Ocean going expedition yacht Kiwi Roa Belfast Marina

I filmed this excellent ocean going yacht down at Belfast Marina today. Even with my untrained nautical eye she looked great. Custom-designed and built by yachtsman adventurer Peter Smith, a New Zealand boat builder, long distance cruiser and offshore sailor, and designer of the Rocna anchor range. He currently is living and cruising on his custom-designed self-built yacht, Kiwi Roa. The result of Peter’s lifelong experience both racing and long distance cruising, she’s a 15.5 m (52′) sloop built from 10 mm aluminium alloy plate (up to 25 mm in some sections), displacing 27 tonnes, built to go anywhere and handle the worst that the seas of this planet can throw at her. Peter’s recent voyaging includes the 5,500 nautical mile passage across the torrid Southern Ocean from New Zealand to Chile. He’s spent three years exploring Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and the South Atlantic islands of the Falklands and South Georgia. over a four year period in England, Kiwi Roa is the result of Peter’s lifelong experience both racing and long distance cruising, not to mention professional boat-building. She’s at heart an expedition yacht, a sloop built from 10 mm aluminium alloy plate (up to 25 mm in some sections), displacing 27 tonnes, built to go anywhere and handle the worst that the oceans of this planet can throw at her. Kiwi Roa was envisioned as the ultimate ocean-going home, and Peter lives aboard on a permanent basis. Launched in 1994 at Ipswich, she has since clocked up over 80,000 nautical miles and is still going strong in some of the world’s toughest environments. Kiwi Roa is named after the great spotted variant of New Zealand’s native flightless bird. A large grey kiwi seemed an appropriate metaphor for an unpainted aluminium yacht flying the New Zealand flag. She was built in Colchester England, in an old listed (protected) Essex barn which was being used as a boat building yard by Sammy Sampson. Kiwi Roa built over the period 1989–1994; some 22,000 man hours compressed into 4.5 years. It is unlikely a vessel like Kiwi Roa could ever be built commercially – the man hours and detail for a boat of this size would be uneconomical and very few if any yards have the experience or the capacity for the minute-by-minute supervision required. The basic layout would be four cabins, one saloon, a walk-in engine room, a decent forepeak, and a large usable lazarette, necessitating a length of over 50′ (15 m). The ability to claw off a lee shore in all conditions, while carrying a full load for the cruising live-aboard lifestyle, was essential. That load was to include 1200 L of water, another 1200 L of fuel, plus up to a year’s supplies. Specifications LOA: 15.5 m (52′) Displacement: 27 t (60,000 lb) Draught: 1.8 m (6′) Design: Custom one-off Tim Drury / Peter Smith Construction: Aluminium plate, teak interior Rig: Sloop, all spars aluminium