It takes two

REFLECTIONS

Noel was born in Waipu in 1949 where his family owned the local sawmill, the Waipu Timber Company. Not particularly enthralled by school, aged 15 Noel was indentured to Smith’s Boatyard in Whangarei as a boatbuilder. “I was doing a lot of glued work there, not much carvel and I was restless.”

So in 1967 he crewed on Jack Burdett’s ketch Clear Skies, voyaging to New Caledonia, Australia and back to New Zealand. After a stint farming on the Cavelli Islands, he completed a boatbuilding apprenticeship with Whangarei boatbuilder Alan Orams.

There he became good friends with two men who became mentors – Dr John Franklin-Evans and Oram’s foreman, Charlie Capon. Noel crewed for Franklin-Evans aboard his 16.1m yacht Kochab II in the 1969 Auckland to Fiji race. The next year, Franklin-Evans lent Noel Kochab II for the inaugural Trans-Tasman single-handed race. Despite having to hand-steer for much of the race, he finished third.

Wanting to build his own offshore keeler, Noel approached the late Jack Brooke for a plans, but Brooke felt he could do better and designed an 11.6m cutter, . Noel built in stripplanked kauri for only $5,000 (1972 dollars) over two years of nights and weekends. Part way through he met Litara (nee Tau’le’alo), a Samoan who loved the sea and they married within the year.