Fourteen-foot racing boats have also had their time in the limelight over the years, developing in various forms in early 1900s into the X class. Yachting historians Harold Kidd, Robin Elliot and David Pardon record that in the mid-twentieth century, the fourteen-foot one-design class was so dominant, “for almost 40 years, newspapers around the country devoted as much space to the Sanders Cup in summer as they did to the Ranfurly Shield in winter.” With the decline of the old-style X class in the 1960s, a John Spencer-designed 14-footer, the Javelin, took over racing for the historic Sanders Cup, first contested in 1921. Manawatū Javelin sailor and class secretary David Brown says the current fleet is spread out across the North Island, with boats in Northland, Auckland, Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier,…
