KEY POINTS:
It could be the Christmas present to end all Christmas presents, but it will also knock you back about $300,000.
Talk nicely to Auckland police and they are likely to negotiate the price of their old launch, the 14.8-metre Deodar II.
It is on the market after it was replaced by Deodar III, a new $2.8 million boat, about a year ago - the third police boat to bear the name.
Deodar II was the replacement for the original Deodar, a displacement wooden launch built for the police in the 1960s.
The original Deodar had a top speed of 11 or 12 knots "with a good following sea".
By the time it was launched, fast-planing-hull launches which could effortlessly outrun it were making an appearance in numbers around Auckland's Waitemata Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf.
Deodar met an unfortunate accident in December 1989 when it sank at a downtown Auckland wharf after an unforgiving freighter backed into it.
It was salvaged and repaired but never went back to sea as a police boat.
Sergeant Craig Kennedy from the police maritime unit in Auckland said Deodar II was a good buy, particularly after it had new engines fitted and some of the hull was replated two or three years ago.
Some of the paintwork was a "bit tired" and it would need some maintenance, he said. "But she is as solid as... No problems on that score whatsoever."
Police could squeeze 22 or 23 knots out of Deodar II but generally cruised about 18 knots.
Deodar II took in the Hauraki Gulf and the coast north and south of Auckland. The area included about 20 islands and covered 2000 square nautical miles, at times some of the "ugliest" water around New Zealand.
- NZPA
