My Sailing Journey
Kia ora — I'm Tom. Originally from Yorkshire in the UK, I first started sailing when I arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand at the age of 20. After sailing around Tasman Bay on the family H28, I decided I wanted to pursue a career on the water. I enrolled in the Mahurangi Technical Institute's “Superyacht course” and once I completed it I left for Europe on the hunt for a job!
I found my first job in Athens, Greece, joining the 20m schooner S/Y Gloria. We sailed through the Mediterranean before crossing the Atlantic for the Caribbean. It was in Fort Lauderdale in Florida when I switched from luxury yacht to the cramped and wet conditions of a 32 foot fiberglass sloop with a motley crew of Norwegian adventurers — they were heading back to Oslo via Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Shetland.
It was this trip that made me decide to buy my own small vessel, and so I flew back to Nelson and purchased the Four Winds — a 38 foot steel ketch. Once I had Four Winds safely tied up in Port Tarakohe, Golden Bay, I was called away to another job on a superyacht, the 60m S/Y Zenji, in Los Angeles, USA. I worked on that boat for 9 months, cruising down the West Coast of the US and passing through the Panama Canal and into the Caribbean. I then returned to New Zealand to take care of the Four Winds. Four Winds was my ideal boat for the time; I put together a crew of travellers and we left New Zealand for the Pacific Islands, stopping in Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, PNG, Palau, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and finally South Korea.
While in South Korea, we met a gentleman who explained to us that he had just bought a yacht, online, that was in Fiji and needed to be brought to South Korea! So I became the captain on my first delivery job. While preparing the boat in Fiji, we met with another boat that we were to deliver on the same route. Both of these deliveries included stops in many Pacific Islands and ended in South Korea.
During my time in the North Pacific I also delivered a 40 foot Beneteau from Hokkaido, Japan to Busan, South Korea. Once this flurry of deliveries was over, I sailed the Four Winds back from South Korea to Taiwan, where I settled with my wife and we had our two sons born before deciding to return with the family to New Zealand.
Now it is time for me to share my experience with as many people as possible — sailing is a magical way to travel and I hope to inspire people to take journeys near and far!
- Skipper Restricted Limits (SRL)Maritime New Zealand
- RYA Yachtmaster OffshoreRoyal Yachting Association
- Golden Bay local watersNew Zealand
- Owner-operatorFour Winds Sailing
- Offshore experience25000+ Nautical miles
Credentials
- Skipper Restricted Limits (SRL) — Maritime New Zealand
- RYA Yachtmaster Offshore — Royal Yachting Association
The Yacht
Bright Sparx is our Noelex 25, a 7.7-meter trailer sailer, featuring a lifting ballasted centerboard and a spacious six-berth cabin. Designed in Australasia by Noel Honey, Alex Trethewey, and Steve Marten, it is widely celebrated for balancing high-performance club racing with family cruising comfort.
With a small kitchen with sink and small stove, a cassette toilet and berths for up to six (though we recommend 4), it's the perfect boat for a weekend on the water. Powered by a Yamaha 10hp outboard with 12v lighting and USB charging facilities, there is everything you need for a comfortable experience. Tom's briefing will leave you confident in the location and use of all the safety equipment and navigational aids on board.
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On the water
