The centreboard revolution.

The boat

Designed by Bruce Farr (Design No. 66) and built in 1977 in Auckland for New Zealand yachtsman Graeme Woodroffe. Cold-moulded wood — three skins over closely spaced stringers and ring frames — with a deep, efficient daggerboard and internal ballast. Light displacement, designed to plane. Originally a distinctive varnished hull among her sisters.

She was one of four nearly identical Farr centreboard one-tonners: The Red Lion (№64), Jenny H (№62), Smir-Noff-Agen (№63), and Mr Jumpa (№66). All cold-moulded in NZ kauri. All built to exploit a loophole the IOR rule never saw coming.

1977 One Ton Cup — 2nd overall

Held on Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf, the 1977 World One Ton Cup was the most controversial in the event’s history — and the one that changed the IOR forever. A 14-boat fleet, five races: three Olympic triangles, a 165-mile offshore, and a brutal 325-mile long race.

The final long race defined the regatta. Winds built to 30–35 knots, gusting 40–50 near Channel Island. Boats were dismasted; several retired with damage. Mr Jumpa’s crew lay hove-to and bare-headed to rig an extra reefing line, then held on for 2nd. Her series line: 2 / 1 / 1 / 4 / 3 — second overall.

1978 SORC — Class D, and an 18-second finish

Newly U.S.-flagged, the original Kiwi crew came over with her for the Southern Ocean Racing Conference — six races, thousands of miles. She won the opener at Boca Grande, then took the 390-mile St. Petersburg–Fort Lauderdale race outright. Three wins from three starts; a commanding lead.

The late Ted Turner, fresh off his 1977 America’s Cup win, came aboard during the series. His verdict on the boat: “it’s just a big dinghy.” He wasn’t wrong. Then it went sideways — a measurement-certificate protest at Nassau nearly disqualified her, and the final Nassau Cup was lost to Rogues Roost by 18 seconds on corrected time, after six races across thousands of miles of ocean.

Wreck, restoration, and a second life

Later sold to an American yachtsman and sailed out of Hyannis Yacht Club on Cape Cod, she was wrecked in the 1990s on a broken mooring, then restored in Maine with a Mumm 36 keel. She’s been at the Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club in Saint John, NB since 2001.

Where she’s headed

The vision is a resto-mod: bring back the original varnished-wood appearance on the outside, fully modernized underneath and kitted out for racing again. A nearly fifty-year-old design, given another chapter — built with the community, proven on real water.