Shockwave (Davidson 46)

The first of Neville Crichton's famous Shockwave series of offshore racing yachts was a Davidson 46, designed and built for the 1980 Clipper Cup series. However, she missed the first set of trials for the New Zealand team and was only launched in time for the second evaluation series. While the number of new yachts being built during 1979/80 for regattas such as the Clipper Cup was low, the fractional-rigged Shockwave joined two other new Davidson yachts, the masthead rigged Snow White 2 (47ft) and the fractional Brother Dominic (41ft).

Like her near sisters, Shockwave sported fairly radical stern sections, with a very square and straight aft run behind the trademark Davidson bustle, this area being so flat that it formed a chine where it met the aft topside area. The transom was reasonably upright in around the centreline, but the transom/sheerline intersection was moved aggressively forward by a triangular-shaped cutout at the point where that intersection met the after girth station measurement as defined by the IOR rule. Most IOR boats tended to achieve the same result by more angled transoms, but this arrangement allowed a longer deck area, and an aftward and central position for the running backstays. It also yielded a low 33.8ft rating.

Shockwave sails to windward in the 1980 Clipper Cup - her chiselled aft sections clearly visible

Another view of the stern sections of Shockwave, with Ragamuffin ahead and to leeward (photo Adrian Herbert/Seahorse)

Close up view of a happy crew aboard Shockwave as she slides downwind during the 1980 Clipper Cup (photo Phil Uhl)

Shockwave was sailed in the 1980 Clipper Cup by Stu Brentnall and his crew from his earlier Red Lion and Export Lion campaigns. She didn't make it into the New Zealand team, but went on to finish second overall, behind the Peterson-designed 45-footer Ragamuffin, with the same placings being achieved in Class B. Ragamuffin's overall win also spearheaded an Australian team win, joined by the Davidson Two-Tonner Sweet Caroline and the S&S-design Challenge II. The New Zealand team of Anticipation (Lexcen 50), Brother Dominic and Country Boy (Farr 36) finished fourth.

Shockwave in close company with former New Zealand yachts Inca and Gerontius (photo Phil Uhl)

Shockwave (middle on starboard) between Shenandoah (left) and Challenge II during the Lahaina Sauza Cup in 1980 that was held prior to the Clipper Cup (photo Phil Uhl | Facebook)

The stern shape of Shockwave is visible in this recent (2024) photo of a near sistership (photo Facebook)

Shockwave went on to sail in the 1980 Big Boat Series, but was dismasted in the last race. She was later bought by a San Francisco yachtsman David Fladien and became Confrontation. She finished 11th in the 'Atlantic Perpetual' division in the 1982 Big Boat Series (with results of 8/13/7/8/8) and also raced in the 1982 Clipper Cup.

Confrontation sailing in San Francisco during the 1981 Big Boat Series, leading Jetstream (ex-High Roler) and Bravura (photo Phil Uhl)

Confrontation sailing in San Francisco during the 1982 Big Boat Series regatta(photo Sharon Green | Ultimate Sailing)

Article updated June 2025

Joe Louis (Farr Three-Quarter Tonner)

Following changes to the IOR that had penalised the wide sterns of the previous generation, Farr drew the first of his 1977 boats. This was a Three-Quarter Tonner named Joe Louis (Design 56), owned by French boxing champion Eric Simian and helmed by Flying Dutchman legend Yves Pajot.

Joe Louis was a fixed keeler, as at the time of her design it was expected that the centreboard loophole would be closed. There was also limited time available to design and build the yacht for the French Three-Quarter Ton trials. The design aimed to produce better all round performance than Farr's earlier designs, with length traded for sail area (similar to the Whiting response). With more changes to the IOR in the measurement of the stern area Farr sought to design cleaner aft end shapes by cleaning up the after girth stations and coupled this with narrower sections. A more upright transom allowed for more deck space. The yachts' concept was a forerunner of Farr's champion centreboard designs that would soon follow.



Joe Louis was an important transitional design as the first of a line of evolutionary designs tht were to follow, and because it was one of the earliest Farr yachts to be built in Kevlar and foam sandwich. This allowed a lower hull weight and for a high ballast ratio to be achieved (52%), although some internal ballast was removed to get the boat to the correct displacement. A small amount of ballast was also removed from the bottom of the keel to obtain the correct centre of gravity measurement.

