Passion for sail
Over the past five decades sailmaker Kenny Fyfe’s built a reputation for making fast sails, particularly for centreboarders and multi-hulls. Sailmaking is Kenny’s passion and this is his story.
Born 1952, Kenny was the only one of his five brothers to achieve school certificate. His father Thomas wanted him to be the accountant for his plumbing company TN Fyfe & Son, but by then Kenny was racing Moths from the family bach at Whangateau. After starting with a Mk II Moth he graduated to a Mk IV designed by a young Bruce Farr.
Kenny also helped his older brother Toddy build a 10m Piver Herald trimaran, Tahawai. The pair took three years to build her and subsequently raced and cruised extensively. Toddy later modified Tahawai – removing the mizzen mast, moving the main mast aft, installing daggerboards in the floats and fitting new sails from Leo Bouzaid’s Sails & Covers.
Later still, he bought plans for a Van de Stadt halftonner and had John Lidgard build the hull and decks. The brothers finished Mokoia at home and went IOR Half-ton racing. This exposure to top-level racing helped Kenny clarify his career path and in 1969 he began a sailmaking apprenticeship with Sails & Covers. By then Leo had died and his sons Chris and Tony had taken over. “Tony did the covers – Chris did the sails,” recalls Kenny.
...in 1969 he began a sailmaking apprenticeship with Sails & Covers.
Initially operating from its Fort St loft in the central city, Sails & Covers later moved to Westhaven and became Hood Sails. In those days Hood’s 450mm narrow panel cloth was considered the bee’s knees of sail cloth. Chris designed all of Hood’s (NZ) sails and Kenny became his chief cutter. The panels were marked out on the floor with battens and cut out, with another team stitching them into finished sails.
Two years into his apprenticeship Kenny transferred to Roscoe (Ross) Guiniven Sailmakers. “Ross was a real character and we got on really well, I learned a lot from him.” Guiniven worked mostly alone and had developed his own style.
“Guiniven sails were more dinghy-shaped than Hood sails, fuller at the bottom. With dinghy sails you shape the panels more, whereas the Hood keeler sails were flatter and you relied on a bit of stretch in the fabric to give them shape.”
By now Toddy had taken over their father’s plumbing business and, as a secondary business, founded Sailaway Enterprises to build Seascape dinghies. This created an
opportunity for Kenny and he left Guiniven to set up a loft in the garage behind his parent’s house on Eastern Beach.
He sold his Escort van to buy a sewing machine and began building Seascape sails. Word spread and soon keelboat owners too were asking for sails. The garage wasn’t big enough so Kenny used the Eastern Beach Sea Scout Hall to lay out and cut his panels for the keeler sails.
Early in 1974 he got a call from Bob Stone, then working for Alan Bond, asking him to join the sailmaking team for their America’s Cup (AC) Challenge at Newport, Rhode Island. Kenny and Dave Giddons spent four months in Newport doing recuts and repairs to Bond’s AC boat Southern Cross.
While Southern Cross did reach the AC final, she was soundly defeated by Courageous, the breakthrough design from Olin Stephens. Interestingly, Kenny met Stephens on this trip and told him one day New Zealand would challenge for the Cup.
Dave Gibbons, Fyfe and Pete Cole working on sails for Alan Bond’s 1974 America’s Cup challenge.
Michele Fyfe
Macintosh (helm) and Fyfe.
A prophetic statement in 1974.
Back in Auckland, Kenny’s first job was building sails for Bob Graham’s Farr-designed Snow White, a fairly sizable job at the time. Snow White would later participate the 1976 Admirals Cup trials. Needing an even bigger hall, Kenny used the East Tamaki Rugby Club to loft and cut his panels.
“I’d arrive Monday morning to be nearly bowled over by the smell of cigarettes and booze, then have to sweep the hall before I could start work.”
The mid-1970s was a prosperous time for the boating industry and Kenny’s business boomed. He was getting orders for new keeler sails from clients from the Panmure, Bucklands Beach and Akarana yacht clubs, along with many orders for dinghy sails.
He married Michele (nee Paul) in 1975 and not long afterwards relocated the business to a refurnished factory in Otahuhu. They took on their first apprentice and the business
continued to expand until the infamous Rob Muldoon boat tax of 1979. “At the time we had 12-months’ worth of work and most of that evaporated overnight.”
Kenny had already committed to a bigger, purposebuilt loft in Pakuranga, but with the bulk of his forward orders cancelled, he offered equal partnerships to Ross Williams and Steve Trevursa to help spread the financial commitment. The trio spent five years in Pakuranga, but they were difficult years as sailmaking became so cutthroat that profits were worse than slim.
The Fyfes eventually decided the business was uneconomic and dissolved the partnership. They bought a house in Panmure with a separate building at the rear to continue sailmaking. Fortunately, boatbuilders like Phillip Wilson were still building custom yachts and Kenny made sails for yachts such as Rebel Rouser, Warringa, Grandprix, Wirruna, 45 South and other quarter tonners. He also crewed on the Farr-designed quarter tonner Hot Number in the 1980 Worlds.
During a visit to Sydney around 1990 Michele saw a TV advertisement for sun shades and thought, ‘That could work here.’ With a borrowed $10,000 she founded Shadesails®. The company was an immediate success and since then has installed shade sails at thousands of private and public buildings throughout New Zealand, along with others in the Pacific Islands, the UK and parts of Europe. With eight staff, Shadesails® now makes up 80% of the Fyfes’ business.
