He put the wind in NZ yachting’s sails

Hyachtsman/architect b October 28, 1930 d October 2, 2019

al Wagstaff was a seminal figure in the establishment of New Zealand’s international yachting reputation.

He was schoolboy when his involvement in sailing began in the traditional New Zealand way – mucking about in boats, in his case at Evans Bay, Wellington, just a stone’s throw from the family home in Hataitai.

Wagstaff was the compleat sailor. It’s very likely that he knew more about sailing than most of his peers. He designed boats, tested them, showed yachties how to build them, use them and, importantly, how to win races in them.

It is no small thing that stuffy elements in European and American yachting were converted by audacious New Zealanders who started winning ‘‘world’’ trophies often in boats of their own design in the 1960s, and then started winning Olympic medals as well.

By the time Wagstaff sailed his last race in 2009, he had reached dizzying heights in sailing. At various times he was a long-term executive member of the NZ Olympic Committee, president of Yachting NZ and vice-president of the International Sailing Federation, having officiated at 55 international or world championship regattas.

At home, the yachting fraternity knew him not just as an admin or magazine sailor, but as a champion sailor, accomplished architect, and a designer of race yachts.

In 1953, he moved to London to take the Architectural Association route to qualify in the profession. It gave him confidence to expand his interest in yacht design.

‘‘I was nuts about sailing,’’ he said. ‘‘It was easy getting started before the war, but it was not easy to get a thrill out of it.’’

The trouble was sail and hull design.

In the 1930s small-boat sport sailing was limited to a range of heavyweight clunkers whose speed was best described as leisurely.

At the Evans Bay Yacht and Motor Boat Club’s centenary this year, he recalled a hankering for quicker craft. ‘‘You couldn’t coax those older craft to find more than a few knots of difference. Barring accidents, we always finished within minutes of each other.’’

The answer, he said, was to design your own boat. He was just 16 when he designed his first. He pruned weight, tested hull shapes and experimented with sail designs. The results were telling.

Among others, his R class, Cherub, and Javelin classes were all quick, nimble and, importantly, won numerous local and national titles.

Significantly, he took the British Moth design in the 1960s and turned it in to a fast and highly competitive craft. Years later, he took satisfaction when the Moth was resurrected and given a foil to lift its hull clear of the sea. The Moth had become a pocket rocket.

He also designed family-size cruisers. His Harmonic 24 is reputed to be the most numerous of its class in New Zealand, with even more overseas.

Wagstaff was honoured with an OBE for services to New Zealand and yachting in 1985. He was also awarded membership of the New Zealand Olympic Order for 39 years’ service to OIympic sports and his 23 years on the council of the NZ Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association.

He was a life member of the Lowry Bay Yacht Club and a two-term Eastbourne Borough councillor, and a fellow of the NZ Institute of Architects.

He and his late wife Trudie lived at Lowry Bay before moving to Auckland. Trudie died in 2015. They are survived by their three sons. – By Peter Kitchin

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