CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2016 67R
ainbow II, the S&S designed One Tonner that
won the 1969 One Ton Cup and wrote the
opening chapter of New Zealand’s offshore
racing history has been returned to
Auckland and restored.
Campaigned on a shoe-string budget by celebrated
sailor Chris Bouzaid and a crew of young Kiwis that
included Roy Dickson, the son of America’s Cup skipper
Chris Dickson, as navigator, she won the 1967 Sydney
Hobart race, finished 2nd in the 1968 One Ton Cup in
Helogoland before returning to win it in 1969, and
finished the year at Cowes, with victories in that year’s
Channel Race and Fastnet. All told, they counted 120
race wins in two years, pebbles that led to a five decade
wave of NZ domination in Olympic, offshore, round the
world and America’s Cup arenas.
But what started out as a ‘quick lick’ of paint before
putting this inspirational yacht on display in a maritime
museum, has led to a remarkable resurrection of interest
in One Ton Cup racing and a full restoration programme
that will allow Rainbow II to race again.
The idea of racing these yachts again was seeded over
a few beers at the bar of the Royal New Zealand Yacht
Squadron. What about a re-run of the old One Ton
regattas in Auckland to coincide with the Volvo Ocean
Race stopover in 2015? An announcement seeking
expressions of interest led to a remarkable response –
28 from nine countries – which led to a One Ton
Revisited regatta in Auckland Harbour at the end of
February. Entries included Wai-Aniwa, Bouzaid’s
subsequent yacht, in which he won the 1972 One Ton
Cup in Sydney, Sextett, from Germany, and Pacific
Sundancer. The event has since been opened to all One
Tonners from 1965 to 1994, the year Cup racing
in this form ended.
The idea to resurrect Rainbow II came when Bouzaid
was passing through Bermuda and took time to look at
the yacht he had sold to local sailor Charlie Berry
immediately after her 1969 successes.
“I found the old girl in bad shape and not that far
from the scrap heap,” he recalls. “With a couple of
friends, I took her for a sail and was amazed how well
she still slid along, especially in the light air. But then the
breeze increased then so did the volume of water coming
in through her garboard planks. We were pretty lucky to
get back to the mooring without drowning the engine. I
made the decision then that this was not a fitting end for
a yacht that had inspired so much and so many. She had
to be brought home to Auckland.”
A few phone calls to friends in New Zealand and
Monaco produced some generous offers of support, and
with the help of the Maersk Line, Rainbow II was soon
on a ship heading home to Waitemata Harbour.Main picture: Rainbow sailing
in Auckland, New Zealand;
Below: Chris Bouzaid skipper
of Rainbow II at the helm,
with Richard Bouzaid
trimming the genoa