Offshore cruising made easy

By ROBIN BAILEY

Buy or build a yacht and sail off into the sunny South Pacific. That's the dream of many a would-be boat-owner. It is a dream many New Zealanders have been turning into reality for more than 100 years.

Many yachts get their first taste of blue-water sailing by taking part in one of the many ocean races on the country's yachting calendar. For others, who are perhaps wary of the competitive aspect of blue-water racing, Brian and Joan Hepburn have a more leisurely option.

The husband and wife team run Island Cruising South Pacific from their seagoing home, the yacht Windermere II at Westhaven. Every year Island Cruising organises and supervises ocean-going sailing rallies to Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

"From a beginning 10 years ago arranging New Zealand-Tonga cruises, the operation has grown dramatically," says Brian Hepburn. "We took over the business in 1995 and it has grown to the stage where we now have just on 3000 members.

"Many of our members are people going offshore for the first time who probably heard about us by word of mouth. The appeal for them is heading offshore with a like-minded group, after proper preparation and knowing the organisational hassles for both departure and arrival have been taken care of professionally."

He says Island Cruising looks after all the documentation and can help members with everything from checking they are properly prepared to go offshore to finding additional crew. The Hepburns are on hand to see all their cruising clients away from New Zealand, and they are there at the destination to ensure there are no hassles with officialdom.

Says Hepburn: "This is particularly important when the destination is not a regular port-of-entry for cruising yachts and the rules ashore can become a bit blurred. We need to know what's available for our members when they get into a strange port - things like the availability of doctors, dentists, chandleries or where to get a spare for a dodgy piece of technology.

"Being on the spot is also important for an increasing number of our members who sail with young families. We had 41 starters for Tonga last year and there were 16 children, ranging from 2-year-olds to teenagers, aboard the yachts."

The Hepburns, who between them have more than 100,000 miles of blue-water experience, run comprehensive preparation schools for their members, and for others planning to go offshore for the first time. These last two days are total how-to-cope exercises that cover everything a would-be sailor could imagine happening on a bad day at sea. There is even a body-dunking session for everyone that shows how to get into and out of a liferaft in full wet-weather gear.

Other aspects of the course ($350 a couple, $225 single) start with buying the right cruising yacht and run through to anchors, mooring, navigation, log-keeping, steering failures, emergencies at sea and how to make basic repairs. As well there is a comprehensive section on regulation of the Customs and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries kind.

There's a course this weekend and another on February 24 and 25. The fee includes copies of the Hepburns' two basic workbooks, A Guide to Cruising & Safety and Emergencies at Sea. These are also available through chandleries and boating bookshops.

The seagoing educators are working on what they call a sort of yellow pages for yachties. Titled Sail South Pacific, it covers the area from Tahiti to Australia and almost everything in between.

A spin-off for New Zealand from the Island Cruising operation is in offshore sailors attracted to New Zealand through hearing how the Hepburn system eases the path through officialdom and makes lots of less-known Pacific destinations more accessible.

"Many of them sail on down here, staying for months," Brian Hepburn says. "When they eventually head home they carry the word about New Zealand, our waters and the technical and maintenance services we can offer the offshore sailor.

E-mail: hepburn@islandcruising.co.nz