We’ve Purchased a New Yacht – in Tahiti!

For many years we have dreamed of sailing off into the sunset and exploring the world by sea.  If I’m honest, it felt like a dream that would never eventuate.  Sailing is not easy and having the right yacht, skills, and courage to venture offshore is not something that can be taken lightly (despite the stories we hear of people who just buy a yacht and go blue water cruising with zero experience!).  We have a comfortable life in Picton, and it would be way too easy to stay comfortable.  We have decided to kick comfortable into touch.

Here is the story of how our blue water cruising dream got underway.

Lady Grey is for Sale!

During our years of sailing in Queen Charlotte Sound we had seen Lady Grey, a beautiful 37ft Oyster Heritage yacht, several times and always admired her from a far.  She is a classic, capable yacht that has beautiful lines and a seaworthy design.

Upon hearing that Lady Grey was for sale, we contacted the broker and when we stepped on board, we fell in love.  Lady Grey has the minerals to be sailed offshore and we could certainly see ourselves as her new owners.  We made a conditional offer and commenced our due diligence.  We put our yacht Caleche on the market and started to crunch the numbers.  Our biggest question was, can we afford to keep our house and go sailing?

Following a second visit to Lady Grey we took off our rose-tinted glasses and started to look at her more objectively.  There were a couple of main sticking points.  We realised that she just didn’t have the storage capacity we needed for a liveaboard (we have lots of toys we want to take!).  The main V berth also required gymnastic and yoga manoeuvres to get in and out of bed which is not ideal for middle-aged sailors.  In the end, we decided to pass on Lady Grey as she wasn’t quite the yacht we needed.  But the fire had been lit.

Oyster Heritage 37 - Lady Grey

Nina Nina, Pretty Ballerina

Lady Grey helped us to recognise that we want to go sailing for as long as we can.  We started to believe that our dream was actually a possibility.  Looking around at other yachts, we realised that we’d need to sell our house to help fund the yacht.  The general plan was to sell Caleche, then put the house on the market.  We’d cash up, go sailing and look to purchase an investment property at some stage in Aussie.

At the end of June, we decided to take a quick holiday to our favourite Pacific Island Niue.  It had been years since we’d had a scuba diving trip and we decided it was time to get our gills wet.  We had found a yacht in Auckland to view before our flight.  It was Hylas 45 and when we stepped aboard it felt enormous!  The winches were huge, and it just felt too big for two people to handle.  Down below, the mahogany interior felt dark and looked somewhat unloved and tired.  It was a firm no.  We also checked out a Young 43 and that was also a firm no as ducking around a yacht with limited head room is not ideal.

At the last minute we contacted a broker in Whangarei about viewing a Nordship DS (deck saloon) 43.  We blasted up North in a hire car and were excited to see this stunning vessel.  Nina was located at the Port and was up on the hard stand.  We climbed the scaffolding and stepped on board. Wow wow WOW!  Nina is a beautiful vessel with classic teak decks and a voluminous deck saloon.  The aft cabin felt luxurious, and I could absolutely see us sailing on this girl.  Unfortunately, she came with a hefty price tag.

Nordship DS43 - Nina

Again, we made a conditional offer much lower than the asking price as we had concerns about the engine, rigging, teak and balsa core decks and recommissioning after being on the hard.  In the end Nina was not meant to be.  The owner didn’t even enter negotiations, which basically means piss off my boat is worth more than that!  Oh well we’ll keep looking.

Caleche Sells, House is For Sale and Footloose

It was a bittersweet day when our girl Caleche sold.  She was our first yacht and taught us so much.  She tolerated our mistakes and helped us to gain confidence in a challenging sailing environment.  Thankfully her new owners are a lovely family from Nelson, and we know she’ll be taken care of.

Marc on the helm of Caleche

Following the sale of Caleche, the house went on the market.  Now that we didn’t own a boat, we circled back to a yacht we had found in Adelaide called Footloose.  She is an Aussie Bluewater 42 and man she is super seaworthy and somewhat bullet proof.  Unfortunately, she was under contract at the time, however the broker indicated that the purchase may not happen.  Turns out the purchaser did want Footloose. We were a little gutted to miss out but remained optimistic that the right boat would find us.  In the meantime, we’d keep moving towards our goal, so I booked us on a sea survival and offshore medical courses.

