Koamaru: 41 ft Admirals Cup Yacht Built By Jorgensens and Sons

1974

Build Date

Sparkman & Stephens/ Jorgensen and Sons Ltd.

Boat Builder

41 ft

Length

12.1 ft

Beam

Launching Koamaru

Koamaru was an Admirals Cup Ocean Racing yacht designed by American naval architects Sparkman & Stephens and built by Jorgensen and Sons in Picton for Brian Millar. Millar was well known in yachting racing circles, especially in Wellington. He had previously owned the yacht Arapawa built by Morgans at Picton and Koamaru was the fifth large craft he owned. At the time of launch he was based in Auckland as the branch manager of the Northern Building Society. The sister ship of Koamaru, Quicksilver built and owned by Brin Wilson was also based in Auckland at this time.

Koamaru was launched on January 6, 1975, just in time for the Admirals Cup trials. A large crowd gathered for the launch which was a month late. To help get the boat in the water Millar and his crew helped with the boat work. He said the amount of sandpaper they used would reach from the Jorgensen boatyard to the Waikawa store. Finn Jorgensen perhaps jokingly said of the build that his boat builders had grown so attached to the yacht they did not want to see it leave.

Completing Koamaru and the Races

With the mast stepped a week before the launch and everyone working hard, Koamaru was launched with only the essentials. Millar had planned to fit out the interior himself in the winter after he completed the races.

Once Koamaru was in the water, Millar towed it to Wellington and prepared for his upcoming yacht racing calendar. As well as, the Admiral Cup trials, Millar and his crew entered the Cook Strait race and the Wellington to Gisborne race. NZ yachts had not entered the Admirals Cup series before, so it was a big deal to enter the trials for a possible place at Cowes. The committee was set on the task of finding the right team and boat as well as raising $120,000. It is unknown how Koamaru did in the trials, but they didn’t make it to Cowes. However, Millar continued to race Koamaru in the years that followed. Copies of the results in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race online show Koamaru came 80^th In 1979 and 24^th in 1994..

It is unknown where Koamaru is today.

Offshore, Number 51, December 1979 to January 1980

References

To research Koamaru we used jorgensenboats.nz, a newspaper article about the launching of Koamaru, The Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race website and Offshore.

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