smackwater jack yacht

Paul Whiting, that great forgotten genius of the IOR

• September 29, 2022

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“Did you know that Davidson was part of a ‘trio’ of young Kiwi designers who revolutionized the world of the IOR, the tonnage by which offshore races were run until 1998?” spoke director Luca Oriani. “Two are still alive, Bruce Farr and, indeed, Davidson. But some say the most brilliant was Paul Whiting, who disappeared at sea after the 1980 Sydney Hobarth on his boat .”

PAUL WHITING, WHO WAS HE?

Many of the younger editors, given this name, flashed their best questioning smiles as if to ask , “Who was this guy?” Whiting, born in 1952, was part of the new generation of “self-taught” Kiwi designers. He began designing at age 16 his first boat, the Reactor 25, which was quite successful (70 units sold) . His first light displacement hull was the Stinger, a 1974 half-tonner.

His most famous boat is the Magic Bus , born in late 1975. It was to be a boat following the idea of the Farr 727 that won the Quarter Ton Cup the previous year, that is, with a light displacement and typical dinghy shapes. Whiting thus designed Magic Bus, which in 1976 won the Quarter Ton Cup in Corpus Christi, Texas.

He later designed Candù , eighth at the Half Ton Cup in Trieste, and Newspaper Taxi, a moving-drift half-tonner that was the star and winner of many offshore races.

Smackwater Jack (11.95 m) is the first boat he designed for the One Tonner world: built in 1977, it is the boat on which the designer found death along with his wife Alison, John Sugden and Scott Coombes at the 1980 Hobart to Auckland in a storm… The boat went missing, and only in 2008, New Zealand newspapers write, would part of the cockpit be found along the island’s shores.

We posted an image on social asking for its name and designer, and you had your fun! Many went “butterfly,” some missed the answer but hit the boat type, and very few got it (Maurizio Manzoli, Domenico Boffi, Gl Priz). Those very few who know the genius of Paul Whiting, who died at age 27 in the Pacific.

Eugene Ruocco

(Images are from the beautiful blog http://rbsailing.blogspot.com)

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4 thoughts on “paul whiting, that great forgotten genius of the ior”.

We owned stinger 2215 for 35years racing and cruising waitamata harbour and Auckland/gisborne races. She was not an easy boat to get her going but my husband was an ex 18ftr guy who was very experience . Stinger won a good many trophies and we had many family cruises.I loved her. Varnished kauri timber hull interior. Stewart was. 80 years old and had raced her the week before she was sold. We. were all sorry at the parting. J McMillan, Auckland New Zealand

We owned and raced a whiting quarter tonner in Qld, including Moreton Bay Brisbane in the late 70’s to early 80’s. Our boat was purchased with the name “OnehungaBus” with the same hull and boat name colours as Magic Bus. The sail number was 2389. We have no history on where this boat came from, apart from the name of the Auckland Port where whiting yachts were built, but have fond memories sailing this beautiful yacht design. A credit to the Whiting family.j

I have recently become the owner of a whiting 32 quarter tonner. Avaganda is a 1979 built model and is a pure racing yacht. I race her here in Perth Western Australia. My dad knew Paul and the other boys having competed himself in Sydney to Hobart in 68, 69,70 on Fidelis. Love the Whiting, and shes quick for a 40 something year old boat just need to get better at racing. Would love to hear from anyone else who has one….

Hi John, I know Avaganda well, she used to be at CYC where I race Kiwi Express. Glad to hear Avaganda is still being raced. There are few still racing around Perth drop me a line some time.. Cheers Matt

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THE MAGIC’S BACK!

North Shore boatbuilder and sailor Dave Hurley has undertaken a labour of love to bring a modern classic back to life.

In the 1960s and 70s, New Zealand was emerging on the international yachting scene, as designers, builders and sailors took on the establishment with a new wave of super-fast light displacement flyers. Following the world-beating exploits of Chris Bouzaid and Rainbow II, a Sparkman & Stephens design built by Max Carter which won the One Ton Cup in 1969, a new generation of designs explored and exploited rating rules to challenge the world.

Among them was Magic Bus, a bright-blue Quarter Tonner designed by one of the most talented of the new breed of designers, Aucklander Paul Whiting. Even by his early 20s, Whiting had a strong track record, having designed and campaigned the first of the popular Reactor class while still at high school. In 1976, he teamed with dinghy sailor Murray Ross to challenge for the 1976 Quarter Ton Cup in Corpus Christi, Texas.

