SAILOR  :  Richard  (aka Rick) Martin.

Born 1949 into a family with a long history of seafaring. Has had a passion for the sea since childhood, particularly yacht racing and fishing. Taught by father Noel to sail “P” class yachts at age 10 in Nelson. Gave up at age 16 and traded “P” class for surfboard for 8 years. Returned to yacht racing at age 22, sailing “Paper Tiger” class catamaran in Wellington, and competing nationally. Member of the top 10 team in 1978 representing NZ in the interdominions against Australia, sailed in Melbourne. Moved on to sailing “A” class catamarans and then “Tornado” class catamarans. Changed to “Elliott 5.9”  trailer yacht in 1987, attracted by the competitiveness and commeraderie of the E5.9 fleet in Wellington and throughout NZ at the time. Met and become good friends with the grey-haired patriarch of the fleet, Dave Cochran from Whangarei. In 2009, at age 60, returned to sailing “Paper Tiger” catamaran, again because of the competiteveness and commeraderie within that fleet in Wellington and nationally, where National Championship regattas see 40-50 PT’s on the start line.

For a time in the ’80’s, enjoyed the fun & relaxation of cruising yachting, initially on a Noelex 25 trailer sailor “Arabesque” and then  Farr 1220 keeler “Legal Tender”, both jointly owned and shared with great friend and lawyer mentor Denny Thom, and his lovely wife Ruth. Coastal cruising has been extensive, but until acquiring “Sea Kiwi”, offshore sailing was nil.

However offshore experience is now a delivery trip of “Distracted” from Vanuatu to Wellington with Sniffy and Bindy in October 2010, delivery of Davidson 55 “Bodaceous” with owners John Toon and Simon Meikle and “Life of Pi” technical crew from Auckland to Savusavu in 2012, and another delivery on “Distracted” from Wellington to Suva in 2013.      

Fishing passion satisfied by frequent “boys trips”, ranging over the years from charters trolling the Northland coast for marlin, many charters out of Bulwer in the Pelorous Sound and Nelson, fishing out and around D’Urville Island for blue cod, groper, snapper and kingfish. Joint owner with long time sailing and fishing buddy Jocko McLauchlan of 7m aluminium hardtop Bluefin fishing boat for day excursions in Cook Strait, between Palliser and Karori Rock. Fishing passion also satisfied by annual “boys trips” to Turangi to fish the Tongariro and other rivers serving as sporning grounds for rainbow and brown trout out of Lake Taupo, with University mates and professional colleagues Jules Proctor, Andy Marshall, Johnny Meo, GT Langridge, Matt Bird, Greg Shanahan, Graham Drury, Barry Edwards and others.

Occupation : lawyer.  Married to an extremely supportive and loving Lynn, and best friends with beautiful daughters Bridget and Lucie.

Passions : competitive yachting, recreational fishing, good food and fine wines with special friends, and beating Richard Laurenson at snooker.

 

LYNN  :   Sailor’s wife.

Not born in to sailing, but developed an interest when introduced to it by Richard.

Born in Nelson, 5 years after Richard. Migrated to Wellington as a teenager for better career options, and established successful career with international accounting firm KPMG  responsible for accounting and  tax advice to small business and was also actively involved in the KPMG graduate recruitment programme over many years.  Left her postion as a KPMG Director in 2002 and  took a managerial role in Crown entity Residual Health Management Unit, more laterly known as Crown Health Financing Agency, and successfully managed disposal of  surplus hospital properties and resolution of historical abuse claims in the health sector.

Enjoyed many years of coastal cruising holidays on “Arabesque” and “Legal Tender” with great friends Denny and Ruth Thom.  Has experienced first crossing of Cook Strait but is yet to be tested on offshore passage.

Passions are family, interior design and refurbishment of residential properties and real estate in general, and entertaining friends with culinary delights, all with considerable expertise and success.

DINSY  :  (aka Andrew Dinsdale)  :  Wellington caretaker and frequent crew.

Not born into sailing either, but attracted to it when invited on to Farr yacht “Resolution Trader” by friends Mike Britton and Warren Rankin. Accomplished many offshore races originally on Resolution Trader and later on Lion New Zealand after her Whitbread days.

