Meeting the master

In 1975 15-year-old Olsen joined Chris Robertson Boatbuilders. His fellow apprentices included Mark Power, now owner of Henley’s Propellers, and Leith Armit, who would later win four World and six New Zealand OK Dinghy Championships. While Robertson had been trained traditionally, he’d made the transition to glued construction, in the process developing his own unique methods.

“We were basically building modern day boats, using traditional methods such as closely spaced, laminated ribs, breasthooks, laminated knees, steamed bilge stringers and laminated floors with copper fastenings. It was same way Chris learned, but with glue. I’ve always put breasthooks and knees into my boats,” Olsen recalls.

It was a glorious time for wooden boatbuilding in New Zealand. “It was awesome – we were just getting out of the S&S era and into the Bruce Farr era. Boatbuilding and design were progressing in leaps and bounds.”

But progress was torpedoed in 1979 when the late Rob Muldoon implemented the Boat Sales Tax and, like many boatbuilders, Robertson was forced to wind up his business.