It's not just recently that the Kiwi's, in sailing competitions, have been coming out of left field and waxing everybody. The America's Cup, in modern times, is the prime example of Kiwi skill and ingenuity, but they did it in International 14's back in 1958. With no local fleet to speak of, Kiwi's Geoff Smale and Ralph Roberts showed up in England with a locally built version of the Farrar Windsprite design, and then proceeded to win the POW cup with devastating heavy air speed. Geoff cut his own sails and also decided the English were wrong and had moved the whole rig 8 inches back on his International 14.
Amazingly, just in the last week,
the sistership to Geoff Smale's "Atua Hau" (Maori "Te Atua Hau-Ora: God of Nature) has shown up on the Internet for sale. Unfortunately, offered in New Zealand or I'm sure someone in the Northern Hemisphere would jump on this offering.
Pictures I lifted from the ad (the sail number K 646 is correct, according to Tom Vaughn's 14 history bible, numbers K 641 through K 646 were assigned to New Zealand):
Hi there. We've just bought this boat. I've been sailing since I was a youngster, but most recently in 470s and windsurfers. Our plan is to restore it to racing condition. Nice to see there's a healthy global culture associated with this wonderful class.
ReplyDeleteJames,
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear. Keep us updated with photos. Contact me through the email address on the Profile.