The big goal

The two of us have shared a lifelong dream of buying a boat in the Mediterranean, cruising around for a few seasons, and then sailing her home to New Zealand. This dream has been a favourite topic of conversation for us and framed the image of what we saw ourselves doing once we had the time. After selling the bulk of our business in November 2019, we’re finally realising the goal. At the time of writing this, Waiata, a 14.99m electric-hybrid catamaran is under construction with ITA Catamarans in Fano, Italy.

A bit about us

Gavin and I are a couple in our early sixties who have created a lifestyle around sailing in New Zealand for more than 20 years. Gavin is by far the most experienced of us having grown up sailing P-classes and Flying 15’s throughout his early years. He’s done several long ocean passages including sailing from NZ to Tahiti and onto Hawaii in when he was only 23. Add to that several trips from NZ to Fiji, Tonga, and New Caledonia and you can get a feel for what he likes to do in his leisure time. I came later to embrace this lifestyle, through Gavin, and although I’ve only had a couple blue water passages in the South Pacific (Fiji-New Caledonia and Tonga-Fiji), I’ve had many years of sailing/cruising around NZ, and reckon there is nothing that beats it, even when it’s scary!  I’ve always been in charge of the cooking and entertaining aspects when we’re cruising – where I excel apparently. Through Gavin’s patient guidance and by sheer osmosis I’ve come to be a capable sailor and like Gavin, envisage the next phase of our life to have more adventures cruising the world together on a sailboat. 

The journey to a Catamaran

Our summers were spent sailing around the wonderful cruising grounds of New Zealand and our three children were naturally absorbed into the lifestyle.  In our early sailing days we were proud Beneteau owners – first with Refuge 2 (39ft) and later, Kairos (43ft), both monohulls. It was a trip to Tonga chartering a Catamaran with friends in 2013 when we flipped sides. The Cat offered so much more in terms of the cruising life, space, steadiness and speed, not to mention, a dance floor!  After that fateful holiday we swore our next boat would be a Catamaran and so it was serendipitous that a Catana 431 arrived into NZ very soon after we got home, ready for sale. We bought Pacific Bliss, and our world changed - certainly our experiences cruising were enhanced beyond our wildest dreams.

Our vision began to evolve, and the spec for the ‘dream’ boat we’d buy in the Mediterranean refined. We knew it would have two hulls in it but what sort of Catamaran we’d decide on required research. We visited a few international boat shows over a couple of years - a task we took to with great enthusiasm. We came upon ITA Catamarans while searching for a carbon-friendly, modern, beautifully designed, fast cruising boat and the rest is history.

She is called Waiata – which translates to both music and song in te reo Maori, the language of the first people of Aotearoa New Zealand. This blog will share the journey of her build, her splash and then our adventures.