John Alfred Spencer (6 July 1931 – 4 March 1996) was a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

boat designer.

Biography

Spencer was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and moved to

Eketāhuna Eketāhuna is a small rural settlement, in the south of the Tararua (district), New Zealand, Tararua District and the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. The town is located at eastern foot of the Tararua Ranges, 35 kilome ...

in 1933. He spent most of his life in New Zealand. In the 1950s, Spencer established a boatbuilding workshop on Bute Road in Browns Bay,

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, where he pioneered construction techniques for lightweight flyer boats and yachts. He was a well-known designer of sailing boats of all sizes, including the

Cherub A cherub (; : cherubim; ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'') is one type of supernatural being in the Abrahamic religions. The numerous depictions of cherubim assign to them many different roles, such as protecting the entrance of the Garden of ...

, Javelin (NZ), Firebug and Flying Ant classes of sailing dinghies. His designs used thin plywood, hard chines, a vertical stem and stern and light displacement. The minimum weight for a Cherub hull was and a Firebug is . Spencer's most famous design was arguably the 62-foot hard-chined ''Infidel'', later known as ''Ragtime'', which he designed and built for Tom Clark, a New Zealand industrialist. ''Ragtime'' was launched in late 1964 and went on to win the 1967 Auckland Class A Championship. Eventually sold to US owners, ''Ragtime'' won the 1973 and 1975 Honolulu Transpac Races, the 2008 Transpac Tahiti Race, and Division II of the

2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race The 2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, sponsored by Rolex and hosted by Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, was the 64th annual running of the "blue water classic" Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. The 2008 edition began on ...

References

1931 births 1996 deaths Designers from Melbourne Australian emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand yacht designers {{NewZealand-bio-stub