[dave123]

What a great site, full of interesting information.

We have decided that a visit to New Zealand is well overdue. We have heard so much about your wonderful country, that we intend to visit next year during (our) winter.

As we are both approaching retirement age, we will be looking for somewhere to stay for four or five months each year during the English winter.
As we are both sailing people, we are thinking along the lines of perhaps buying a boat in your country, and overwintering on it.

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thank you in anticipation

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

Hello and welcome.

Can't do much on boat advice, but the Coromandel Pninsula is beautiful and extremely popular with boating type people.

[dave123]

Thank you for the welcome

I have just goggled Coromandel Peninsula. it certainly looks beautiful.
I suppose anything would look beautifull after 30 odd years sailing in the north sea lol.

[dusk]

Hello. That sounds like a great plan, enjoy your holiday :D

[TrentBridge]

Welcome to the forum.

Over-wintering in NZ sounds like a great idea :cheers

S

[dave123]

:yes

Anything to get away from the long dark winters here. I am just daydreaming of sailing all the year round....wonderful.

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

Hello and welcome.

[StevieD]

Sailing in the North Sea v sailing in the South Pacific - hmmmmm, no comparison there my friend ;)

[AndyR]

welcome to the forum! I can imagine that sailing around the north sea will be quite different from new zealand. I hope you find somewhere great to spend your winters!

[JandM]

Hello.:)

[peebles16]

Hello and welcome from us too :)

Karen

[dave123]

I was just looking at some photo,s of NZ on the net, the water is so clear. Where we sail on the East Coast of england the sea is muddy brown (Ipswich area), it does however get better further south.
Any other sailors out there?
Thanks again for your kind messages;)

[Kayaker]

I was just looking at some photo,s of NZ on the net, the water is so clear.

You can't do better as a sailor than the Bay of Islands, Dave:

http://www.nzinfo.com/

Our long visit there at Christmas '06 was spectacular. We caught fresh snapper for dinner almost every night with a hand-line baited with squid, sailed out to Harakeke Island (find it on Google Maps), and kayaked on water perfectly clear for two meters down or more....we could count the sea urchins on the bottom.

You'll find your fellow salts in NZ to be a hardy bunch--generous, rough-and-ready, very independent-minded and thoroughly familiar with their waters--as are, indeed, good sailors everywhere.

Good luck with that retirement plan, wherever you end up. It sounds like a winner. :nice1

[dave123]

Pretty impressive place, it can,t get much better. I can almost smell the fish cooking on the barbecue :)

[Ian&Lisa]

Hi Dave
We also love the water and bought our new boat (sport boat) last November it is in North Wales. We havn't used her yet as the weather and sea havn't been good. We have done our RYA in sailing and PWC, but the summers here just don't seem to last very long and we don't get out very often as we are quite far away from the sea here in the midlands. We are hoping to be in Christchurch by the end of the summer and I'm sure the first thing we will buy will be a boat. Our friends in Christchurch have a boat and go fishing nearly every weekend. We can't wait to get there. Our 16yr old is a very good fisherman although he prefers coarse to sea. Our 12 yr old loves mackerel fishing as it is very easy off the side of the boat!
We have visited North and South Islands and can assure you that you will love sailing in NZ.
Good luck with all of your plans.
Lisa

[Jo Jo]

Hello and welcome from me, as well.



Can't do much on boat advice, but the Coromandel Pninsula is beautiful and extremely popular with boating type people.

I have to agree with this - the Coromandel peninsula is stunning. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to check that I really do live here and am not just dreaming. If you are heading up this way and you're into sailing, then Whitianga is the place to be - there's a boat club here. And if you're thinking of getting a motor boat, we'd be VERY happy to look after it for months of the year you'd be out of the country (we're always trying to persuade people to buy boats and leave them at our house - it might work one day!!)

[dave123]

Hi Ian and Lisa / JO JO

Thanks for the reply,s. We sail a Sadler 34 here in the uk, brilliant sailing boats. Not sure what we would be looking for in NZ But it will have to be in a fairly tight budget.
Still we will have a better idea when we visit.....looking forward to that :)

[Nick88]

If you haven't already found it, most boats are listed here
www.boatpoint.co.nz
plus there should be more on Trademe.

