Kokamo is our companion for the year.  A 39 foot New Zealand design yacht, called a Ganley Tara.  It was clearly meant to be, as she is exactly the same age as me (Tom – ie. old). She was professionally built for the boss of an Auckland steel firm by his own company out of corten steel (which means she is both more corrosion resistant and lighter than mild steel boats, and being steel is somewhat reef resistant – not something we mean to test).

But why Kokamo?  After arriving in NZ in early January, we spent five weeks travelling around the country, and looked at about 25 boats.  Most were non-starters, and it came down to just 3 that were pretty ready to head offshore and were in our price range.  We then asked a boatbuilder and maritime inspector to join us on our second look and help us decide.  Kokamo came out on top.

Her biggest attraction was that she has done it all before and, fundamentally, was ready to do it again.  All her past owners had taken her up to the Pacific Islands and sometimes Australia (all ocean passages of 1000 miles plus) – so she could certainly do it.  The lovely couple that owned her had just sailed back from Oz, but were reluctantly selling because an injury meant offshore sailing was no longer a good idea.  She is very solid and safe, and with our relatively short timescale, the fact she was currently an offshore boat being sold with most of the necessary gear on board made her the obvious choice.

For those that are into boats, some more details about Kokamo.  She is a masthead sloop rig, although a previous owner did convert her to cutter rig, so she has an (detachable) inner forestay.  She 11.9m long, displaces about 8 tonnes (weighing 12 tonnes gross) and draws 2m.  She is one of the earlier designs by Kiwi Denis Ganley, who apparently said he designed the Tara to in particular “go well to windward in gale force conditions.”  Being built for the MD of the steel company that made her, she has a mahogany interior, and used to have teak decks (which only remain in the cockpit).  Each owner has added their own bits, the last making a very cosy hard dodger and impressive stainless steel frame over the cockpit to take a fixed bimini (vital in the tropics).