Reflections
Boatbuilder Allan Hooper’s one of the nicest, most gentle souls you’re likely to meet. He’s one of those unsung chaps who simply got on with the job – whether building boats or teaching youngsters. This is his story.
The Allan Hooper Story.
Born prematurely in Otorohanga in 1945, Allan Hooper wasn’t expected to live and his father Eric was told to plan for his funeral. Thankfully the doctor was wrong.
Seeking better opportunities for their five children, in 1957 the Hoopers moved to Devonport, Auckland where dad worked as a builder. Devonport then – as now – had a real nautical feel and Allan was quickly attracted to boats and the sea. After learning to sail Frostbites in St Mary’s Bay, he became a founding member of the Devonport Sea Cadets, TS Leander. “Those days inspired a lifetime love of things nautical,” he recalls.
Wanting a sea-going career, Hooper had two choices: marine engineer or a shipwright. So after gaining School Certificate, which in those days was set up so that only 50% of those examined passed, Hooper became a shipwright apprentice at the Naval Dockyards in 1962. “It was a great place to learn your trade.”
He was one of four new apprentices and joined the other 10 apprentices working out their time, collectively known as the Boat Shop Boys.
During his first year at the Dockyard, Hooper attended night school courses at Seddon Memorial Technical College, and spent much of his fourth and final apprenticeship year in the Dockyard drafting office drawing such things as a helicopter flight deck for the survey vessel Lachlan and a new bow for the frigate Otago.
Throughout this period he was building his own yacht, a seven-metre John Hakker Crewcut design. Construction was three diagonal skins of 4.7mm kauri, resorcinol-glued, and he launched Nimbus II in 1970.
Hooper left the Dockyard in 1968 and spent two years working for Jim Young. His talents were obvious and Young appointed him foreman to oversee the production of the timber NZ37S. “I had quite a bit to do with them [the NZ37]. We could make one, whoa-to-go, ready for sailing in four weeks.”
He left Young in 1970 and went out on his own to build a John Spencer Saraband for the One Ton Cup trials in Auckland. The client turned out to be a rogue, teaching Hooper some valuable business lessons. He then built a Vindex for Mauro Zanderigo, which went so well that Hooper was kept busy for five years building boats for Zanderigo and his friends, one commission leading to another.
In 1973, Hooper sold Nimbus II and subsequent owners made several Pacific voyages and a single-handed Trans Tasman race in her and she’s still going strong. For his next yacht, he designed and built the 10.4m fin-keeler Milanion. Now married to Pamela Grainger, the couple sailed Milanion to the Marlborough Sounds in 1976. There they had their first child and built a house in Blenheim. He worked as a carpenter as well as building plugs for Marlborough Fibreglass.
Two years later the Hoopers sold Milanion and the house and relocated back to Auckland. To protect their financial nest egg from the then rampant 20% inflation, Hooper bought the Townson 32 Penguin, a sister to Moonlight.
One day at anchor on Penguin, Hooper noticed some children struggling to sail a cantankerous dinghy, so much so they required rescuing. “There’s got to be something better than that for kids,” he thought.
Shortly afterwards he and Pam spent the weekend with their friends David and Raewyn Peet, who in turn were good friends with Des Townson. The Peet’s had recently built the Townson 25 Whisp. Needing a dinghy for cruising, Townson had provided the Peets with lines of a delicate 2.4 dinghy.
Taken with the dinghy’s lines, at Peet’s suggestion Hooper gained permission from Townson to use those lines to build dinghies professionally. After building the first half a dozen in timber, Hooper had Roger Land build a female production
mould and commissioned various GRP boatbuilders including Grant Mitchell to build them in GRP.
The Townson 2.4s were finished to a high standard, with Brian Harris building the laminated teak gunwales and fitting them out.
Compared to anything on the market at the time, the Townson 2.4 was the nicest-looking, best-rowing tender available. To this day it remains highly sought-after and has almost become the de rigueur tender for classic yachts.
Hooper later asked Townson to design a bigger 2.7 version, and while it is an excellent multi-purpose boat for a bach, due to the extra size and weight it isn’t as practical a tender as the 2.4.
Hooper eventually built around 200 of the 2.4s and more than 80 of the 2.7s. He wound up production of both models in 1992 when inflatable dinghies began to dominate the tender market.
Like everyone else in the industry, the Muldoon Sales Tax of 1979 caught Hooper out. At the time he was building a modified Vindex 34 for a client and, as the tax was applied retrospectively, his client had to find an additional 20% of the full price, a major shock.
Hooper began building a Townson 34 Talent MKII for a client in 1980, but soon afterwards developed an allergy to epoxy resins and was forced to give up boatbuilding. He spent the following year retraining as a teacher in woodwork and technical drawing then joined Westlake Boys High School under Robert Brooke, another ex-boatbuilder.
Within a year, Hooper was trialling a new, innovative approach in workshop technology for School Certificate. Of the 14 children in the first year’s trial, 10 gained School Certificate.
“The kids just loved it.” He gained great recognition with his approach, and was asked to lecture at Teachers College; this from a teacher with only two years experience.
In 1983, Hooper designed another yacht, similar to a Farr 38, but narrower, deeper and with less volume. He built a kitset of all the frames, then got boatbuilder Kevin Johnson to plank and deck the yacht. It was then shipped back to the Hooper’s Greenhithe home for finishing. Lucina was launched in 1986.
That same year he was appointed Head of Technical Department at Westlake, largely due to his success with the workshop technology system. He also headed up the Westlake sailing team sailing Sunburst dinghies. Under his guidance the team won five out of six National Contests between 1989 and 1994.
This success came at a cost and feeling burned-out, Hooper resigned from Westlake for some time out. In 2000, after a stint teaching at Mt Albert Grammar, Hooper took an extended four-month sailing holiday to Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia in Lucina. He later rejoined Westlake, where he taught the first boatbuilding course ever offered in a New Zealand high school.
In 2005 he and Pam sailed Lucina to Sydney, where they eventually sold her. Looking for a bigger yacht, they bought Martin d Or, an Ed Dubois-designed Westerly Oceanmaster
Hooper has been a Trustee at the New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School since 2018.
48, which became their home for eight years while they voyaged Australia’s east coast and the Pacific. “I put a hardtop on her, we used to go to sea in our slippers. She was a great boat.”
The highlight of these years was helping rebuild a new school on the Fijian Island of Makogai (part of the Lomaiviti Group), the old school having been totally demolished by Cyclone Winston in 2016.
After selling Martin d Or, the Hoopers bought Katherine, an 11.6m fantail launch built by Conrad Robertson. A displacement launch, Katherine’s perfect for an ex-yachtie, but Hooper’s already added a carbon-fibre mast, boom and headsail, which acts as a steadying sail and provides a derrick for hoisting the dinghy aboard.
And the dinghy? Naturally another Townson. Last year Hooper reactivated the original 40-year-old mould of the Townson 2.4s. Needing a few repairs, he took the opportunity to make some subtle changes – fuller bow and slightly increased freeboard. The new version is built in lapstrake plywood and is very light and stiff.
Hooper has been a Trustee at the New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School since 2018, where his boatbuilding and teaching experience has proved invaluable.
The Hoopers have been really enjoying their retirement and besides cruising Katherine, travel away whenever the mood strikes. Two days after our interview they were off to Hobart to see the 2019 Mystate Bank Australian Wooden Boat Festival, then its back for more cruising in Katherine.
Enjoy your retirement Allan; you’ve certainly earned it. BNZ