With her distinctive turquoise and maroon paint job and IOR-optimised hull shape, the Bus was 7.8m LOA and 6m on the waterline, with a 2.7m beam in her flared midsection. All systems were designed to minimise weight and windage and, with nothing inside her she weighed just 1180kg.

The combination of super-light construction, clever design and masterful sailing by Ross, Whiting, Steven Allen and bowman Steve Trevurza saw the Bus win the world championship, taking out every race but one. The yacht spawned a production class back here in New Zealand, but the original was sold in America and lost to the world of Kiwi sailing – until Dave Hurley came along.

Hurley, whose track record of sailing and boatbuilding for America’s Cup teams stretches back to 1988, says the restoration came about after one of those conversations between mates.

“One day we were sitting around talking about the restoration of Rainbow II [relaunched in 2015] and what a great job it was, and I made the comment that if I had the money I’d love to do something like that. I couldn’t afford to do a One Tonner or a Half – it would have to be a Quarter.”

When it came to which Quarter Tonner, Hurley says it was a no-brainer: it had to be Magic Bus, with her world-beating record. But first they had to find her. After much poking around social media and other avenues of the internet, young boatbuilder James Berry discovered her last race had been out of the Alameda Yacht Club, on the western side of San Francisco Bay, and found a photo on a blog of her sitting in an unidentified boatyard.

Berry then tracked down the owner of the Laurie Davidson Quarter Tonner Fun, which finished second to Magic Bus in 1976. “We thought that owner might know where Magic Bus was, so we rang up and asked, and he said ‘I walk past it every day’,” says Hurley.

Hurley, who had just returned from working on Oracle’s 2013 campaign in San Francisco, rang some people he knew who worked for the Artemis team who were still on the ground, and sent them down to check it out. The boat had been deemed abandoned so a deal was done, and Magic Bus was on her way home.

She was in a very neglected state, with rot in her plywood foredeck and cockpit, which needed to be replaced, and some delamination in her pioneering foam and glass hull. Forty years on, she still had some of her original electronics and deck gear, although several items have had to be replaced since her relaunching (including the spinnaker pole, broken in a Chinese gybe).

“She still had the original mast, in a terrible state,” Hurley says. “Trevor Berry, who was a good friend of Paul Whiting’s, rebuilt the rig for us.”

Other supporters of the rebuild were Oceanbridge, Touch of Gloss, ID Sign, Harken, Dixon Stainless, Plytech, Transconn, the Shann Group, NZ Composites, Boat Haulage, Adhesive Technologies, MS Engineering and Anzor. A new suit of sails was built with the support of Dimension-Polyant by Dave Parr of Calibre, with the new/old boat boasting a new main, number one, two and three jibs, and a new spinnaker.

Consulting on the rig and sail set-up was original bowman Steve Trevurza, who hadn’t seen the boat since the Corpus Christi regatta 40 years earlier. Now based in Australia, Trevurza visited during the restoration and was present when the boat was slipped back into the water at the Milford Cruising Club boatyard in the Wairau Creek on Auckland’s North Shore in November 2018.

“It’s been a massive collaboration of the New Zealand marine industry,” Hurley says. “I’ve done all the work, but they have supplied all the equipment, as well as helping to get the boat back from the US. It’s been a big, group love-fest – everyone has been touched by the project.”

One of the biggest challenges of the restoration was working out how much of the boat was original and what was a later addition, and deciding what to restore and what to replace.

“I spent a lot of time on the internet looking at old photos,” he says. “Tony Whiting [Paul’s brother] gave me some old drawings of the Bus and we found the original deck layout – all handdrawn. One of the biggest highlights was going to see Tony and him pulling out these drawings and going through them.”

The Whiting family also helped out with details of the restoration, including finding an old locker lid from family yacht Tequila which had been painted with the same batch of mixed-up paint that provided Magic Bus’s unique colour, so it could be matched.

The restoration was particularly close to the hearts of the Whitings. Paul Whiting was just 27 when he was lost at sea in early 1980, along with his wife Alison and crewmen John Sugden and Scott Coombes, when his yacht Smackwater Jack was hit by a cyclone while returning from the 1979 Sydney– Hobart race.

Sister Debbie Whiting attended the relaunch and spoke “on behalf of the Whiting family who are here, the ones who couldn’t be here and the ones who are no longer here”, to thank Hurley “for keeping Paul’s dream alive”. She presented him with an American ensign ‘souvenired’ by Paul Whiting following his victory, and the boat’s original mascot, Tex the Bear.

