Boating New Zealand — January 2018

orn in 1952, Paul couldn’t, by any stretch of

the imagination, be labelled an enthusiastic

scholar. Boats, rather than books, consumed

his life – perhaps not all that surprising

given the family’s sailing obsession.

But proof that he was born with an

innate talent and an exceptional eye is evident when you learn

that he penned the Reactor’s lines (in 1968) when he was only

16 – completely untrained in boat design.

Equally intriguing is his instinctive move to embrace what

was then the new-fangled fibreglass construction, and become

a pioneer in the era of New Zealand production boatbuilding –

taking advantage of its inherent cost- and process-efficiencies.

The mould for the first fibreglass Reactor was made (1968)

from the wooden plug Whiting built in an old shed near his

father’s factory in Auckland’s Mt Roskill. She was named

Reactor. The wooden plug, incidentally, continued life when it

was fitted out and launched as Armageddon – later renamed

Madama Butterfly.

In those pre-marketing, hype-free days the best way to

display a new design’s capabilities was on the water. Whiting

raced Reactor regularly and she performed well. He won the

B

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2018 marks the 50th anniversary of

Paul Whiting’s 7.6m Reactor, one of

New Zealand’s best-loved designs.

Nearly 80 have been built. What

makes the Reactor’s legacy even more

remarkable is its improbable origin.