There is a 60ft custom steel expedition trawler currently lying at Gold Coast City Marina in Queensland called ‘Reel Steel’. Launched back in 2000, she completed an internal refit in June 2026, according to her broker.
Her listing (link below) quotes ‘just’ 18 litres of diesel an hour at an 8-knot cruise, and a range beyond 3,000 nautical miles from a 7,000-litre (1,850 US gallon) fuel tank. Not bad for a trawler yacht of this size and displacement.
At the time of writing this blog, the broker lists her at AU$950,000, but if you want to make an offer, you will need to confirm the current asking price, as another source lists it as ‘POA’. For the budgets below, I use rounded equivalents of US$675,000, €590,000 and £505,000 (17th Sept 2026).
The builder behind her
The listing credits J. Reynolds of Auckland as builder and Hakker as the designer. I could not find a fuller yard history or reliably connect other builds to that name for this one. If you know anything about J. Reynolds of Auckland, then feel free to leave a comment below.
In terms of her lines and profile, her bow is high and strongly raked, with a long raised foredeck behind hefty bulwarks, and her sheer is modest rather than swept, giving her the profile of a small ship. High freeboard runs back to a full aft body and a broad, squared-off transom. The wheelhouse sits forward with the accommodation area behind it, sheltered seating on the lower aft deck and an open deck above.
As with many explorer yachts, the foredeck is her working space. A fixed mast and boom handle tender lifting, a RIB stows between mast and wheelhouse (the inventory counts two aboard), and winch and cable hardware for what the broker describes as steel batwing stabilisers, fitted this year, sits on deck. Everything in those proportions reads as a displacement passagemaker drawn around a steady 8-knot cruise.
The spec sheet lists a single Gardner 6LXTD in the engine room, a 250hp turbo diesel with around 1,900 hours, serviced in July this year. For those wondering about single-engine redundancy, a three-phase electric get-home motor sits behind it, credited with a modest 5 knots. Power comes from 36kVA and 8kVA generators, 800W of solar and a 5kW inverter under a Victron Cerbo GX; navigation is Furuno with 64nm radar, plus Starlink Offshore.
Below deck, she sleeps 8 across 4 cabins, and every cabin has its own shower and head, which is unusual generosity on an 18.29 metre hull. With 5,500 litres (1,450 US gallons) of fresh water, that layout would keep 2 couples or a family living aboard comfortably for weeks at a time.
One more detail before you ring James Paul at World Wide Boat Brokers: the listing says the owner is open to property or vessel swaps!
For a potential buyer based in North America or Northern Europe who is wondering whether she could be bought ‘home’, the distance from Queensland makes the cost of delivery a central part of the decision.
This article continues below, in “The Wardroom”
In the premium section below, I cover:
- Own bottom to the US East Coast: route, fuel, crew, Panama, and the delivery insurance some owners forget
- Own bottom to Northern Europe: Suez versus the Cape, and the honest elapsed time
- Shipping her as deck cargo, and how VAT and duty change the budget
- My honest assessment of her price against named comparables, and who should bring her home
The budgets below are illustrations in US dollars, using stated assumptions, and are therefore not delivery quotes. Route, fuel availability, crew, insurance and import treatment need confirming for the actual voyage, but you can use the information below as a rough guide.
