Along with many New Zealanders during COVID, Robert Cross, a lifelong sailor,
a thinker and a tinkerer, suddenly found himself unmoored. The pandemic threw stiff headwinds at his business. Personal relationships sailed into shoal water. But he held onto one thing: his dream of an ultimate boat.
A lot of yachties harbour this dream, but most only dream about it. Cross used the COVID downtime to build his dream, working mostly by himself in a mate’s shed on a farm in Kaingaroa, in the Far North. He found help at critical junctures, such as glassing the plywood hull and installing the engine and drivetrain. Otherwise, Cross was alone, dressing timber, mixing epoxy, and sanding, with plenty of time to ponder his dream. (For more on the building of Denim, see “The Perfect Yacht” in the March 2025 Boating New Zealand).
Robert Cross grew up in Avondale, Auckland, son of a woodturner/cabinet maker who built traditional yachts in the backyard for fun. But Robert’s love affair with yachts took a progressive path. He became a devoted follower of designer Greg Elliott, known for his edgy, innovative racers and performance cruisers.
Cross owned a series of Elliott boats in his younger years and became a believer in the pilothouse concept of Kiwi designers such as Bob Stewart, Jim Young, Greg Elliott, and more. These days, Cross owns Sail Connections, a global bareboat business that connects clients with large fleet operators, mostly in Europe. Drawing on lessons learned from his customers and as a skipper in the Ionian Sea charter trade, Denim, based on the Elliott 1150 Tourer, would be a purpose-built charter boat for the Bay of Islands and the Hauraki Gulf. “I sail many production monohulls when I charter overseas, and there are many good features I was keen to see integrated into this boat,” notes Cross.
Because Maritime New Zealand requires that a New Zealand charter boat must be designed, built, and equipped to Maritime NZ’s commercial specification, securing the necessary commercial ticket for Denim meant following the dictates and submitting to many inspections of everything from hull and deck construction to electrical specs to safety requirements. It all added up to more work, more details, more cost, and more time, until finally the 40-page certificate of approval was granted. The result is a boat that is strong and safe. And certified.
“There is nothing that went into this boat that is not part of its structure,” Cross says. “Bulkheads are the ring-frames; bunk tops and benches are the stringers. Even cupboards are bonded in, and the entire structure is a honeycomb of light but incredibly strong components. Weight beyond what is needed for strength serves no purpose and affects the performance of a boat. I wanted to build a robust boat that will stand up to charter. I don’t think anyone can break it.”
Concept meets reality
A contemporary pilothouse cruiser, the signature feature of Denim is its ‘single level’ concept, which places the saloon on nearly the same plane (two half-steps down) as the cockpit sole. The impact of single-level life must be experienced to be fully appreciated. Firstly, there’s no need to navigate a steep ladder to go to/from the cockpit and the cabin. The cook is not ‘down in the hole’ belowdecks, isolated from everyone in the cockpit. Dining or relaxing in the saloon comes with a near-wraparound water view. And a water view for the cook, too!
The design triumph of ‘galley up’ and ‘saloon up’ ambience, an extremely attractive feature of life on most catamarans, has been rendered on a 37-foot monohull. Denim’s three forward pilothouse windows are 500mm x 500mm, and the side windows are 400mm high and a whopping 2.7m long. The views and the amount of natural light coming in are eye-popping. All windows are of Maritime NZ-specified 10mm toughened glass. (With so much light coming in, a clever window-shade system or external covers may be on the cards.)
I admit I was skeptical, but Denim’s three-cabin layout, quite an achievement on an 11.5m yacht, works. The double V-berth forward and the two double cabins aft of the saloon are roomy enough and private enough for a medium-sized (four people) to maximum-sized (six people) charter party. Six hull windows of 10mm toughened glass (one each in the head area, forward cabin, and aft cabins) are beefed up by large backing blocks.
The forward cabin is one step down from the saloon, and the aft cabins are two steps down. The yacht’s dedicated head and dedicated shower compartments, with convenient stowage lockers and a seating/catnapping space opposite, are forward of the mast and generously sized.
Cross decided not to give in to the usual practice of combining a toilet space with a shower space and thus having two head/showers, which generally results in a soggy experience in both respects. Charter guests will simply share Denim’s head, like grownups. The fore-and-aft galley, on the port side of the saloon, features an Inox fridge/freezer with drawers. The galley has lots of stainless-steel worktop space for meal prep. The seats-six raised dinette table and seating area offer a full view of the waterscape.
