Crew Wanted: Volunteer delivery crew - Tahiti to Auckland, December

[trevorl]

Looking for someone with experience (not necessarily off-shore) to help my wife and I deliver our new to us 2006 FP Bahia 46 from Papetee to Auckland in early December 2022.
We take delivery of the boat December 1st and weather permitting would like to be in Auckland before Christmas.
The boat is well equipped and maintained, it has been cruised from the Caribbean to French Polynesia over the last year. It had a major refit Jan 2021, and recently passed survey with flying colours.
We are in our late 50's, I am an ex boatbuilder with a fair bit of experience (but no blue-water) and my wife has watched a lot of youtube..
We are happy to pay a reasonable airfare to or from the boat.

[chrisr]

you do know about cyclone seasons don't you ?

i'm not aware of any insurance that will cover you on this trip at this time. usually need to be in eg nz by november.

anyway, we are in papeete at the moment so let me know if you need any help (excluding the delivery which i would not do at this time of year !)

cheers,

[trevorl]

Yep, I am aware, the timing was out of our control.
In the middle of selling our house and need to get back here (with the boat to live in, ideally).
I did say weather permitting.. ��
Thanks for the offer..

[chrisr]

well i'm sure you know best, however i'd advise against hoping into a new-to-you boat and leaving immediately after purchase, at the wrong time of year.

consider whether you can make the time available to stay here getting to know the boat etc until say march

don't let the wrong factors dictate when you are going to attempt your first blue water trip

cheers,

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by chrisr

well i'm sure you know best, however i'd advise against hoping into a new-to-you boat and leaving immediately after purchase, at the wrong time of year.

consider whether you can make the time available to stay here getting to know the boat etc until say march

don't let the wrong factors dictate when you are going to attempt your first blue water trip

cheers,

Agreed, a good survey does not guarantee a boat prepared for a lengthy and potentially (likely near NZ!) poor weather passage.

FP is a reasonable place to stay during cyclone season and especially if you head east for the Marquesas and/or south to the Gambiers and Australs you may avoid cyclones all together. That said, decades ago we weathered a cyclone in January in one of the deep bays on Taha’a.

If you do decide to go for the passage then engage a weather router (I personally recommend MetBob) and ensure you have reliable offshore comms (Iridium Go! or Iridium phone with ample data, and/or a working SSB radio with Pactor modem).

If you are both inexperienced at offshore passage making then you should consider hiring a delivery skipper. The passage you are contemplating is not for beginners.

[trevorl]

Appreciate the advice, and doing it this way is definitely not my first choice.
The boat is well setup, it did a Pacific crossing earlier this year and the current owner/skipper is a sensible and conservative bloke.

While I haven't crossed an ocean previously, I do have extensive coastal experience (including a Cook Straight crossing), and I intend to be very paranoid about choosing a weather window, of we don't get a perfect one we won't leave..
And yep, we have an Iridium Go.

[HVYJimmy]

Most Cyclones in December are in the Higher Latitudes ,so that's one thing to think about


All the Best



HVYJimmy .

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by trevorl

Appreciate the advice, and doing it this way is definitely not my first choice.
The boat is well setup, it did a Pacific crossing earlier this year and the current owner/skipper is a sensible and conservative bloke.

While I haven't crossed an ocean previously, I do have extensive coastal experience (including a Cook Straight crossing), and I intend to be very paranoid about choosing a weather window, of we don't get a perfect one we won't leave..
And yep, we have an Iridium Go.

A weather window for a 2000+ nautical mile passage? ROTFL

Seriously, while Cook Straight can be anything but benign, that is nothing at all like an offshore passage.

Do you know the boat well enough to figure out why the batteries aren’t being charged, why the instruments dropped out, why the autopilot has stopped working, how to get water from the tanks if the fresh water pump fails, etc, etc, etc.

There are three problems with your plan to make this passage as you’ve described:
(1) You’re not very experienced and your wife has no experience. You must have someone onboard that is plenty experienced with multihulls, out of season passages, and this passage in particular.
(2) You have no idea how the boat and its systems work because you will have next to no time to develop familiarity. That’s dangerous when combined with (1).
(3) You are planning a long passage during a season when the probability of coming across one or more cyclones is relatively high. This is not a down wind trade wind passage like the ones you’ve seen on YouTube. Ignoring the danger to life aspect, are you even able to get any insurance company to provide cover?