“Dave has done an absolutely amazing job,” Debbie Whiting says. “I was in Corpus Christi in ’76 when it won the Quarter Ton Cup, which was an incredible experience – Magic Bus had it all over the other boats, other than in the long race, when one of the other boats took their garbage bag instead of their food bag, so they didn’t have any food and were first to finish out of necessity!”

Now Magic Bus is back in the water, it’s been up to Hurley and his crew to work out how to sail her to her full potential. Ross and Whiting clearly knew how to get the best out of her, but Hurley says she’s not an easy boat to sail, and never performed as well again for any of her new owners.

“She’s a very difficult boat to get into the groove, because of the systems on her, but we’ve felt it get there a few times and it’s just outstanding,” he says. “Obviously those guys knew how to keep it there all the time.”

While Hurley is enjoying finally getting out of the workshop and out sailing on his pet project, he is looking for a long-term home for her, hoping a maritime museum or heritage trust might take on this modern classic.

“Our designers were the top of the world at that time, when there was a major shift in the way boats were being designed and built. This boat is a shining example of that – light, and tweaky as hell,” he says.

“New Zealand designers looked outside the box and went against the mainstream designers of the time from the US and Europe, who were more conservative. Paul was a leader in light displacement – he was radical and pushed rules to their absolute maximum. Some people don’t like that, but that’s what designers are supposed to do. They are commissioned to make boats as fast as possible.”

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A CHANCE find by a Kaipara tour operator could shed some light on the whereabouts of a yacht that was lost at sea 28 years ago. Anthony Taylor, who operates Big Foot Tours on Ripiro Beach, found the cockpit grating just north of the monument on Omamari Beach. He gave it to maritime historian Noel Hilliam, who believes it could have belonged to the the yacht Smackwater Jack. The yacht and its four crew disappeared during a race from Hobart to Auckland in 1980. Neither the boat nor the four crew have ever been found. Mr Hilliam, who took part in the search for the yacht, which was last heard from by radio on January 9, 1980, said the crew reported difficult and heavy seas at the time. He believes the craftsmanship and teak timber of the wreckage link it to the Smackwater Jack. The wreck has never been found but teak hatch stairs, which match the recent find, were found by Mr Hilliam in the same area during the search. Although they have never been formally identified the size, design and quality correspond to that of Smackwater Jack. Mr Hilliam is keen to hear from anyone who may be able to identify the grating, or who has found or finds any wreckage in the same vicinity. He said the lack of any growth on the grating would suggest the boat has been covered in deep sand, probably south of Omamari. Recent big seas have likely exposed the wreck to the elements. The Whiting family in Auckland, who were considered by the Waitemata yachting fraternity to be the best boat-builders in the area, built the expensive yacht, co-owned by Murray Ross of Whangarei. Skipper Paul Whiting, his wife Alison, John Sugden and Scott Coombes were on board at the time it disappeared. More than a week after the official search for Smackwater Jack had been called off, Mr Hilliam spotted a deflated and partially sunken liferaft with three bodies about 1km north of Round Hill, Ripiro Beach. A recovery operation, delayed because of high seas, failed to locate either the raft or the bodies. While finding the wreck might reveal questions that have remained unanswered for almost 28 years, Mr Hilliam said there were no immediate plans to launch a fresh search for the wreck. " Mr Hilliam can be contacted on 09 439 7718.

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Carole King

Smackwater Jack

Track artist: , lyrics: .

Now Smackwater Jack he bought a shotgun 'Cause he was in the mood for a little confrontation He just let it all hang loose He didn't think about the noose He couldn't take no more abuse So he shot down the congregation

You can't talk to a man With a shotgun in his hand Shotgun

Now Big Jim the chief stood for law and order He called for the guard to come and surround the border Now from his bulldog mouth As he led the posse south Came the cry "we got to ride To clean up the streets for our wives and our daughters"

You can't talk to a man When he don't want to understand

The account of the capture wasn't in the papers But you know, they hanged ole Smack right then instead of later You know the people were quite pleased 'Cause the outlaw had been seized And on the whole, it was a very good year For the undertaker

You know, you know, you can't talk to a man With a shotgun in his hand Shotgun in his hand

Smackwater Jack, yeah Smackwater Jack bought a shotgun Yeah, Smackwater Jack bought a shotgun Smackwater Jack, yeah Smackwater Jack, yeah

Talkin' about Smackwater Jack, yeah Talkin' about Smackwater Jack, oh Talkin' about Jack and his shotgun, Talkin' about Smack, talkin' about Jack Smackwater Jack, yeah

© 1971 Screen Gems-EMI Music, Inc. (BMI), Screen Gems-EMI Music, Inc. (BMI)

Lyrics courtesy of EMI Music Publishing. For printed lyrics or sheet music, please visit www.halleonard.com or www.sheetmusicdirect.com .

