A two-person submarine that has never touched the water is for sale through a New Zealand connection, and the money isn’t going into a private seller’s pocket. It’s funding ocean conservation and education instead.
Boating New Zealand spoke with Paul MacDonald about the listing, a 2023 Nemo submersible built by Dutch manufacturer U-Boat Worx and donated, unused, to the ocean conservation charity SeaKeepers. The SeaKeepers South Pacific Chapter connects yachts and boats with marine research initiatives across the Pacific through scientist-led expeditions, citizen science projects, educational outreach, and community engagement initiatives. SeaKeepers South Pacific empowers communities and ocean advocates to protect and restore marine ecosystems.
How a donated submarine ends up for sale
SeaKeepers got its start in Monaco in 1998, when a group of prominent Superyacht owners liked the idea of turning their own boats into research platforms. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was one of the original founders and the first user of an inhouse developed ocean monitoring device called the SeaKeeper 1000 to collect atmospheric and oceanic readings. That early, high-profile involvement helped the organisation expand well beyond Monaco. It now runs chapters in the US, UK, Asia and the South Pacific.
The South Pacific chapter is based in Auckland and only opened its doors in 2023. It operates through registered charitable trusts in New Zealand and Australia, and on the Australian side, that trust holds Deductible Gift Recipient status, so donors there can claim a tax benefit on the registered value of their vessel. Owners donate their boat, or in this case a submarine, and SeaKeepers turns the asset into funding to support ocean conservation and education, or use it as a platform for ongoing scientific work.
For bigger assets, the charity will line up a buyer alongside the donation, since it can’t afford to sit on something that size indefinitely. A generous donor now having donated a brand-new Nemo, and SeaKeepers is now selling it on to raise funds for the organisation. MacDonald’s contact at SeaKeepers South Pacific is Lance Sheppard, the chapter’s CEO and a trustee of its New Zealand and Australian charitable trust.
What the sub can actually do
The Nemo is U-Boat Worx’s smallest model, a two-seater built around the company’s signature acrylic sphere, which gives both occupants an uninterrupted view out. It’s rated to dive to 100 metres, powered by four electric thrusters, and covers roughly 1.65 kilometres of range from wherever the support boat is anchored. Underwater, it moves at around three knots.
At around 2.5 tonnes and roughly the footprint of two jet skis parked side by side, it’s light enough to store in a superyacht’s tender garage. U-Boat Worx also sells beach launchers, towable trailers and floating “sub houses” for owners without a yacht to launch from. The sub is fully sealed and self-contained, with its own life-support systems, and occupants climb in through a top hatch. It stays fully manoeuvrable on the surface as well as below it, since the thrusters sit underwater even when the Nemo itself is floating. The Submarine is currently sitting in a climate control facility in Holland.
The numbers
MacDonald puts the Nemo‘s retail value new at around US$1.9 million. SeaKeepers is asking US$1.4 million for this one, a saving of roughly half a million US dollars on a submarine that has never been in the water.
Whether it counts as a straightforward boat sale or a charitable transaction is a bit of both, MacDonald says. Money changes hands, but it goes toward an organisation that has run more than 500 science projects worldwide since 1998, using a network of roughly 250 partner vessels for scientist-led expeditions, citizen science, education and community outreach.
For the right explorer yacht or coastal property owner, a brand-new submarine at half a million off list, with the money going straight into ocean research, is a fairly unusual thing to stumble across. SeaKeepers South Pacific has been busy this year working with the NZ Marine industry getting them supporting and involved in ocean research and education programs as well as Westhaven, Silo and Auckland Central marina, Waiheke Island Marina and Gulf Harbour Marina on Auckland’s Whangaparaoa Peninsula who have all signed on as SeaKeepers South Pacific Marina Partners.
Check it out on MCD: https://www.mcdyachts.com/uboatnemo
