(Delivery) Engineer/Mate- 34m SY- West Indies to New Zealand Apply Now
Are you an experienced Engineer/Mate interested in a delivery across the Pacific?
Position Snapshot
* 7000 USD / Month
* Start Date: before 20 May 2026.
* Arrival in New Zealand first week of August 2026
* Opportunity for fulltime / permanent
The Boat
Is a 34 meter, all Carbon, twin rudder, lifting keel performance sloop built in 2016.
The boat is light, powerful, and fast, and the owner loves to sail as much as reasonably possible.
We have a full time crew of 4 consisting of Captain, Chef, Stew deck, Engineer mate, and usually augmented with 2 semi permanent extras for longer deliveries or as relief crew when needed. The current captain and chef ( Kiwi and Canadian couple ) have been with the owners program for 10 years, 2 generations of owners, and 3 boats. The semi permanent extras have also been involved for around 10 years and therefore create a very effective team.
The crew is social. Alcohol is permitted, but not on watch, under way or during work hours. Smoking of ANY kind is forbidden. All forms of recreational drug use is forbidden.
Accommodations
The yacht has 4 guest cabins and two twin crew cabins with the fwd guest cabin usually turned over to crew except on occasion when extra guests are aboard. This means that most of the time, full time crew get their own cabin. During longer deliveries all cabins except the owners stateroom are turned over to crew and the owners cabin to storage so everyone gets a decent cabin.
The Technical Details
LOA 34 meters
Beam 8 meters
Draft keel up 3.4 meters
Draft Keel down 4.9 meters
GRT 114
Rig and Deck – 15/16 rigged fractional rigged Southern Spars carbon mast with swept spreaders and in boom furling. EC6 standing rigging, Reckman hydraulic carbon headsail furler. 3 speed Harken hydraulic deck winches, Lewmar hydraulic retracting bow and stern thrusters.
Mechanical – Engine Cummins QSL9 6cyl 290 Kw driving 4 blade VP prop and PTO for hydraulics.
Generators Kohler 32 Kw 3 phase 220 volt 50Hz with hydraulic PTO's
Electrical system 480 / 100 amp 3 phase primary with both 3 phase and 220 volt sub branches plus 24 and 12 volt DC systems.
Tender 4.5 meter Walker Bay Rib with 60 hp Honda
Maintenance
Maintenance and operating budget is higher than average with a lot of importance placed on maintenance, service, upgrades and a decent spare parts inventory maintained at all times.
General use Program
Strictly Private / no commercial charters.
The yachts owner is American, male, 68, single, and loves to sail. Typical usage is 3 x 4 week cruises per year or with a season of shorter day or long weekend cruises if in the right region. On longer cruises guests are usually rotated in and out in 1 week intervals. Guests usually comprise immediate family, adult children and their friends.
Current Schedule and Program
The yacht is currently in Grenada West Indies having a new EC6 Forestay fitted. Once completed in the next 2-3 weeks we will be heading to Panama for transit into the Pacific and on to French Polynesia where the owner will join for a 30 day cruise of the Marquesas, Tuamotu's by himself and then the Society Islands with his adult children and brother.
From Tahiti we will continue to New Zealand where we have 2 major and several less major refit projects planned at Orams Marine in Auckland.
We expect to arrive in Auckland 2 nd week of August 2026.
These projects include
* A 10 year rig survey and service with Southern Spars Rig Pro.
* Repainting of mast, boom, etc.
* A complete new teak deck by Orams Marine.
* Repainting of white deck and cabin top areas.
* Multiple other system service and upgrade works.
These works are expected to be completed by Feb 2027 when the owner will join for a late summer cruise in NZ waters followed by a delivery and cruise to the pacific, likely Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and down to Australia and Tasmania.
The pacific program is expected to run to late 2028 or 2029 with the return to Caribbean and US North East coast to follow.
Role to be filled
The position would suit someone (male or female) who has solid engineering abilities to at least an advanced AEC level in all the system disciplines noted above, as some of the systems are quite complex. Confident sailing, docking, line handling and deck management skills are needed. Competent watch-keeping abilities are needed and could be supervised as needed or as a watch leader if competent. Generally we try to lighten the watch keeping load on the engineer when on passage as they have their own realm to manage.
Any prospective candidate should have the ability for the appropriate visa's to get into French Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia. The preferred Candidates being NZ, Australian, UK, Canadian, but others with the right immigration status will certainly be welcome to apply.
The initial role would include part or all of the delivery as available from Grenada to NZ as a trial period, arriving in NZ eta week 2 August. We would then envision the full time role becoming available assuming the delivery trial goes well and the boat is in NZ. The captain will be remote for substantial periods of the refit period and as such a competent assistant and overseer is required to be present with the yard on a day-to-day basis and report regularly to the captain and owner. This role is expected to be supported by one of our trusted regulars so the new engineer won't be completely left on their own or to the mercy of the yard.
At the completion of the refit works, the engineer would remain as part of the full time crew and be a fully fledged member of the team.
The positions start salary would be 6500 USD p/m depending on experience.
Travel costs covered.
Trial period would be 1 month or until the boat reached NZ. At the end of the trial Salary will go up to 7000 USD p/m depending on competence.
The position is All Found with all clothing, food, tools, gear, accommodation if applicable, and basic essentials covered by the yacht.
Paid annual leave is 1 month per year with 1 return flight to home port or agreed destination provided.
Payment is by monthly direct transfer to the employee's bank account.
Tax obligations are the responsibility of the employee.
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