All ashore who's going ashore!

The best thing about having a little boat is how close you can get to the shore and up into those little estuaries to explore and come ashore.

So what do I have aboard and what do can you do on the coast?

New Zealand, city of sails. Hauraki Gulf.

We are fast coming up to a year here in New Zealand and sadly, still no sign of a boat. More to the point, still no spare cash to buy a boat! So this has left me looking for very large projects (complete rebuilds) or give aways, which are very few and far between.

While I trudge onwards with my slow search, I take solice in crossing the harbour bridge every morning and being able I admire other people yachts in the city centres marina. Online scouting for New Zealand cruising books proved to be difficult. But now here the odd gem (books are insanely expensive here) does turn up in the clearance store. Cue William Owen's Hauraki Gulf guide for $15 

The Hauraki Gulf is, broadly speaking, the expanse water that stretches between the East coast of the North Island up to Cape Rodney and the mirrored west coast of the Coromandel up to the top of the Great Barrier.
Calling home the North Shore, and working in the city, this would be my cruising ground and ny the looks of things I don't think I would need to look outside of here for a good few years to fulfil my simple sailing needs.

The book gives a great guide to the region for both fishing and cruising, as well as some great insites from the authors 50 years experience in the area.

Complete with anchorage suggestions and simple outlines of the areas, this book will be a firm favourite on the bus to work as well as, hopefully, in my future "micro sailers" library.

Anyone wanting to get a copy here's the ISBN. 978-1-86953-750-0

Apologies for spellings and brevity as this post has been sent from my mobile

Pico Cruising

With very little money and a little thought people have produced some very capable Dinghy's for weekend cruising. I'm personally favouring the ever popular Mirror, I love the example above.

John Perry from Hostellers Sailing Club has designed and built his own 16 footer which here describes HERE in great detail.

Less is more?

Lets be frank, money is becoming ever thinner on the ground and with 2 young children I don't see the finances coming through any time soon, unless our number some up on a scratch card or Saturday night!?

To this end I have come up with a further reduction in the finances and have born out 2 further sub categories to my sailing options.

Nano (nano – n – billionth) and Pico (pico – p – trillionth) budgets have been established to allow to to have a possibility of actually making it out on the water. 

Nano sailing has made me look to the older smaller pocket cruisers such as the Hunter 18 and the very attractive Leisure 17. I have seen these boats for as little as £500 and as they have a much more trimmed down and basic set up the overhaul of such a boat should be vastly reduced.

Pico sailing is set to take it all back to basics and look at sailing lakes and coastal waters in the likes of a Mirror Dinghy or GP14. This option makes simple weekend camping trips very possible with less than £1000 to spend.

I am very excited that these 2 options have been established and I am especially keen to look into the Pico option for New Zealand whether we are there for 2 months or 2 years. 

Hunter Europa... a history

I have simply copy and pasted this from another web page as it is just plain interesting...

Hunter Europa

HUNTER EUROPA : a epic success in the 1972 Single-Handed Transatlantic Race 

Hunter Boats started life close to the Wakering marshes near Rochford back in 1969. A few years later the company moved to a new custom built factory off Sutton Rd, in Rochford where the building of Hunter boats continues to this day.

The first famous sail-boat was the National Squib, designed and finished by Oliver Lee and first moulded by Hunters (then called the Essex Boat Company) in 1968. The Squib flourished, achieved National Status, and is still built to this day (not by Hunter Boats), with total numbers now above 800. 
A year or so later, one Michael Poland asked Oliver if he could put a lid on a Squib, so that he could go cross Channel JOG racing in a boat that would cost less than a full set of B&G instruments. Oliver relented, and designed a proper fibreglass lid to go on the Squib. Since Michael Poland’s other favourite pastime was hunting, the new model was called the Hunter. And so began the new Hunter line. Oliver designed several other Hunters for the renamed Hunter Boats Ltd between 1969 and 1975; the 16′ lifting keel Hunter 490, the 23′ Hunter 701, the Tracer (a mini Squib with lifting keel) and the revamped Hunter 19 that changed her name to the Hunter Europa. All sold well, and multiplied in yacht harbours in the UK and abroad.

Perhaps the most famous exploit was David Blagden’s epic success in the 1972 Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race. His diminutive Hunter Europa 19  “Willing Griffin” survived many Atlantic storms and finished the race, the smallest yacht ever to do the official Single-Handed Transatlantic. Visit your library and find “Very Willing Griffin” by David Blagden. It’s an inspiring read

The Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race was conceived by Francis Chichester and Herbert “Blondie” Hasler in 1956. The whole idea of a single-handed ocean yacht race race was a revolutionary concept at the time, as the idea was thought to be extremely impractical; but this was especially true given the adverse conditions of their proposed route — a westward crossing of the north Atlantic Ocean, against the prevailing winds. 

1972 Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race

Skipper	Nation	Yacht	Type	LOA	Time(D H M)	Place
Alain Colas	French	PEN DUICK IV	Tri	70	20 13 15	1
J.Y Terlain	French	VENDREDI TREIZ	Mono	128	21 05 14	2
Blanden David	British	WILLING GRIFFIN	Mono	19	52 11 06	37

Hunter 19/Europa Details
Built From:	1972
Built To:	1982
Number Built:	782
Designer:	Oliver Lee
Specification
Length Over All (m):	5.78
Length at the water line (m):	5.24
Beam (m):	1.87
Draft (m):	Fin 0.91, Shoal 0.68
Air Draft (m):
Displacement – fin (kg):	681
Displacement – twin (kg):	NA
Ballast (kg):	340
Sail Areas (sq m):	Main 7.80, Jib 6.30, Genoa 11.10
Berths:	2 to 3
Engine:	O/B
Remarks:  Hunter 19  built Sep 72 – Feb 74,    Hunter Europas built 74 Nov 82

Mixing children and boats

When I first started to think about my sailing venture I was young(ish) and free of family life, constraints and concerns, but times have changed. I now have a young family meaning that sailing has had to take a back seat for almost the last 10 years, and in fact my partner has never know me to sail and has very little interest in it, in fact its safe to say that she has no interest.

That said I would love my children to, at the very least, have the opportunity to try sailing and if they like it, pursue it. The obvious route (like mine) is small dingy sailing, which can offer all sorts  but I would also love for them to be able to experience the 'camping' style of cruising offered by a small trailer sailer.

Safety is an obvious concern on board a boat and currently we have a 5 year old and 2 year old, and IF we were to get a boat then these tender ages need to be taken into account. Interestingly enough there is a site that offers advice for sailing with children, which oddly enough is run by... women.

Womenandcruising is a great site for the real practicalities of cruising with kids and offers a great amount of resources from real experience, but surely there is some fatherly advice knocking about for cruising with young children?

This is still a theoretical exercise and all depends upon actually getting a boat and then convincing the other half that her and the kids would be safe aboard!? 

Kids in the Cockpit

Penguin Post Office - Radio 4

Around lunch to day I listened to Radios 4s first instalment of Penguin Post Office and the voyage of some BBC wildlife crew travelling to Goudier Island in Antarctica. Some great commentary on what sounded like very large seas!

RADIO4 - Penguin Post Office