John Spencer (boat designer)
Encyclopedia
John Spencer was a New Zealand
boat designer.
Spencer was born in Melbourne
and moved to Ekatahuna in 1933. He spent most of his life in New Zealand.
He was a well-known designer of sailing boats of all sizes, including the Cherub
, Javelin (NZ)
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 110lbs.
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
.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
boat designer.
Spencer was born in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and moved to Ekatahuna in 1933. He spent most of his life in New Zealand.
He was a well-known designer of sailing boats of all sizes, including the Cherub
Cherub (dinghy)
The Cherub is a 12 feet long, high performance, two-man Planing dinghy first designed in 1951 in New Zealand by John Spencer and built from plywood . The class is a development class, allowing for significant variation in design between different boats within the rule framework...
, Javelin (NZ)
Javelin dinghy
The Javelin can refer to several different class of boats. The boats are significantly different and only have the same name by coincidence.-Javelin :...
and Flying Ant
Flying Ant
The Flying Ant is a class of sailing dinghy. The boat has a plywood design originally designed by John Spencer in New Zealand during the 1950s....
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 110lbs.
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
2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
The 2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, sponsored by Rolex, was the 64th annual running of the "blue water classic" Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race....
.