Joe Louis made her debut at the La Rochelle Week regatta in May 1977 where she finished as overall winner.  At the Three-Quarter Ton Cup in August 1977, also held in La Rochelle, she came up against the lightweight Oesophage Boogie, designed by Jean Berret, and Drakkar, a centreboarder designed by Joubert & Nivelt, both very light and of wide beam. Drakkar was fast but lost its rig in the third race. Oesophage Boogie was also fast but lost out by doing poorly in the final light airs race. Joe Louis put in a more consistent performance, and although she won just one race she won the Three-Quarter Ton Cup comfortably. She was at least competitive in light weather, and demonstrated superior speed in windy conditions.

A production version of Joe Louis was to have been manufactured in England, but these plans had to be abandoned when the changes to the IOR took effect in 1978, raising Joe Louis' rating beyond the 24.5ft limit of the Three-Quarter Ton class (by a full 1.5ft). Staying in class was impossible to achieve while still maintaining good all round performance.

The photographs below are from the Histoiredeshalfs website:

It is understood that Joe Louis was later sailed out of Detroit, US, by the Hazebrook family, but became 'landfill' in about 2009, after the deck became soft and the hull fairing began to fall off, with it being very difficult to get fairing to adhere to the Kevlar hull. The mast ended up in front of a (downriver) sailing club, and the keel was sent to Mars metal. The photos below are believed to be from Joe Louis Detroit days (posted on Sailing Anarchy):

Article updated December 2024

Newspaper Taxi (Whiting Half Tonner)

Newspaper Taxi was designed by Paul Whiting in 1976 with an eye towards a challenge for the Half Ton Cup, to be sailed out of Sydney in December 1977. Newspaper Taxi was a development of Whiting's earlier Half Tonner Candu II, and was designed to take account of  the November 1976 changes to the IOR, the first in a tranche of rule amendments that sought to check the emerging trends in the New Zealand-style of yacht of light displacement and wider sterns. 

Newspaper Taxi on launching day - Westhaven, Auckland

 The broad aft sections of Newspaper Taxi were therefore designed to mitigate the new penalties in this area, and were offset in part by a shortening of the yachts' length between girths, and the forward depth measurement was pushed to the limit. A shortening of measured length allowed for an increase in sail area, yielding a better all-round yacht than Candu II.

The most obvious difference from Candu II was that Newspaper Taxi was a centreboarder. The advantages of this concept had been demonstrated by Resolute Salmon in the 1976 One Ton Cup, and Fun had provided more evidence of this at the Quarter Ton Cup as well.  The centreboard weighed only 92kg, and the boat otherwise relied on internal ballast and crew weight for stability. 

The engine was also designed for rating advantage - the 12hp diesel was positioned for'ard of the mast and slightly to port so that the shaft could clear the centrecase.

While Whiting chased everything possible regarding hull shape and appendages, Murray Ross pursued rig developments and new handling techniques and gear, with the same careful attention to detail that Ross had employed so successfully on the Quarter Tonner Magic Bus.

Showing her windward form in light airs, Half Ton Championship, Auckland 1977 (J Malitte)

The Whiting/Ross led team aboard Newspaper Taxi went on to produce a near flawless performance in the South Pacific Half Ton Championships held in April 1977 and hosted by the Royal Akarana Yacht Club. The series featured a wide cross-section of Half Ton designs, with 20 boats entered, the product of ten different designers, and only three boats had competed in the previous year's contest. 

A clear lead at the wing mark in the NZ 1977 series (J Green)

Newspaper Taxi asserted a demonstrable speed advantage in all conditions, combined with immaculate boat handling. She won four of the five races, losing first place in a close tussle with the custom Farr 920 Cotton Blossom which jumped on a rare tactical error by Ross in the fourth race.

While Newspaper Taxi had been designed and built with the 1977 Half Ton Cup in mind (Sydney), the Whiting/Ross team elected to contest the One Ton Cup to be held in Auckland in November 1977. Newspaper Taxi was sold to an Australian yachtsman and finished in 10th place in the Half Ton Cup, behind near sistership Magic Dragon, with placings of 10/11/8/8/DNF.

