James Trubuhovich emigrated from Dalmatia to New Zealand in 1904 to work as a kauri gum digger. After marrying Kathleen (nee Pinn), an Australian by birth, the couple settled in Grey Lynn, where Brian Trubuhovich was born in 1940. Note, Trubi later changed the spelling of his surname to Trubovich to make life easier.
Unlike many people featured in this column, Trubovich had no interest in sailing in his youth and was far keener on tennis. He won school, club, and Auckland tennis championships before representing New Zealand against Australia while studying architecture at Auckland University.
His one exposure to sailing came as a teenager and was inauspicious. A school friend put him into an Idle Along dinghy at Herne Bay and set him off in a strong SW. Trubovich capsized at the Chelsea Sugar Refinery over the other side of the harbour and had to be rescued.
“I said, ‘I’ll never, ever go sailing again.’”
Trubovich’s next sailing experience was more than a decade later when he worked as an architect in London. Another friend offered him the opportunity to join him in sailing a Buchanan eight-metre keeler across the North Sea to Finland. Despite doubts, Trubovich made the return voyage, which
