Yacht Master - David Hows
I am a sailing addict. I have watched, followed or listened to almost every Americas Cup Series and Volvo Ocean Race since 1987. The highs and lows of supporting the New Zealand Teams have been a rollercoaster ride over the years. I am a 53 year old New Zealander that has lived in Australia for 17 years and I dream of one day returning to New Zealand for summer every year, to live on a piece of Waiheke Island paradise in a place overlooking my beloved Hauraki Gulf (while still spending the winters on the Gold Coast in Queensland).
The Ocean Sailing Expeditions story
After being a dinghy sailor for many years, I purchased a 1992 Beneteau 44.5 in 2011 and spent my first 2 summers as a keel boat owner, cruising the top half of the North Island of New Zealand, before sailing Ocean Gem, across the Tasman in late 2013, with my 68 year old father as part of the 4 man crew, to where she was based at the Southport Yacht Club (SYC) on the Gold Coast until I sold her in 2020, to purchase the New Zealand 72-foot “go-anywhere” expedition and ocean racing yacht - Silver Fern.
My first Tasman Sea crossing was such a great experience that I wrote and published an iBook ‘Sailing the Tasman Sea’, so my Dad could keep a memory of our treasured trip together, forever. This was the first time in my life that I really understood the power of capturing and sharing stories. I am not a writer or journalist. I am a sailor and I love introducing new people to my love of all things - sailing.
Queensland Beneteau Cup 2018 on Ocean Gem
My ‘Ocean Sailing Expeditions’ racing crew and I have now competed in more than 400 races and regattas since 2014 including two Rolex Sydney Hobart Races, the Sydney to Gold Coast Race, Pittwater to Southport Race, Brisbane to Hamilton Island Race, Hamilton Island Race Week, the Queensland Beneteau Cup and the 2018 Solo Tasman Race. To date I have sailed more than 75,000nm as Skipper.
I have been north to Hamilton Island and south to Sydney multiple times. I have now crossed the Tasman fourteen times (twice solo) and I think we were possibly the only 1992 Beneteau to ever get a carbon sail wardrobe and an IRC rating in Australia. We have also won back to back Keel Boat Club Championships at the Southport Yacht Club in 2016 and 2017 with Ocean Gem.
In 2018 Australian Sailing awarded me the honour and the title of Australian Sailing: Queensland Offshore Sailor of the Year and I was also the runner-up for Queensland Offshore Sailor of the Year in 2020.
I hold the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore and RYA Yachtmaster Ocean and Maritime New Zealand Master Yachts >24m skippers qualifications.
Some of my favourite reads are 'Peter Montgomery: The Voice of Yachting' by Bill Francis (2015) and ‘Australian Ocean Racing’, published in 1967 by Murray Davis and they are great chronicles of the birth of Ocean Racing in New Zealand and Australia, going back as far as 1907 with the first Melbourne to Tasmania Race.
These books have again reinforced to me that there are so many untold sailing stories that need to be captured and shared or they risk being lost forever.
My extensive reading and sailing, combined with Andy Schell’s 59 North Podcast inspired me to launch the Ocean Sailing Podcast in 2016 to capture and share the numerous ocean racing and cruising sailing stories on a regular basis with armchair sailors, cruisers and racers across Australasia, that help inspire us to sail further and set our sights on new challenges.
The Ocean Sailing Podcast has now had more than 920,000 episode downloads and has listeners in more than 100 countries with my personal my ocean racing, regattas and adventures attracting an increasing amount of media attention too.
The new 72-foot Silver Fern ocean racing and expedition yacht
Sail Paradise Regatta 2021 on the new 72 foot Silver Fern
Happy days half way across the Tasman Sea in 2013
If you know of anyone whose story I can capture and share, please email me: david@oceansailingpodcast.com.au
Regards David