Enduring reaction
One of New Zealand’s best-loved designs celebrates a major milestone this year - half a century on.
Born in 1952, Paul couldn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, be labelled an enthusiastic scholar. Boats, rather than books, consumed his life – perhaps not all that surprising given the family’s sailing obsession.
But proof that he was born with an innate talent and an exceptional eye is evident when you learn that he penned the Reactor’s lines (in 1968) when he was only 16 – completely untrained in boat design.
Equally intriguing is his instinctive move to embrace what was then the new-fangled fibreglass construction, and become a pioneer in the era of New Zealand production boatbuilding – taking advantage of its inherent cost- and process-efficiencies.
The mould for the first fibreglass Reactor was made (1968) from the wooden plug Whiting built in an old shed near his father’s factory in Auckland’s Mt Roskill. She was named
Reactor. The wooden plug, incidentally, continued life when it was fitted out and launched as Armageddon – later renamed Madama Butterfly.
In those pre-marketing, hype-free days the best way to display a new design’s capabilities was on the water. Whiting raced Reactor regularly and she performed well. He won the
Junior Offshore Group championships in 1969 and extended the winning streak in 1970 and 1971. Reactor became a useful sales tool – and the foundation for an entire class of cruiser/racers.
So when he exhibited her at the 1970 New Zealand Boat Show she attracted plenty of interest – and orders. By mid-1971 he’d built 14 Reactors in the old shed, and five years later, after a move to a new factory, the tally had risen to 67. The class had become an established one-design phenomenon. TRAGEDY In addition to the Reactor, Whiting designed numerous yachts, including the Quarter Tonner Magic Bus (which won the 1976 Quarter Ton Championship). Sadly, his meteoric career was cut short by a dark star.
He competed in the 1979 Sydney-toHobart race in his yacht Smackwater Jack. Returning to New Zealand a few days later with his wife Alison, John Sugden and Scott Combs, the vessel encountered 80-knot winds and 11m seas. No trace was ever found of the yacht or its crew.