Buying a boat in New Zealand

[marktre]

New to New Zealand and am looking at buying a live-aboard with long distance cruising potential. Being from the US, I'm not as familiar with the boats down here. Any recommendations? Also, anyone now of a surveyor they would recommend?

Cheers

[chris_gee]

What is your budget and what size are you looking at for how many?

[marktre]

Hi chris,

I would like to keep it under $100k and around 38' to 40'.

[marktre]

Hi chris,

Just as additional follow-up info, definitely thinking of a used cruiser. Hull material steel, wood, or glass, no Ferro cement.

[JPA Cate]

marktre,

This should be a fun undertaking. When we were in NZ, we saw many lovely, seaworthy boats. You're going to learn heaps from the search. It's not so much about brand names, but build quality. Enjoy.

Ann

[olaf hart]

You know about Trademe, right?

[Jim Cate]

There are few series production built boats made in NZ. So, you will be faced with the usual prospects of the Benehuntalina types, a few locally produced series built boats, and a fair number of one-offs built by Kiwi shipwrights. These range from shoddy to exquisite. If you are of a mind to consider such a boat, you are in for a treat. There are few places in the world where such opportunities exist, so look, pry and enjoy!

Jim

[chris_gee]

Ok. If you are talking NZD in particular but even USD you might be pushing it.
While there are many good coastal boats, bringing a boat to long distance blue water standard can be costly. NZ has a safety standard for this called category one. It is fairly exhaustive and requires the boat being examined. That said the requirements are matters of good safety, such as back up means of navigation, steering, communication, liferaft, flares etc. Those conditions do not apply to overseas registered boats ( the boat can be bought here and registered elsewhere). however they are a good guide.
Possibly by exporting it you could get back GST at 15% of the purchase price but I doubt it and you would have to check with customs.
Comfort as a liveaboard and blue water seaworthiness calls for some compromise, but the passages from NZ most often involve some heavy going rather than the milk run type sailing.
Lidgard designs have a very good reputation.
Ganley is another often in steel, There are good wood boats triple moulded but that requires a surveyor with expertise there.
Trademe and boattrader show what is available with the usual caveats about ads and reality.
The guys on crew.org.nz would love to chew the fat on this, and have just done several pages on buying a budget 30' with coastal and offshore in mind. A search there will bring up comments on surveyors.

[marktre]

Hi Jim, I have seen through my web search's some of the one offs you are talking about and some do look exquisite. Thanks.

[Alistairnz]

There are loads of options depending on what your preference is. A lot of cruisers finish their trips in NZ so you can often pick up a CAT1 ready boat for bargain prices. It's definitely a buyers market here at the moment so don't hurry your decision, especially not this time of year, there will be an influx of boats for sale as summer draws to a close.

Have sent you a PM with contacts for a good broker too.

Cheers and Kia Ora!


Shipwright by trade, adventurer by nature

[Rhubarbx3]

Woollacott is a heavy displacement wooden boat usually kauri, a native hardwood found in NZ. I sailed on a 32' Woollacott ketch from Auckland to Fiji during a fierce gale and it came through with flying colours. You will love the Kiwi's.

[southpaw]

When we came down here, only NZ-registered boats had to be CAT 1 standard.
Not sure if this is still the case. Kiwis like NZ-built boats, naturally, so there are often bargains to be had on overseas-built yachts because they're unfamiliar to the locals.

[Mr42]

I'm just gonna drop some names as guides coz it's too complex a conundrum to answer properly from my phone at the beach.

Woolacotts are good but skinny and there's quite a few for sale at the moment.

Anything built by Mick Orchard is a bulletproof work of art.

Talk to Ashley at the cement works boatyard in Warkworth. He's a brilliant boatbuilder who knows what's up and what's available.

There's a 44' cruising yacht, maybe a Davidson, that needs lots of work on the handstand at Okahu Bay in Auckland. You could achieve cat one for under 100k there, all told.

Roberts's are rare around here, but if you find one...

Ganleys are great, but make sure you've got a good one.

I wouldn't go near corten on a steel boat, for reasons too complex for this posting. Mild steel is the stuff. It'll rust, but it'll take decades longer before the rust goes right through the plate. Also, avoid steel boats that were hot metal sprayed. There's a few around and it makes maintenance problematic, to say the least.

If I were you, I'd think again about ferrocement. The good ones are some of the toughest boats you'll find and that 100k could potentially see you sailing a concrete mansion. I just bought an ex-trawler made in ferro which has worked out of Bluff for over 40 years. I'd like to see anything other than steel challenge that history.

Good luck and see you on the sea.


Peace.

[Neptune's Gear]

May I respectfully suggest that you research the Cat 1 requirements. It is likely to be considerably cheaper if you can find a boat that has recently been cat 1. The first time I bought my boat up to cat 1, even though she was tidy, cost $60,000 NZD.
I have done this several times - the most recent cost $15K.
If you'd like to discuss this, I'm in Auckland, at Gulf Harbour. I run NZ's largest maritime website, crew.org.nz. I'd be happy to help, and via myself and my site members have a vast knowledge of NZ boats.
Cheers
Matt

[olaf hart]

As I understand it, you don't have to meet Cat 1 to go offshore if your boat is registered in a country other than NZ.
So if you are a citizen or resident of another country, you should register the boat in that country after you buy it.
Another NZ quirk is they prohibit export of historically significant vessels. I suspect you won't find one of them, but you might want to check if you are looking at an old wooden classic.