Buccaneer (above) was built for industrialist Tom Clark for a second attempt on the Sydney Hobart race following the frustrating debacle with Infidel in 1969. Though still unconventional, and similarly built of ply, the heavier Buccaneer carried more of a nod towards the IOR rule of the time and had lost the aesthetic simplicity of her elegant predecessor. In the 1975 Transpac Buccaneer’s crew suffered exactly the ignominy that Clark had angrily predicted, of watching Infidel cruise past to finish well ahead. Spencer’s pretty Stiletto 25s (right) became popular in New Zealand in the late 1960s – plywood-built, light and as always very nimble to steer
the bow. His rigs were also positioned aft with the forestay set back from the stem, keeping the power of the rig as close as possible to the greatest beam of the boat. With a 20ft mast and a spinnaker flown
off a 9ft pole, this easily planing, lightweight machine took the Pennant Class by storm. ‘Around the boat Spencer then created a set of development class rules that allowed the Cherub to evolve and keep its place as one of the fastest small dinghies afloat,’ wrote Chris Thompson in his exhaustive SailCraftblog, which explores ‘the history and design of the racing dinghy’. A similar development approach was applied to most of his other racing dinghy designs. This was a period of great experiment -
ation and ferment in the New Zealand sail- ing scene, with lightweight backyard boats bursting on the scene in headlong pursuit of speed. Spencer’s classes left plenty of space for other designers to express themselves and played right into the zeitgeist, feeding a frenzy of creativity among a rollcall of antipodean talent including Bruce Farr, Ron Holland, Geoff Stagg, Russell Bowler, Mark, Frank, Julian and Nicky Bethwaite (the Bethwaites were New Zealanders who moved to Australia), Iain Murray and Grant Simmer, among others. ‘Spencer was one of my heroes,’ acknowl-
edges Farr, who describes the Cherub and Javelin as ‘really great boats, with a level of performance, especially by international standards that was quite extraordinary for the time, especially in a restricted boat that could be built at home, quite cheaply, rather than an expensive one-design’. Farr began racing with a Spencer Flying
Ant, built at home by his father with help from Bruce, then aged nine, and his older brother, Alan. After designing a Pennant Class singlehander and a multitude of Moths (he won the 1966 nationals), 12ft and 18ft skiffs, Farr designed his first Cherub in 1967 and then turned his attention to Javelins in
44 SEAHORSE
1970. He describes the Javelin as the perfect size for a two-man racing boat: ‘small, easy and quite light, with a powerful enough rig that made trapezing more useful… and really great performance. A more “adult” boat’. The restricted nature of these classes
allowed many designers to participate in improving the breed. Spencer himself con- tinued in this process and took his own Cherub designs through at least nine itera- tions, according to Tait. ‘Looking back, it seems John was very
inclusive in terms of sharing his market with other designers and builders,’ says Farr, who acknowledges he was one of the benefactors of that philosophy. ‘I think he had a vision more than a selfish business plan. ‘He seemed more interested in the art of
building and designing and getting people sailing than getting rich. His plan prices reflected that – and probably depressed the design market income for a decade or more!’ Farr was just one of many young Kiwis
attracted to Spencer’s designs. Groups of young sailors would hang out at the various boatbuilding sheds he occupied on Auck- land’s North Shore. Although some have portrayed Spencer as very quiet, even reclu- sive, he always had time to talk to young- sters about their ideas and ambitions. And especially about what made boats go fast. Tait recalls that the shed where Spencer
built Infidelwas a steel-frame structure clad, naturally, in plywood. ‘A lot of his Cherub mates came round and helped him build it.’ Another of the young sailors who hung
around Spencer’s shed talking about design and speed was Ralph Roberts, who won the Prince of Wales Trophy in International 14s and was a New Zealand Finn class Olympian. ‘He could talk the leg off an iron pot,’ says Roberts. ‘He was very modest, but he could talk about any subject. John was extremely well read.’ Roberts confirmed Spencer’s skill and perfectionism as a boatbuilder but recalls an
almighty mess in the shed. ‘At one point he shared space with boatbuilder Brin Wilson, who was meticulous about keeping everything tidy. Brin painted a white stripe down the mid- dle of the shed. On John’s side it was junkville. On Brin’s side you could eat off the floor. ‘Some years later John built a cold-
moulded Finn for my brother Clive. We were heading to Nelson [in the NZ South Island] for a New Year regatta. The Finn was meant to be finished two weeks before Christmas, but on Christmas Eve John was still working on it. He worked right through the night and on during Christmas Day until he finally got home in the late afternoon for Christmas lunch with the family. All the food was gone and his wife was about ready to kill him. ‘Clive and I finished the boat during the
road trip south, stopping to varnish it along the way. It was a very good Finn.’ When he was about 16 years old Farr,
who already had success sailing, designing and building Moths, went to see Spencer to ask about career options. ‘He was happy to stop working on a big keelboat and chat for a while, genuinely interested in helping me, as I gathered he did for many others,’ Farr recalls. Spencer advised that a career in boat design demanded first learning how to build boats – giving the shy young Farr ‘some confidence’ about the direction to take. The rest, as they say, is history. Geoff Stagg, who grew up in Wellington,
had a similar experience. Spencer had quite a following in the capital city and used to stay with the Stagg family when he visited there for Cherub and Javelin events. Stagg’s first boat was a Cherub called Whispers, which Spencer built for him. He too gradu- ated to a Javelin. ‘My main nemesis in Cherubs was that bastard Bowler,’ Stagg laughs. Farr, Bowler and Stagg of course ended up as the driving force in the so-called Farr Office through its golden years. ‘I got to know Spencer extremely well,’
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