Lovely place that it is and the perfect yacht haven, there are a few major issues with the facilities you should know about well before you arrive. Basically the facilities are first class, however, they are unavailable. “Helpful” is not a word you can use to describe New Caledonia, even speaking good French won’t help you much. However, immigration and customs are great, easy and friendly.

At Port Moselle visitors dock we could only get a few days and had to move to a private marina again for a limited period. Other marinas same story, maybe a few days here and there but for staying longer the answer is a big fat “no”. The staff at Port Moselle are good but it seems that long term live-aboard Frenchies have populated the visitors’ berths and there is no space available for actual visitors.

When it comes to Nouville Plaisance hard stand – now that is a test of patience! The hardstand facilities are superb, best we have seen anywhere; prices are very reasonable (same as New Zealand); the chandleries and all the available workshops seem great with helpful well-informed staff. Everything is handy and very well stocked and apart from astronomical paint prices, everything else is pretty standard.

However, the yard seems to be controlled by people who do not want to actually do any work or move any boats. We contacted them in December with a view to leave our Garcia 46 there for 5 or 6 months on the hardstand from May, they should have just replied ‘go away’ at that time and saved us the frustration and heartache. We should have booked a few years in advance it seems. Sodemo is the company that runs it along with Port Moselle and Port Brunelet, it is government owned and that kind of explains everything. We spoke to several local yachties who tell us of the trouble they have to go through every time to get lifted, so even being a local doesn’t help getting in apart from the fact that they know how to ‘handle it’. Because the first answer you will get is always “no”, the locals’ advice to us was keep insisting and try crying in the shipyard office!

Apparently, they only reserve 5 places for long term stays (even during cruising season) and when we pleaded for a spot they claimed they have 3 boats there and two other spots booked. When we had a look around the yard it was about 30% to capacity with one small boat sitting in the five huge long term spots. You could easily fit 2 average cruising boats in each slot.

There are 2 other yards nearby at Numbo, totally different standard and the small travel lift max is 14 Tonnes (too small for us). The manager Raul is very friendly but prices are about twice what you would pay in New Zealand and you need to demast. So we headed back to NZ, too bad as we were really looking forward to staying for a while.

An update on the situation: we have tried again to book at Nouville Plaisance to return to NC for next season 12 months in advance and so far no response to 2 emails. A good yachty friend in NC is also on the case, but still no luck.

Philip Ewen

Yacht Aljunina

Whangarei NZ

(Editor’s Note: Port Moselle Marina state on their website [BROKEN LINK] that “Visitors’ length of stay is limited to 3 days during the high cruising season (May 15 to December 15), and 6 days during low season (the rest of the year”).

Related content

Noumea