Born in 1935 to a Papamoa farming couple Kingsley and Gwen Jones, Richard didn’t know his father as he served with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF) in the Middle East, Greece, Crete, and both El Alamein battles in Egypt. Reaching the rank of Captain, Kinglesy was invalided home in 1944.
After leaving Tauranga College in 1952, Jones moved to Auckland for an electrical apprenticeship with the Ministry of Works. This, in turn, led to his involvement in industrial electronics.
Jones had no interest in boats until, at age 23, he discovered a book that would change his life; the late Johnny Wray’s South Sea Vagabonds.
Inspired, Jones and his good friend and flatmate, the late Mac Nell, bought the 8.5m keeler Tempest, a short-ended, fin-keeler designed by the late H. E. (Eric) Cox of Christchurch.
“She was about five years old, and we bought her for 500 pounds.”
Determined to emulate Wray, Jones and Nell taught themselves to sail and, in 1961, set off for Tahiti with two other friends, the late Jerry Chaillet and Brent Alston.
“There was no Cat One then; you just needed customs clearance. We had no radio or liferaft, and our two lifejackets were our fenders.”
Jones was elected navigator and taught himself to navigate, armed with nothing more than the late Eric Hiscock’s Cruising Under Sail. After a brief stopover in Rarotonga to effect running repairs, the four sailed Tempest to Tahiti, arriving flat broke.
In those days, work permits and the like were non-existent, and the foursome quickly scored work as extras on the movie Mutiny on the Bounty. The film starred the late Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian and the late Trevor Howard as Capt. William Bligh.
“Brando was arrogant, while Howard was a real gentleman. We got paid 500 francs daily as we walked down the gangplank each night.”
Leaving Tahiti on Bastille Day, July 14, 1961, they sailed to the Marquesas Islands, where they spent two and half months. From there, they cruised to Hawaii, where they got jobs delivering American-owned yachts back to California, an uphill slog many owners preferred to delegate. When it was time to head home, the foursome sailed to Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia, and Gladstone.
“Gladstone in those days was a little backwater town with just one pub and ten shops. Today, it’s enormous.”
After visiting Cairns, they sailed to Sydney, across the Tasman and back to Auckland. Despite the cramped conditions, the four had remained the best of mates.
Nell and Chaillet later bought another yacht, Tamure, in which they circumnavigated. Jones wanted to go again, so he got a job, rented a house in Ponsonby, and started building an 11.2m centreboard yawl designed by the late John Alden. Designed for American-style traditional carvel construction, Jones planked her New Zealand style in triple-skin kauri glued with Areodux.
Two years into the build, Jones met Jean Kennington.
“She used to come around late in the evening with scones. It was a case of ‘Love me, love my boat.’”
It became the classic love story; the couple married in 1966 and remain so today. Stella Neus was launched in 1965, and Jones did the 1966 Auckland to Suva race in her. In 1969, the couple did the Auckland to Suva race again, but afterwards, they kept going, sailing to California via Tonga, Samoa, Canton Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Honolulu. Once in California, the Joneses sold Stella Neus to an American couple, Phil and Marilyn Farrar.
“The yacht was pretty crude, nothing glamorous, and we had to teach them how to sail.”
The Jones took the new owners on a voyage to Mexico, up the Sea of Cortez, and then across to Honolulu, where they left them and flew back to California. After three months of Greyhound bus touring in the USA and four months driving around Europe, the Jones’ arrived back in New Zealand in 1971.
A few years and two daughters later, Jones got back into sailing by crewing on Lynn Carmichael’s Gary Mull-designed, the late John Lidgard-built Chico. Taken with Chico, especially its upwind performance, Jones commissioned Keith Eade to build him a sister yacht with a trunk cabin, which became Chubasco. Jones finished off Chubasco on the front lawn of his Mt Albert house.
In the meantime, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) decided to field a three-boat team to enter the 1975 Admirals Cup. Several high-profile campaigns entered the RNZYS trials, including Inca, Barnacle Bill and Corinthian, all Sparkman and Stephens (S&S) designs.
Flying below the radar was Graham Eder’s low-budget, 12m Bruce Farr-designed Gerontius. Eder had invited Jones to join his crew as navigator, and with more than a few noses seriously out of joint, Gerontius was selected over the well-funded Corinthian campaign.
With Jones doing a great job navigating the notoriously tricky conditions of Admiral’s Cup courses, Gerontius finished the series as the top New Zealand boat. Gerontius and her crew had more than played their part, the New Zealand team finishing fifth out of 18 countries.
Jones got to know Bruce well and recalls him looking up at Gerontius’ immobile mast: “This is the last time I’ll ever design a masthead boat.”
Back home, Jones joined the late Stu Brentall’s One Ton yacht Jiminy Cricket as navigator for the 1976 New Zealand One Ton Cup trials, which they won. Incidentally, Jiminy Cricket was built by Kerry Alexander, who was recently featured in this column.
