Champion Rainbow II tastes the Waitemata again after a 45 year absence

by Alan Sefton on 2 Feb 2015 Rainbow II went back into the waters of the Waitemata Harbour today, nearly 45 years since she was lifted aboard a freighter bound from Auckland to Germany where she would challenge for yachting’s One Ton Cup.

Rainbow clinched victory off Heligoland on 20 July, 1969 – the same day that Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and in so-doing, the 36ft S&S design, built by Max Carter for young sailmaker Chris Bouzaid, ignited a rocket of her own, launching New Zealand into a blitz on every major offshore racing event in the world until Kiwis ruled ocean racing – on and off the water.

To help pay the bills, Bouzaid sold Rainbow II to Bermuda immediately following her Heligoland success. Some 42 years later, visiting Bermuda on business, he found in sad disrepair the yacht that he freely admits changed his life forever.

Bouzaid didn’t hesitate. He contacted his Auckland sailing mates John Street and Peter Cornes and, with significant help from Bill Speedy, of Oceanbridge Shipping Ltd, brought Rainbow II home and donated her to Street’s Classic Yacht Charitable Trust, to be fully restored for a future more befitting such an iconic racing champion.

Rainbow went into the Silverdale yard of Wayne Olsen’s Horizon Boats where she was taken back to bare timber (kauri) and structurally refurbished.

She was then brought south to the famous old yard of Percy Vos, in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, where the final parts of her restoration were completed by a team of volunteers from the Classic Yacht Trust and Bouzaid’s former crews.

She emerged from the Vos Shed over the weekend and today was re-christened at Pier 21 by John Street’s wife, Lorraine, in front of a gathering that included Bruce Marler, who was commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and a driving force behind Rainbow’s campaigns for the Cup, current RNZYS commodore Andy Anderson, and Rainbow II crew stalwarts Roy Dickson, Alan Warwick and Peter Shaw.

One more than interested observer was Bouzaid’s son Richard who, as a four-year-old, first tasted 'stardom' when the Auckland Star newspaper photographed him sitting in the trophy that his father et al had just won in Germany. Richard is most definitely a chip off the old block, an international sailmaker of repute and a well-regarded offshore racer in his own right.

Rainbow is now on a berth outside the RNZYS where the final bits of her restoration will be completed, including the anti-skidding of the deck and cabin top. She will then start her sailing build up for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s five-race One Ton Revisited regatta scheduled to start on 28 February.