Boating New Zealand - May 2018

6 Boating New Zealand

Lawrence Schäffler

Editor

EDITOR’S NOTE

Vital signs

EDITORIAL

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I

’ve just given the entire magazine a final once-over before

releasing it to the printer, checking for typos, grammatical gremlins

and embarrassing gaes. We never seem to be able to eliminate

them entirely – no matter how many times we proof the pages.

But the exercise did – for me anyway – oer an interesting

snapshot of the New Zealand marine industry. Based on the ‘local’

content reflected in the articles, I’d say things are in a pretty good

space. The vital signs are good.

Let’s see – we have reviews on three local boats: the Dan Leech

L825 power cat, the Dickey SemiFly 32 and Dean Salthouse’s Corsair

Euro 44. Okay, the latter is the first that Dean’s had built in Taiwan

rather than here, but it’s a local design.

There’s the fascinating vaku motu built by Lloyd Stevenson

Boatbuilders – the third – and two more are in production. For the

boatbuilding team, the vessels demand a challenging blend of modern

and traditional techniques/technology.

Allan Tongs has just embarked on a new production boatbuilding

initiative with a Bill Upfold design – the Elite AT43. The industry hasn’t

had a facility geared to production launches for quite a while.

And then we get into the restoration skills. As anyone who’s been

involved with restoring classics will tell you, the projects always

demand infinite patience, precision and perspective.

Laughing Lady – once a derelict launch with a broken back

• is a glowing showcase for those skills. A remarkable job by the
  Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard. As are Rawhiti and Innismara, two
  icons of New Zealand’s classic yacht fleet. Both are superb examples
  of the industry’s restoration expertise. Consider that Innismara
  was a fire-damaged hulk – miraculously raised from the dead by
  Henderson’s Yachting Developments.
  And finally – we have lift-o with the America’s Cup. Consensus
  has been reached and we have a plan for a base in Auckland’s Viaduct.
  Let the building begin.
  Within these pages Christian Stimson has provided a relatively
  user-friendly guide to the new AC75 design rule. I get most of what
  he is saying about the finesse and foibles of foiling.
  I just hope the damn thing works.
  Happy boating.

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