Junk Rig Sailing Regatta On The Beautiful Mahurangi...

Down the coast from Whangarei,
just ten miles south west of Kawau Island, there's the beautiful Mahurangi.
This harbour with its many wonderful anchorages, and an abundance of fish and bird life is an ideal place to spend many days or weeks. You can just do nothing or go exploring, sailing up the river with the tide to overnight at the little town of Warkworth, passing the Old Cement Works on the way, perhaps tying up at the marina there for a tide or two.
A few Junk Rigs got together on the Mahurangi for a regatta recently, among them David Thatcher with his Footprints, a sister ship to my live-aboard yacht Shoestring.
Annie Hill, author of 'Voyaging On A Small Income' and round the world sailor and adventurer on her Raven 26, Fantail.
David Tyler from England was there on Tystie, Rob and Maren Fisher on Pacific Spray, Kurt and Marie on Mehitabel. David and Rosemary on Arcadian and Brian Owen on his Lugsail Schooner, Le Canard Bleu.
This is such a beautiful area, a favourite of mine and one that I spent many years exploring.
These days it's famous for its wine and food, its art and craft, the Matakana Market and its history.
Visit it sometime...

Living On A Shoestring...

As you know, necessity is the mother of invention.
When Uschi and I abandoned my dis-masted yacht Sofia after we'd rolled 360 degrees in the Pacific in '94 and were returned safely to New Zealand aboard the French Navy's Jacques Cartier, some invention was certainly necessary.
Shoestring, the 10 metre junk rigged live-aboard yacht was the result of a lot of dreaming well before the event that pre-empted her building.
Hard work, lateral and creative thinking followed with much goodwill and generosity from many wonderful people.
Sofia was uninsured and on my return, I had nothing except the clothes I was wearing. I had no money and no possessions. It was a wonderful state to be in. Nothingness. You don't need to paint it, insure it, nobody will steal it, it doesn't need cleaning or maintaining.
It was a totally freeing state to be in. For a while.
A plan was hatched, the criteria for this yacht was well established. It was based on 'Kiss'. The 'Keep it Simple Stupid' principle.
And too, the invaluable advice from Annie Hill's wonderful classic 'How to' book, 'Voyaging On A Small Income'. A life changing publication that I still refer to today.
Then I met the larger than life Gary Underwood, creative yacht designer, fellow lateral thinker and now, lifetime friend. Between us, Shoestring was designed.
Generous friends and friends I didn't know I had formed the 'Shoestring Club' and made the building of this yacht possible.
Shoestring is hard-chine, plywood on Kwila frame, shallow draft with very simple systems. Solar panels for power of course, an outboard motor in a well, and a simple and robust anchoring system.
The twin sinks in the galley are twenty litre buckets that lift out easily to empty over the side. The toilet is a simple porta-potty.
Water is stored in many ten litre containers.
She took a year to build with much assistance from the students at Auckland's Unitec Boatbuilding School who treated the project as part of their curriculum.
The result was a wonderful. spacious, fun, floating home that I lived aboard for six years.
And then I built my first housetruck.
But that's another story...