Boating NZ September 2024

After the euphoria of the Paris Olympics, the last couple of weeks have left me feeling rather flat. Television viewing doesn’t have quite the same appeal now as it did during those wonderful but short weeks. But didn’t our athletes do us proud? Across the board, but especially on the water. Yachting, rowing, and paddling – both flat and whitewater – were especially strong for New Zealand. They always have been, reflected historically in our Olympic results, but 2024’s medal tally was outstanding, particularly from our women athletes. Kiwi women shone in so many Olympic events this cycle, outshining the men by some considerable margin. It shouldn’t be too surprising that an island nation surrounded by the sea and rich in lakes does well in water sports (not sure what’s…

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SILVER FOR 49ERS A dream came true for two young Aucland sailors on the waters off the Marseille coast on August 2 when Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie won an Olympic medal for New Zealand. The pair crossed the finish line in the men’s skiff (49er) medal race in third place to claim silver behind Spain’s Diego Botin and Florian Trittel. The “McKiwis”, as they have been dubbed, started the double points race in the bronze medal position with any one of seven teams in the hunt for gold. They had two attempts at the medal race abandoned due to light breeze – once while they were in the gold-medal position. Their success means New Zealand has now won a medal in the men’s skiff event for the last four Olympics,…

It’s a smart-looking rig carried on a premium, dual-axle, braked Enduro trailer fitted with a Balex auto-loading system. Called Timeless, this boat is a new model with a raft of new features, many of them carried over from larger models in the Tristram range. This 691 Offshore belongs to the Fink family, the dynasty behind Tristram Marine (see Reflections, p92). The boat will split its time between Whitianga and Lake Taupo. Spoiler alert: while the 691 Offshore is a completely new model from Tristram Marine, released earlier this year (2024), the 691’s hull has been around since 1997. That’s because the 691, with its 22o deep vee hull and moderately wide chines, is a simply superb design, doing everything asked of it and more. So much so that over the…

There are many different hull designs and shapes, derived and refined largely as a result of trial and error in modifications and testing. Today, technology is much improved, allowing many new theories to be tested using AI in the digital world before prototyping and real-world testing is employed. At the highest level we can compare the softness in ride and rough sea performance of a steeper vee hull to the harsher ride of a plank or pad-vee hull in the same conditions. This is on a very high level, rule-of-thumb basis, as many manufacturers add further features into their hull design to improve pad-vee hulls’ performance in rougher conditions – a pad hull is a monohull boat with the lowest point of the vee hull flattened off to form a…

52 YEARS OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT UNDER SAIL Some 60 years ago an Auckland sailor Lou Fisher noticed something special. Teenagers who came sailing on his family yacht developed a gleam in their eye as they discovered the magic of sail – using just the power of the wind to move a ship anywhere they wanted to go. Fisher’s observation became a vision which he turned into reality. Two ships and 85,000 youth trainees later, we can reflect on the marvellous impact one man’s vision has had on New Zealand society. Spirit of Adventure, length 30m, was launched in Auckland in December 1973 and gifted to the Spirit of Adventure Trust. She was designed by Jack Brooke, a friend of Lou’s. During the design phase a two-masted brigantine rig with square…