Rascal, a Reactor 25 yacht. Paul Whiting designed the prototype for the Reactor 25 class in 1968, aged 16. It was so well received that he formed Whiting Yachts to mass-produce the yacht, 130 of which were built.

Photographer unknown, Sea Spray Collection, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa

Bandwagon, a Whiting 29 yacht. More than 50 of these Paul Whiting-designed keelers were built from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s. They are still sailed and raced today.

Photographer unknown, Sea Spray Collection, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa

Newspaper Taxi was designed and built by Paul Whiting and Murray Ross after their successful collaboration on Magic Bus. Newspaper Taxi won the 1977 Pacific Half Ton Championship with a record of four wins and a second.

Photographer unknown, Sea Spray Collection, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa

PAUL WHITING

(1951–1980)

Paul Whiting was internationally reputed for his fast racing yachts like quarter-tonner Magic Bus and popular family cruisers before his early death.

Down to business

Paul Whiting was born into a well-known Auckland yachting family, once described as a ‘floating nursery’.

He designed his first boat at the age of 16. By 17, he had built a prototype – the race-winning Reactor 25 (1969) – and was in business mass-producing the yacht in fibreglass.

Whiting Yachts employed 12 builders at its peak, building for local and overseas markets. Its production boats included the Whiting 16 trailer sailer and racer–cruisers like the Whiting 36 and Whiting 39. The Reactor 45 was a modified version of Tequila (1972), which Whiting had built for his father, who sailed her in the northern hemisphere for five years.

PAUL WHITING

Magic Bus – breakthrough

Whiting’s breakthrough came with Magic Bus, which he designed alongside Murray Ross. Together, they won the 1976 World Quarter Ton Cup in this yacht. ‘We pooled our ideas,’ said Whiting. ‘The rigs and sails of course are … Murray’s department.’

Whiting then promptly designed two half-tonners, Candu II and Newspaper Taxi. The latter won the 1977 Pacific Half Ton Championship.

PAUL WHITING

Tragedy at sea

Tragedy struck with Whiting’s next boat, the radical one-ton fin keeler Smack Water Jack (1979). Racing this yacht in the 1979-80 Hobart–Auckland race, Whiting, his wife and two crew were lost at sea.

Whiting’s death at just 28 robbed New Zealand of an enormously gifted boat designer and builder. In his short career, he designed more than 40 yachts.