My advice wasn’t because I’m a jerk or because I think you are generally incompetent - it’s because I’m genuinely concerned that you could be putting yourself and your wife into harms way. You simply don’t know what you don’t know!

Is the current owner willing to help you on the passage, for pay? That would be ideal to solve the don’t know your boat problem and help with the inexperience problem.

[JPA Cate]

^^^^

An interesting suggestion fxykty. I didn't understand that there was a multihull involved.

I haven't looked at the charts for the via the Australs route. One would hope the potential early cyclone at that latitude would be buggering off to the SE.

However, those storms do frequently occur on the route to NZ, as "former cyclones".

Not to be recommended. One might squeak through, but having a boat unknown to oneself, and given bad weather, a tough call.

Ann

[Fore and Aft]

Trevorl I like the former owner helping with the delivery, that's the guy who will know where all the bits and pieces are in an emergency. There are so many systems to learn on a new boat.
Insurance would be my biggest worry as well. If it all turns to custard and you do abandon the cat, will they pay out or can you afford a six-figure loss? I am not sure if you are watching Australian weather, but over here it's been crazy this year.
I have sailed Cook Strait in lots of different conditions, but shelter is close by so it's really not that much of a challenge with a good forecast. My best Cook strait crossing was when we were entering Wellington harbour in a Southerly, did a massive Chinese and turned the kite into ribbons. Got the heart racing alright.
Cheers, good luck and don't forget to post us an update when you arrive in NZ.

[Jubilee39]

Maybe superstition but almost every time I have tried to adhere to a schedule the weather gods laugh. Get some experience with the boat. FP is delightful to cruise, some longer passages to check out you and the boat. Enjoy life

[Kinkircating]

Holy hell, the first lesson I learned (the hard way) is never…ever…be on a schedule when sailing. This sounds like a potential candidate for a Darwin Award or if nothing else an entertaining Netflix documentary. This speaking as a former recipient of said award lol. Please don’t do this, it’s just a boat and will be there after cyclone season.

[itnem80]

I'll pile on to strongly suggest you to change plans. Other people gave you all great reasons for not embarking on this passage, but I'll give you another one.

If I'm reading your situation right, it sounds like you are finally able to start your dream of selling the house and buying a nice boat for the next chapter of your life, this is probably a plan you put in motion years back, and luckily enough your wife is onboard with it.

Even if you make it alive to NZ and with the boat still in one piece (which you probably would), it's quite likely that this passage is going to be some level of a nightmare with multiple stressful moments that you and your inexperienced wife will have to deal with.
Things breaking or not functioning as they should and you having to deal with them maybe as the weather is getting nasty, without the ability to google "how to fix X", dodging bad ocean weather on a new boat you are not familiar with...what if your wife gets scared and changes her mind on this whole idea?

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't put the DREAM at such a risk for a few short term logistical issues.

[Budawang]

And don't forget that French Polynesia is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Why wouldn't you want to spend a few months enjoying what many sailors only dream about?

[Vmac]

Originally Posted by trevorl

Looking for someone with experience (not necessarily off-shore) to help my wife and I deliver our new to us 2006 FP Bahia 46 from Papetee to Auckland in early December 2022.
We take delivery of the boat December 1st and weather permitting would like to be in Auckland before Christmas.
The boat is well equipped and maintained, it has been cruised from the Caribbean to French Polynesia over the last year. It had a major refit Jan 2021, and recently passed survey with flying colours.
We are in our late 50's, I am an ex boatbuilder with a fair bit of experience (but no blue-water) and my wife has watched a lot of youtube..
We are happy to pay a reasonable airfare to or from the boat.

Good day Trevor, I’m a delivery skipper, work together with my partner who is an excellent crew as well. Have you gone through with the passage or stayed sailing in FP, also known as paradise? Let me know if you’re still looking for a hand for the passage.

Best regards and fair winds!

Vasco AC