Iconic yachts in rematch for 'Queen of the Harbour

by Alan Sefton on 29 Jul 2008
Ranger and Fidelis, two of the most graceful and successful first division keelers in New Zealand yachting history, will recreate the glory days of Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron harbour and gulf racing when they go head-to-head in a three-match series on Auckland Harbour over Waitangi Day weekend in February next year.

The 'Queen Of The Habour' clash is being organised by the Classic Yacht Association of New Zealand whose register includes probably the best collection of refurbished but original gaff riggers in the world. The three-race series, staged by the Squadron, will take place on Friday, 6 February 2009, with Saturday, 7 February, a reserve day in case of unfavourable weather.

The races will start and finish off the Squadron’s clubrooms at Westhaven with the courses configured to ensure the best-possible viewing of this unique encounter from the various Harbour vantage points such as North Head, Orakei Wharf, Devonport Wharf and Princes Wharf.

The 18.3m (60ft) Ranger, launched in 1937, was designed and built by Auckland wharfies Lou and Cyril Tercel, with their brothers John and Leo. Much of the construction was carried out adjacent to their Ponsonby Terrace home. She quickly became the bench mark for any yacht owner seeking to rule the Waitemata/Hauraki Gulf roost and, over ensuing decades, and became the target of a succession of 'Ranger-beaters' - newer and usually bigger A-Class keelers built expressly to knock Tercel and his charge off their perch. Many tried but few succeeded.

Among those that managed to do so more than most was the 18.59m (61ft) Fidelis.
From lines by Scandinavian yacht designer Knud Reimers, Fidelis was built for Auckland jeweller Vic Speight in 1962. She was bought by Jim Davern in 1964 and, in his ambitious hands, became one of Ranger’s arch rivals.

To the inexpert eye, Fidelis and Ranger were almost sister-ships and their tussles for supremacy in Squadron racing went on for a decade or more.

Davern was later to be described as a 'brash young New Zealander', after he’d fitted the pencil-slim Fidelis for ocean racing and, in late 1966, sailed her across the Tasman for a crack at the famed Sydney-Hobart classic. Fidelis romped the 628 nautical miles to Hobart in 4 days 8 hours 39 minutes and beat her nearest rival by more than 60 nautical miles to write her and Davern’s name in New Zealand sailing history.

The following year (1967), Fidelis took line honours and broke the record in the Whangarei-Noumea race which was won on corrected time by another of New Zealand’s iconic early performers, Rainbow II, skippered by the youthful Auckland sailmaker Chris Bouzaid and making her ocean racing debut.

Fidelis and Rainbow II were both in the line-up for the 1967 Sydney-Hobart. On this occasion, Davern had to be content with second across the line, with Fidelis finishing just 2 hrs 26 minutes behind the legendary French sailor Eric Tabarly in his equally significant Pen Duick III.

But the result was redressed on corrected time with Bouzaid and Rainbow II beating the Frenchman by nearly an hour, securing victory with a win-or-bust beat across Storm Bay, on Tasmania’s southern coast, that is still part of Sydney-Hobart folklore.

This was New Zealand’s first overall success in an international ocean racing event and, on the back of Fidelis’ line honours victory a year earlier, it was 'light blue touch paper and stand aside' time for the sport of ocean racing back home.

In those ground-breaking days, Davern and Bouzaid typified a new breed of aggressive, young Kiwi sailors who were no longer content to race in only their home waters. They set out, instead, to test their boats and skills against the best in the world, wherever and whenever they could.

It was their feats that inspired the coming generations to take the sailing world by storm, winning (over the next 40 years or so) just about everything there was to win afloat - from ocean race series such as the Admiral’s Cup (in England), Southern Cross Cup (in Australia), the Pan Am Clipper Cup (in Hawaii), all of the so-called 'Ton Cups' at venues all over the world, and on up to the biggest offshore sailing prizes of all, the Whitbread Round the World race and the America’s Cup.

The classically beautiful lines of Ranger and Fidelis are, sadly, no longer familiar sights on the Waitemata. After Lou Tercel’s death in 1990, Ranger was neglected for some years, until boatbuilder and renowned yachtie Ian Cook acquired and completely restored her. Relaunched in 1999, she was shipped to Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, in 2001 to represent the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in the America’s Cup Jubilee

Fidelis was sold to Australia’s Nigel Stoke who completely refurbished her before, in 1994, contesting the 50th Sydney-Hobart race and finishing a creditable 109th of the 308 finishers across the line.

The 'Queen Of The Harbour' event on 6 February next year, with Cook on the helm of Ranger and Davern behind the wheel of Fidelis, will give the older generations the chance to see again two of their icons of sail in action, and the younger generations the opportunity to see why the names Ranger and Fidelis are so revered to this day.

(Sail-World: It is hoped to also have the John Spencer designed classic harbour and offshore racer, Infidel, now Ragtime competing in this event, subject to conflicting shipping arrangements being resolved.)