102 Boating New Zealand
challenge. Following its successful defence Team New Zealand
asked Reid to do a similar job for the 2003 event.
Reid worked for TNZ for the next decade, up to and
including the massively disappointing 2013 challenge. He has
many AC stories from the various campaigns. One of the less
well-known ones occurred during the lead up to the 2003
defence, where TNZ tested twin keels for its IACC boat.
It secretly built identical six-metre models, one with
twin keels with each keel having a bulb and a trim tab, while
the other had a conventional single keel and rudder. Te
concept was so promising twin keels were ftted to one of
the full-size AC boats. While the twin keel lacked some
manoeuvrability, it was quicker.
Sadly for TNZ’s 2003 defence, skipper Dean Barker’s
concerns at getting nailed on the start line prevailed and the
twin keel concept was dropped. To this day Reid feels not
proceeding with it was a mistake.
Like several people in the know, Reid feels the score line at
the 2007 AC didn’t reveal how close TNZ and Alinghi were on
the water, while, along with most New Zealanders, Reid found
the 2013 event shattering. Six months after the San Francisco
loss he resigned and moved on. “It was a privilege to be part of it
all, but I’d done my bit.”
Reid’s always been an admirer of S&S and one of his many
sailing highlights was taking Olin Stevens, then aged 96, for
a sail on Sapphire in 2004. Another highlight was meeting
solo circumnavigator Ellen MacArthur during the 2007 AC in
Valencia. “She’s my hero, just an amazing sailor.”
Reid owned Sapphire for nearly 40 years, selling her in 2016
to a friend.
“It was really important to me that she was owned by
someone who’d appreciate her.”Te very day Sapphire was sold Reid moved to the dark side
by buying the 10.2m classic launch Sea Fever, designed and built
by John Salthouse in 1959. Reid’s also converted an Etchell
into a daysailer/weekender by adding a Robert Brooke-designed
cabin, which he gave to his grandson Andrew.
Another grandson, Mathew, owns the Pied Piper Triumph.
Looking back on a lifetime of sailing and working with famous
yachting personalities, for Reid it’s all been about the people.
“One of the best things about sailing has been the friends –
that’s what its all about. I’ve got lifelong yachting friends I’ve
made from when we were little kids.”
Amen to that. BNZBOATINGNZ.CO.NZRETRO BOATS Photographs: Doug Reid and John Macfarlane.
Do you know someone you would like to see featured in this column?
Contact [email protected]LEFT Olin Stephens aged
96 at the helm of Sapphire.
BELOW The 13.4m
Norseman, a Knut Reimers
30m^2 design.