In 1972, we knew every large yacht on the Waitemata Harbour and if a new one appeared, we knew its designer and pedigree. How she was expected to perform in our division with the RNZYS was the subject of intense speculation.
I had been a forward hand since my early teens on both family yachts, both called Ilex, owned by my father Warwick Macky. The second was designed and built by Brin Wilson at his Wairau Road yard in Takapuna and launched in 1970.
was a family name. My great-grandfather, JC Macky, bought the Logan-designed triple-skin kauri yawl with this name in 1908. He owned her, racing with the Squadron, until his death by drowning with his wife Mary on the RMS in 1915. was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat within sight of the Irish coast. JC’s was lost on Minerva Reef in 1962, just eight years before the launch of its second incarnation.
