True strength
McCormick was born in 1944 in the Auckland suburb of Te Atatu, which then was mainly farmland. The following year his father Joseph (Joe) bought the 6m mullet boat Winifred, designed by Fred Lidgard and built by R Brown in 1921. Winifred was to become an important part of McCormick’s life growing up.
“I basically learned to walk on her. We were the only boat moored in the Whau River in those days.”
He hated school and left aged 15 to take up a rigging apprenticeship with John Burns Ltd. He was New Zealand’s first yacht rigging apprentice (as distinct from a commercial square rig and scow rigging apprentice). So, while he trained in ancient techniques such as hand splicing, parcelling and serving, he also learned the newer techniques such Talurit splicing and swaging when these were introduced. “We used to make our Talurit splices from copper tubes.”
In those days the A Class keelers would have their rigs checked on Friday with his father.
