In a class of his own when out on the water
Eric (Mick) Jackson Pinkney, sailer, volunteer, coach: b Masterton, June 27, 1933, Masterton; 4d; d Paraparaumu, June 6, 2017, aged 83.
At seven years old, Mick Pinkney set sail on the Pauatahanui Inlet, in Porirua, in an old dinghy with just an oar and one of his mother’s sheets.
He had never once set foot in a boat before then, but from then on, he spent every moment on the water in the dinghy, Braemar.
An old brass cartridge shell was turned into a bell and used to call him home for dinner or bedtime.
Dad Victor Jackson would often borrow a neighbour’s boat to drag his son back because he didn’t know how to sail against the wind. And so began Pinkney’s lifelong obsession with sailing.
Many in the surrounding community will remember Pinkney, with his quick smile and not-so-serious attitude, for his sailing prowess and willingness to teach others.
Throughout his 57-year racing career, he competed in multiple national championships throughout the country in several classes and boats.
His defining moment may have come in 1975 when he represented New Zealand on Lake Ontario, in Canada, in the 470 Olympic Class, a double-handed monohull planing dinghy with a centreboard, Bermuda rig, and centre sheeting.
However, due to a mix-up the borrowed boat did not have the correct measurement, and he was given an abandoned yacht.
‘‘We had been given a boat that had been discarded by another country who found it too slow,’’ he said in his unfinished memoirs.
‘‘This meant we had no hope of finishing in the top of the fleet. I think we ended up fifty something out of approximately 100 boats. Very disappointing.’’
Mick was born to Edith Madge and Jackson at the family’s home in Cornwall St, Masterton, in 1933.
Growing up during the Depression years, Pinkney attended Masterton West Side School and occupied his spare time catching insects in a waterway or gutter outside the family home.
As work dried up for his father, a plumber who worked only a few days a week at a firm called Pickering Bros, the family moved out of the country and into Paremata.
‘‘So, in August 1940, we packed up and moved to this strange house. It was going to be a big adventure for me. I think the furniture was still being moved in when I first took off in the dinghy which was called Braemar.’’
Jackson bought Mick, as he became known, his first P Class yacht, called Frolic, for £5 in 1942.
A P Class is a type of small single-sail dinghy, used as a trainer vessel for many new entrants into the sport; Sir Peter Blake and Sir Russell Coutts also learned in one.
It was soon apparent that Pinkney was a natural on the water, winning his first Easter Championship, aged 12, during the Paremata Boating Club’s annual regatta, pipping competitors three years his senior.
‘‘This was quite an accomplishment as the Easter Championships were, in those days, just about the most sought-after events in New Zealand yachting,’’ he said in his memoirs. ‘‘Boats came from as far north as Auckland and up from Christchurch, Nelson, and Picton.’’
He added a further three Easter Championships to his list of achievements and by 1948 he placed third in his first national competition.
Growing up in Paremata and attending the local school during World War II, Pinkney and his sister had regular air raid practices.
‘‘When the siren went we had to collect our emergency ration kit and march in an orderly way to the trenches that had been dug in a gully opposite the school.’’
Luckily, there were no real air raids during that time but Pinkney insisted it was ‘‘a bit of fun for us and a chance to get into our rations of chocolate’’.
By 1946, Pinkney had enrolled at the then Wellington Technical College to study engineering.
Years later he undertook a motor mechanic apprenticeship at Magnus Motors; this is how he met his wife, Heather.
She remembered that first meeting as ‘‘more or less, love at first sight’’.
‘‘He was the first boyfriend who made me laugh. Others were serious and others were boring, but he was neither serious nor boring. An uncrowned mayor, somebody once called him. I always thought that too,’’ she said.
A year later they married and started a family, raising four girls in different houses throughout Paremata.
By this time, Pinkney had represented Wellington in rugby, spent a year in Waiouru for compulsory military training, and progressed to Z Class boats. He made a big impact nationally with his ‘‘Zeddie’’ Itchy Feet.
He’d also been well involved with the then Paremata Rugby Club, playing for seven years before taking up coaching, then the treasurer’s role and president.
From 1965 to 1979 Pinkney built and sailed eight R Class yachts, dominating many competitions and winning three national competitions and numerous podium finishes.
Thanks to numerous friends and job opportunities, Pinkney tried his hand at selling yachting accessories to small-boat clientele for Barton Marine.
It wasn’t long before he became a shareholder and the business expanded to Napier and Paremata.
His trophy cabinet became crowded after his sailing interest turned to the 470s, in which he won a further five national titles.
Retiring aged 60, Pinkney continued to fill his days as a volunteer at the Whitby Police Office and manager of the Paremata Boating Club.
The latter was where he felt most at home, showing others how to sail, organising club events, and, when he could, building boats for his grandchildren
The day Team New Zealand won the America’s Cup, June 27, would have been Pinkney’s 84th birthday.
‘‘He sailed all his life, so he was very interested in the America’s Cup,’’ Heather Pinkney said.
‘‘He missed it but that was a good birthday present for him that morning, wasn’t it?’’
Sources: Eric Pinkney’s unfinished memoirs, Heather Pinkney (wife), and Diane Braddock (daughter).