Magnificent J-Class Rainbow to race under RNZYS colours in 2024

‘We pushed hard all the way, with a lot of sail changes ...’

“It was very much a race of two halves,” says Greer Houston, commodore of the NZ Multihull Yacht Club. “It was good that the smaller yachts dominated the handicap results this year. It shouldn’t just be about the big boats. It was a tactical race, not just the normal drag race up the coast. There was plenty to think about.”

On-shore, Tony Poolman and his Elevation crew of four were relaxing over a couple of quiet rums and figured they had the Division Five prize in the bag.

“Then we thought maybe we had not done too badly in the overall standings,” says Tony. “So, we checked that out and realised we had won the top prize. There was a stunned silence for about 30 seconds as we took it all in.”

Poolman has owned Elevation for 14 years (built 30 years ago, it was originally designer Greg Elliott’s own boat). Elevation won the Division Five prize in the 2019 Coastal Classic, but this year’s overall victory is a crowning achievement and just reward for a big effort. “We pushed hard all the way, with a lot of sail changes.”

On a totally parochial note: although their boats occupy opposite ends of the size spectrum, Brian Peterson and Tony Poolman, the two major prizewinners of this year’s race, are close neighbours in Helensville. Must be something in the water out there.

Although the race is run under the auspices of the NZ Multihull Yacht Club, the monohull divisions always outnumber the multihulls, but over the course of its 40-year history, the line honours overwhelmingly belong to the two- and three-wheelers. The current race record of 5:00:37 was set by Karl Kwok’s MOD 70 trimaran, Beau Geste, in 2019.

This page: Spinnakers blossom as the smaller classes cross the startline. This is the section of the fleet where the handicap winners would be found. Opposite page: Round North Cape and settled for a fast romp north, the larger yachts were soon to be frustrated as they stalled when the breeze headed and dropped.

CUSTOM MARINE DECKING

Monohulls have taken line honours only three times before. In 1989, Graeme Woodroffe’s Davidson 55, Emotional Rescue crossed the line first after 19 hours and 7 minutes of upwind slog – with 50 knots around Cape Brett!

In 2009, Neville Crichton’s supermaxi Alfa Romeo set a new outright course record of 6:43:32, wiping out the 14-year-old time set by the pink catamaran Split Enz. Conditions provided a rare dream run of sustained south westerlies averaging about 20 knots all the way.

Then in 2020, in a painfully light, fickle breeze, Bianca Cook’s Volvo 65 NZ Ocean Racing (formerly Turn the Tide on Plastic) ghosted across the line 2 minutes short of 4am. Only 16 boats managed to record official finish times; 135 retired at various points along the coast.

In all three of those cases, a multihull was second or third across the line – making this year’s monohull-dominated line honours board all the more exceptional.

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Magnificent J-Class Rainbow to race under RNZYS colours in 2024

By Ivor Wilkins Photos by Carlo Borlenghi, courtesy of J-Class Association RNZYS Life Member Neville Crichton has purchased the magnificent J-Class yacht, Rainbow, and his first response to questions about this latest acquisition is to make jokes at his own expense.

“I never thought I would pay a great deal of money to go slow,” he chuckles, before adding: “I have always loved the classic look of the J-Class yachts, but felt it was best to leave it to others to own them.

“However, Rainbow came on the market and Erle Williams and Mark Hauser ganged up on me and persuaded me she would be a good one to buy.”

Sydney-based Crichton has owned and built a veritable fleet of yachts – from Ton Cup Admiral’s Cuppers to supermaxis to luxury superyachts – but over the past couple of years has been sitting out the racing scene.

With the purchase of Rainbow, however, his competitive juices are back in full flow and he is relishing the challenge of getting the boat raceready in time for the 2024 J-Class racing season in Europe, the highlight of which will be their Barcelona regatta coinciding with the America’s Cup.

For Squadron members, there will be two yachts to root for at Barcelona – the Emirates Team New Zealand AC75 defending the America’s Cup and Crichton’s J-Class, Rainbow, both of which will sail under the RNZYS burgee.

“I have obtained special permission from the class association to carry the New Zealand sail number J-KZ1,” says Crichton. At 38.5m, Rainbow will be by far the largest race yacht ever to grace the Squadron lists.

She will also be the third Rainbow on the RNZYS register, joining the 1898 Logan classic Rainbow, jointly owned by Brad Butterworth, David Glen and Hamish Ross; and Rainbow II, registered under Life Member John Street’s name in the Classic Yacht Charitable Trust.

Designed by Starling Burgess, the original J-Class Rainbow was commissioned by New York magnate Harold Vanderbilt for the 1934 America’s Cup defence. Up against Sir T.O.M. Sopwith’s Endeavour, Rainbow lost the first two matches, but then won the next four to retain the trophy for the New York Yacht Club.

Under new ownership, Rainbow entered the trials to select a NYYC defender for the 1937 Cup series, but lost to Vanderbilt’s potent new yacht, Ranger. Rainbow was later scrapped and the materials used for the War Effort.

Under the J-Class Association rules, modern replica yachts can be