A formidable influence
When Ivor Wilkins started researching the life and work of New Zealand yacht designer John Spencer even he was surprised to discover just how far-reaching had been the influence of this maverick free-thinker. As surprised, in fact, as several other world famous naval architects to whom he talked during his enquiries
I
n the summer of 2008 Californian Chris Welsh brought his sleek, low- slung 63-footer Ragtime to New Zealand to engage the local racing fleet. Although the name was different, for the cognoscenti there was no
mistaking its identity. This was Infidel, a maverick boat designed and built by John Spencer in Auckland in 1964 for wealthy industrialist Tom Clark, who would go on to wield considerable influence in the fortunes of New Zealand yachting. Spencer was a maverick in his own right.
With a shock of long hair, an unruly ginger beard and an intense stare, he could easily have been dismissed as some kind of mad scientist or, as a couple of his admirers conceded, a ‘hobo’. But, says Peter Tait, a longtime friend and custodian of Spencer drawings and documents, ‘John was really a genius in disguise – years ahead of his time.’ With a background in architecture, Spencer turned to boat design and became
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known as the ‘plywood king’ for his extensive use of the material in producing distinctive long, narrow, very light-displace- ment high-performance yachts. Infidel was regarded as the masterpiece in
his keelboat portfolio. With its hard chines, reverse sheer and narrow beam, it defied the classic European and North American-influ- enced aesthetic. Critics dismissed it as a ‘black box’, but admirers used the same description as a term of respect – particularly when it revealed its pace on the water. In keeping with his alternative lifestyle –
he was a heavy smoker in the curious belief it helped his asthma and a heavy drinker – there was a distinct whiff of anarchy and revolution in Spencer’s approach to design. His philosophy was shaped towards provid- ing affordable boats, easily built in suburban backyards that would give ‘ordinary’ people enjoyment on the water. Tom Clark was not a typical Spencer client. Eventually knighted for his business
contribution, he inherited a family company which he developed into the Ceramco corporation. That name will resonate with memories of Peter Blake’s first Whitbread Round the World Race yacht, Ceramco New Zealand. Clark became a lifetime mentor to Blake, involved in successive round- the-world and America’s Cup campaigns. Moving in the upper echelons of New
Zealand’s business elite, Clark might have been expected to join the establishment yachting school. But, for all his privilege, Clark was a hard-nosed pragmatist with a gruff, tough-guy demeanour and vocabulary that could make a trucker blush. He wanted a speed machine and turned to iconoclast Spencer, first with a 37ft design called Saracen, to learn the ropes and test the concept. And then with Infidel. ‘The Spencer-Clark partnership was to
prove a perfect match,’ wrote yachting historians Harold Kidd, Robin Elliott and David Pardon in their book, Southern
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