Boating NZ August 2017

Lord of the foils? This has been a difficult issue to get over the line – not for lack of material or because of unreliable contributors – but because I’ve struggled to emerge from the afterglow of ETNZ’s magnificent performance in Bermuda. It took a lot – and I mean a LOT – of whiskey to get my heart rate back to normal. I don’t know about anyone else, but in the last few weeks my fantasies have often turned to how wonderfully this story could play out on the big screen. An against-all-odds-David-overcoming-Goliath script with all the elements of a Peter Jackson blockbuster. There’s the archetypal clash between dark and light, invention vs convention, the small underdog snapping at the heels of an overly vocal pitbull, the villains and…

DISAPPEARING GUN FIRES AGAIN Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour reverberated to the sound of a 131-year old cannon in July – the ‘disappearing gun’ mounted at Maungauika/North Head Historic Reserve in Devonport. The gun – with its 8-inch bore – was built in 1886 at Britain’s Elswick Ordinance Works and mounted on North Head in the late 1800s to reprise a possible attack from the Russian Navy. Relations between expansionist Russia and Britain were a little strained at the time. But it was never fired in anger – in fact has only ever fired a handful of times – the last to celebrate the All Black’s Rugby World Cup win in 2011. This latest event was arranged for an upcoming NZ on Air-funded documentary – Heritage Rescue – a programme described as…

The answer lies in an open-minded approach to design, identifying the best-performing option and working to remove the obstacles to it rather than compromising. That, and having great faith in your design and simulation tools, since the budget, geography and timeline did not allow for full-size testing alongside the other challengers. Much has been said of the ‘brutal debrief’ the team went through following the defeat in San Francisco. Grant Dalton recounted that 20 or so points came out of the meeting as the highest priorities for next time. Top of that list were technology and capable people, encouraging the ‘new generation’ of sailors coming through the ranks, and giving individuals responsibility without constraints. Glen Ashby explained the direction given to the entire team was to ‘throw the ball as…

The latest Ron Given-designed powercat to leave the Kerikeri yard of builder Craig Partridge is headed for warmer climes: its owner, Vatea Quesnot, lives on Moorea, across the water from the main island of Tahiti. “My previous boat was a Roger Hill-designed Arrowcat 30. I prefer catamarans for their stability, space and low draft compared to the overall size of the boat, which is important where I live,” says Quesnot. He says he wasn’t planning on getting a new boat until a friend showed him a picture of Given’s own T9, which the designer had bought ‘second hand’ off its original owner in 2010. “It was in my head for six months – I was trying to figure out how to get this boat. Then I called Ron. Surprisingly, he…

In old school atlases, much of the planet was printed pink. It covered the real estate purloined by Britain to build her empire. The real power behind the empire though, was provided by Gardner diesel engines. “They crop up all over the place,” says Auckland’s Gardner agent Dave Shaw. Gardner was established as a general engineering company in 1868 and produced its first diesel engine in 1918. Today there are about 75,000 Gardners operating in at least 58 countries worldwide. Real Gardner folk keep immaculate engine rooms and will cock a finely-tuned ear as a boat enters an anchorage. “Gardner,” they’ll say smugly, and then launch the dinghy and row across for confirmation and a gander around. Many have the bronze Gardner name plate screwed to a wheelhouse bulkhead. The…

Until now, says Scott Fickling, The Landing’s general manager, “we’ve operated a fairly ancient tractor/trailer combination for hauling boats and parking them on the hardstand. “Sadly, the design of the old trailer gave us a relatively narrow window for boat retrievals and launchings – about 90 minutes either side of high tide – and that’s difficult when high tide falls at an awkward hour. It was also a little limited in terms of the size and/or displacement of the vessels it could accommodate – and catamarans, in particular, were tricky. “Our new trailer, by contrast, has a much lower chassis with fully-automated hydraulic supports to fit around vessels from six to 20 metres LOA, with a maximum displacement of 38 tonnes. More importantly, the lower chassis has expanded our operational…