Still larking about

“An old bugger still ticking over” – is how 90-year-old Alan Wright describes himself and his desire to keep designing boats.

Alan Wright is among a handful of legendary Kiwi yacht designers – and a major contributor in New Zealand’s developing boat industry in the sixties and seventies. To this day he remains one of the country’s most prolific designers, with the most registered yachts to his name.

Now, with the lingering reality of losing his driving licence due to the NZTA’S draconian annual driving test for the elderly, Alan has spotted an opportunity to combine his passion for designing and building boats.

During a recent daily walk he passed a mobility scooter towing a small trailer. That encounter made an immediate impact and he quickly hatched a plan to design and build a small boat that could be towed behind a mobility scooter. The boat would also need to be its own trailer – with easily detachable wheels – Sea Lark New Zealand was born.

Potentially, there were a number of additional benefits: this could be a popular home-build project for other retirees, an ideal project for grandfathers and grandsons, or for fathers and young sons to learn and pick up the practical skills from woodworking. In effect, anyone from school students through to those of more advanced years.

“Those practical woodworking skills we all learnt as part of our development growing up, I feel, are fading,” notes Alan, “and this could provide both young and old with an opportunity to lend a hand to working with wood.”

Speaking to some of his retirement village contemporaries, it seemed there was strong interest in such a project as it’d be ideal for those with a workshop and a waterway in close proximity. “It’s also important for retired people to have an interest or a project to keep the mind and body active,” he adds. At 90 he’s testament to this belief – still sailing and winning races with his son Don who skippers a Marauder with a much younger and very competitive crew.