New Zealand - Bay of Islands - charts and pilot books?

[Ian_Edwards]

I've always wanted to go sailing in the Bay of Islands Area in NZ.

My chance may materialise this winter, my eldest daughter has emigrated to NZ.

So I'm looking for advice on charts and pilot books, so I can plan the trip and do a bit of armchair navigation.

Has anyone cruised in the Bay of Islands? And can recommend useful charts and pilot books?

 

[RIBW]

I've always wanted to go sailing in the Bay of Islands Area in NZ.
And can recommend useful charts and pilot books?

I had always fancied sailing there as well, so I recently had a poke around the various locales.

Firstly, to answer your question:- The best pilot book I found (and bought) was:-
The Royal Arkana Yacht Club publication;
Coastal Cruising Handbook
ISBN978-0-473-15792-0
$55 (about £24 at the moment)

It is in B&W and very much in the style of the earlier CCC publications

After my road trip around the area I came to the conclusion that there is a different style of cruising compared to the one I am used to on the south coast of England/west coast of Scotland.
Here is a copy of the note I sent on NZ to my sailing oppo afterwards - also includes notes on Auckland.

"Done the look around and found the following:-

There are two sailing 'nodes' Bay of Islands (Opua) and Auckland reasonably close to each other. South of the Coromandel peninsula boating is 99% motor only.

Charter boats are not allowed to sail at night.

BoI is beautiful and superficially easy, diverse sailing but I would liken it to the Caribbean but without habitation at the destinations. The focus is more on sailing to somewhere then anchoring, diving, fishing etc., and then returning to base (of which there are few and even fewer with facilities such as provisions, especially water). Although it was the equivalent of early October in the Med. (warm & calm), I saw very few sails on the water. Apparently, in the summer, it’s a bun-fight.

Auckland: Plenty of sails at the weekend and many destinations within a good day's sail.

'Moorings' have a few boats (Summer only) in Opua as do Fairview - a 44 footer will cost ~£400 a day. I didn't have time to check if there was chartering in AKL.

My opinion is that the time & cost is not worth making it a sailing holiday - much better to rent a car and take day trips/ferries.
If I lived there, I'd buy a small (30') yacht and day sail with an occasional long weekender - that would be blissful."

Hope this helps
Cheers
Bob

 

[Ian_Edwards]

Thanks for the info' Bob. I'm going to NZ for about 5 weeks and intend to spend one week sailing and the rest touring around NZ, my daughter is in the South Island, so I have a base there. The cost of a 44ft Bene is currently about £350/day, for a December charter, all in, fuel, bedding, insurance waiver and GST. Which isn't too bad split 6 ways.
I'll buy the Coastal Cruising Handbook, and have look at what the the Bay of Islands has to offer.

 

[Strolls]

Official NZ charts: http://www.linz.govt.nz/sea/charts/nzmariner-official-raster-navigational-charts-rncs

Can be read in OpenCPN on your lappy.

 

[ffiill]

Charts- download marine navigator ap and then you can download full set of Linz charts for NZ for free.
Its a great ap which also runs the uk charts from visit my harbour and the usa free rñc charts

 

[Ian_Edwards]

OpenCPN - blocked by Google Chrome?

When I download OpenCPN from the website:

http://opencpn.org/ocpn/download

from the right hand column, not the left, Google Chrome won't open it, and renames it "Unconfirmed478045.crdownload".

What's the best way around this?

I could just rename the file to "opencpn_4.0.0_setup.exe", is this safe? or is there an alternative way?

 

[mawm]

I'd get the Northland Boaties Atlas as well as the e-charts from Linz then you don't need to buy any paper charts. Royal Akarana Coastal Cruising Guide is essential.

Delay your sailing to as late as possible and allow the Xmas crowd to go away - and the weather is better and the sea warmer. Also don't limit yourself to BOI, there's plenty more to sailing the Northland coast such as Whangaroa, Whangaruru and Whangamumu harbours.

Sailing the NZ coast is not for the faint-hearted. Join the Coastguard for NZ$ 115 and have some peace of mind. They'll always help in an emergency but will only help out with breakdowns, etc. if you are a member.