Milestone for the Mighty R Class

Christchurch Star, Friday February 11, 2000 By Nick Tolerton

"A Kiwi boat for Kiwis," Olympic champion Peter Mander called the R class in his autobiography.

No other class has had as much impact on the development of New Zealand dinghy sailing, and it will celebrate a major milestone this month when Lyttelton hosts the 50th national championship for the Leander Trophy.

R’s originated in Canterbury, and the designs of innovators like Graham Mander, the late Peter Mander, and Brian Wall revolutionised New Zealand sailing in the 1950s as they rebelled against the stuffy restrictions of the traditional national classes.

However, while 50 years of national competition will be celebrated here this month, research by Graham Mander has traced the class's history much further back, to the early 1920s, when a 12ft 6in restriction was put on C class boats racing on the estuary.

A property developer, Arthur Stacey, presented two notable trophies (still sailed for) in 1928, named - after his' daughters Beryl and Irene.

The latter, for yachts not more than 12ft 9in long, gave what was to become the R class fleet its impetus - and the overall length virtually the class's only restriction.

Graham Mander with kauri-hulled model of the early R Class yachts

Mander regards the cat-rigged Rita, built about 1932 by George Andrews for Bob Beveridge to maximise the Irene Stacey rule potential, as the first of the class.*

He's tracked down lines for Rita, and a number of other historic yachts, from a collection of plans the late Wal Beanland, Canterbury Yachting Association president for m any years, had.

In 1937 -the CYA established the T class for boats under 12ft 9in and had 19 on the register that year, and the class changed its name to R class in 1948 to avoid confusion with a T class in Auckland.

The trendsetter of this era was Frantic, which schoolboy Graham Mander designed and built. Catrigged, with a pear-shaped - over rotating mast, fully battened sail, a fat dagger board, hard-drawn stainless stays, and a remote operated pump, the yacht was virtually unbeatable in the 1949-50 season.

"She floated like a half-tide rock, and she was pretty roughly built," Mander recalls. The last bit of ply he had to finish decking it had to go the wrong way -"and we had the cheek to varnish it!"

Come the 1950s - a decade of enormous change in sailing, with the R class and the Mander brothers at the heart of it.

Between them the Manders won seven Leanders in 12 years, and Graham's designs like Frantic, Frenzy, Hectic, Horizon, and Tantrum - how appropriate the names seemed for such an iconoclastic class - were the boats to beat.

Other sailors also seized the chance to make breakthroughs.

In 1952 Brian Wall's Impact introduced cold-moulded construction, a hull weighing only 35.8kgs (Idle Alongs in comparison weighed 113 kg), venturi, and trapeze.

Wires were in general use by the 1954 Leander, and in 1960 Bryan Treleaven and Mel Selwood tried twin wires on Fresco. About 1961 Don Nixon had probably the first alloy mast when he fitted an irrigation tube to Sari.

R class' innovations were not confined to the water. The establishment of the R class Squadron was a democratic breakthrough in class administration, commonplace though it seems today to have owners running their class.

The squadron took the initiative in promoting events like the boat show, schools yachting, and Junior Cherub kitsets.

The navy's involvement with Leander Trophy regattas (in spite of the fact the crest had been nicked from the cruiser) also added to the class's status from the start.

Graham Mander remembers the Chief of Naval Staff,'Rear Admiral Sir Peter Phipps, pointing out his boat was trimmed badly at a contest in the early 60s.

Mander is a bit disappointed by the introduction of the Auckland 12ft skiffs to the Leander in recent years.

"But I suppose it couldn't have survived without it," he said. "And I must say the Auckland guys still take the Leander as an important event."

And 50 years on from when he started racing them, Mander can't talk about Rs without ideas for innovations still tumbling out.

Cat rigs, twin centreboards, fully rotating sleeve masts ... could the genesis of the 2001 Leander winner be there for some young sailor listening to the recollections of Canterbury sailing greats like him at Lyttelton later this month?