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The first boat I sailed was a Hartley 9ft sailing dinghy built by my father Robin, in the late 50s or early 60s, although it was probably not until the early 70s before I actually recall it in any detail. I would have been 7-8 years old when I started taking the helm and doing the actual sailing myself up and down the Te Puna inlet well inside Tauranga Harbour. It was very similar to the Hartley “Tina” but with a bowsprit so it could carry a jib. The mast and boom were wooden, and the jib was yellow, and I think the mainsail was red. The construction was plywood with the sides of the boat and a large portion of the bow section built as hollow compartmentalised sections. It was practically unsinkable. It was a great boat to learn how to sail on. I think it’s currently resting on the shores of Lake Arapuni.
From there my sailing progressed through several trailer yachts. My uncle Frank, who owned a farm on the shores of Lake Arapuni, bought a Merlin 20 trailer sailer. We would head over and go for day sails up and down the lake. It gets pretty gusty on Lake Arapuni especially when the wind is blowing directly across rather than down the lake. One memorable experience was us kids being shoved down into the cabin of the Merlin because it was not safe up on deck. That afternoon was spent periodically standing on the side of the cabin walls (this was pre-wheelchair days) looking underwater out the windows, as we tacked our way back and forth up the lake to the launching ramp.
Then around 1975 my father decided to build another boat. This time he bought the bare hull and deck (un-bonded) of Catalina 7 trailer sailer and put that on a wooden frame in the farm shed for the next three years while he finished of the rest. The bow stuck out the shed door by several feet, so the shed got an extension built on to it, in the shape of a Catalina 7 bow. He smelled of epoxy resin and varnish almost every evening for those next 3 years.
Once the Catalina was launched in 1978 (christened Ramanui by mistake, was meant to be Ra Manu) we started racing in the harbour most weekends when racing was on. You have to develop a good sandbar memory in your head when racing in Tauranga Harbour. One big bonus with a trailer yacht is being able trailer it down to various lakes in that part of the world. Week long summer holidays cruising around Lake Taupo with the family and a bunch of cousins were my favourite times on Ra Manu. That boat still lives on the family farm in Te Puna. It’s got a better shed to live in now, and takes trips down to the Rotorua lakes from time to time for a bit of sailing and trout fishing.
I had my motorcycle accident in 1981 when I was 16 years and 2 months young. That slowed me down for 12 months or so in the sailing department. It also slowed my family down with all the travel back and forth between Tauranga and the Auckland Spinal Unit. I doubt anyone got much sailing done in that period.
Then my father built a plywood seat that I could sit in on Ra Manu, and we started sailing again. I was positioned beside the tiller, the seat tied back to the side rail, and I was tied into the seat. We cut the handle off a farm spade and bolted it to the tiller, which made the perfect tiller extension for me. As my fingers could no longer grip the tiller when the wind got strong, I could push my hand through the spade handle then bend my wrist to stop it slipping out, so pushing and pulling was all sorted. As long as I could be in control of something I was a happy sailor. My job was the helm, everybody else did everything else. I continued sailing Ra Manu in the late 80s early 90s with family and/or friends, either with occasional racing, or just cruising around the Tauranga harbour and coast.
In the late 90s I decided to move to Auckland for two reasons:
1. The Americas Cup was coming to town!
2. To pursue my dream of becoming a physicist
Needless to say No 2 didn’t work out… the maths is just too hard! However No 1 did work out and I had a great year in 2000 just following the Americas Cup. Big screen down at the viaduct every race day… And we kept it!
After that I decided to fulfill a lifelong dream, and get myself a good sized Keeler, and get into some good sailing again. The boat I settled on was a Farr1020 called Village Kid. I think the 1020 is a good size for the Hauraki Gulf, good value for money, with good class racing if you want to get involved in that. For me I’ve always been more of a cruiser than a racer.
Once I had the boat I spent the next few years getting modifications done that would allow me to helm the boat as easily as possible, in as much comfort as possible. With the help of Bill Rutherford from NavStation at that time, who assisted with advice on some vital equipment, and contacts with the right people, the modifications required for me to safely helm a boat of that size were made to Village Kid.
Firstly a hydraulic steering system was custom built and installed. The system is operated via a joystick on the side of my seat on the boat. This was integrated with a Raymarine autopilot and remote control. The remote control allows me to switch between autopilot and joystick steering. There are two hydraulic pumps used. A larger capacity pump is active when steering via the joystick to allow faster response times when steering, with the better response definitely useful when needed. A lower capacity pump automatically takes over when switching to autopilot, when course corrections can be slower, which saves significantly on battery power. The steering system, autopilot, and chart plotter all run off a 140ah house battery.
The other modification, and the most visible difference from a standard Farr1020, is the gimballed seat over the stern of the boat, which was custom built by Half Moon Bay Stainless around 2004. This is a forward facing seat that stays level no matter what the heel angle of the boat might be at any given time. I thought the steel construction might be a bit heavy for the stern of a 1020 but it does not seem the bother the boat at all. At that time I was still using the old plywood base built be my father and just bolted that onto the gimballed part of the frame. A few years ago I changed that and replaced the plywood seat with and old wheelchair frame and had a new Autosport backrest fitted. Oh the comfort level increased three fold, but it was sad to see the old plywood seat base go.
I’ve had some memorable trips on Village Kid in the time that I’ve had her. One being my first significant coastal excursion, a three day journey down to Tauranga we took in 2006. Crewed by my immediate and extended family members, we left Westhaven at about 10pm Friday night. We arrived at Matiatia around midnight and settled down for the night, the idea being we would make an early start the following morning.
Because it so difficult to lift me down into the cabin of the boat, whenever I stay overnight on the boat, I sleep on an airbed out the back in the cockpit. I have two custom made plywood covers for the space between the cockpit seats, and the airbed lies on top of that.
At around 1am that particular night I was still awake as the wind had increased and I was keeping an eye on a couple of nearby yachts that seemed to be getting closer. I yelled out to my brother Pete to come up and take a closer look. Sure enough he confirmed the diagnosis that we were dragging the anchor at a slow but steady pace towards the boat downwind from us. At that stage in my YMDP (Yacht Modification Development Program) there was no hole cut in the plywood under my airbed to allow access to the engine controls. Needless to say, moving the boat with me lying on top of the engine controls, in the middle of a pitch black night was difficult. My brother Pete got it done with the assistance of Cousin Rose hauling on the anchor. The next morning we got our (reasonably) early start. The subsequent two days became a memorable trip with some of the best dolphin viewing I have experienced before or since.
I think the favorite destination I have sailed to would be Port Fitzroy on Great Barrier Island. An almost perfect anchorage with excellent water and land based opportunities to indulge in when you get there. In early January 2014 I sailed to Port Fitzroy for an 8 day holiday with family members as crew, and other family who couldn’t fit on the boat, joining us out there by ferry. There were 21 of us all together and every day there was something different and interesting to do and enjoy. Of course plenty of sailing was done, with one trip up to the Needles at the northern tip of the island to try and catch a Kingfish. In March the previous year we had caught a nice one in that same spot so thought another try was in order. Unfortunately
it was not to be, but the sun was shining and the swell was rolling, so the lack of a big Kingfish could not put a dampener on the day.
However most of my sailing on Village Kid involves getting anyone who’s keen from family and friends onto the crew list and heading out to, and around any of the Hauraki Gulf islands and anchorages just for the day. We also do a bit of Friday Night racing in the spring and summer for a bit of variety.
I try to keep the crew happy and head to wherever people want to go. That way they will hopefully keep coming back, and I can keep doing what I love doing, coz I couldn’t do it without them. Going Sailing.
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