Born, grew up and spent most of working life in Wellington. Joined international accounting firm KPMG in 1972, Partner since 1978, finally retiring as Senior Partner on 31 March 2012.

With wife Sue, has had a longtime friendship in Wellington with Richard and Lynn. Many pleasant evenings spent dining in and out, with fine wines, often in excess. His yachting career became more land-based as he aged in to his 40’s and took on responsibility of shore manager for AJ, Rick and Jocko on their well known, well travelled and competitevely campaigned Elliott 5.9 “Pen Wig and Ballcock”. Elevated himself to President of the Elliott 5.9 Association and played a lead role in the late 90’s and early 2000’s in building the Association to one of the strongest class associations affiliated with Yachting New Zealand.

Now enjoys the fun of caretaking for, and sailing aboard, Sea Kiwi.  

However, since his retirement from KPMG in March 2012, he has taken wife Sue and youngest son Timmy to the UK for a couple of years on a journey to re-visit his ancestors, and try to re-capture the youthful years he spent working for KPMG in London in his early ’20’s.

DAVE  :  (aka Dave Cochran)  :  Whangarei caretaker and  skipper when aboard.

Born into sailing, and the sea. Born and bred in Northland, the Bay of Islands was Dave’s boyhood and youth sailing playground. He started with a gaff rigged “P” class dinghy then grew in to a 2-man “Idle Along” class dinghy, and in 1963-64 at the age of 17-18 built a 7m racer/cruiser keeler “Windsong” with sailing mate Peter Gallagher.

In 1967 Dave sold “Windsong” to buy an engagement ring for his lovely bride Pat, who has lovingly tolerated his many sailing escapades to this day. Dave then got tangled up in the “Javelin” class dinghy with Tom Gallagher (brother of Peter!). Over 10-12 years Dave owned and raced 3 Javelins, 2 of which he built himself. His campaigning around New Zealand, Australia and Fiji brought him a cabinet of silverware. Javelins did not keep Dave away from keelboats and he participated in many big boat events, particularly helping George Knightley campaign his 39′ Birdsall design “Arethusa”. The events included a Sydney-Hobart in 1976 and 3 two-handed Round North Island races, one setting the record (after battling through an unpredicted Force 12 storm out of Doubtless Bay – Dave’s most extreme experience).

In the early ’80’s Dave said goodbye to a successful 19 year career with the BNZ, and established a boat and outboard motor dealership in Whangarei, called Marine North. The business kept him focused and out of trouble for 22 years, but he kept up his sailing, mostly at Onerahi Yacht Club, initially in a Ross 850 and a Ross 930 and then, in the early ’90’s, the orange devil Elliott 5.9 “Zoot Allures”. Being the patriarch of the Elliott 5.9 fleet (then and now!) never held Dave back and he has won more than his share of silverware in National and Traveller Series championships.

Once crowned Northland Sailing Sportsman Of The Year, the breadth of Dave’s sailing involved him in the Citizen’s Match Racing series in Auckland, Champion of Champion regattas and Kenwood Cups in Hawaii. He has done more races to Fiji, Vanuatu and Noumea than he can remember. In 2005 he did his 4th two-handed Round North Island race with Boyd Smith on Boyd’s 55ft “Bare Essentials”, taking line honours by 26mins from “Hydroflow” after swapping the lead 14 times on the last leg from Napier to Auckland. In the previous year on “Bare Essentials” Dave and Boyd had a very successful Auckland- Noumea race in record breaking time of 3 days 16 hours, averaging 20 knots for the last 200-300 nautical miles. Had it not been for “Konica Minolta” (later “Zana”) beating them in to 2nd place, “Bare Essentials” would have achieved (and probably still held) the fastest time for a mono-hull yacht in the Auckland-Noumea race.

Dave did a 2nd Sydney-Hobart race in 2011 as navigator aboard the Benetau First 45 “Outrageous Fortune”.

Hopefully Dave’s experience of skippering “Sea Kiwi” on the delivery from Whangarei to Wellington has whetted his appetite for more cruising and that he and Pat will be on board on future cruises in the Pacific Islands , and possibly far distant waters. Watch this space.

 

SNIFFY  :  (aka Gavin Goddard)  :  Skipper of Bavaria 42 “Distracted”, and devoted companion of Bindy. 

BRIDGET  :  Sailor’s daughter,  and creator of this website.