Whale watching, bird watching and Scottish island cruises from Northern Light Charters :: boats

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Yacht Zuza under sail (c) Zuza Expeditions Zuza is a 22m sailing vessel with interesting and unusual credentials. She was designed and built in 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa by Eraco, a company specialising in building aluminium craft for the defence and commercial industries.

Zuza was built to sail anywhere round the globe, being self sufficient for long periods at sea, and has worked in some exotic locations coping admirably with a variety of extreme weather conditions. Following completion the British Royal Geographical Society selected Zuza as an offshore base for an international marine research project off the east coast of Africa where her facilities and reliability helped to facilitate ground-breaking research.

Yacht Zuza (c) Zuza Expeditions Just like Chalice, our very first boat, Zuza is a purpose-built liveaboard, not a conversion. She currently accommodates eight guests and up to four crew in comfort - passenger numbers will be increased for 2009. Unusually, for a vessel of this size, she has two lovely double-bedded cabins which we know will prove popular with our guests. There are another two twin berth cabins and the two shower rooms with WCs are close to all cabins. Zuza has a comfortable saloon adjacent to a well equipped galley and lots of windows throughout to make the most of long summer evenings. There is separate crew accommodation f'wd with own shower/WC.

Yacht Zuza (c) Zuza Expeditions On deck there is a sheltered seating area, aft of the wheelhouse, where guests can sit if they wish while the boat is on the move. The sail area and configuration of Zuza is identical to the Global (BT) Challenge 72 yachts which were specifically designed to be easily handled by a crew of just two.

Like Hjalmar Bjørge, Zuza has twin engines so we can motor during cruises as and when we please. However we also intend to spend time, daily if conditions permit, sailing Zuza using the power of the wind. Clean cruising. Green cruising. Sailing is a very environmentally friendly and low impact means of exploring the seas. There are some differences between cruising on a boat with "sticks and hankies" (Zuza) and one without (Hjalmar Bjørge) and you can read a bit more about that here.

When Zuza sails the Hebridean seas from 2008 it won't be for the first time. In recent years her previous owner organised a couple of "Full Circle Britain" expeditions with the Scottish leg starting in Oban and ending in Orkney. At that time she cruised the Sound of Mull and local waters so some of our itineraries will see the vessel retracing her steps.


Rathlin Island 2005	Falmouth 2007

We will be starting and finishing our Zuza cruises in Corpach, by Fort William, at the western end of the Caledonian Canal. The canal basin is adjacent to the railway station, there are places to stay in the village and, best of all, no ladders to climb down! At the canal basin it is simply a matter of stepping off the lockside directly across onto the deck of the boat.