New Zealand's sail training ship now in her 24th year

The Spirit of Adventure Trust operates the Spirit of New Zealand, a 33m black three-masted barquentine. In the twenty-four years since commissioning, Spirit of New Zealand has become one of the country's best-known cultural icons and established provider of youth development for 15-18 year olds.

She is often also claimed as one of the world's busiest youth ships, carrying out a year-round programme of 10-day youth development voyages interspersed with 5-day special voyages for 14-year-olds, disabled trainees, leader managers and student school Trustees. Only at two-week annual refit and survey, and a short Christmas break, is she not hard at work around New Zealand's eastern coastal waters, principally in the Hauraki Gulf.

The Trust's involvement with sail training, however, goes back to 1972, to the topsail schooner Spirit of Adventure donated by industrialist Lou Fisher. The smaller 'White Ship' operated from 1973 until 1997, when she was reluctantly sold to Fiji to continue life there in tourism. Between 1986 and 1997 the Trust operated both ships together, and has now taken more than 75,000 young New Zealanders to sea.

The Trust's funding comes from 10-day voyage fees. Trainees are selected by their schools. On going fundraising, sought from charitable trusts and commercial sponsorships makes up the balance, to the tune of around $NZ1m annually. The Trust employs two professional crews, but has always been heavily dependent on trained volunteers who sail at all levels of crewing from volunteer relieving masters to leading hands selected from the ex-trainees’ Voyagers Club.

Distance rules out participation in Atlantic or northern Pacific tall ships’ events; only once has Spirit of New Zealand ventured offshore, for the 1988 Australian Bi-Centenary. However, she played a major role in the two America’s Cups regattas in Auckland in 2000 and 2003, and her $NZ48 million successor is anticipated somewhere around 2035.

For more information...
Spirit of New Zealand Website