Before a consensus finally settled upon fixed aluminium frames as the best all round solution to wing construction there was plenty of experimentation going on. Richard Court (top left) experimented with a sliding rack arrangement on Court Furniture which kept all the weight on the right side of the boat; while many of the teams used folding arrangements (left) to keep the leeward rack out of the water (surely that huge spinnaker pole must be putting in one of its last appearances?). Above: the end of the end. When Trevor Barnabas won the 1987 title in Perth on Chesty Bond he also broke all previous records with a 32ft wingspan, a no1 rig that towered 45-feet above the water plus the biggest 18-footer spinnaker ever made
Then there was the period around
but we got it, the penny had dropped. The first ones were out to 2ft, very manage- able, then Iain designed wider ones that flip-flopped over by themselves, a hinge across the gunwale, so windward one down, leeward one up to clear the water. Mine was sliding with tubes that worked – but not as good as Iain’s!
Into the modern age At around that time I was talking to John McConaghy about building his first boat in an oven. When I said I was going to get the Big Fella’s old boat he said it would be good for me… I said that it was the same as we already had, wet lay-up. And he said, ‘Ahhh, well, mate…’ so then we knew it was different! John built a little tin shed, lined it with
thick insulation, then lowered it on ropes and pulleys over the boat. Then he fired up the heating elements and if you put enough heat in the bottom the thing got hot enough. For Peter Kurt’s boat he built a mould – with heating elements inside the mould. Wow… That became the oven. All he now needed was a resin that went off below the melting point of the mould… Meanwhile, this was the time of Bondy and his ‘little trips’ to Newport, Rhode
46 SEAHORSE
Island. But I never really gravitated to the America’s Cup. I could have gone to Newport in 1977 or ’80, as a late member of the team, and got a sail, but to be honest work was more important back then. The same with the Admiral’s Cup. I
could have gone late to the UK and got on one of the boats, but if you don’t focus on work then everything else falls over. And the Winning Group business is fourth generation now, so it has always been very important in all our lives. If I had to say why we have been success-
ful there over so many years it is really because of the way that I treated our staff. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that originally our staff didn’t come from the top end of town, and if you help people out in their life – they help you out. It needs to work both ways, and you do help some people and it doesn’t come back to you and they move on, but we had a very loyal team. It gets a lot harder when you get up to
1,000 people! When you are dealing with up to 100 you pretty much know all of them – and different people need different things; one bloke you help out with a vehicle, another you help to buy a home. My philosophy has always been that people don’t work for me, they work with me.
2004/5 when life ashore was just too busy and I sort of thought that I might give up the skiffs again. The 18s were shipping back from the San Francisco Worlds so I thought I would get Herman to race instead of me. I went out and watched his first few races and knew pretty quickly that spectating wasn’t for me…
Safety? Through all this I have been remarkably lucky. I broke a rib in San Francisco – I don’t know how really. Then about 10 years ago we had a bit of a swim between Shark and Clark Island – the southerly came in, we tipped it and I hit the mast, then the sheet hand hit me, so I ended up with four broken ribs and a couple of bones in my back got smacked pretty hard. So six weeks off then back into it. That also ruined my golf game. In the big picture I remember doing an
early risk assessment for our club. Pretty much the risk is X, Y or Z. With a power- boat wash on the harbour you stick the bow in and you have no idea where you will finish up. So you hit the mast and you hurt yourself, or you get caught under the boat and you drown. Every scenario ended up with you under the boat and if you can’t get out… you drown. From experience I suggested that you are often better off without a lifejacket as you
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