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Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show 2026

'A yacht called Erewhon'

by Chris Casey on 29 Apr 2007
"A yacht called Erewhon" by Stuart Vaughan Harper Collins
What if a man with a dream and a boat that needed a dreamer came together . . .

Imagine that a wealthy contemporary of Sir Thomas Lipton dreamed of winning the America’s Cup and built a J class racing yacht in New Zealand using native kauri and pohutukawa, those iron-hearted timbers that last almost forever.

What if the yacht never made it to Cowes but was lost off the Northland Coast, coming to rest in an unknown inland waterway? What if she was found, two generations later, by another man who carried her memory in his heart and dared to dream the same dream?

When an unlikely team of dreamers and dedicated craftspeople combine to restore the long-lost Erewhon, a lively tale of Kiwi ingenuity, imagination and craftsmanship unfolds. Across time and the wide oceans of the world, friendship and loyalty come together in a thrilling and heartwarming story of unstoppable optimism.

Stuart Vaughan is a first-time novelist, whose day (or rather night) job is as a service officer for the AA. To while away the long hours on call, he started writing a story about a man with a dream and a boat that needed a dreamer. Stuart lives and works in Auckland.

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