When you speak to passionate sailors about the heady days of ocean racing in the 1960s and '70s, one name keeps cropping up, and that’s Lin (Lincoln) Carmichael. You’re unlikely to hear Lin himself boast of his wins, but 'Sea Spray' (New Zealand’s national boating magazine) wrote in 1983, “New Zealand has produced its own champions in most classes of sailing, and in ocean racing it would be hard to deny Lin Carmichael top place.” – John Mallitte, Sea Spray, September 1983
We spoke to Lin Carmichael and his wife Coleen about how some Kiwi hard work and ingenuity helped Lin build boats and win ocean races.
A family passion
Lin’s early passion for sailing likely came from being born to a boating family. As Coleen says, “The sea is in his blood”. His great-grandfather T. S. Carmichael was a seaman on the 'HMS Investigator,' a Royal Navy ship sent to the Arctic in 1850, which became stuck in the ice. Thomas endured three brutal winters locked in the pack ice of Mercy Cove, where he and the crew barely survived the extreme cold and hunger.
From a young age, Lin, his siblings and cousins had to be able to sail the 14-foot sailing dinghy to get out to the family bach at Tutukaka, and at 12 years old, he was already an able enough sailor to cruise with his cousin through the Bay of Islands. Boat building was also part of family life. There was always a boat being built or repaired outside the family home in Whangarei, and he was a frequent visitor at the Orams boatyard just down the road. It would take the knowledge that he was soaking up from the boat builders, plus some Kiwi ingenuity and hard work, to get into the ocean racing scene. At 18 years old, Lin began building 'Tiare-Moana' (Flower of the Sea). He was working full time in his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, and most of what he earned was going into his boat.
Getting the best possible boat for your budget wasn’t the only benefit of building it yourself. As he told 'The Auckland Star': “You have to be satisfied that the boat will stand up to anything she is forced to take, and when you’ve built her yourself, you know exactly where you stand.”
The “shoestring” ocean racer
In 1964, confident in the boat he had just built, Lin signed up for the inaugural Onerahi to Noumea race, causing the Onerahi sailing club some worry that he and his crew were too young and inexperienced. To prove that they had ‘what it took’ for ocean racing, Lin and his brother Bain sailed 'Tiare-Moana' to Gisborne. Point proved, the young crew then went on to win their division in the Noumea race, followed up by a third place in the 1966 Suva Yacht race.
Lin now well and truly had the ocean racing bug and was already planning his next boat. In 1967, having moved to Auckland, he worked alongside John Lidgard building 'Castanet' at Lidgard’s boatyard in Glen Eden. 'The Auckland Star' described Lin as a “shoestring ocean racer” for his ability to create race-winning boats and campaigns on a slim budget. “Dream of a One Ton Cup racer and you could face a financial nightmare in finding the wherewithal — up to $50,000. But if you have the courage, determination — and, hopefully, the expertise — of a Lin Carmichael, it’s possible to do it for as little as a sixth of that figure.”
After a great showing in the Southern Cross trials, Lin and his new boat 'Castanet' were selected for the three-boat New Zealand team for the inaugural 1967 Southern Cross Cup. They came third in their division in the Sydney-Hobart race and then won the 1968 Trans-Tasman Cup on the return race to Auckland.
Good friends and excellent sailors were again part of the winning strategy for Lin and 'Castanet' in the 1969 Auckland to Suva race. His crewmates were Terry Gillespie, Mike Lane and Lin’s brother Bain. “We were all young and gung-ho and had faith in each other,” Lin says. That faith created great teamwork and decision-making on the water. At 31 feet, 'Castanet' was the smallest boat in the fleet, with the smallest crew, but they were crowned the overall champions.
Life on the ocean
What did they eat on the ocean races? Lin says, “Most boats didn't have freezers for the races, and we had to think carefully about the weight of every item we were taking. We ate tinned food, tinned or powdered milk, and drank coffee. We always looked forward to coming into port to have a steak and a milkshake!”
