Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2014-06-11, 13:05:34 | version 1.30.01
23 pointing to the splendidly constructed Princess. The three new Stewart 34’s, Patiko, Pim and Princess as well as Pania, a slightly modified version built by Basil Kelly, were all launched from Princes Wharf in Auckland by crane in October of 1960 in time for the summer racing season. If Peter Colmore-Williams won races on sheer boat speed, Jim Davern would add his immense skills to the equation. He and Princess became literally unbeatable. He went on to show that he could not only out-sail the venerable Patiki, but just about every other similarly-sized keel boat on the Waitemata Harbour. During that period, he won three Balokovic Cup Races, two Duder Cups, successive Light Displacement R.N.Z.Y.S. Summer Championships, the Hodgson Memorial Race and many others. In a 1963 newspaper article, comments were made to the effect that Jim shouldn’t have to absolutely thrash the rest of the fleet as completely as he does so that he may occasionally get a landmark win or the double (first on line, first on handicap). Of course the phenomenal speed of Princess encouraged many other keen yachties to enter the class. Within a few years, an entire fleet was launched and Jim Davern, who formed the Patiki Owners Association, was hailed as the “father” of the Patikis. It took four or five years for a decent set of class rules to be drafted for the Stewarts, and as much for the R.N.Z.Y.S. to grant the Patiki Class it’s own racing division. By this time, Davern grew bored with the regular wins in the Stewart class and decided to go hunt bigger game. He decided to have a go and try to beat Ranger, a long, narrow and fast yacht that had been Auckland’s A Class champion since 1936. He learned that the 61 foot Fidelis was up for sale. She had been built expressly to beat Ranger, but had never delivered on the promise. Flush with more bravado than cash, he convinced owner Vic Speight that if he were driving Fidelis, he could beat Ranger. Speight said“OK, you beat Ranger and you can have her.” In their first match up with Davern at the helm, he did just that. During a 16 month period, Jim Davern and Fidelis completely dominated offshore racing in the South Pacific. In 1966 he became the first New Zealand skipper to win the prestigious Sydney to Hobart race, and by a margin that was so massive that it remained intact for nine years. He returned to Auckland to a hero’s welcome, sailing Fidelis into the Harbour with thousands of well wishers cheering the yacht from North Head and Orakei Wharf. He also won the Auckland to Suva (Fiji), the Hobart to Auckland and the Whangarei to Noumea (New Caledonia) races, and came in second place in the 1967 Sydney to Hobart. Not surprisingly, Davern was awarded the 1967 New Zealand Yachtsman of the Year. In Auckland for the next couple years he quite often beat Ranger and had some great contests against Tom Clark’s“Ranger beater,” the plywood flyer called Infidel, since renamed Ragtime. In the early 1970’s Davern’s successful and demanding business interests began to interfere with his offshore yacht racing aspirations, so he eventually sold Fidelis to his lawyer/barrister Peter Williams, Q.C. Unable to shake his yacht racing addiction, Davern soon built and began racing a fibreglass Mullet boat, called Honey. Honey was faster and lighter than the older kauri Mulleties, and stirred quite a bit of controversy, something that Davern seemed to thrive on at the time. It seems that somehow or other the stories of his yachting a other exploits seemed to regularly make their way into the media. Davern’s yachting exploits also won him an invitation in 1972 to participate in the prestigious Congressional Cup Match Racing series held in Long Beach, California, an event which he enjoyed greatly. This inspired him to organize a fleet of Cavalier 32’s for a match racing event in 1973. Although the event was a success, it was never repeated. For some reason, Davern just couldn’t leave the Stewart 34’s alone. In 1976/77 he chartered Pahi from owner Ken Allen. Although he sailed well that season, the intense competition the Stewart fleet had endured during his 12-year absence had raised the bar to the point that Davern was no longer the top dog. Fast forward to the 1980’s and along came fibreglass Stewart 34’s and the Citizen Cup. Davern got excited again and in 1982 ordered a new Stewart to be built by Export Yachts, naming it Psyche II. With his son Ken on the helm, and a hot young crew including prominent Auckland sailmaker Rick Royden, Psyche II and crew sailed on to win two successive Stewart 34 Championships in 1983/84 and 1984/85. Davern was not on board, but usually followed the fleet around the course on his motor launch Voltaire.