Writer Credits: 

Words and Music by Gerry Goffin and Carole King

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Old Quarter Tonners -Magic Bus

Discussion in ' Sailboats ' started by steveo-nz , Oct 5, 2008 .

Paul B Previous Member

Gary Baigent said: ↑ The thing about Ron Holland being from the NZ light displacement school, that is an overseas interpretation - but not a NZ one. His boats were always heavy jobs, masthead rigged with skinny sterns like Peterson, not kiwis. Click to expand...

Attached Files:

Manzanita sail and deck.jpg.

Gary Baigent Senior Member

Bullit An interesting bunch of kiwi and French designs over your way, Paul. One of the fastest 1/4 tonners I've seen was Jacques Fauroux's second Bullit, which came to Auckland in 1980 and thrashed all the hot kiwi designs on their home turf. Bullit was very long overall, full bowed, narrow on the waterline, yet fuller than the kiwi boats under the mast, dish shaped in cross section and very wide on deck – Farr could not see how the bow would lift when sailing, yet still measure bow down to rate. In the mostly very fresh conditions of the competition, Bullit just planed away, embarrassing the fleet during downwind legs. It would be interesting to see the outcome of a Melges 24/Bullit duel. It is also interesting that after that defeat New Zealand interest in IOR rapidly waned. Local sailors turned their backs on the IOR and concentrated their attention to the new Auckland movement in yacht design: fast, proportionately inexpensive (compared to IOR designs) non-Rule yachts designed gleefully along speed producing parameters that previously had been discouraged under IOR with penalties which verged upon banishment. jpeg of Jim Young's Rocket 40 - one of the most extreme no-rules designs.  

rocket40.jpg

Ramona Senior Member

I have owned this Ben Lexcen designed quarter tonner for a few years now. Mine is a plywood hull, dynal covered and the deck is fibreglass balsa sandwich. They were built as production boats under the name of MW26, all the later ones were all fibreglass. Mines a 1970 model. 26 foot by just under 10 foot wide. It was dead cheap and I presumed it had a cast iron keel, never bothered to look underwater for that sort of money. When I put it on the slips I was expecting rust streaks from the keel but it was just covered in shell. When I cleaned it off I hit it with a grinder and was startled to find the keel was bronze. Delightful boat to sail.  

CT 249 Senior Member

Great info here. One point is that Smackwater Jack couldn't have raced a brand new Corinthian since Corinthian was launched '74 or '75 and did the '75 AC trials, finishing fourth behind Inca, Barnacle Bill (both S&S) and Gerontius (Farr). I think the first M&W 26s (Solwarra and Chin Chin???) came out about '75; I sailed against them as a kid and still have a few magazine tests somewhere. Moody Blue was a flush deck one, in timber I think. I've seen an IRC or Handicap nationale (French PHRF) number for Bullitt; quick, but not quick by today's standards. The IOR mods would have pushed her rating to about 19+ feet without hull changes (IIRC, the article's in Seahorse somewhere) and if she was Melgi speed she would have still been a world-beater at that rating. "In fact, if I am remembering correctly, Pioneer Sound (B195) actually beat the fleet in the Aus Nationals, the run up regatta to the Worlds that year." B195 only sailed against one centreboarder in that OZ nats, the Farr Hecate; sister to the other Farrs but slower (although competitive later as the second Piccolo). The rest of the fleet were Farr 1104s (mainly the cruiser versions like Piccolo # 1), a Lidgard IIRC, a Ganbare and a Kaufman. Interestingly the Peterson and Ganbare went 1-2 in one of the light races. I love the IOR rule because it allowed close racing and (IMHO) a more meaningful win. I used to race against Buckle Up on the Skiff 38 Afterburner ('88 boat with wings, assy, full batten main, and full interior with two showers) and while it was great in some ways we really had no idea how we should have compared to Buckle Up. Sure, we were faster than IOR boats but if speed is what counts, why carry lead? Go multi or go rating or cruiser/racer!  

