Few names carry the weight in New Zealand boatbuilding that Brin Wilson does. Founded in 1952, Brin Wilson Boatbuilders became known for crafting, restoring, and maintaining custom timber, fibreglass, and composite vessels, and Brin Wilson himself stands as one of the country’s most distinguished yachtsmen and master boatbuilders, a pioneer of international yacht racing. MV Jocelyn, a 1968 Brin Wilson 49, is a rare chance to see a genuine piece of that legacy up close.
Built for a prominent Auckland family and kept in their care since launch, she carries a gamefishing heritage alongside her classic construction, a kauri with diagonal plank hull that still turns heads on the water.
That gamefishing pedigree is easy to see once aboard. A dive platform at the stern makes getting on and off far simpler than most classic launches manage, and the tender stows overhead on the cabin roof, so the back deck stays clear for the work, or the entertaining, that happens there. It is a deck built for both: generous storage, timber underfoot, and enough room that a day spent fishing slides easily into an evening spent with friends.
Below, the boat trades any sense of a working platform for genuine comfort. Seating runs along both sides of the saloon with storage tucked beneath, the helm keeps its timber-lined, old-world character, and a U-shaped galley gives one person room to cook while everyone else stays part of the conversation rather than being sent below. The cabins carry that same generosity through to where you sleep, enough space, in fact, that living aboard for weeks at a stretch would be no hardship at all.
She measures 14.98m overall with a beam of 4.78m and a draft of 1.2m, and sleeps in three cabins. Power comes from twin 375hp Caterpillar engines, with 2,200 litres of fuel capacity, and she has never left the family that built her, a rare thing for a vessel of this age.
This is a well looked after boat. As it happens, this particular example is currently for sale in Auckland for NZD $520,000, through 36 Degrees Brokerage, for anyone curious enough to want a closer look at what a Brin Wilson 49 has to offer.
