Fidelis

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

A half model of Fidelis that hangs in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron attributes the design to her original owner, Vic Speight, who commissioned Fred and Jim Lidgard to build her triple-planked kauri hull, one of the first yachts in the world to be built using construction method.

In reality, it seems that the hull design was heavily influenced by a design and plans by the legendary Scandinavian yacht designer Knud Reimers which appeared in a book published by the famous UK designer and sailor Uffa Fox.

Speight read the book and had a half model made, based on the Reimers’ design. From the half model the lines for Fidelis were lofted and the hull built.

Davern also revealed that after he bought the boat, he commissioned Australian naval architect Warwick Hood to design a new rudder and redesign the rig for the long, lean sloop.

Fidelis’ ocean racing career began with a record-breaking win in the 1966 Auckland to Suva Race, which prompted him to contest the Sydney Hobart later that year. ‘We had a runaway win to Hobart…at one stage we were 80 miles in front of the fleet,’ Davern recalled.

Fidelis contested 1967, 1969 and 1982 Sydney Hobarts. In 1994, Nigel Stoke brought her to Sydney and raced her in the 50th ‘Hobart’. He has raced and cruised her extensively and estimates she has logged more than 200,000 sea miles in 40 or so years.

During the 1980s, Fidelis was extensively altered. Shipwrights laboured to transform her from a stripped-out ocean greyhound into one of the fastest and most luxurious passage-makers around.