fast IOR? hey CT249 I'll have to dig in the back shed re. Corinthian and Smackwater - but perhaps this was a revamped, retuned version that Smackwater beat in the 1977 Dunhill trials. Anyway I'll sort it. That skiff Afterburner sounds very avant garde - any pictures? Bullit was designed for the 1980 cup which she easily won, after that and knowing that heavy updated IOR penalties were to be imposed, Fauroux just shrugged, he'd designed Bullit for that year and had done the job. The somewhat low quality jpeg is from a Polaroid print of Bullit planing/surfing past the top Davidson or Farr - and looked as if it was going half again as fast, I don't care what the rating figures spit out, Bullit was really fast ..... for a monohull. Agreed, multihulls are the way - you're speaking to the long time converted here.  

This Peterson half tonner, "half Measure" is for sale in Queensland for $22.000. That's got to be a good buy surely. Apparently a fast boat in light airs and plenty of history. Nice hull shape.  

Gary Baigent said: ↑ One of the fastest 1/4 tonners I've seen was Jacques Fauroux's second Bullit, which came to Auckland in 1980 and thrashed all the hot kiwi designs on their home turf. Bullit was very long overall, full bowed, narrow on the waterline, yet fuller than the kiwi boats under the mast, dish shaped in cross section and very wide on deck – Farr could not see how the bow would lift when sailing, yet still measure bow down to rate. In the mostly very fresh conditions of the competition, Bullit just planed away, embarrassing the fleet during downwind legs. It would be interesting to see the outcome of a Melges 24/Bullit duel. Click to expand...

Bullit 2.jpg

CT 249 said: ↑ "In fact, if I am remembering correctly, Pioneer Sound (B195) actually beat the fleet in the Aus Nationals, the run up regatta to the Worlds that year." B195 only sailed against one centreboarder in that OZ nats, the Farr Hecate; sister to the other Farrs but slower (although competitive later as the second Piccolo). The rest of the fleet were Farr 1104s (mainly the cruiser versions like Piccolo # 1), a Lidgard IIRC, a Ganbare and a Kaufman. Interestingly the Peterson and Ganbare went 1-2 in one of the light races. Click to expand...

And the winners are: I found the list of winners. The designers are not noted. My feeling is the golden age really started in 1973 with Farr, Holland, and Peterson all joining the IOR fray. I'm working on a spreadsheet to get this all aligned: Past Winners from 1967 QUARTER TON CUP - PAST WINNERS 15ft. Rating RORC Rule 1967 La Rochelle DEFENDER (B) 1968 Breskens PIRHANA (H) 1969 Breskens LISTANG (G) 1970 Travemunde FLEUR D'ECUME (F) 18ft. Rating IOR 1971 La Rochelle TEQUILA (F) 1972 La Rochelle PETITE FLEUR (F) 1973 Weymouth EYGTHENE (US) 1974 Malmo ACCENT (S) 1975 Deauville 45 SOUTH (KZ) 1976 Corpus Christi MAGIC BUS (KZ) 1977 Helsinki MANZANITA (E) 1978 Sajima MAGICIAN V (J) 18.55ft. Rating IOR 1979 San Remo BULLIT (F) 1980 Panmure BULLIT (F) 1981 Marseille LACYDON PROTIS (F) 1982 Melbourne QUARTERMASTER (KA) 1984 Nieuwpoort COMTE DE FLANDRES (F) 1985 Ajaccio ROYAL FLUSH (SA) 1986 Copenhagen COMTE DE FLANDRES (KA) 1987 Crosshaven MCDONALDS (D) 1988 Travemunde MCDONALDS (D) 1989 Falmouth MERIDIAN (I) 1990 Bayona AVE (E) 1991 Porto Carras MARFRIO PIRANHA (I) 1992 Chioggia JONATHAN VI (ITA) 1993 Bayona GEN-MAR (ITA) 1994 Warnemunde B & BV (ITA) 1995 Gdynia PER ELISA (ITA) 1996 Travemunde PER ELISA (ITA) Under IRC 2005 Cowes PURPLE HAZE (GBR) David Thomas 2006 Cowes ENIGMA (GBR) Ed Dubois 2007 Cowes ESPADA (GBR) Bruce Farr 2008 Cowes Tom Bombadil (GBR) Doug Peterson  

