After an enjoyable couple of years with Tystie, the opportunity to purchase Shoestring arose and I couldn’t resist. So, it’s time for Tystie to find a new skipper. She’s had a birthday over the past two years with new paint inside and on the decks. New sails, too. She’s ready for the southern summer and to voyage north next winter.

Design: Junk-rig ketch with bilge boards. Glass over ply construction. Launched 2000.

Designer: David Thomas

Length: 10.5m

Beam 3.25m

Draft: 1.0m (slightly more with the boards down)

Headroom: 1.75m

Main mast: 13m above deck, alloy

Mizzen: 7m above deck, alloy / timber hybrid

Sails: Weathermax80 cloth, 7.5% camber, alloy yards, battens and booms. All new 2021

Engine: Beta BD722 (Kubota) 19hp with Kiwiprop

Tankage: 150L diesel and 150L water in internal glassed-in tanks. External lockers for extra jerry cans

Electronics: Furuno GP-33 GPS, Furuno FI-503 sounder/log, RayMarine ST6000 autopilot, Maretec AIS transponder, Icom IC-M422 VHF, Iridium Go, EPIRB, 1500W and 600W inverters

Batteries: 100A engine, 100A windlass, new house batteries to be purchased

Charging: ZM4 smart charger on alternator, 200W and 100W solar panels

Anchoring: Lofrans Tigress windlass (corroded housing but working well), Primary 20kg Rocna + 35m 8mm chain + 50m 16mm rode; Secondary 17kg Manson CQR + 20m 8mm chain + 80m 16mm rode; Third 10kg Rocna

Galley: Maxie 2-burner meths stove, foot pumped fresh and salt water, Isotherm BI29 fridge

Head: Composting style head, hot pressured shower in cockpit (engine heated)

Other: Parachute anchor, drogue, self-steering windvane, davits, Bolger Nymph dinghy, Pfaff sewing machine, Dickinson diesel heater

She is moored in Opua, New Zealand. Asking NZ$50,000 (later reduced to NZ$45,000).

Wow . What a lovely ship!

There's a rectangular double berth forward, with two settee/seaberths in the saloon.

With New Zealand finally having fully opened her borders, I suppose we have to anticipate that someone will come here to buy Tystie

and sail her away.  It will be lovely to see her doing what she was designed for, but she will be sorely missed at our junkets.

FanShiThat being so, it was great to see her at our most recent junket in the Bay of Islands.  Gordon had lent her to Paul for the event and she and Shoestring sailed down to Orongo Bay together.  The next day we had a 'race' to Te Puna Inlet.  Tystie proved to be the boat to beat and after a couple of miles, she was a dot on the horizon, from the cockpit of FanShi.  She looked very smart and was sailing really well.

Hi Arne,

I went for 9 panels in the mainsail in order to make best use of the material and not have to resort to shelf feet. I'm also happy to reef early, and Tystie responds well to reefing.

I set up the mainsail for port & starboard double sheeting. The inaugural cruise with the new sail was with this configuration albeit with temporary deck fittings. I didn't find it sufficiently better to persevere and install permanent deck fittings as the sheets still seemed to get caught on batten ends on tacks and gybes. (I wasn't willing to shorten battens or re-cut the leech.) So, I went back to single sheeting with split upper & lower sheets for more control.

I feel the new sail works better than the articulated batten configuration I inherited. The best indication is that she is able to tack with the bilge boards up in conditions where she previously missed tacks.

The standing rigging on both sails are yard, throat and luff parrels. I played with Hong Kong parrels but didn't see enough benefit to rig them permanently. 

I don't actually haul the throat parrels right in apart from light airs. With a decent breeze, she seems to skip along quite nicely even if I don't remove every crease. 

The sail is made with Weathermax 80. Some have reported it to be difficult to sew, but I didn't have that experience.

Finally, the manual you developed is excellent and easy to follow. Thank you.

Gordon