Paper canoe launched love of sailing

D'Arcy Whiting, sailor, businessman, artist. Died aged 90.

D'Arcy Whiting was best known as a yachtie, and the book Coastal Cruising Handbook, which he co-authored, and which remains an essential part of any cruising yacht's gear. He was always keen to share his knowledge and love of sailing, helping novices learn their way around boats, often using anecdotes to illustrate a point.

But his own first boat was a canoe - briefly.

Each year the Whiting family camped at Sharks Bay, near Kauri Point on Auckland's North Shore. They caught the ferry and then loaded the camping equipment on to a cart and pushed it to the site.

Whiting and his mate Bing Hodder decided it would be easier to transport the tents and all the gear by water from Herne Bay.

They built a papier mache Canadian-style canoe with laminates of lacquered paper, but one crossing convinced them there had to be a better way. With the help of one of Mrs Whiting's bed sheets and a hinged centreboard, the canoe became a yacht, and a lifetime's love of sailing had begun.

Small yachts became larger ones, with the building of Aloha and Enterprise.

Whiting's first major yacht was the John Lidgard-designed Coruba in the mid-1960s. Coruba was built by Whiting himself, his son Paul, and Lidgard, in Whiting's factory in Carr Rd. In Coruba, Whiting took part in the Auckland to Noumea race with Paul and Penny, his elder daughter and well-known Auckland sailor, in just one of several ocean races Whiting enjoyed.

Coruba was followed by Tequila, a 47-footer designed by Paul and built in the front yard of the family home.

In 1974, having sold his business, Whiting loaded up the family and set off on an extended cruise on Tequila, taking in Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii and Midway Island before setting course for the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, California and Mexico.

He also ran a charter sailing business, and, with an all-woman crew, won the Coastal Classic yacht race between Auckland and the Bay of Islands.

He was a member of all the yacht clubs in Westhaven, and a life member of the RAYC.

D'Arcy Whiting was born in Auckland, and after leaving school at 13 with a Certificate of Proficiency, attended Seddon Technical College night school for five years, studying art, English, signwriting, engineering and cabinet-making. During the day he worked as a delivery boy on a bicycle.

He was a keen Boy Scout, and took part in local boxing tournaments promoted by the Scouting Association. In one, several punishing rounds gave Whiting Senior the idea of putting advertising signs on the bottom of his son's boots. He could guarantee they would always come up. But the same bout brought young Whiting one of his most cherished possessions - a cup for the pluckiest performance.

When World War II started in 1939, Whiting tried desperately to get into the Navy, but was turned down. He was instead conscripted into the New Zealand Army, and served as a platoon sergeant in North Africa and Italy. Early in 1945 he was sent to officer training in Aldershot in England, and was so successful that he was awarded the Sword of Honour. This was presented on the parade ground by King George VI, in one of the King and Queen's first public appearances after the reduction in the German bombing of England.

Although not an official war artist, Whiting continued his interest in painting while on active service, and several of his watercolours hang in the Army Museum in Waiouru and in Te Papa.

Whiting returned to New Zealand after the war and started a business painting state houses.

This expanded into the manufacture of plaster moulds for light shades and the production of flexible pipes. He also developed a system for creating crackle finish on furniture, a technique he had learned in Italy during the war and very popular at the time.

In 1946 Whiting met Mollie Beck at a dance on Waiheke Island. He was very taken with her, and reacted badly when another man tried to cut in and whisk her away.

The two men resorted to fighting until they were forced apart by Lofty Blomfield, the famous New Zealand wrestler, who banged their heads together.

In matters of the heart, Whiting was guided by an older female friend. She scrutinised all his girlfriends, and thoroughly approved of Mollie, the only one to receive such an accolade. For D'Arcy, it was love at first sight.

"She was more of a woman than the very nice Presbyterians that I had been going out with," he recalled in a Herald interview in 1999.

They married in 1948, and set up home in a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house in Mt Roskill.

Younger daughter Debbie describes her father as "a wonderful man."

"He had an incredible sense of humour, and was always happy. To him, the glass was always half full, if not overflowing."

D'Arcy Whiting is survived by his wife, sons Tony and Grant, and his daughters.

Son Paul was lost at sea while returning to Auckland after the 1979-80 Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Smackwater Jack.