Background

We had a 32 foot yacht (Cavalier 32), and although it was a nice little boat, and sailed very well, we wanted a little more comfort. Our main source of enjoyment was not sailing for sailings sake but spending a few days at a time, anchoring in a different bay each night, enjoying a nice meal and a bottle of wine at anchor. We found that the cockpit was too small, and the double V-berth too small and uncomfortable.

I had also just completed the renovation of a relocated Villa in Kerikeri over the previous 10 months. I wanted a "project boat", something that I could move home and do a re-fit to suit our needs. I was thinking something in the order of 36-40 feet. However, while searching TradeMe for likely boats, in need of some TLC, I came across this 52 foot steel yacht that was in pretty bad shape, but really cheap.

Briefly, it had been built in a shed in Onehunga (Auckland). Completed were hull, decks, stern tube, engine beds, fuel & water tanks, and interior steel bulkheads. At this stage the owner disappeared, leaving large debts behind. The boat was moved out of the shed and dumped alongside and left to the mercy of the weather. The boat builder (the guy owed all the money) approached the courts to allow him to sell the boat to recover what money he could, but this process took several years as nobody was able to contact the "owner". And so the boat sat and rotted.

Eventually the boat was sold by tender to a guy in Dargaville, who for one reason or another decided to sell her a few months later. I spotted her listed on TradeMe, and after some negotiations and arrangements with the boat haulage company she arrived home to Russell on January 22nd 2006.