Chinese businessman builds yacht in Auckland backyard

After Adam Zheng moved to New Zealand, the former entrepreneur spent a year building a yacht all by himself in his garden.

Staff Writer: Wen Zhao
Video: Ryan Zhang

It came as a big surprise to his friends when Adam Zheng announced that he wanted to build a yacht alone in Auckland.

He tore down the fence of his garden and turned it into the shipyard.

His first model was made with two pieces of paper.

From choosing the size to purchasing the materials, he did everything from cutting and bending, welding and polishing, to testing the yacht out at sea.

Zheng spent a year on this project during the pandemic. The yacht is estimated at a market value of nearly NZ$250,000 (around 1 million yuan).

Before Zheng became Adam the Yacht Builder in Auckland, he was known as Zheng Xianchang, a successful businessman in Wenzhou, a prosperous city in Fujian Province, in east China.

Launching his business from scratch at 18, Zheng moved to New Zealand at 43

Zheng was born in Wenzhou, famed as the centre of China’s private economy.

“I grew up wearing the clothes tailored by my mum, and they were always the best in my class,” recalled Zheng, his face shone with happiness.

DIY is not only fascinating, it is a way of carrying through the creator’s love.

Early in his childhood, Zheng showed a passion for handiwork. On the side of his studies, he did some small businesses with items he designed and crafted.

When he turned 18, Zheng decided to launch his own business.

“In the 1990s, the market demand for glass furniture was huge, but you could hardly find anything new,” he recalled. “My strength lies in designing, so I bought parts, designed and made my own products.”

With novel ideas, these products soon earned him the first pot of gold.

For more than two decades, Zheng sold the products he designed in the coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong. He became a well-known entrepreneur in the area and once hired nearly 80 employees.

During this course, setbacks were inevitable.

“There are thousands of decorative lamps in the market, I couldn’t ensure that everything I designed would succeed, sometimes a product sold poorly.”

He added that no design would fail completely, they just sold less than others.

He loves trying his hand at new things, furniture, construction materials, clocks and watches, decorative lamps, even mines. The only constant in his enterprises has been designing.

Among the Chinese, people from Wenzhou are known as self-reliant entrepreneurs who never shun away from hardships or lie around waiting for help. They are courageous explorers who have established themselves in nearly every part of the world, and innovators who are capable of realising their dreams.

Zheng is a typical Wenzhou man. In 2014, the restless man decided to move to New Zealand.

Building a yacht in his garden

While in China, Zheng’s life centered around his business, and his health took a toll.

Enjoying the wonderful air and environment in New Zealand, he took the time to consider what kind of life he really wanted. 

In New Zealand, Zheng Xianchang fell in love with fishing.

In Auckland, the “City of Sails”, many dream of having their own yacht. While the rich buy yachts, fans seize every chance to try their hand on the wheel, and ordinary people are content with an occasional ride.

Building a yacht by oneself is almost unheard of.

“I was taking a bath when an idea struck me,” Zheng recalled with obvious excitement. “The bathtub is shaped just like a yacht. If I put an engine behind the tub, it just might sail on the sea.”

New Zealand has a well-established yatching industry with top-of-the-line supporting chains and optimal maritime conditions. Zheng has years of experience in design and manufacture. On top of all this, he is a man of action. All this helped him turn his yacht from blueprint to steel.

“I’ve been working in manufacturing and know all about the technical details, so I see the yacht more like a test for myself,” said Zheng.

“Actually, the most difficult moment in building a yacht is when you pluck up enough courage to order the materials to realise the idea. You must have confidence in your judgement, or it will turn out to be a pile of junk.”

Committing his idea to the blueprint is the first step in testing the project’s feasibility.

“I asked around, when I learned about the estimated time to draw a blueprint and make a model, I thought, ‘I could have finished the yacht in that time.’ So I decided to do it on my own.”

He folded two pieces of paper into the shape of the yacht he wanted, then worked out its size, carrying capacity, displacement and other aspects. When he hit a snag, he went to the harbour to observe the boats.

After two weeks of careful planning, he sprang into action, removing his garden’s fence and some trees.

He bought aluminium specially made for boat hulls, and began from the bottom.

The progress was achingly slow at first.