How did they sleep? “Castanet had two bunks and two pipe beds – basically canvas slung between two pipes. We had a two-hour rotation while racing – one guy would be at the helm, one at the cockpit, watching for boats and ensuring the guy on the helm stayed awake, and the two below would be trying to sleep. It meant you had a four-hour allocation for sleeping,” Lin says. “You wouldn’t ever be fully asleep; you’d be aware of the boat and whether it was on course. Because we didn’t have GPS in those days, we were relying on sextants, and it was constantly on our minds.”
A lifetime of building boats
As much as he loved racing, Lin thought that building the boat was just as much fun. Like racing them, building them was always a challenge too. Lin's next boat, 'Chico', was built in 1971 at Lidgard’s yard. 'Sea Spray' magazine said at the time: “Carmichael emphasised that she is a cruiser-racer, but if this is the case, she would be one of the fastest cruising 30-footers on the harbour.” Lin and 'Chico' went on to win the 1971 Onerahi to Noumea race, again with Terry and Mike as his crew. Lin says, “It was a fairly light race. The boat didn’t have much gear in it, which helped us a lot.”
Lin built his last two boats while living on the North Shore. In 1974, he built his boat 'Clockwork' in a bus shed behind the Bridgeway Theatre; she was a quarter-tonner built because there was a World Quarter-Ton Championship coming up. Then in 1983 he built 'Cisco', a light displacement design built for the Hauraki Gulf rather than for ocean racing because he wanted a boat that would also be pleasurable for his wife and daughter to sail. Lin went on to win other races as part of crews on other boats, such as the 1977 Auckland to Suva race on 'Country Boy', and two Pan Am Clipper Cups in Hawaii.
What made Lin an exceptionally good skipper and ocean racer? His wife Coleen remembers that Lin did a lot of pre-race prep. “Before each race, he would have his charts spread open all around him, working out the winds and the best course. Then on the boat, he would do many practice runs over the start line, getting his starting strategy precise.” He also relied on tenacity and grit as well as his bold, hard-working crew. He told 'The Auckland Star' in 1971, “You have to be sure of your boat, sure of your gear, have faith in yourself and your crew and drive hard all the time”
Adventure on the seas
The most frightening moment Lin ever experienced on the ocean was when he and good friend and fellow sailor, Richard Jones, were part of a five-man crew delivering a yacht from Melbourne to New Plymouth. There was a southerly current; it had been blowing 50 to 60 knots southwest, and the continental shelf after Bass Strait made the waves short and sharp. They found themselves on top of an enormous wave, fell vertically down the other side and pitchpoled, flipping end over end.
Richard, on the helm and wearing a harness clipped to the backstay, flew up the backstay as the boat pitchpoled. All the cupboards in the cabin fell open, and everything came crashing out. Lin says, “It made a hell of a noise; we thought the boat had broken.” Once the boat had righted, they quickly issued a Pan call to Australian Search and Rescue (a Pan call is one below a mayday). The moment they finished the call, the electrics went out. Search and Rescue flew out the next morning to check on them, but by then Richard had got them going again, so they waved at the plane and carried on.
Boating now versus then
Those days were truly the golden era of ocean racing in New Zealand. Both 'The Auckland Star' and 'The New Zealand Herald' covered the events and the boats’ positions almost daily.
“We don’t get much coverage of ocean racing anymore,” Lin says. “It is too expensive now, and not as accessible as it once was. Today’s boats are much larger, nearly twice the size of 'Castanet'. It was more uncomfortable and harder work in the '60s and '70s in a smaller boat, and they were full-keel boats. Those boats couldn’t achieve the times that are set now.” Although the boats have changed dramatically, Lin still enjoys watching modern sailing and watches the Sail GP sailing and the America’s Cup.
What does he treasure most from his time in the golden age of ocean racing? While it was his competitive spirit and love of sailing that first drew him to ocean racing, it isn’t the cups and trophies that matter most to Lin. It is the friendships made, the adventures had together, and cruising the beautiful islands that form his favourite memories.
