writer
Why I love to write
For nearly 30 years I wrote mostly about yachts and loved it. High points included winning nine awards for my work with Boating New Zealand and self-publishing Wild Seas to Greenland (Oceanspirit Publishing 2020).
And soon, the release of High Heels and Gumboots, (HarperCollins, April 2025) about my seven years solo on a lifestyle block in Golden Bay, with only a few paragraphs about boats. Mid-life crisis? I prefer: mid-life enlightenment.
Writing always takes me deeper into the experience. As a journalist, that means I ask questions that are mostly practical – how did you build the boat? But I love the creative questions too – why did you build the boat?
For some readers, the answer will be an interesting story. For others, it will be the breath that ignites a goal dormant in their heart, not necessarily about boats. And their life changes forever.
I always knew I had a goal, dormant, to live on the land, and eventually it just happened. High Heels and Gumboots is the nuts-and-bolts story of life as an amateur lifestyle blocker, but it's also the inner story: why I bought a lifestyle block and how it changed me forever. Writing the book was the process that answered those questions.
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Wild Seas to Greenland
a sailing adventure with ocean racer Ross Field
When 1994 Whitbread Race winner Ross Field refitted his 20-year-old aluminium yacht Rosemary for the Northwest Passage,
he applied Kiwi DIY, latest technology and 35 years of ocean racing experience. Rebecca Hayter followed his refit in detail. Then she signed on as crew for one of the world's most dangerous oceans.
Sheila in the Wind
by Adrian Hayter (Dad)
This famous New Zealand sailing classic has been republished by Lodestar Books, UK, more than 60 years after it was first published.
Sheila in the Wind is Adrian Hayter's honest, introspective account of the first solo voyage from England to New Zealand in the aftermath of WW2.
With an introduction by Adrian Hayter's youngest daughter, Rebecca Hayter.
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UK & Europe readers: available from Lodestarbooks.com
Swirly World Lost at Sea
by Andrew Fagan
The final edition of Andrew Fagan's Swirly World trilogy in which he attempts to set a record for the smallest boat to solo circumnavigate via the Great Capes. All copies autographed by Andrew Fagan. In January 2022, solo sailor and lead singer of Kiwi band The Mockers, Andrew Fagan set sail from Auckland, New Zealand in his tiny 5.18-metre sloop-rigged plywood yacht, Swirly World. He was attempting to set the record for the smallest boat to sail around the world solo via the Great Capes. The voyage was estimated to take 14 months non-stop. He set off across the vast South Pacific Ocean towards Cape Horn. Written with his humour and a solemn sense of awareness, Swirly World Lost at Sea is a sailing adventure, memoir and a clinical understanding of the brutality and the beauty of the sea.
In the Footstraps of Giants
the New Zealand windsurfing story
by Bruce Trotter
Who could have foreseen that this crazy new sport, which somehow combined surfing and sailing, would draw us all together and shape our lives in the way that it did?
​Former grandmaster windsurfing world champion Bruce Trotter celebrates the sport and the individuals, places and events that have shaped 50 years
of windsurfing in New Zealand.
Trotter’s vivid storytelling and Kiwi humour takes us back to an era of Dacron, daggerboards, wooden booms and skegs – so grab your harness, hook in, and relive the magic.​
Storms Ahead
Rick Dodson: America's Cup champion to Paralympian
by Rebecca Hayter
Between victorious America's Cup campaigns with Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000, Rick Dodson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). He kept it secret, knowing it could end his career. As MS took effect, he embarked on a new challenge, the 2016 Paralympics.
Des Townson: a sailing legacy
by Brian Peet
A stunning, coffee table-style book of 344 pages, 244mm x 288mm,
with more than 200 photos and drawings.
Des Townson was a yacht designer and boat builder known for exquisitely graceful yachts and the remote-controlled Electron. He possessed an analytical mind, an innate feel for sailing boats and an eye for their visual balance. He believed that if he were blind-folded and put on the helm of any of his yachts, he would know which it was, by how it felt under sail.
His close friend Brian Peet chronicles his life and design work through the recollections of Des and his family, friends and colleagues, and pays tribute to his legacy, best represented by his yachts still sailing and cruising New Zealand waters.
What You Wish For
One man's guide to life, death and alternative therapies
by Paul Blacklow and Rebecca Hayter
Life was going well for Paul Blacklow. He was newly married, working with some of New Zealand's top sportsmen as a sports massage therapist and training to run a half-marathon. Then he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). Paul, the quintessential Kiwi bloke, decided to explore alternative therapies. The result is What You Wifh For, an accessible guide for people diagnosed with a terminal illness, and a moving story of determination, humour and love to inspire anyone seeking answers to some of life's big questions.
Oceans Alone
Chris Sayer's solo adventures on the high seas
by Rebecca Hayter