Boating New Zealand — February 2018

100 Boating New Zealand

ack in 1974 Auckland boatbuilder Chris

Robertson designed and built a model of

what was intended to be his next yacht,

a fast 11.8m cruiser/racer. The inspiration

came from two of his previous designs,

Spectrum and Quando, but he massaged the

model’s lines slightly to better suit the then popular IOR rule.

This hull was being planked when Robertson’s good friend

and client Don Harland walked into his shed, saw the yacht

and said, “I wouldn’t mind a yacht like that.” Robertson’s

pragmatic reply was, “You can have this one if you like and I’ll

build myself another.”

Harland bought the yacht and finished off the bare hull and

decks. Named Plane Jane, he launched her in 1976, and so began

the start of 40-year old love affair between a man and his yacht.

Harland’s previous yacht was the Robertson-designed-and-

built 11.8m Susan Jane, named after his daughter Susan Jane.

Plane Jane partly continued the naming theme, but the addition

of ‘plane’ was more about Harland’s hopeful wish his new yacht

would plane downwind rather than being plain viewing.

Plane Jane was designed as cruiser/racer with offshore

capabilities and Harland had visions of doing some offshore

races in her. But after the 1979 Auckland to Suva race and

the 1984 Auckland to Nelson race, he decided to stick to local

waters and, over the next four decades Plane Jane became a

regular sight on the Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf.

Plane Jane became an integral part of the Harland family.

Besides successful local racing, she was regularly cruised to the

Bay of Islands, Whangaroa, the Mercuries and Arid Island. But by

the early 2000s she was looking increasingly plain and Harland

was struggling to maintain her. A motor mechanic by trade, he

had designed and built most of the boat’s original gear including

the winches, headsail furler, anchor windlass and deck fittings.

While these fittings may have lacked finesse, they were

strong and worked well in their owner’s hands, at least in the

early years. But as they aged they became less than reliable –

especially the elderly Yanmar engine.

Don Harland died in 2016, leaving his wife Wilma with a

quandary: what to do with Plane Jane? Many yachts in this

situation are sold off for a song to an uncertain future and the

next owner determines their fate. A few are restored, others

butchered, many rot away forgotten.

Fortunately, Susan and Stephen Harland-Smith had founded

what had by now become a successful business importing

medical diagnostic equipment, and decided to buy and restore

Plane Jane to her former glory.

To avoid any family ill feeling, they wisely purchased Plane

Jane from Wilma at a fair market price, and even more wisely,

commissioned Chris Robertson’s son Conrad and his team at

Robertson Boats to undertake a full restoration. The wheel had

come a full circle.

Like countless owners before them, the Harland-Smiths

approached the restoration full of enthusiasm and wearing the

customary rose-tinted glasses. “We thought it would take three

months – it took eleven,” laughs Susan.

The Robertson team discovered that several of Plane Jane’s

keel floors and her timber deadwood had fractured. Someone in

the family – no one’s quite sure who – had apparently put Plane

B

ANYTHING

BUT PLAIN

Some yachts seem to attract bad karma and wind up forgotten, rotting

away on a backwater mooring. Others lead lucky, charmed lives.

feature

Restoration

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY

JOHN MACFARLANE