Jones navigated Jiminy Cricket in the One Ton Cup in Marseilles and did an outstanding navigating job in the long offshore race, but a poor place in one of the shorter inshore races hurt them overall. Meantime, Jones had launched Chubasco.
“She was magic on the wind, and Keith got a flood of orders afterwards. He built one for my [younger] brother Les, which became the plug for the GRP version.”
After competing in the Auckland to Suva race, Jones was working on Chubasco on the Orakei hardstand when he was approached by Pat Costello, who asked if he could buy her. Jones told him she wasn’t for sale, but as he puts it, “Everything is for sale at the right price.”
Costello later entered Chubasco in the 1978 Trans-Tasman Race, which he won. Jones immediately ordered a GRP Chico 30 hull from Eade, which he finished off and named Pretty Penny.
By now, Jones was the sales manager for Clearlight Plastics, who had supported him taking time off to go sailing. However, Jones felt he wasn’t being fair to them and resigned. In 1977, after becoming the Royal Akarana Yacht Club Commodore, he joined Taylor’s Yacht Brokers at Westhaven. Founded by the late Mac Taylor, the business was then owned by Ken Campbell.
In those days, virtually all of New Zealand shut down over the weekend, and yacht broking was no exception. Then, virtually all boat advertising was done in a special section of Saturday’s Herald. However, potential buyers had to wait until Monday to ring the broker as none of them worked weekends.
“When I started broking, it was a lovely job, five days a week, and I had the weekends off to go sailing. Once the supermarkets opened on the weekends, everyone soon expected you to be open on Saturdays; then later, you had to be open on Sunday too.”
However, Jones still found plenty of time for sailing. Other navigating positions followed, including five Pan Am Cups (later renamed the Kenwood Cup) for Neville Crichton and Don St Clair Brown. Jones got to know St Clair Brown well and did 21 consecutive Coastal Classics races aboard his yacht Anticipation.
“That’s got to be some sort of record.”
Jones also did two more Admirals Cups as navigator, the late Stu Brentnall’s Wee Willi Winkie in 1981 and the late Mike Clark’s Exador in 1985.
In 1984, Campbell decided to sell Taylors Yacht Brokers, and Jones, in conjunction with the late Les Nichols, bought the business. The pair complemented each other; Jones was a highly-regarded yachtsman, while Nichols was a launch specialist.
From the start, the pair focused on integrity and having
a squeaky-clean trust account. Jones was insistent every boat sold had to have a survey, with the late Harry Pope doing most of them as he had the reputation as the toughest around. Later, Ray Beale and Mike Menzies were added to Jones’ list of suitable surveyors. The pair eventually recruited another four brokers. While the secondhand boat broking business was their mainstay, Jones wanted to add an agency for new production boats.
One of the most common requests for new boats was for the late Des Townson yachts; however, until then, Townson had resisted having his yachts built by others in GRP. Peter Southey and the late Alan Smith of Austral Yachts had gained an excellent reputation building the Pacific 38. Jones persuaded Townson that Austral could build GRP yachts to the latter’s exacting standards.
Townson drew a 10.4m yacht, similar to his Dreamtime and Talent designs, and Southey built the moulds. Jones owned the first out of the moulds, Moonspinner, and sold 37 others.
He owned Moonspinner for many years until, once again,
a potential client made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Not one to suffer being boatless for long, Jones and another Chico 30 owner, the late Phill Stubbing, began discussions with Gary Mull about a 12m version of the Chico 30. The plans were eventually settled, and Eade built the first for Jones, Cabaret which also became the plug for the GRP production version. Launched in 1984, Jones owned Cabaret for 34 years and did countless coastal miles in her, and a voyage to Tahiti.
The Chico 40 proved a fantastic offshore cruising yacht and Eade built 29 of them, including four for the New Zealand Navy for use as sail training yachts.
By 2005, the broking business had copied virtually every other retail industry in New Zealand and was open seven days a week. Instead of being a lifestyle business, now there was constant pressure to remain open virtually every waking hour. Jones decided he’d had enough, and when a suitable purchaser showed up, he and Nichols had no hesitation in selling Taylor’s to them.
Jones has no regrets about the sale of Taylors;
“I remember the day I sold the business; I walked out of the office to the nearest rubbish bin, dropped my mobile phone into it, and didn’t get another for five years.”
Jones sold Cabaret four years ago, and although he had
a launch for a couple of years, now aged 89, his boating days are essentially over. But there are no regrets. He and Jean live a rich, carefree life in a North Shore retirement complex. There’s family, many friends, a busy social calendar, overseas travel and access to the retirement village man cave. Although they’re gathering dust, he’s still got his sextant and the associated tables.
“I’ve had good innings sailing and enjoyed the navigation challenge in the days when people still wanted navigators.”
Richard Jones – self-taught sailor, navigator, boatbuilder and yacht broker – and one of the nicest, most charming and gentle souls you’d ever likely meet. At the time of writing, he was closely watching the America’s Cup unfold, and his observations were accurate and pithy. Sharp as a tack and going strong at 89 – we should all be so lucky.
