102 Boating New Zealand
their education. This process is a distinctly different to Te Kura,
formerly known as The Correspondence School. The numerous
books, drawings and projects scattered throughout Tara show
Kerstin’s taking this seriously.
“We do a flexible education process, based on the four Cs;
critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.
And it depends on the weather – if it’s wet we stay aboard and
learn from books, if it’s fine we go ashore. That’s what I love
about this lifestyle, the kids learn because they have to.”
Her children – Leo 13, Maea 11 and Marlo eight – obviously
love the lifestyle. They’re sociable, articulate and show no signs
of missing out on certain aspects of modern life such as phones,
video games and TV. Indeed, some parents might consider the
lack of electronics a blessing.
Kerstin moors Tara either on her own anchor or on various
permanent moorings, moving the yacht to suit the weather
and the day’s activities. She says the bracket-mounted Tohatsu
outboard works well apart from when Tara ’s side-on to a swell.
In those conditions Kerstin prefers to leave the outboard on
the inflatable, which lashed to the yacht’s side, gives far more
responsive motoring.
While she would no doubt appreciate a bigger boat, she’s
practical enough to appreciate the extra maintenance costs
this entails, plus the added handling difficulties. But with Leo
now aged 13, extra space is required and Kerstin’s pragmatic
solution will be to buy a cheap boat for him.
“He’s pretty capable, so he can start having his own
adventures. And if he wants to go to Wellington to study he can
sail there and park up in Mana and he’s set.”Kerstin’s finances are tight, and she augments the kitty
by trapping possums for their fur. While she gets $110 a kilo
for the fur, an average possum’s fur is only worth $5. Having
been an possum skin trapper myself for a decade during the
1970s, I can assure readers anything to do with them is hard,
smelly work.
Besides Kerstin and her children, Tara ’s also home to cat
Neko-chan (little cat in Japanese) and an orphaned possum,loa (inc bowsprit) 9.22m
lwl 6.76m
beam 2.42m
draft 1.4m
displacement 3,680kg
ballast 1,400 kg
sail area 34.9m^2
designer George H Stadel Jr
builder Classic Yachts
engine Tohatsu 5hpSPECIFICATIONS – TARA