Left: eclectic... the Farr Whitbread maxi Lion New Zealand patiently awaits her refit hemmed in by a string of classic motor and sailing boats in various stages of restoration, a custom fast-cruiser off the bow and a large motoryacht getting prepped for spraying to port. And then Lion’s recent offspring Vestas arrived (above) to purchase a new front end...


with Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson aboard Turn the Tide on Plastic. Younger sister Paige did a pre-race delivery trip from Lisbon to Alicante on the same yacht, and regularly races TP52s in Auckland and with the PAC52s in the USA, as well as skippering the 67ft pencil-thin wooden classic Innismara, part of the Cook family’s generous fleet of classic boats… For Bianca the highlight of the Volvo so


far was the arrival in her home port of Auckland, after a nail-biting match race down the coast of New Zealand’s North Island. ‘I am loving the race,’ she says, ‘although there are definitely moments that leave you wondering what on earth you are doing there. ‘But coming into Auckland was a massive


high and, as always, the turnout of boats to welcome us was incredible – even at 2am. Unfortunately while I was on a huge adrenaline rush to be coming home the rest of our crew were feeling devastated at missing out on a podium right at the end…’ After a brief rest much of Bianca’s


Auckland stopover was then spent back at her desk helping with business. Reflecting on her own recent VO65 experience com- pared with Lion New Zealand currently in residence, she remains slightly incredulous about the extent to which the two genera- tions of round-the-world racers represent such totally different worlds… although she does concede that the speed of the current yachts comes with its downsides. Lion’s more stately pace would definitely be a drier (or, at least, a less wet) ride. For those who know Yachting Develop-


ments this juxtaposition of new and old is a familiar theme. Although the yard has a world reputation for its modern composite work, like many other of today’s designers and boatbuilders Ian Cook himself retains a passion for classic boats. A corner of the yard, affectionately


known as Jurassic Park, is reserved for the restoration of wooden boats – although Ian, clearly belabouring a hard-won under- taking, insists that those projects are now at an end… The Cook women smile know- ingly and remind him of the wooden shell that has stood wrapped and awaiting a


major restoration for the past 12 years. At least one more then. This passion for classic yachts has been


passed on to the next generation and both Bianca and Paige are frequently out racing in the very active wooden boat fleet in Auck- land. While Paige runs Innismara, Ian cam- paigns Ranger, originally built by an Auck- land dockworker and famous for ruling over the elite class of Waitemata racing for 30 years. He is also part-owner of Rawhiti, an aristocratic and beautifully maintained Edwardian gaff-cutter designed and built by the famous Logan yard in Auckland. Blanche, wearing her financial controller


hat, adopts an official attitude of disap- proval for these financially irrational projects, but is quietly tolerant of the family affliction. Particularly since this love of wooden classics did turn out to be a distinct business asset in 2010 when Yachting Developments won the high-profile con- tract to do a major refit on the J-Class Endeavour – regarded by many as the most beautiful racing yacht ever built. The owner was impressed by the company’s personal commitment to classic yachts and said it played a significant part in his decision to entrust them with the refit over stiff compe- tition from other international facilities – many of them arguably much better known in this high-profile arena. Turning to the future, the New Zealand


defence of the America’s Cup looms in 2021 with widespread anticipation for the new foiling monohull class created by Emirates Team New Zealand. Could that technology perhaps transfer to foiling superyachts? Weight, as always, is the issue. ‘To get a


boat foiling is all about weight,’ says Ian. ‘Given that we have come from building raceboats to superyachts, our advantage is that we have been able to build lighter and better-performing boats than our steel and alloy counterparts by virtue of our experience of composite technology. ‘However, to combine foiling ability with


all the hotel facilities of a superyacht, that is an awful lot of service weight that you have to carry to perform all those functions.’ He believes a more likely shift would be where somebody interested in a 100ft foiler


would build a raceboat of that size and then tie it up alongside his large motoryacht – just as owners used to do with their J-Class yachts in the 1930s and still do today. However, he concedes a more achiev-


able performance gain could come from quasi semi-foiling, utilising some of the technology and experience gained through the America’s Cup. There is, for example, a new 142-footer equipped with DSS foil technology now under construction at Baltic Yachts in Finland. And displacement weights in large com-


posite superyachts are certainly coming down as the price of carbon continues to reduce. ‘It used to be that carbon fibre was prohibitively priced because it was all being taken by the aerospace industry. ‘Now supply is more plentiful, which


makes raising the carbon content more feasible, which creates a virtuous cycle. It takes less carbon to achieve the equivalent strength and stiffness of lower-modulus composites, which in turn saves labour costs with less laminating. The end result is signif- icant weight saving and greater efficiency. ‘The last big motoryacht we did ended


up being seven tonnes under the weight budget because of an increased carbon content. That represents a significant saving on fuel costs alone,’ says Ian. That trend, taken to its logical conclusion, could at least bring ‘foil-assist’ into the frame on large cruising yachts. Like so many other large custom yards,


New Zealand’s Yachting Developments has had to think nimbly to stay afloat in a changing world. For example, following the financial crisis of 2007 the company deftly returned to its racing roots with several smaller builds, including a new fleet of 7m training yachts used by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s renowned Youth Training Programme, where both Cook girls had also graduated. It has also taken on an interesting spread of architectural projects. Whether or not the future lies with high-


tech foiling projects, it seems a sure bet that the Cook family business will live up to its name and continue to be at the forefront of boatbuilding development for another generation or two… at least.


q SEAHORSE 53


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