About Ocean Sailing Expeditions

Our mission: To sail with everyday people to rare and remote places, to participate with passion in ocean races and adventures and undertake expeditions we’ll remember and treasure, for the rest of our lives.

Our sailing calendar is packed full of expeditions, passages, races and regattas for the next 2 years and makes it simple to plan and select from a range or 4 - 21 day events to suit your sailing goals. We sail to Australia, New Zealand, Sub Antarctic Islands and the Pacific Islands.

If you want to become a capable and confident offshore sailor, the best thing you can do is go to sea with experienced skippers on well prepared yachts. It does not matter how much you have read or how much inshore sailing you have done, going offshore on an ocean going yacht is whole new experience and a key step to preparing the offshore sailor. As your skippers, we have completed more than 80,000 nautical miles of coastal and offshore passages, competed in more than 400 yacht races and skippered multiple blue water ocean crossings during the past decade alone.

We have found that the more sea miles we have under our belts from all sorts of conditions, the more our focus on ‘safety first’ has developed. On our expedition yachts; Silver Fern and Salt Lines we spare no expense when it comes to safety equipment, use of technology and boat preparation. You can be confident our safety standards will give you peace of mind when heading offshore with us. 

You will learn more onboard Silver Fern and Salt Lines in just a few days, than you will learn from months of reading sailing books. Our hands-on, fast-track learning environment, immerses you straight into offshore sailing. You’ll become confident within hours of getting started and relish the opportunity to learn from the extensive knowledge of those around you. From navigation to sail management and trimming, plumbing, mechanical and electrical systems, watch planning, heavy weather preparation, making landfall and weather analysis; we’ll teach it all in plain, everyday english.

We include 8 - 10 paying crew on each ocean passage, expedition or regatta (plus 2 commercially licensed, Ocean Sailing Expeditions Skippers, for a maximum ocean passage crew of 10 on Silver Fern and 12 on Salt Lines. We've got bunks for 12+ and plenty of room for our crew to relaxe in the pilot houses, cockpits, cabin tops and in cabins.

Ocean Sailing Expeditions adheres to international maritime safety standards by operating our sailing vessels: Silver Fern and Salt Lines in “Unlimited Commercial Survey” under Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) and the Maritime and Coastguard Association (MCA) . We also hold permits and obtain the required approvals to operate in the various marine parks, world heritage environments and protected fiords we visit. We aspire to make an impact every day by strengthening the communities, protecting nature and wildlife, and preserving the cultural riches of the areas we operate in. We are members of Sustainable Travel International and the Adventure Travel Trade Association.