and the Half Tonners: Rating: 18 ft RORC Rule Year Location of Cup Winning Boat Homecountry of winner 1966 La Rochelle RAKI France 1967 La Rochelle SAFARI France 1968 La Rochelle DAME D'IROISE France 1969 Sandhamn SCAMPI Sweden 1970 Sandhamn SCAMPI II Sweden Rating: 21.7 ft Rating IOR 1971 Portsmouth SCAMPI III Sweden 1972 Marstrand BES Denmark 1973 Hundested IMPENSABLE France 1974 La Rochelle NORTHSTAR Germany 1975 Chicago FOXY LADY Australia 1976 Trieste SILVER SHAMROCK Ireland 1977 Sydney GUNBOAT RANGIRIRI New Zealand 1978 Poole Wave Rider New Zealand Rating: 22.05 ft Rating IOR 1979 Scheveningen Wave Rider New Zealand 1980 Sandhamn AR BIGOUDEN France 1981 Poole KING ONE Denmark 1982 Piraeus ATALANTI II Greece 1983 Hanko FREE LANCE France 1984 Troon COFICA France 1985 Porto Ercole ANTHEOR France 1986 Helsinki COFICA France 1987 La Rochelle RENE CHATEAU VIDEO France 1988 Poole SKIPPER ELF AQUITAINE France 1989 Le Havre SKIPPER ELF AQUITAINE France 1990 Howth INNOVATION GROUP Ireland 1991 Jakobstad HASSE FROM FINLAND Finland 1992 Chioggia MARFRIO Spain 1993 Bayona ATALANTI II Greece Rating: IRC 2003 Nieuwpoort GENERAL TAPIOCA Belgium 2005 Dinard GINKGO France  

steveo-nz Junior Member

Paul B said: ↑ I found the list of winners. The designers are not noted. My feeling is the golden age really started in 1973 with Farr, Holland, and Peterson all joining the IOR fray. I'm working on a spreadsheet to get this all aligned: Past Winners from 1967 QUARTER TON CUP - PAST WINNERS 15ft. Rating RORC Rule 1967 La Rochelle DEFENDER (B) 1968 Breskens PIRHANA (H) 1969 Breskens LISTANG (G) 1970 Travemunde FLEUR D'ECUME (F) 18ft. Rating IOR 1971 La Rochelle TEQUILA (F) 1972 La Rochelle PETITE FLEUR (F) 1973 Weymouth EYGTHENE (US) 1974 Malmo ACCENT (S) 1975 Deauville 45 SOUTH (KZ) 1976 Corpus Christi MAGIC BUS (KZ) 1977 Helsinki MANZANITA (E) 1978 Sajima MAGICIAN V (J) 18.55ft. Rating IOR 1979 San Remo BULLIT (F) 1980 Panmure BULLIT (F) 1981 Marseille LACYDON PROTIS (F) 1982 Melbourne QUARTERMASTER (KA) 1984 Nieuwpoort COMTE DE FLANDRES (F) 1985 Ajaccio ROYAL FLUSH (SA) 1986 Copenhagen COMTE DE FLANDRES (KA) 1987 Crosshaven MCDONALDS (D) 1988 Travemunde MCDONALDS (D) 1989 Falmouth MERIDIAN (I) 1990 Bayona AVE (E) 1991 Porto Carras MARFRIO PIRANHA (I) 1992 Chioggia JONATHAN VI (ITA) 1993 Bayona GEN-MAR (ITA) 1994 Warnemunde B & BV (ITA) 1995 Gdynia PER ELISA (ITA) 1996 Travemunde PER ELISA (ITA) Under IRC 2005 Cowes PURPLE HAZE (GBR) David Thomas 2006 Cowes ENIGMA (GBR) Ed Dubois 2007 Cowes ESPADA (GBR) Bruce Farr 2008 Cowes Tom Bombadil (GBR) Doug Peterson Click to expand...

So what exactly are you allowed to do to the old 1/4's to still race them in the worlds, I see that some have completely new rigs/keel/rudder, even major structural stuff like decks Any one know exactly how they rule on these types of modifications??  

steveo-nz said: ↑ So what exactly are you allowed to do to the old 1/4's to still race them in the worlds, I see that some have completely new rigs/keel/rudder, even major structural stuff like decks Any one know exactly how they rule on these types of modifications?? Click to expand...

