Nicole BMW Shuten-dohji III is the boat used by Mr. Minoru Saito (a 78 year old sailor from Japan) to travel around the world westward from 2008 to 2011.

It’s a 56-foot steel-hulled cutter-rigged sloop designed and built in Hawaii in 1989. Originally named Peregrine, she had been on the market for some time in Honolulu, and was one of several steel-hulled vessels under consideration by the boat search committee headed by Saito-san.

Thanks to a generous donation by the Nicole Group of Companies, the vessel could be acquired and was renamed Nicole BMW Shuten-dohji III. Further donations and sponsor support, with strong volunteer help, allowed her to be given a total refit for the planned westward voyage.

Shuten-dohji is a name taken from a popular Japanese folk tale and used for a succession of yachts sailed by Saito-san. During the BOC and Around Alone races, the other racers jokingly referred to Shuten-dohji II as Shoot Your Doggy.

The vessel was professionally surveyed in Hawaii and pronounced seaworthy after a number of improvements, and sailed to Auckland where she underwent extensive modifications.