Boats aren't particularly cheap here, but there are always plenty for sale, some have been on the market for years. The cheapest, as always are ferro.

I would definitely vote for the Bay of Islands, the sailing there is wonderful, and it is not all that far to places like Whangaparaoa (there is a marina here), and even the Coromandel. There is a very good marina in Opua, and more further down the coast near Whangarei there are some new developments underway that will increase the number of berths available in the area. I have no idea how much a mooring or marina berth would be in any of these areas.

There are alot of retired couples living on their boats, and they spend the summer in NZ and travel up to the Pacific Islands for the winter (it also avoids the hurricane season up there). What a great way to live.

[dave123]

Thanks Nick
Lots of info. I will be following up on those links tomorrow (London marathon has just started :clap , so I will be glued to that until the finish :) ) I like the sound of the bay of Islands....sound right up my street.

[JandM]

The icon picture was taken heading for the marina at Whangaparoa (close supervision, relative's boat) - nice facilities.

[dave123]

You certainly look the part .

Here is a Pic of our boat "Islander"

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos4691/3/66/81/52/39/1/139528166306_0_ALB.jpg

Note the brilliant sunshine and the clarity of the water :D

[JandM]

Look the part? - yes, I'm good at that!

Can anybody else see Dave's picture? All I'm getting is a little box with a red cross. Maybe try a re-post, Dave?

[Carey]

Just a little box with a red cross, no picture!

[dave123]

I'm sorry you can't see the picture, it comes up fine for me. Maybe somebody with a more technical brain than mine can come up with the answer.
It is probably not worth me resubmitting it, as that is the only way I know how to (the way I did it earlier), so we would probably end up with the same result

[dave123]

If you haven't already found it, most boats are listed here
www.boatpoint.co.nz
plus there should be more on Trademe.

Boats aren't particularly cheap here, but there are always plenty for sale, some have been on the market for years. The cheapest, as always are ferro.

I would definitely vote for the Bay of Islands, the sailing there is wonderful, and it is not all that far to places like Whangaparaoa (there is a marina here), and even the Coromandel. There is a very good marina in Opua, and more further down the coast near Whangarei there are some new developments underway that will increase the number of berths available in the area. I have no idea how much a mooring or marina berth would be in any of these areas.

There are alot of retired couples living on their boats, and they spend the summer in NZ and travel up to the Pacific Islands for the winter (it also avoids the hurricane season up there). What a great way to live.

Just had a look at the links nick.
I think the boats over there are slightly cheaper, due to the exchange rate but, not a lot.
I think we need to come over and hire a camper. We need to do the tour.
I do appreciate all of your impute, there is nothing quite like local knowledge

[Jim&Karen]

Hi Dave

We also love sailing :nice1

One of our Sailing trips was on the soren larsen 2 yrs ago signed on as crew from vanautu 19 day voyage and sailed around heading into NZ via bay of islands superb scenery.

Really jealous of you and your plans keep us up dated

karen and Jim

[dave123]

Hi you two

A daughter of some friends of mine sailed on a tall ship. She had an absolutely fabulous time, and also made a lot of friends in the bargain. Great organisations.

We have been sailing for over 30 years, so it's in our blood.
This year we are late fitting out the boat, but tomorrow all that changes. It's going to be a hectic week.

We normally try to work on the boat during the winter time, so all that's left to do at this time of year is anti foul, and launch. However due to one or two “genuine” reasons, and a few lame excuses (normally, rain wind or snow. And if honest, just plain lazy) we start tomorrow morning.
The very first job is to sort out my windpilot, wind Vane (the thing that steers the boat, and keeps it heading at a right angle to the wind, and hopefully on the right course) I've been fiddling about with it for the last couple of years, but it has never been quite right. Tomorrow, armed with a big bag of tools, and the installation manual I'm hopefully going to put that right. After that it’s all the boring things, such as sea cocks, engine, Loo, electronics, and all the million and one jobs that need to be done in a sailing boat.

I have just been reading your interesting blog, it's nice to see you are settling in so well