I think I can put designers to most of those tomorrow. Paul, the Kaufman and Ganbare took the first 2 spots, ahead of the centreboarders and Farrs. S Jack's mods included putting on a "puller" prop as well, after she won the trails. In contrast to her mods when she was winning, Red Lion's navigator joked that when she started winning he even kept on using the same pencil for chartwork because they were too scared to touch anything! My book's on the dinghy side throughout history, but it's been sitting 98% complete for a couple of years, ever since I started running a class association as well as work, 4 kids, an ancient half tonner, 5 dinghies and 17 windsurfers. I've seen Comte de Flandre's specs in Seahorse, I think; I don't think she reached 8.5m, but I may be wrong. My recollection from articles (and a phone call to the guy who won a worlds in her) was that her secret was her clean, wide Briand stern. He was a great designer IMHO, with a distinct style. Pity we don't get much of that in these box rule days. Aust and NZ had some bloody quick little boats too in that era. The '71/72 era trailable RL24 rates (depending on version) as fast or quicker than a mid '70s/late '70s quarter. In the '60s we had the Highlander 25, basically a tempest with a cabin and an extra trap. But here, most people with boats over 20' wanted to cruise or to race offshore. Perhaps significantly, we've never had bigger fleets than in those days of dual-purpose boats. BTW Gary, I personally don't feel multis are "the way"; sheer speed in a big boat is not my thing since raw speed is so much cheaper and easier to get in a board, small cat or dinghy. They are great boats, but while my family's been in multis for three generations many of us, like me, personally prefer leadmines; I just love the feel, heel, room and cost. It's just that I just can't work out why people try to make them fast. No matter what you do, no leadmine is going to be fast for its size or cost. Making a fast leadmine seems a bit like trying to grow the world's biggest bonsai tree, or having the world's lowest falsetto. I do respect the way you can appreciate both a mono and a multi; one-eyed multimaniacs are at least as bad as mono-maniac bigots!  

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CT 249 said: ↑ My book's on the dinghy side throughout history, but it's been sitting 98% complete for a couple of years, ever since I started running a class association as well as work, 4 kids, an ancient half tonner, 5 dinghies and 17 windsurfers. Click to expand...

what was wrong exactly with design of old sailing "ships"?

1950's Raven sailboat (Cold molded hull questions)

Golden Shamrock 30 - mast corrosion

Holder 20 keel corrosion

Golden Globe race - the finish

Cold-moulded dinghy plans?

Massive Southern Ocean Storm Hits Golden Globe Fleet

Help identifying old wooden sailboat

New sailplan for a "good old boat" - foolish idea?

Interesting "scow bow" on an old Route de Rhum competitor "Ovum"

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Tasman’s Taunting Sea

• By Herb McCormick
• Updated: August 1, 2013

Year in and year out, there may be more fearsome and daunting bodies of water than the Tasman Sea, the broad expanse of blue aqua separating New Zealand and Australia known to sailors in those lands as “the Ditch.”

Personally, and thankfully, I’m not aware of such waters. Three of the most harrowing days of my sailing life happened in the seaway named for Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who left quite a legacy. Centuries later, the mere mention of his name will roil the guts and serenity of many mariners, me included. That’s why, in early June, amid the first reports that a classic 70-foot schooner called Nina was under siege in a savage Tasman blow, my immediate reaction was “uh-oh.”

Here in New England, where this gorgeous Starling Burgess design was built and launched in 1928, for many decades the long-legged Nina was a familiar and formidable presence. The blue-blooded mahogany beauty won major races early and then often, beginning with a 1928 transatlantic contest from New York to Spain, followed by victory in the famous Fastnet Race that same summer. Remarkably, by 1962 she was still going strong, winning the Newport-Bermuda Race under the command of the former commodore of the New York Yacht Club, where she was once the flagship.

More recently, she became an all-oceans cruising boat owned by a vastly experienced Florida sailor, David Dyche, who was in the midst of an ongoing circumnavigation with his family and some friends when they set off from New Zealand bound for the Aussie port of Newcastle in late May.

The Tasman, of course, knows nothing of families or history. May is also the onset of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Frankly, there’s never a “safe” month of the year in the deep old Ditch. And second-guessing anyone from afar can be a mug’s game. But in retrospect, setting forth near the darkest season may not have been the wisest play. For yachts can and do simply vanish in the Tasman without a trace.

