Issue date
WRIGHTY my world, my boats, and eighty years is the autobiographical story of Alan Wright, New Zealand’s most popular keelboat designer.
The book begins with Alan Wright’s childhood years in Auckland and then on the family farm at Ngatea, building tin canoes, sailing P Class on the Piako River, his boatbuilding apprenticeship at the Naval Dockyard and his experiences in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Alan had several jobs after his return to New Zealand including a boatbuilding partnership with Max Carter, then came marriage and children. With family responsibilities Alan trained as a technical teacher and secured a boatbuilding tutoring position at the Auckland Technical Institute.
A challenge by one of his students led to Alan’s first keelboat design in 1966, then two years later he designed the 6.85m Variant, of which over 260 were built in timber and GRP. He followed up this design with other hugely popular yachts such as the Tasman, Nova, Tracker, Marauder and the various Lotus models. The book also cover his numerous one-off design commissions, with not only numerous photos of the boats but design drawings, (all done by hand) different to today's computer generated designs. There are over 2500 boats of his designs in the water today.
When he diversified into power and sailing catamarans and trailerable trimarans, that innate sense of sheer beauty emerged as his signature, let alone the benefits of easily driven hulls. His power catamarans were chosen by the America’s Cup committee as the most stable platform from which to film the action. Since then he has not neglected his thirst for knowledge. New designs for easily transported trimarans designed for inland waters, rivers and estuaries are still being tested and improved.
Through his book you will get to know about a man who has been messing about in boats for almost 80 years, a man whose whole life’s work has involved water, be it a river, lake of the great big restless ocean.
$39.95 + postage
For your copy contact:
Bev Head
Tel: (09) 428 2247
Email: bevjhead@gmail.com
Or Alan Wright
Tel: (09) 424 3488
Email: wrightdesign@xtra.co.nz
