RETROS AND CLASSICS

Story One brother was good at building boats; the other had the accounting skills: a combination that survived the 1979 Boat Tax and the 1987 sharemarket crash.

The Donald Boatbuilders story by John Macfarlane

For more than 30 years, Donald Boatbuilders of Tauranga built custom timber boats. For the principals, brothers John and Graeme Donald, and brother-in-law Ray Willis it was a business founded more on a passion for boats than making money.

Born in 1944 and 1947 respectively, John and Graeme Donald grew up in Te Awamutu where their father Leigh owned a business manufacturing farm equipment. Graeme’s first boating experiences were in a clinker dinghy on Raglan harbour.

Boats became Graeme’s passion and in 1963 he began an apprenticeship under Rollo Dutton of Rollo’s Marine in Hamilton. Rollo’s Marine had been founded in 1957 building plywood and timber trailer boats.

After their father died in 1965, Graeme and John bought a 5.4 mullet boat which they kept in Tauranga. Both eventually moved there: Graeme to complete his apprenticeship with Tauranga Boatbuilders, and John to set up as an accountant.

After Graeme finished his apprenticeship, he built one of the first John Spencer 7.7m Stilettos, Islay, around 1968. Ray was a

partner in Islay and helped build her. Around 1971, Graeme, John and Ray built the Stewart 34 Islay II.

This project was the start of Donald Boatbuilders, a loose partnership arrangement between John, Graeme and Ray. Graeme and Ray did the hands-on boatbuilding full-time while John kept the books after hours, as he was in full time employment elsewhere.

The next two projects were for paying customers: an 11m Vindex and a 10.5m Vindex. From here on, word of mouth kept the order book reasonably full.

Initially Donald Boatbuilders began business in the old Oliver and Gilpin Boatbuilding shed, but around 1973 they bought an industrial section in Judea and built their own shed. This wasn’t a one-off deal; the three principals had been dabbling in property for some time.

“It was our property development that kept the boatbuilding afloat,” says Graeme. “Boatbuilding was a love, a passion. However we were fortunate to have property interests during the hard times.”

In 1973 Islay II was sold and renamed Pride of Islay. Graeme asked Laurie Davidson to design something similar to the Gary Mull-designed Improbable. This became Riada, a slim, relatively light displacement ketch.

“I remember when I first saw Laurie’s drawings I thought: ‘What a beautiful boat,’ and I couldn’t wait to build her,” Graeme says.

Launched in 1975, Riada attracted considerable attention.

The Donald Boatbuilder principals did many racing miles in her including an Auckland to Fiji race. John Bertenshaw and Kirsty Hardie Boys of Auckland now own Riada and say she still attracts favourable attention.

Like all New Zealand boatbuilders, Donald Boatbuilders was hit hard by the Boat Tax, introduced by prime minister Rob Muldoon in mid-1979. The company lost all forward orders. It kept a reduced staff busy on repairs, maintenance and small jobs such as planking David and Raewyn Peet’s Townson 9.6m Pipe Dream. Graeme, John and Ray then commissioned Davidson to design another fast cruiser, Riada II, which proved a quick boat despite her full cruising interior.

Donald Boatbuilders built several more Davidson designs including the 12m Revelation, a particularly quick yacht, and the beautifully finished 15.8m ketch/davidson 42, Tauranga, currently for sale in Australia.

They also built one of the first Farr 38s, several Frank Pelin Libertys and Challengers, a few Chris Robertson launches, some John Lidgard-designed yachts, and several boats from Alan Warwick’s design board. One of these was the 18m yacht Blaze, a handsome fast cruiser; another was the 13m luxury launch Shimea.

Began as a spec boat in early 1987, Shimea was half-finished when the stock market crashed in October that year. Within a

week, Donald Boatbuilders lost more than three years’ worth of future orders, and the market for luxury 13m powerboats had evaporated. Fortunately Graeme and Ray were eventually able to trade Shimea for a block of flats in Mt Eden, Auckland, which they later sold.

Nearly all of the boats built by Donald’s were laminated three or four-skin timber, using resorcinol glue.

“We were one of the few doing four-skin boats,” Graeme says. “It’s a marvellous idea. Apart from one bilge stringer, there were no other stringers so it cleaned up the interior hugely.”

Besides his hands-on work, Ray was doing the books and purchasing, while Graeme did the cabinetry and his pet passion, boat painting. They also formed a separate company, Donald Boatbuilders Kitchen Connection to build kitchens and boat interiors. They ran both businesses side-by-side in the same building.

Ironically, having survived the Boat Tax and the sharemarket crash, it was epoxy solvents, including thinners, that eventually caused Donald Boatbuilders to close its doors.

“I never used gloves and only a paper mask when spraying,” says Graeme. “I used thinners to clean my hands and, like many, I didn’t realise the dangers.”

The solvents on Graeme’s skin migrated the epoxy chemicals straight into his body, and from the mid-1990s he started feeling increasingly tired. It got so bad that he could work for only an hour a day, but no one could tell him what was wrong.

After many tests, eventually an industrial doctor in Auckland diagnosed that Graeme had developed epoxy sensitivity. Graeme initially refused to accept the inevitable until the doctor said, “Get out of it [boatbuilding] or die.” Graeme made the difficult decision to close the doors on Donald Boatbuilders. Greg Mcnabb, their

then foreman who’d started with them as an apprentice, took over the few outstanding boatbuilding orders. Ray took over the kitchen division and renamed it Kitchen Connection.

NZ’S Accident Compensation Commission, refusing to recognise Graeme’s illness, also refused financial support and instead offered him jobs such as a storeman’s job – including stacking drums of chemical products. Graeme’s personal life unravelled further when his marriage failed leaving him to raise his three daughters. It took years to dig himself out of the emotional, physical and financial mess; the first, small step was renovating a house in Tauranga. “Initially I could only work an hour a day. I’d do that then go back to bed,” he says. After the house sold, he moved to Whangarei and bought 20 acres of land overlooking Parua Bay. Largely thanks to his discipline, this story has a happy ending. Graeme remarried, changed his diet and lifestyle and began a career in commercial property.

Ray kept Kitchen Connection going until 2010, then wound it up and moved his tools to his home workshop. Now aged 73, Ray is installing a new galley in a 500-ton ship. John has semi-retired but remains in accountancy.

Graeme’s passion for boats and things nautical remains undiminished, and he takes considerable pride seeing the boats they built being enjoyed by their owners.

GRAEME DONALD’S HEALING JOURNEY

The official name for Graeme’s condition is chronic organic neurotoxicity, and the major ill effects of it have been permanent brain damage and steatosis of the liver.

Graeme’s journey from sickness to health has taken nigh on 20 years and has been a holistic approach encompassing physical, mental and spiritual. He followed the Hippocrates philosophy of ‘let food be your medicine’ by replacing sugar and meat with organic vegetable juice and a mainly vegetarian diet. He also stopped using alcohol, dairy, eating gluten and most processed foods, got his weight down and implemented regular exercise. As his liver function improved, so did his health.

The healing powers of attitude, friendship, support and love are well documented. Determined not to be beaten by his disease, Graeme and his wife Denise surrounded themselves with positive friends, many from their local church. Graeme found a use for his talents that didn’t require using epoxy through property renovation projects, which has been another key healing element.

Graeme and Denise have offered to share their knowledge to any boatbuilders suffering epoxy sensitivity. The Donalds can be contacted via Boating New Zealand.