It happened to the son of a friend of mine, Kiwi yacht designer Paul Whiting, who disappeared at sea aboard his racing sloop, Smackwater Jack , back in 1980. Five more sailors and a half-dozen boats were subsequently lost in the Tasman in the infamous 1998 Sydney-Hobart Race. Both of those deadly incidents, and a handful of others, occurred in mid-summer.

Cyclones and “perfect storms” are sometimes to blame, but so too are the regular “Southerly Buster” cold fronts sweeping up from the frisky Roaring Forties to rendezvous with the warm southbound Australia Current that sweeps down the east coast from the tropics. The intersection of these two natural phenomena can be explosive.

What happened to Nina and her seven crewmembers remains a mystery. According to published reports, the boat’s crew carried a satphone and an EPIRB, and were in contact with shore-side friends and authorities — conditions were bad and getting worse, and their storm sails were “shredded” — until June 4, when communications ceased. New Zealand rescue services launched a massive air search, eventually canvassing more than 700,000 square nautical miles. It proved fruitless, and was called off in early July.

Of the many reasons we go to sea, one is surely adventure, a definition for which is “a journey with an uncertain outcome.” For me, the uncertainty of what lies beyond that next wave, or that new beach, has always been part of the allure. But the outcome for Nina proved to be the worst imaginable. Offshore sailing can be a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. In Abel Tasman’s dangerous sea, flanked by two of the sailing world’s greatest destinations, it just seems more so.

Herb McCormick is CW’s senior editor.

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Wellington Ocean Sport has recently added a new boat to the fleet. She is Pugwash, which began life racing with the Club back in 1979.

Pugwash is a Whiting 29 and we will be using her to teach cruising skills.

Pugwash was built by Peter Sutton using the lofting and temporary frames from the plug for the production Whiting 29 glass boats.

The hull is built in double diagonal treated Kahikatea over stringers and laminated frames all fastened with West System epoxy and heavy copper roves. Construction plans were minimal – really just a detailed look over how Paul’s team was building the plug.

She was built in Kingsford-Smith Street, Rongotai. Just up from Lyall Bay Beach (opposite Parrot Dog), and took about eight months.

Peter recalls many visitors checking progress commenting on the design’s, then, apparently light construction and flat bottom! She would be considered heavy by today’s standards.

Very sadly, designer Paul Whiting was lost shortly after when returning from the Sydney Hobart on his beautiful One Tonner Smackwater Jack – lost with all hands in 1980.

Peter and Jenny raced Pugwash extensively with RPNYC in coastal and harbour races and cruised with his young family around the top of South Island every summer.

The family kept Pugwash until 1984 and then bought a Young 11 hull and deck which was launched in 1985 as Flying Boat.

Pugwash was purchased by Dudley Jackson in 2006. He got her up to survey to use for the Learn2Sail programme at Lyttelton. He didn’t like the name and when discussing it with the Commodore, said he would have to change it soon if it was to get on the survey form: “Good Point” said the Commodore, thus she got her new name.

The boat put in ten good years with the programme, until a graduate of the programme, Don Quick showed an interest in purchasing her in 2017. Don got his wish, purchased her, kept her in survey, and chartered her back to the Learn2Sail programme. Don also regularly raced her out of the Naval Point Yacht Club. He put her up for sale again in 2018, where she caught the attention of Craig Ryburn at our Wellington Ocean Sports centre.

The design of the is well suited to the cruising side of Wellington Ocean Sports’ operation – it has all the usual cruising amenities – a furling headsail, windlass, cooker, accommodation and high headroom, but is small enough to allow easily handling and teaching. The boat already being in commercial survey saved WOS from having to undertake the lengthy, expensive and uncertain task of getting her into survey.

After meeting Don in Lytellton, having a look over the boat and going for a sail on her, a proposal was put to the Board to add Pugwash to the Wellington Ocean Sports fleet. After careful consideration of the implications for Wellington Ocean Sports and the club, the proposal was accepted. After having the boat surveyed, she was sailed by Don, Trevor and Jim from Wellington Ocean Sports up to Wellington at the end of October. She has been rebranded, named back to Pugwash and started courses in late November.

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20 July 2013

B195 (peterson one tonner).

2 comments:

Deception was the first Peterson with a fixed keel. B195 or Magic Pudding had a centreboard.

Deception’s hull was built stronger than B195. Though is very similar to B195 with a tall fractional rig and similar hull shape. Deception launched in 1978 and won her division in the 1978 Sydney to Hobart yacht race, 8 place overall.