Bluewater 42 - Footloose

Our desire to go sailing was escalating and we just wanted to sell up and get gone.  It was also about this time that Marc’s body also decided to object considerably after 30 years on the tools.  My work was exhausting, and it felt like our comfortable life was killing us physically and mentally. I know, I know... I sound like a whinging, privledged person. But this perpetual cycle of work and spending, is not a healthy way to exist. We barely have time to do the things we love.

Agápē is still for Sale – feel like a trip to Tahiti?

Now that we were serious about finding a boat, the research and boat hunt went up a gear.  We discovered some amazing resources such as Morgans Cloud and Island Cruising New Zealand.  We buried our noses in sailing books and refined our requirements.  As an IT Business Analyst this of course was documented in an Excel spreadsheet. 

Team Hughes - Bluewater Yacht Requirements

.xlsx

Download XLSX • 16KB

Here are our “must have” requirements:

• Vessel is within budget and ready to sail away

• Seaworthy, able to survive a multi-day storm far offshore

• Decent sailing ability (don't want a tank)

• Prefer 38-42ft (+/- 1m)

• Suitable for single / short-handed sailing

• Suitable for long-term liveaboard (good access into comfy bed, good storage)

• Hull and rig are strong enough to take punishment and forgive our mistakes

• A good navigation station where we can sit and plot courses

• Interior layout is safe and functional at sea

• Large fuel & water storage for extended cruising

• Deck layout is safe and functional at sea

Back in July, while boarding the flight to Niue, Marc had shown me a gorgeous Tayana 42 called Agápē.  The only catch is that she is in Tahiti, so we initially dismissed her.  We weren’t so keen on buying a yacht offshore but after trolling the internet for hours, we were coming to the realisation that finding a blue water capable yacht within our budget in New Zealand was proving difficult.

We kept circling back to Agápē as we believed she met all our must have requirements.  We arranged a video call with the current owners and next thing we were looking to book flights to Tahiti!  Are we crazy!?!

Our new yacht! Tayana 42 - Agápē

We had arranged a trip to Auckland to complete a two day offshore medical course and Marc suggested that we fly to Tahiti directly afterwards as the domestic flights are almost as expensive as the international flights.  So, at the end of November, we flew out to Tahiti to go check out Agápē.

She’s Everything We Are Looking For

The first time we saw Agápē we were sleep deprived after spending our first night in a questionable Airbnb.  Despite the grit in our eyes and the exhaustion, the moment we saw Agápē we knew she was our girl.  She really did tick all the boxes.  The current owners, Josh and Rachel, are fastidious owners and have maintained Agápē to such a high standard.  She looked as good as the photos portrayed which is so often not the case. 

That afternoon, while sipping on a cold Tahitian brew, we officially made a conditional offer. Holy shit we really are doing this!  Prior to our trip to Tahiti, I had organised a haul out and survey with the help from the team at Tahiti Crew as organising these services in a French speaking country is not easy.

On the Wednesday the haul out, survey and sea trail happened without a hitch.  On the Thursday we flew back to NZ.  We used Marine Documentation Services to help with the paperwork and international wires which made life so easy. 

On 1st December 2023 we became the official owners of Agápē and now the crazy begins to get our lives packed up and get back to our girl.

The Ultimate Project

The last month has been a whirlwind of activity but if I’m honest, it feels like the ultimate project! At last, I’m pouring my energy into something that I will truly benefit from!  While the task list is endless, we just tackle one thing at a time (thank goodness for Trello!).

We did get a couple of offers on the house, but they were below the current valuation, so we flagged them.  Because we had not over invested in our yacht, we can afford to keep the house and have opted to rent it fully furnished.

So here we are, fast approaching Christmas 2023.  All that we are waiting on now is our French Polynesian Visas and then we’ll be on the next flight outta here.  Our general plan is to hang out in French Polynesia and get familiar with our girl Agápē.  She is pretty much good to go, but we have a few things we’d like to do before we make the big journey West. 

We’d like to stop at Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji before making our way to Aussie.  We’ll hang out in Aussie for a bit before heading North to Asia.  But to be honest these plans are very loose.  We may end up in Hawaii and the West Coast of America.  For the first time in our lives, we are just going to go with the flow and see where the wind takes us. 

How long will we cruise for?  Could be 3 months, 3 years, or 30 years.  All I know is that if we don’t do this now, we never will.

Cool Change is where you’ll find updates on where we are at and what we’ve been experiencing. I am sure there are going to be some "interesting" tales to tell throughout our adventures!

And don’t worry, there won’t be a YouTube channel – we are too old, ugly, and fat to be influencers 😊

Eplore. Dream. Discover.