The other key feature of Denim’s design is that deck beam is carried well aft, resulting in a wide, large cockpit and a twin-wheel steering station, as well as room for the two double cabins aft. Substantial topsides flare has kept the waterline beam narrow, for speed. Three chines (per side) add stability to the sail-carrying equation and structure to the hull panels.
As with every aspect of every boat ever built, there are trade-offs. Denim’s single-level design is unbeatable for ease of cockpit-to-cabin movement – and for wraparound views for the cook and diners and loungers in the lounge. The raised-floor main cabin does necessitate a high coachroof (visibility from behind the twin wheels is reduced, but you can peer around the side of the coachroof or through the forward pilothouse windows when needed).
The Yanmar 57hp diesel is located beneath the saloon sole. There’s 100% access to the engine and drivetrain, but for filter changes and other servicing, you’ll need to ease yourself down into the 800mm-deep bilge area through a large floorboard hatch alongside the galley. Does the lack of an engine box or enclosure mean that engine noise reaches a bit further into the boat? That’s hard to know, but it’s probably not an issue, given that the underside of the cabin sole is heavily soundproofed.
Underway
Denim is fast and nimble under sail, a delight to steer; she’ll acquit herself well in club racing. The deep spade rudder turns on Jefa bearings; the feel on the Lewmar wheels is so light that two fingers are enough. The boat is finely balanced; there is barely any weather helm when Denim heels to a gust. Under power, Denim cruises at 7.0 knots at 1800rpm and at 8.5 knots at 2800rpm.
Denim has a modest sail area and, thus far, only one winch. The self-tacking 97% jib, an idea Cross explains is borrowed from the new breed of Euro cruisers and charter boats, is key to the boat’s low-hassle sail plan. The full-battened mainsail has two slab reefs, and the mid-boom mainsheet, located on the coachroof, keeps the cockpit a safe place during gybes. A bank of four sheet stoppers (main halyard, mainsheet, first reef, and jibsheet) just forward of the starboard wheel is handy for singlehanding. Denim’s cockpit – deep, safe, and comfortable – is tried-and-true rather than the sunbed zones of some charter boats. A teak-planked cockpit sole adds a touch of tradition.
There’s a 45-litre cockpit fridge tucked away into the cockpit coaming just forward of the port wheel, and a fold-out cockpit table, painted denim-blue and inset with carbon-fibre cupholders, ready for sundowners and cockpit dining. The two-metre-wide swim platform has a high-quality shower for swimmers, a cutting board for fishers, and
a BBQ for all.
Working on deck, with well-placed handholds on the cabin top, is safe and easy, but care must be taken when you come to the sloping glass windshield of the coachroof immediately aft of the mast. The shroud chainplates are carbon, bonded into the boat’s structure; the lower shrouds, set inboard, give unobstructed passage on the wide sidedecks to and from the foredeck.
The bow is squared off to accommodate the anchor roller and the bases of a clever hinge-up stainless-steel bowsprit (for a Code 0 and to reduce overall length and the monthly marina berth bill). There’re still a few goodies coming for Denim: 900 watts of solar on a stainless-steel over-cockpit bimini; a watermaker; and possibly, primary winches on the cockpit coamings for a Code 0 or screecher.
What’s ahead
So Denim hits all her targets: a purpose-built charter boat that you can race or cruise in the off-season. But Robert Cross has another challenge ahead: reforming the New Zealand charterboat industry, because things are at a low ebb.
Perhaps it all started back in 1979, with Robert Muldoon’s infamous Boat Tax, a 20% levy on the price of Kiwi-built boats. The tax throttled New Zealand’s boat exports, knocking more than 100 marine companies out of business. Skilled boatbuilders, cast adrift, sadly looked for work in other industries. Memo to politicians: It’s a helluva lot easier to thump your chest and break things than it is to listen to the people who build things. While many European governments subsidise their boatbuilders, the New Zealand government taxed its boatbuilders. Go figure.
And other New Zealand government agencies, notably Inland Revenue, piled on. The result is that the charter industry needs rethinking and retooling. Compared to the European model, which offers big charter fleets, managed maintenance, trained captains, and hands-on education programmes for novice sailors/charter customers, we have a long way to go.
That said, Robert Cross has achieved his dream. Denim is unbreakable, functional, and comfortable – and she sails and motors well. Given all the things that Denim is, let’s consider what Denim is not. Denim is not a shined-up reincarnation of an old boat. Nor is Denim a homage to old ways and old thinking. And neither is Denim just another mass-production import. Denim is the latest evolution in our design and boatbuilding: a modern New Zealand-style pilothouse yacht.
Born and bred, Denim is a Kiwi boat.
