Hi sailors,

I'm Warren, new owner of a Northshore 38, and I'm in a bit of a pickle.I had a skipper lined up to help sail my yacht home. His last message was full of enthusiasm, but I haven't heard from him in over two weeks. I've reached out a few times to check in and make sure everything's okay, but I've been ghosted. I'm grateful for the boat prep advice he gave, but now I've got a ready-to-go boat and no one to sail with.

With limited sailing experience, I'm not confident doing the trip solo. So I'm reaching out to this incredible community, hoping someone might be up for an adventure - whether that's joining me, offering guidance or connecting me with someone who can help.

The yacht's in great shape (happy to share upgrade invoices). I'm open to your sailing style - relaxed day hops with overnight stops, or more productive runs including night sailing. The route is Melbourne to Brisbane - ideally Mackay - preferably, I'd love to get us home before Christmas. I'd genuinely appreciate any help and look forward to hearing from you!

Below are some details about the boat.

The boat is fully registered and covered by comprehensive insurance.
It also has a wardrobe of sails - new mainsail dacron, 4 assorted spinnakers, 1, 2, 3 & 4 headsails.
The boat features a toilet and shower, a TV, speakers, a fridge, and a freezer.

Equipment & Safety Gear (All new as of Sept-Oct 2025):

Standing rigging, Halyards, Furler
EPIRB, AIS & MMSI #
2 - MOB 1 AIS personal epirbs
VHF Radio & aerial
Plotter
Viking Liferaft (4-person)
ST60 Raymarine Wind Instrument
Jack Lines, spare jack lines, spare tether
2 In-house batteries, 1 starter, new leads & terminals
Safety jacket, spare CO2 bulb, harness & tether
Foul weather gear - bottoms, jacket and shoes

Other in-date safety gear:

HF Radio
Handheld VHF radio
Flares
Lewmar Anchor with 60m chain
Windlass - cockpit & bow controls, Spare Anchor
Emergency steering tiller
First Aid Kit
Full Lee Cloths for all setees
Spare - fuses, impellers, belts, hose clamps, fuel/water separator, oil, jerry cans
Toolkit
Emergency NAV lights & VHF aerial
Wooden conical emergency bungs
Very new tender & 3hp outboard

Owner Credentials:

Fit, easy to get along with gentleman, nonsmoker, good cook, social drinker
IYT Sailing Certificate - Whitsunday Sailing School
Crew Experience - Eureka 2 (Sydney 60) Sailing School voyage
Dinghy sailing
LROCP Radio Licence holder
Recreational boat license
Full first aid accredited

Hi

I'm not a contender for this. You're probably looking for someone with decent experience but without their own boat and with a month to spare away from home, family etc.

Melbourne to Mackay's maybe 1500NM on my rough plot, without stops in ports. That's a 11 days worth of sailing 24/7 at an average of 6 knots. I tend to plan on 5 knots SOG to allow for light winds and adverse currents, and then be pleasantly surprised if/when I average better. So 13 days at 5 knots non-stop.

That would require favourable winds - ie generally from a southerly quadrant for maybe 10 days after you turn the corner North to go up the East coast. Unlikely, in my view, this time of year. So if one does it in a series of legs with overnights and some days in ports waiting for the weather, the elapsed time is likely to be 3-4 weeks or more. Earliest start is mid November, so before Xmas theoretically achievable, but maybe not in practice.

Of course you could rely more on motoring. As I recall you have 160 litre diesel tank and a 28(?)HP motor, so maybe 350NM range on a full tank. Add another 40NM per 20 litre jerrycan and take maybe 4 of those. That'd give you a bit over 500NM range, conservatively.

Just a suggestion, but you may be better off doing it in a series of say 3 legs with breaks, and possibly with different skipper for different legs, stopping at ports where it's safe to leave the boat if necessary (ie not unattended on the anchor). Such as, roughly speaking, Melb to Sydney (or Batemans Bay or Newcastle depending on the weather), Sydney to Brisbane, and Brisbane to Mackay. Roughly 500-600 NM per leg.

A commercial delivery skipper would likely set you back maybe $13-15,000 for the whole trip. Last one I used was based out of Newcastle and charged $7.50 per NM, so Melb to Mackay would be maybe $11,250 for the distance, plus airfares to Melb and back home from Mackay and out of pockets. That was a couple of years ago, so no idea what the prevailing rate might be. Understandable you'd want to avoid that expense.

Good luck.

Select to expand quote

Quixotic said..
Hi

I'm not a contender for this. You're probably looking for someone with decent experience but without their own boat and with a month to spare away from home, family etc.

Melbourne to Mackay's maybe 1500NM on my rough plot, without stops in ports. That's a 11 days worth of sailing 24/7 at an average of 6 knots. I tend to plan on 5 knots SOG to allow for light winds and adverse currents, and then be pleasantly surprised if/when I average better. So 13 days at 5 knots non-stop.

That would require favourable winds - ie generally from a southerly quadrant for maybe 10 days after you turn the corner North to go up the East coast. Unlikely, in my view, this time of year. So if one does it in a series of legs with overnights and some days in ports waiting for the weather, the elapsed time is likely to be 3-4 weeks or more. Earliest start is mid November, so before Xmas theoretically achievable, but maybe not in practice.

Just a suggestion, but you may be better off doing it in a series of say 3 legs with breaks, and possibly with different skipper for different legs, stopping at ports where it's safe to leave the boat if necessary (ie not unattended on the anchor). Such as, roughly speaking, Melb to Sydney (or Batemans Bay or Newcastle depending on the weather), Sydney to Brisbane, and Brisbane to Mackay.

A commercial delivery skipper would likely set you back maybe $13,000 for the whole trip. Last one I used was based out of Newcastle and charged $7.50 per NM, so Melb to Mackay would be maybe $11,250 for the distance, plus airfares to Melb and back home from Mackay. That was a couple of years ago, so no idea what the prevailing rate might be. Understandable you'd want to avoid that expense.

Good luck.

Your advice is quite good and I was working on approximately the same assumptions ie 5 knts average, timeline if weather is favourable and price. I am open to paying a skipper however, some of the quotes I received were mind boggling high. Good news of late is that I now only require help to get her to Brisbane....whereas from there, I have help to get her all the way home to Mackay. If I can get her to Brisbane, it is fair to say I pretty much am covered for the rest of the journey. As you said, I would also be open from Brisbane to leave her in Yeppoon Marina if need be and travel back at another time to complete the rest of the journey north to Mackay. Thank you for your advice, appreciate it.

Hello Wazzer
I may be able to help when are you looking at going ?
I have sailed up down the east coast several times just recently retired from working on ships
Have been racing /sailing over 40 yrs ,i live in Gippsland.
Anyway give me your contact details.
Cheers