“Making a yacht is very special, you only have one chance to get it right,” explained Zheng. “If you take it apart and reassemble it over and over again, the outcome will be poor.”

For him, each step was a step of no return.

The hull is a yacht’s core. It’s an understatement to call it a challenge when Zheng tried to bend the two aluminium plates into the pointed bow that could break through the waves.

In commercial shipbuilding, yacht hulls can be manufactured easily with the help of heavy equipment. This was beyond Zheng’s reach. 

He came up with some ingenious ideas to tackle this problem. He used a mold from the inside, with jacks, hoists and other tools on the outside. Then he slowly bent the plates into the desired shape, before welding them together.

Welding aluminium is a tough job. He approached professional welders, but they all declined due to the difficulty.

Zheng bought a welding machine and learned from square one, then he welded the parts by himself.

He adjusted the boat’s balance according to its sway and widened the stern following to the body’s curvature. From the bottom, he moved on to the next layer, then the next. Gradually, the yacht began to take shape.

The hand-made yacht doesn’t look as sleek as the commercial ones.

Lying amid remnants of the hard work, the boat still bears scars of welding.

Like a custom-made dinner jacket with traces of hand-sewn stiches, the yacht embodies its creator’s passion.

Starting from 2019, Zheng spent almost all his free time in the garden, tinkering on his boat here and there for hours at a time. Most days, he was carefully weighing things over before carrying out his plans.

Meanwhile, he became an eccentricity in WeChat, one of the most popular social media platforms among Chinese.

“Hey, what have you being busy at?” a friend would ask.

“I’m ... building a yacht,” Zheng would reply.

Many thought he was joking, the few who believed him expected Zheng to quit in no time.

A year later, to everyone’s surprise, Zheng finished his yacht.

The boat is 8 metres long and 2.5 metres wide, customised for his needs on the sea, complete with a bathroom and a sitting room. It can carry up to six passengers on a fishing trip.

He has already carried out sea test for the yacht.

The yacht is estimated at a market value of between NZ$170,000-250,000. Zheng named it “1199”, in Chinese, it sounds close to “everlasting”. 

When he finishes painting the yacht, Zheng plans to install the engine, then choose high-tech equipment such as satellite navigation, GPS distress beacon or Inmarsat phone. And then, he can take his friends to the sea.

Impressions of New Zealand

The project wasn’t all smooth sailing, either.

Among his neighbours was a family who hailed from South Africa. At first, they complained about the noise. An old man in this family, however, showed an increasing interest in Zheng’s endeavour.

The old man persuaded his family to support the amateur shipwright, and became good friends with Zheng.

“While I worked on the boat, he often sent us vegetables, fruits and barbecue, and brought beer to share with me. When it rained, he hurried over to help me cover the boat.”

Such kind gestures showed Zheng the locals’ friendly side. Like the clothes made by his mother, the boat he built is also full of love.

At the same time, he also caught glimpses of the unpleasant.

“Among the 41 OCED and EU members, New Zealand ranks the first in the suicide rate of teenagers between 15-19, it’s twice the amount of the US, and five times that of the UK,” Zheng said.

For this reason, Zheng is preparing to set up a charity to help these vulnerable teenagers through collaboration with small enterprises.

Adam Zheng's WeChat post

Good morning!

Rather than waiting on luck, it is you who should approach luck with your persistent effort.

The best life is not in sleeping as much as you want, having no chores at home, or going shopping whenever you want. Instead, it’s about pursuing your ideal with like-minded friends. Looking back, your journey will be full of meaningful moments; looking down, you are firm in each step; and when you look up, there’s a bright future ahead!

Posted at 8:58 AM, Nov. 4, 2020

As a new immigrant, Zheng is full of gratitude to New Zealand.

“We’ve been here for six years, my health has greatly improved,” said he. “My parents came here half a year ago, and they haven’t taken any hypertension pills.”

In New Zealand, Zheng has harvested health, freedom and kindness as he built a yacht and expanded his horizons.

Right now, Zheng Xianchang is building a house. After this, he plans to build a car. Pressing the question, what other tales will he star in?

Zheng hopes that when the pandemic is finally over, he can take his friends in his yacht to explore the wonders of New Zealand.

(All photos are taken by Go Media or provided by Adam Zheng.)