Newspaper Taxi undergoing a self-righting test ahead of the 1977 Half Ton Cup in Sydney (photo Facebook)

At the Half Ton Cup - Sydney, Australia (December 1977)

Unfortunately, Newspaper Taxi later sank during the 1995 edition of the Three Peaks Race (Launceton, Tasmania, to Hobart), after losing her rudder off Cape Tourville on the outside of Freycinet Peninsula. According to the owner at that time (see comments below), the rudder stock snapped at the weld point above the hull line and tore the stern tube out. The crew took to a liferaft and were later rescued by the tanker Island Gas which had been diverted to the scene, and Newspaper Taxi now lies at a depth of 60m.  

Southern Raider (Davidson 38)

Southern Raider was a Laurie Davidson design, built in Christchurch in 1981 for a syndicate and skippered by Frank Dickson. She had a rating of 29.4ft, and was reasonably short for that rating, at 38ft, but sported a lofty fractional sail plan. She had a relatively brief but eventful career on the international offshore scene. 

Southern Raider during the 1982 Southern Cup trials (J Malitte)

Southern Raider was a member of the New Zealand team for the 1981 Southern Cross Cup, joining the Farr designed Admiral's Cup hopeful The Roperunner and the 46-foot S&S Ngaruru, but their performance underscored something of a demise in New Zealand's offshore prowess at the time, with the team finishing sixth overall. The team's effort was not helped by Southern Raider's retirement on the first night of the Sydney-Hobart race following structural problems.

Southern Raider seen here to windward of The Roperunner in fresh southerly conditions off Evans Bay in Wellington during the October 1981 New Zealand trials for the Southern Cross Cup team (photo Rip magazine)

Celebrating their trials result (D Christie Collection)

Southern Raider was bought by John Stephenson shortly before the trials for the 1982 Clipper Cup, after seeing the performance of her Australian near-sistership Szechwan. She was sailed up from Lyttleton with only days to spare, and for most of the crew the first race of the trials was their first sail on the yacht.  She struggled in the first race with a torn mainsail and navigational errors, but bounced back to win the second and fifth races, to finish third overall, just one point off first placegetters the Lidgard 40 Dictator and the Frers 45 Solara.

The yacht joined the Lidgard 40s Dictator and Defiance in New Zealand's 'small boat' Green team. All three yachts were designed and moded for lighter airs than perhaps would be expected in Hawaii, but the signs looked promising when Southern Raider won the Sauza Cup warm-up regatta by one point from another Davidson design Sweet Caroline (Australia). 

Southern Raider seen here (centre) during the 1982 Laihana Sauza Cup before the Clipper Cup, with US yacht Shenandoah to the left, with team-mate Defiance visible in front and to windward (blue and white spinnaker) and US yacht Cadillac Snapper to the right (photo Phil Uhl)

Another photo of Southern Raider some time after the above photo during the 1982 Laihana Sauza Cup with Shenandoah to the right and Defiance to leeward (photo Phil Uhl)

Well reefed during the gale-afflicted 1982 Clipper Cup series, with US yacht Checkmate heading off downwind (photo J Malitte)

However, the New Zealand effort in the Clipper Cup itself was not helped by the fact that the series was affected by the presence of two hurricanes in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands. Both New Zealand teams were significantly off the pace in these conditions, and the Green team's hopes were further dashed when the Japanese yacht Lazy Albatross managed to take out both Southern Raider and Dictator at the start of the last race.

Southern Raider on a fast reach (photo A Sefton)

The collision with Lazy Albatross split Southern Raider's foredeck across to the centreline and lifted the deck for several feet along the sheer. The crew were forced to retire from the race, which counted for triple points and saw Southern Raider slip well down in the overall standings to 35th place (following placings of 28/28/19/26/dnf), and sixth in class. Dictator also had to retire, and the Green team ended up ninth overall.

Southern Raider during the 1982 Clipper Cup series (photo J Malitte)

A year later, Southern Raider competed in the Auckland to Suva (Fiji) race - she finished in first place in both the Division A IOR and PHRF fleets, an impressive effort after breaking her tiller (and a crewman's finger) on the first day out, and steering the rest of the way with the jockey pole lashed to the tiller stump. 

