David Hogg on his 50-foot ketch, Juno Blue.
Sailing into summer Nelson’s affair with the sea can be traced back to the earliest times of human occupation about seven centuries ago, when Māori first arrived. Our affinity with it, beyond a means of transport to a place where people sailed for fun, happened soon after colonisation. Our writer Tracy Neal, who has spent years sailing Nelson’s coastline, tells us why it’s so special.
TRACY NEAL
D
ecember means two things: the hurly burly of Christmas, and for those with a boat, the chance to pack up the ham, the fruit cake, and sail off into the sunset. In David Hogg’s case, the provisions are usually prime prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, fresh milk for his tea and cream for his morning coffee. In fact, it was what he was loading into his yacht’s chiller the evening Nelson Magazine caught up with him on his 50-foot ketch, Juno Blue. “There are some things I just won’t go without,” he explains.
While the majority of Nelson sailors might typically pack powdered milk, baked beans and cabin bread for a fiveday sojourn, all share an equal love for sailing Tasman Bay’s coastline. In between the rough seas and occasionally queasy journeys, sailing offers glory days of golden sunsets, sunripened children and salt-laden adventures. “This is my happy place, it’s definitely an escape,” David says of the yacht strong enough to sail any of the world’s five oceans.
David, whose career revolves around the seafood industry, was heading off on one of his regular jaunts to d’Urville Island, and a quiet anchorage from where he usually catches his own dinner.
He says Nelsonians are lucky to have an affordable marina, which costs about a quarter of what it might in Auckland to moor a boat. He says while many look upon boating as something only for the wealthy, that’s not necessarily the case here.
“I catch fish every day. There are places I know where I can get paua, and you can see I’ve got a new system for catching crayfish,” he says, pointing to a new metal basket with which he planned to lure at least one of the d’Urville Island delicacies.
“You afford a boat by working hard and making a commitment to continually pouring money into a hole, which is bottomless. And you keep on doing it, and the reason is because you love to be on the water.”
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December 2021