Over the years Kenny’s made sails for most if not all the centreboard classes in New Zealand including P, Flying Ant, R Class, Cherubs, Javelins, 12- and 18-foot skiffs. He also made sails for many multi-hulls, including Paper Tigers, A Class and custom multi-hulls such as Silver Raider, Taeping, Dirty Deeds and Big Wave Rider.
But it’s his contribution to R Class and 12-foot skiffs that’s been most meritorious. Kenny’s first involvement in the 12-foot skiff class came from sponsoring Robin Williams in the late 1970s. His sail shapes for this class have since 1. Use race tactic where boat stays between competitor and next mark (5)
4. Businesses that sell particular boat or marine brands (7)
8. Living in upper layers of open ocean (7)
9. Pass nautical line through block (5)
10. Ketch has this many masts (3)
11. Reducing pressure on sails (6,3)
12. Narrow pieces of land or sea such as isthmus or channel (5)
14. Distance travelled by wind or waves across open water (5)
16. Marine creature in photo (3,6)
19. Flipper worn by diver (3)
20. Corrodes due to seawater (5)
21. Captain of ship, eg! (3,4)
22. Unwanted fish and marine animals unintentionally caught in commercial nets (2-5) 23. Mythical sea nymph whose singing lured sailors onto rocks (5) 1. Boat fitting used for winding cables (7) 2. _____ Ocean Race – name of international yacht race from 2001 to 2019 (5)
3. Square _____ – types of sailing vessels (7) 4. Berths or moors vessel at wharf (5) 5. Strengthening timber behind lower part of boat’s stem (5)
6. Metal loop on boat for securing lines (3,4) 7. Ridge with drop-off under sea’s surface (5) 13. Of timeless quality– like some great boats, eg (7)
14. These are hung over vessel’s side to protect it from impact (7)
15. All _____ __ deck – order for entire crew to muster (5,2)
16. Clean boat surfaces by giving them good scouring (5)
17. Calibrate chartplotter again, maybe (5)
18. Boat trapdoor (5)
19. Sea _____ – bottom of ocean (5)
been widely copied and made their way into many other classes. He’s been at the forefront of square-top mainsails, asymmetrical gennakers, and mast and rig developments.
In 1983 Kenny started crewing for John Laurie, and three years later switched to crewing for John’s brother Graeme, the pair winning 12-foot skiff Nationals in 1986, 1987 and 1988. He started crewing for Paul Macintosh in 1990 in both R Class and 12-foot skiffs and since then they’ve won seven R class National Championships (1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2006) and two 12’ skiff Nationals (1991 and 1993).
They also placed third in the 1996 Inter-dominions, where New Zealand 12-foot skiffs took out the top three places and six of the top 10. “That was year we absolutely thrashed the Aussies,” he chuckles.
Some readers mightn’t appreciate the skills involved: both R Class and 12-foot skiffs are fast, flighty and a real handful in a strong breeze. Beside non-stop sail trimming, a good forward hand has to be strong, fit and agile with an impeccable sense of timing. Being fearless doesn’t hurt either. Although he’s now retired from crewing in both classes, Kenny remained a highly competitive forward hand well into his 50s.
He’s been the local agent for Hyde Sails (UK) since 2010 and regularly works with its designer on sail shapes to suit local conditions. As an old-school sailmaker that’s had its own challenges – “we’ve had a few issues getting my ideas into their computer.”
In common with many local lofts, Kenny’s sails – be they branded Hyde or Fyfe – are built offshore, in this case a loft in Philippines. Many other New Zealand lofts have followed suit to remain competitively priced. Another factor in the move to offshore production is advancing years – “you can’t be on your knees forever,” he says.
Of course, he makes any adjustments and/or repairs in his Onehunga loft and hasn’t retired his sewing machine entirely. His most recent set of sails was for the classic Ida, sails which are based on the look of the Hood narrow-panel cloth from the 1970s.
The move to Onehunga from the previous Glen Innes location occured five years ago so they could be closer to the motorway system. “Fifteen minutes and we’re in Westhaven, the clients love it.”
Another attraction’s the Manukau Yacht Club (MYC) just down the road which is home to the Auckland Hartley 16 fleet, which Kenny also makes sails for. He’s a big supporter of both the MYC and Manukau Harbour sailing which he considers grossly underutilised. He’s also a veteran member of Royal Akarana Yacht Club, a member of the Classic Yacht Association and crews on the classic Aramoana. He’s also part of the syndicate that’s recently purchased the half-ton keeler, Titus Canby.
As many readers will recall, the Rob Blackburn-built Titus Canby was Farr’s first keeler design and won the 1972 South Pacific Half Ton Cup. After many years in Wellington, having Titus Canby back on the Waitemata’s waters will be a fitting return. No prizes guessing who’ll do her sails.
Once a sailmaker, always a sailmaker and while Kenny’s still available to talk new sails – given all that’s happening these days – best phone before dropping in.
Kenny remained a highly competitive forward hand well into his 50s – an outstanding effort.
PHOTOS COURTESY
Garrick Cameron @ Studio 5 Photography, Kenny Fyfe and John Macfarlane
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