Benetti SY Blue Gold (ex white Gull)

In the "Benetti Shipyard Story" it is told she was ordered by an American in 1980 and the captain, Marino Canova was following the construction and remained as skipper until 1986 when the boat was sold to a Dutch yachtsman.

The twin Cat 3412:s of 580 hp gave here a max speed of 13,5 knots and the sail area was 800 sqm. Designer is Laurent Giles.

According to an online spotting site - she was last seen on 11/21/2008 in Viaduct Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand.

Some additional info on Blue Gold (ex. White Gull)

I was working on this yacht in 1997. At that time her name ws still White Gull and she was owned by a Dutch. I joined her i Caribbean and before that she had been based in southern France for quite some time without doing much sailing. As I remember it the owner had bought her to make a world cruice which he completed during a few years time and thereafter he did not do much sailing with it. After the season in Caribbean we took here to Ijmuiden (just outside Amsterdam i Holland) where we spent some time in a marina that was not at all intended for a yacht of that size. The captain did a good job taking her in and out of the marina, but we always hit a lightpost or something on the docks since it simply was not room enough fo us in there... We also spent some time in Rotterdam on a shipyard (a naval shipyard for some reason, the only neighbourghs we had were submarines). I also remember that the owner had the yacht lenghtend a few meters in the stern to make room for his Riva on the aft deck. The Riva was however replaced by a RIB when I were there. The yacht was never chartered in that ownership. Soon after I left they made a trip up to Norway (shame that I missed that one...). Not long after I think she was sold, and I read somewhere that it was the original owner that bought her back. Anyway, at that time she was re-painted blue and re-named "Blue Gold" (she was white from the beginning). I did not do that much sailing on her, but I remember that it was a huge number of sails to unfurl. I think actually that she was originally built with traditional "non-furling" sails. It must have required a number of extra crew to handle those sails manually... I guess it was the second owner that upgraded to hydrualic furling systems.

I sailed as crew on White Gull as she was from late 89 - early 1990 when she was on the world cruise with the owner - Leon Melchuir the Dutch Billionaraire who is seriously into Stud Horses.

At the time she had a mini refit and repaint here in New Zealand (Auckland / Whangarei) and we continued down to Stewart Island, over to Sydney and up to the Great Barrier Reef where I jumped off and went elsewhere.

The Riva was still onboard and the stern had been lengthed to fit it on prior to this world cruise. We used it as a dive tender regularly.

The skipper at the time was a yank who spoke fluent french as well - Larry Ciprich I think it was.

Most of the crew were kiwi with a french chef, dutch steward, dutch stewardess who jumped off in Auckland and was replaced with a kiwi girl, 2 kiwi engineers, 2 kiwi deck crew (me one of them), 1 french deck crew for a total of 9 included skipper.

The boat is currently laid up in Auckland looking rather sad and neglected with just 2 crew doing basics only. I went aboard earlier thsi year and she is still very original as it was 20 years ago with very little upgrades done other tahn some electronics. Original engines still going strong.

The boat can be seen in Google Earth at this location tied up in Auckland.

36 50 19.68E
174 54 15.64E

Hi I joined her in Hamilton Island Aussie in 1989. Hopped off in Cannes France in 91. Would be keen to hear from any crew during that time. Cheers Mark (red)

Hi too,
I (Aussie) worked on her with Red(Aussie) and ec12nz in 1990.
How are you Red, well I hope.
I left her in Colombo Sri Lanka, after joining her at Hamilton Island and cruising Indo for a few months.
Had some good times.
She was a big boat alright and we got her sailing nicely when crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Cheers

Rat of the Galley