Con-Eller Interior

Auckland to Nelson delivery

The latest Corsair Cabriolet ‘Con-Eller’ had completed her testing and post-launch sea trials and was ready to head south to Nelson; August is not the best time of year for this trip by sea, as weather windows are few and far between. Trucking quotes were $8000 to Manna and the prospect of a big clean up after, from road-dirt, etc had us studying the weather with great positivity and frustration.


So when I got the phone call at 8 am saying, “we are off” I was excited and apprehensive at the same time.

We had been waiting for some software to program the trawling valve on the 500 HP Cummins. As is often the case with the world of electronic motors these days, things don’t always fill you with confidence, yet eventually every thing worked as was promised and at 3:03 pm on Thursday the 26th of August we dropped of the lines and put to sea for Gisborne.

A large front had crossed the country in the night and light but building SW winds escorted Con-Eller to Channel Island with a large NE rise present from Tiri on.

As night fell we set course for the out side of the Mercury islands and the beam sea was less than comfortable.



One of the owners who wishes to remain anonymous is very experienced, and I had total faith in his ability to safely calculate the appropriate speed and fuel consumption for each leg.

He selected 15 knots and a fuel burn of 40 litres per hour and we both double-checked the maths and ETA for refueling. I had already done this prior and had estimated that leaving before lunch would get us there too early, so around 9 am was our arrival ETA.



As there are no fuel pumps at Gisborne any more it was necessary to order a mini tanker. Cunningly his daughter and son-in-law live in Gisborne and as well as a stunning hot pie each, they paid for the fuel also. That’s good kids I reckon!



We arrived at 9:28 and left at 10:30 am with 761 litres of new fuel replacing the 730 litres we burnt on the 320NM leg (average of 39.5 LPH).



Again we calculated our range and ETA for Wellington but again refueling was the consideration and in our nations capital you can’t refuel with out a person at the pumps, problem was our ETA was 5 am so we would loose a valuable 3 hrs of our weather window and in Cook straight of all places. Just to add incentive to our arrival time my daughter Jade had a dance concert on Saturday night and I would need to get back to Auckland by 6 pm. This created several scenarios but only one would get me to Nelson before the last flight. Picton!!



We now knew that we had a guaranteed 20 hrs steaming at 15 knots and by reducing the revs by 20 rpm and better surfing conditions or maybe just answer to prayer, our fuel burn dropped to 34 to 36 litres per hour again increasing our range. What was amazing was our speed increased to 15.5 with surfs up to 18 knots also.

The sea had completely glassed out and Gisborne recorded the national high of 19 degrees, the nicest day they had in months.

We reached Cape Palliser at 1.30 am and moderate NW winds made for wet conditions, especially at a slow 15 knots, as at 18 to 20 the windows are dry from spray.

What was impressive was again the head sea performance of the single engine Cabriolet, noticeably the hull liners now fitted in the fwd cabins and the combination of amidships water and fuel tanks have reduced the sea noise in these areas dramatically with only 77 decibels at the helm seat in these conditions.



We decided that we could easily make it to Picton providing we didn’t strike liquid Himalayas in Cook straight, to quote Peter Montgomery!

There is always a bit of nerves as you poke your bow clear of the last head land and out into unprotected Cook straight. Even though the Simrad electronics has an amazing tide function that tells us tide-times everywhere we go, we didn’t look.

As we approached the outer sounds the sea dropped and with a 2 knot tide shunt we smoked into Wiakawa Marina by 6 am, what excitement being able to refuel with a card, although it took 3 swipes of 200 litres to complete.

We dare not stop as a deepening depression was approaching the West Coast of the South Island with freshening NW forecast.



Off again and at the heads by 7 am we made good headway in the sheltered waters, before hitting the open seas, then back inside and through French pass at would you believe it, dead slack tide! (Bummer I hear its very impressive).

Then on to Nelson arriving at 11. 22am and a very welcome cold beer or three.



The final total fuel burn was 1680 litres from the Cummins computer over 42 hrs with 1 ½ hrs refueling and although we never set a ships log for the exact distance traveled, a conservative 600 nautical miles were traveled, at 15 knots average giving an average fuel burn of 38 litres per hour.

Add the expense of a few pies and one airfare back from Nelson to Auckland and we saved a bundle and had a great time also.



As for my daughters dance, well Air NZ delayed the flight for 1 ½ hrs and I missed 3 out of the 5 dances so in this case the Corsair Cabriolet was more reliable than our national airline!! (Not that that’s hard)

I look forward to doing the same trip many times and hopefully we will be as blessed with flat seas and calm winds too!

Dean Salthouse