and the Defender (RNZYS). And while this is ostensibly between the yacht clubs, the foundation of the AC36 Protocol is the trust between the Luna Rossa/ETNZ syndicates formed over many Cup cycles. It definitely encourages the syndicates to gang up on the Defender and to produce the strongest Challenger through the Challenger Selection Series (CSS). The CSS will be organised by the Challenger of Record with no meddling by the Defender. The Defender will play no part in the running of, nor competing in, the CSS. Luna Rossa team principal, Patrizio Bertelli, says it’s about “restoring the original values” and attracting “a new generation of…

This year, the 10th such exhibition in Auckland focused on clinker dinghies and more than 30 examples of the type drew appreciation from casual admirers to builders with first-hand knowledge of how challenging these labour-intensive boats are to craft. New Zealand has many examples of the type, from rowing skiffs, to delightful sailing dinghies such as the M-Class, Frostbites, X-Class and Silver Ferns. In the early days of boatbuilding apprenticeships in New Zealand, you did not get your papers until you had completed a clinker dinghy. Robert Brooke, who served his apprenticeship with Percy Vos, has built “many, many” clinker boats since his first Frostbite, which he built as a 16-year-old – no doubt carefully scrutinised by his father, Jack, who designed the class. “When you build a clinker dinghy,…

There aren’t a lot of gaff-rigged, double-ended ketches with aft wheelhouses on the New Zealand coast, so the Kelvin sticks out like a kahawai in a goldfish bowl. And veteran skipper, Dave Jones, is reticent to talk about himself. But once the conversation shifts to the Kelvin, or wooden boats, his words flow in a flood-tide of facts, figures, adventures and yarns. “Steve Carey built her in 1929 at Carey’s Bay in Port Chalmers,” he begins. “She’s 1¼” (32mm) kauri planking on, I think, Japanese oak ribs. The backbone, keelson, engine bearers and other structural pieces are hardwood – and she’s fastened with copper rivets.” She’s not that much older than me, the 82-year old skipper adds. He’s well-known for his daily breakfast fare of porridge and garlic but hesitates…

Exhibitors have reported strong sales and a buoyant industry following the Auckland On Water Boat Show in October, with repeat exhibitors reporting increased year-on-year sales figures. Drawcards at this year’s show were the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race trophy, with these events poised to add an extra shot of impetus to the New Zealand marine industry in the years ahead. “Exhibitor feedback suggests customers were positive and ready to buy, and that the America’s Cup win had strengthened interest in sailing and getting out on the water,” says Boat Show manager, Stacey Cook. “We received a record number of deposits for new Tristram packages at this year’s show, for delivery in 2018,” says Kingsley Fink, Tristram Marine general manager. “The weather was brilliant for the majority of the…

Gem 23 class day-sailer The key to Jade’s celebrity is her classic lines and varnished spars. They have something about them that seems to attract the romantic streak in people. Her 23-feet are pure magic and the design and detail of her construction is thanks to Herbert Krumm-Gartner. As a young man in Germany, Herbert loved sailing so much he decided to build his own boat and sail around the world. Unfortunately, although there was plenty of timber in his home area near the Black Forest, there were few boatbuilding or sailing opportunities. He promptly moved to Lake Ammersee, near Munich, to become an apprentice boatbuilder. In 1986, with his wife Romy, he moved to New Zealand and set up a classic boatbuilding business. Initially he worked for John Gladden,…

“Auckland has not only run out of marina space but also haul-out and hard-stand facilities. Located some four nautical miles from the mouth of the Tamaki River, Port Tamaki is being developed by the Bledisloe Property Group (BPG) – owner of Westhaven’s Pier 21 drystack and marine services centre. The 5ha site – sandwiched by McMullen & Wing and Rayglass Boats – already hosts the drystack, previously owned by Mt Wellington Marine. BPG’s general manager – David Wylie – says the site became available when the land was recently released by Ports of Auckland, and it presented the perfect opportunity to develop much-needed marine services for Auckland boat owners. “Auckland has not only run out of marina space but also haul-out and hard-stand facilities. Finding waterfront sites close to the…

Beneteau Swift Trawler 44 Many Kiwis associate a Beneteau with the company’s well-known range of production yachts but, in fact, the French manufacturer’s roots lie in producing working fishing boats, right back to the 1880s. This latest model in the Swift Trawler range certainly works as a ‘fishing boat’, but is more of a platform for very comfortable cruising. This boat, called Kingfisher in ironic reference to its owners’ lack of success with the rod, is one of two Swift Trawler 44s heading out on to the Hauraki Gulf this summer. She’s powered by a traditional arrangement: a pair of Volvo D4-300 diesels paired with shaft drives, with bow and stern thrusters. Conrad Gair of Beneteau agent 36o Brokers says while many owners today are going for an IPS ‘pod’…

Responsible Cruising It was offshore planning time again. And dreaming time. Visions of tropical islands, pristine with gleaming green coconut palms, dazzling white beaches and sparkling blue water as we worked towards preparing for a trip to the atoll nations of Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. While we got ready for the Category One inspection and the captain put on board spares for the spares, I was busy jettisoning. My internet research revealed that of the 300 million tonnes of new plastic used every year, half is used only once and usually for less than 12 minutes. Grocery bags, plastic wrap, disposable cutlery, straws, coffee-cup lids. And every year eight million tonnes of plastic are dumped in the ocean. It’s believed there are 18,000 pieces of plastic in every…

Puzzle no.241 Across 1. _____ Marine Ltd - NZ boatbuilding company based in Auckland (8) 6. ____ Sea - arm of southern Pacific Ocean in Antarctica (4) 8. ____board - vertical distance between water and highest point of hull (4) 9. Four-sided type of nautical canvas (8) 10. Smokestack of ship (6) 11. “_____ Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” - classic novel by Jules Verne (6) 12. Mythical Greek water monster with many heads (5) 14. Moves like slack sail in wind (5) 16. Provided person-power for boat (6) 19. Unroll and spread sail (6) 21. Removed cargo from vessel (8) 22. Use this sort of sounder to locate fish (4) 23. Upper outer corner of 9 Across (4) 24. Paddy’s _____ - seaman’s scornful name for any rope by…

Restoration Kate is one of only three surviving examples of her type – one of many trading cutters that contributed to New Zealand’s development and its maritime heritage. And as might be expected of a 120-year-old lady, her lifestory has been an eventful voyage – with numerous owners and many near-death experiences. Now, in the embrace of a dedicated team of restorers on Waiheke Island, she is getting a complete make-over in preparation for what is sure to be another colourful chapter in her life. Kate belongs to the Waiheke Working Sail Charitable Trust. It plans to operate a youth development programme based on the island. There is only one word to describe how she came to find her new home – serendipity. And all thanks to the trust’s charter.…