Southern Raider leaving New Zealand for the last time at the start of the 1983 Auckland to Suva race (7 May 1983)

Sadly, however, Southern Raider, was abandoned on the return voyage (via Noumea) in June 1983. The yacht was caught in an un-forecasted gale that also affected several other boats in the area at the time. The yacht's skipper, Geoff Blakey, radioed that Southern Raider was taking on water and requested assistance. With conditions deteriorating and the boat starting to crack and sink further, it was later resolved to abandon the yacht, and the crew arranged to transfer to a ship, the Jumbo Stella Two. Tragically, one crewmember, Bob Whitehouse, was drowned during a difficult transfer from Southern Raider to the rescue ship. All five other crew were safely transferred and the yacht was left to sink.

The moment of impact between Southern Raider and the rescue ship which trapped one of the crewmembers (photo RNZAF Orion)

The last photo of Southern Raider - abandoned and sinking by the bow (photo RNZAF Orion)

Article updated September 2025

Blackfun (Davidson Quarter Tonner)

Blackfun was a Laurie Davidson Quarter Ton design, a development of his earlier centreboarder Fun that had impressed so much in Corpus Christi in 1976. The hull was the first of a production line version (in fibreglass) of Fun, but her lines had been modified to address changes to the IOR in 1976 (IOR Mk IIIA), which included a more pronounced step in the bustle, and slightly less sail area than Fun. She also sported a larger centreboard, which seemed to further improve her windward performance.

Blackfun was launched just in time for the 1977 Quarter Ton national championships, leaving little time before the regatta for tuning. In fact, 20 minutes before the start of the first race the crew (lead by Roy Dickson and including Barry Thom, Herb Tremaine, the yacht's builder, and Peter Jordan) were still screwing down fittings, and the boat featured a white 'primer only' paintjob. Nevertheless, the boat finished that race with a third place, and then went on to win the remaining four races to take the New Zealand title in emphatic fashion. Although she displayed better boat speed than her competitors, it was only on the final race that the crew felt that the boat was finally ready to race.

Blackfun competing in the 1977 New Zealand Quarter Ton series (DB Yachting Annual 1977)

 While the result was a triumph for the Blackfun crew and her designer, this was tempered by the fact that the necessary funds couldn't be raised to send Blackfun to the Quarter Ton Cup in Finland to defend the title for New Zealand, following the win by Magic Bus in 1976, and  by 45 South in 1975.

Sailing downwind in the 1980 Quarter Ton Cup (Sea Spray)

Blackfun did, however, go on compete in a Quarter Ton Cup, when it was hosted by the Panmure Yacht and Boating Club in 1980. By this stage she had in turn been outclassed by the newer yachts that were designed for this series, including Davidson's new design Hellaby and Farr's Anchor Challenge and Hot Number. However, all the local yachts were eclipsed by the French flyer, the Faroux design Bullit, and Blackfun finished ninth overall.

In PHRF mode

She went on to sail in local races, and was given some modifications by Peter Loughlin to increase her overall speed, once IOR considerations were no longer relevant, including a masthead spinnaker and bulb keel.

Blackfun was eventually bought by a Wellington group, headed by Brett Linton and Jamie McDowell, who were keen to have a crack at the Quarter Ton Cup that had seen something of a revival in Europe. Davidson guided the new modifications, with the stern sections faired out, a new rig with non-overlapping headsail, and a bulb keel. The yacht was optimised to sail at the maximum IRC rating under which the regatta is now sailed (TCF of 0.920). So the yacht finally made her European debut 34 years on for the 2011 Quarter Ton Cup where she finished in tenth place against a fleet of highly competitive Quarter Tonners.

Blackfun in her new IRC configuration before being shipped to England for the 2011 Quarter Ton Cup

After the 2011 series she was sold to an English yachtsman Rob Gray, who carried out some further modifications that made Blackfun a bit faster relative to her rating, including a new keel, movement of the rudder aft and some rig changes, and which also slightly reduced her rating to 0.912. She demonstrated some improved performance in the 2012 Quarter Ton Cup, winning the third race, but being ruled over the line in the last race scuttled any chance of a high placing, finishing the series in fifth place overall (with Bullit reprising her 1980 victory to take the Cup). 

Blackfun rounding a weather mark during the 2011 Quarter Ton Cup

Changes in 2012 included a new keel and a rudder placed well aft (photo Fiona Brown)

Blackfun recently competed in the 2013 Quarter Ton Cup but while showing flashes of brilliance, startline infringements and a top mark collision saw her finish in ninth place overall.

Blackfun on her way to second place in the last race of the 2013 Quarter Ton Cup (photo Jonathan Hoare)