Reflections
It’s a long way from Te Awamutu to the top echelons of the America’s Cup racing, but for lawyer Hamish Ross it’s simply been about climbing progressively bigger hills.
The Hamish Ross Story
While Ross has provided legal services for four different America’s Cup (AC) syndicates over six campaigns, his boating began far more humbly, in dinghies during holidays with his grandparents on Lake Okareka, near Rotorua. “Those were my ‘Swallows and Amazons’ experiences.”
References to books are common with Ross. He’s extremely well-read and a history buff to boot. Growing up in Te Awamutu he completed his secondary schooling at Fairfield College in Hamilton, then one of the more progressive schools in the country, becoming head boy during his last year.
Law beckoned as a career and Ross completed a double degree – business and law – at Victoria University in Wellington, and then joined law firm Bell Gully. With the economy booming under the David Lange-led Labour government, he spent the next few years on the upside of business – mergers and acquisitions, and after the 1987 sharemarket crash, the downside – receiverships and bankruptcies.
By 1991 he had made partner and, having experienced small boat sailing and wind surfing, it was time for something more substantial. After six months looking at all manner of yachts, he found a classic launch at Gulf Harbour. “It was my ‘Road to Damascus’ moment – I realised I could combine boating and history.”
A born researcher, Ross read everything he could lay his hands on about classic New Zealand boats and decided his boat would be a Logan. After an unsuccessful attempt to buy Victory, he discovered the 1934 Arch Logan-designed Little Jim. “She had beautiful lines but a horrible doghouse addition which would have to come off.”
He soon had Little Jim restored to her original profile and, with family cruising in mind, her interior was upgraded. After becoming friends with fellow classic yacht aficionados John Gorter, Chad Thompson and Greg Scopas, the group decided to
form an association of classic yacht owners. A month later, May 1995, the Classic Yacht Association (CYA) was launched at a meeting of like-minded sailors at the Ponsonby Cruising Club (PCC).
“The support we [subsequently] got from the other yacht clubs was tremendous – basically unconditional love.”
The CYA’S formation marked a turning point for classic boats, which had progressively fallen out of favour over the previous decades. It sparked a renaissance of restoration and preservation, with an increasing number of classics being returned to originality.
From the beginning Ross preached the value of inclusiveness which raised the issue of originality versus practicality. “Better they’re out there being used than rotting away in a mud berth somewhere,” is his pragmatic attitude.
The PCC set up and ran a separate racing division for the classics and once again Little Jim was racing the likes of Prize, Ngataringa, Moana, and Hinemoa. The CYA later shifted to the RNZYS and has continued to build its membership. There are now over 300 members.
Ironically, Team New Zealand’s (TNZ) AC win in 1995 was another milestone in how classic boats were treated. With the AC to be held in Auckland in 2000, Ross realised wealthy visiting yachtsmen would find our classic fleet highly attractive and cheap. There was a real danger of priceless local classics being lost to New Zealand forever.
Ross investigated the Antiquities Act, which protected valuable historic artefacts. The Act required that Department of Internal Affairs approve the export of any boat more than 70 years old.
It was Gorter who’d alerted Ross and fellow lawyer and boating scribe Harold Kidd to a secret sale of the 1901 Logan Brothers built Iorangi to a Sydney-based yachtsman. Ross and Kidd notified the Department which swung into action and, to cut a long story short, Iorangi was returned to New Zealand. The Iorangi affair drew a line in the sand; New Zealand would not tolerate her classic boats being sold offshore.
“Protecting our classics is the major achievement of the