The fully restored Rainbow II emerged from the Vos Shed in Hamer Street today and was taken straight to Pier 21 where the rig was stepped and final preparations are being made for the boat's launching at 10am on Monday (2 February, 2015).
Rainbow's skipper Chris Bouzaid was on hand for the move along with key people in the restoration.
Mrs Lorraine Street, wife of Auckland waterfront identity John Street, will do the traditional honours to rechristen Rainbow II at Pier 21.
John Street is the driving force behind, and chairman of, the Classic Yacht Charitable Trust which now owns Rainbow II. The iconic Sparkman & Stephens 36-footer was donated to the Trust by Bouzaid who, in 2012, bought back the yacht that he sold to Bermuda after she won the One Ton Cup in 1969 and, with the help of some friends, had her shipped home to New Zealand.
She was in a sad way but has now been fully restored by the Trust and, as a modern classic, will make a racing return to the Hauraki Gulf on the 28th of February when she features in the fleet for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's five-race One Ton Revisited regatta.
– Alan Sefton
