Fifty-seven years after she first put the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron fleet to shame, Namu is looking for a new owner. For anyone with an appreciation of New Zealand sailing history, the name alone carries weight.
In the late 1960s, Namu was an uncomfortable presence for the competition at RNZYS. She was narrower than anything else on the water, lighter through the chop, and meaningfully quicker than most of her rivals were willing to admit. More than half a century later, people at the Squadron still talk about her.
The design behind her is Jim Young's Young 37, and its philosophy was straightforward: narrow boats go fast. Namu measures 2.85 metres in beam, around 25 percent slimmer than a production yacht of comparable length would have been. That wasn't a quirk, it was the whole point. Young was pursuing minimum drag and light displacement, building hulls that would carve cleanly to windward rather than fight their way through it. In 1968, with fibreglass beginning to reshape what production sailing could look like, a well-built kauri Young 37 was right at the front of the pack.
Her first owner arrived knowing exactly what he had. He had previously campaigned a Lidgard with solid results, but Namu changed the picture from the outset. The B Class Championships went his way by 29 minutes, with Santana, Southern Star, Susan Jane, and Secret left behind, none of them easy boats to beat. He kept Namu racing until around 1979/80, when the demands the boat placed on her owner eventually outgrew what he could give. She passed to new hands, and her reputation stayed intact. She is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished racing yachts ever to have sailed from RNZYS, a bold claim that most accounts suggest is fully warranted.
Namu is currently listed for sale.
Step aboard and there is very little to find fault with. White topsides, deep blue canvas, a clean and uncluttered deck with moulded non-skid underfoot. Tiller steering, a stainless boarding ladder at the stern, and the original dorade vents still doing their job, channelling fresh air below while keeping water out. The rig is in good order. The timber carries honest wear, the kind that builds up naturally across a well-used life, but nothing that would give a thoughtful buyer any reason to hesitate.
The past four years have seen Namu converted from dedicated racer to capable cruiser, and the work has been carried out with evident care. The old engine was lifted out and replaced with a second-hand Lombardini diesel that starts reliably. The prop shaft has been upgraded to 25mm. Down below, new laminated sole boards in Kahikatea and Matai have been fitted, and the forward double has been re-lined and given an additional mattress. An Isotherm electric fridge and freezer has been installed, alongside an electric anchor winch, fixed and handheld VHF, a certified gas installation, and a 240V shore power connection. A stack pack and cockpit Bimini round things out, and she sleeps five.
Survey was passed in December 2024, with the hull freshly sanded and antifouled at the same time. A marina berth comes with the sale and may transfer to the incoming owner.
The asking price is $29,000. At that figure, Namu is not a project, she is a finished boat. The survey is current, the refit is behind her, and the racing history is the real thing. What a buyer is actually getting is a 57-year-old kauri yacht, still slim, still quick, carrying a record on the water that most boats launched this decade will never come close to matching.
