Born in 1945, the eldest child of Gwynne and Naida Woodroffe, Graeme grew up close to Narrow Neck Beach, where he started sailing at age eight. Early on, he became keen on surfing, developing skills he carried into sailing.
After years in Junior Cherub and Javelin classes, Woodroffe’s first real success came in the OK dinghy class. He won the New Zealand OK trials in 1972, beating eight-time National Champion, the late Clive Roberts.
Woodroffe competed in the 1972 OK Worlds in Marstrand, France, finishing second out of 75 competitors from 14 countries. Two years later, he finished third overall at the 1974 OK Worlds in Adelaide, Australia, an event he absolutely should have won, according to fellow Kiwi competitor Peter Lester. Lester got to know Woodroffe well.
“Graeme was a free-spirited talent. He was quite creative in setting up his boat and equipment, which was a real inspiration to me. He could really get an OK going downwind.”
Woodroffe and Lester both competed in the 1977 OK Worlds at Takapuna. Lester won, with Woodroffe fourth.
Meanwhile, Bruce Farr was stamping his mark as a yacht designer. His first keelboat design, Titus Canby, won the 1971 Half-Ton South Pacific Championship, while his smaller version, Fantzipantz, won the 1973 Quarter-Ton South Pacific Championship. Shortly afterwards, Farr and the late Murray Crocket founded Alpha Marine to build GRP production versions of Fantzipantz. Second out of the mould was 727, and with Farr helming, she won the New Zealand trials for the 1975 Quarter-Ton Worlds.
Around the same time, the Farr-designed Gerontius was selected as one of the three-boat team for New Zealand’s first attempt at the Admiral’s Cup in England. Farr joined Gerontius, so Crocket had to find replacements. He persuaded Roy Dickson and Woodroffe to co-skipper 727.
Renamed 45º South, and with sister yacht Genie, the two quarter-tonners were shipped to Deauville, France. Despite being written off in some quarters as glorified trailer yachts, 45º South comfortably won the Worlds with Genie in sixth place. This was the first international championship won by a New Zealand-designed, built and crewed keeler.
On the strength of this, in 1976, Woodroffe commissioned the Farr-designed one-tonner, The Number. Around the same time, Stu Brentnall commissioned a close sister yacht, Jiminy Cricket. The pair competed in the New Zealand trials, which Woodroffe won with Brentnall second.
The Number was renamed 45º South II, and both yachts were shipped to Marseilles for the World One Ton Cup. However, a navigational error in the long offshore race hurt 45º South II, and she only finished fourth.
Incidentally, the OTC winner was the Britt Chance-designed centreboarder Resolute Salmon. Then, the IOR rule gave a rating advantage to centreboards, which Farr noted with interest.
With the 1977 One Ton Worlds being held in New Zealand, four new Farr centreboard One-Tonners were designed and built specifically for this event: Jenny H for Ray Hasler, Smir-Noff-Agen for Don Lidgard, Red Lion for Brentnall, and Mr JumpA for Woodroffe.
Incidentally, Woodroffe’s brother, Rick, who had founded the advertising company BSW, arranged commercial sponsorship for Mr JumpA, as he had done for both 45º South and 45º South II.
The Red Lion, Mr JumpA and Smir-Noff-Agen dominated the event, taking first, second and third respectively. Woodroffe had been in the running for first place, but a couple of mistakes cost her.
“Mr JumpA was beautiful boat, really fast and we should have won that, but Graeme took a couple of flyers, which didn’t work out,” recalled Lester ruefully, who was onboard as second helmsman.
Woodroffe sold Mr JumpA to a USA sailor, then skippered her in the 1978 Southern Ocean Racing Conference in Florida, where she finished second.
Throughout this period since leaving school, Woodroffe had been part of his father’s business, Sidney Woodroffe & Son, a general marine chandlery. With his father, Woodroffe later founded an offshoot company, Marine Power and Service, which held the agencies for a number of quality marine brands, such as Bukh and Lewmar. Marine Power and Service was a very successful operation for several years until Woodroffe lost interest.
After selling Mr JumpA, Woodroffe commissioned the late Laurie Davidson to design him a 15.2m race yacht, Dr Who, which he sold in Australia shortly afterwards. Over the next decade, Woodroffe built a series of yachts from the original but slightly modified plug, including Dr Dan, Jumping Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Woman, Starlight Express, and lastly, Emotional Rescue. All but Emotional Rescue were campaigned for a season or two, then sold.
For example, Jumping Jack Flash was sailed in the 1982 Clippers Cup in Hawaii. Woodroofe kept Jumping Jack Flash between West Coast USA and Hawaii for another two years, until she was sold.
A young Rod Nicholls was onboard Jumping Jack Flash for her delivery to Hawaii, and he remained with the yacht for those two years. He got to know Woodroffe’s sailing abilities well.
“Woody’s time on distance [on the start line] was unbelievable, and his upwind helming just incredible. He was fantastic downwind, too.”
The late Robbie McGaffin built Starlight Express in his Orewa shed, and Woodroffe sailed her in the 1986 Sydney Hobart before selling her in Australia. Woodroffe had Emotional Rescue built afterwards and owned her until 2018, the longest he owned any yacht.
Thanks to his abilities, Woodroffe was often invited to helm other significant events, including the Admiral’s Cup, TransPac, and the Hong Kong Cup. For example, he helmed Mike Clark’s Exador in the 1985 Admiral’s Cup, where they finished fifth overall, and the top New Zealand boat. This result helped the Kiwi team to third place overall, the best result in the Admiral’s Cup till that point. The One Ton Cup had been held just before this in Poole, where Exador finished fourth with Woodroffe helming. Some years later, Woodroffe was recruited as a specialist downwind helmsman on Grant Dalton’s Fisher & Paykel for Leg Two (Punta del Este to Fremantle) in the 1989/90 Whitbread Around the World Race.
However, before this, in 1986, Michael Fay (later Sir) became the leader of New Zealand’s first attempt at the America’s Cup, as detailed in several previous columns. One of the key features of the campaign was running two identical boats, KZ3 and KZ5, to facilitate the testing and development of rigs, sails and keels. This required two complete crews, and New Zealand was combed for sailors with big boat experience. Given his track record, Woodroffe, then aged 40, was recruited as a potential skipper along with a then 23-year-old Chris Dickson.
Over the following months, Fay and his advisors evaluated who would be the skipper and crew for the third and final yacht, KZ7. Going up against the best in the world, match racing skills were considered critical. Dickson’s experience of winning the Citizen Series twice, in 1982 and 1985, gave him the inside running. However, Woodroffe proved a quick learner, and there was never much between the pair.
Beginning with a 12m Worlds event in February 1986, for eight months, the Kiwi crews raced hard against each other to identify the best. For KZ7’s skipper, Fay and his management team had to choose between the mature Woodroffe and the young gun, Dickson, with David Barnes and Brad Butterworth in the background as wild cards. While the in-house races had been evenly split, Dickson’s match racing experience gave him an edge, while Woodroffe’s busy after-hours social activities possibly counted against him.
The final crew selections were made in August 1986, with Dickson named as skipper. While Woodroffe was initially relegated to backup skipper, within weeks he had been eased out of the campaign and replaced by Barnes.
Many, including Farr, Davidson, and Holland, feel New Zealand blew the opportunity to win the 1987 America’s Cup at its first attempt. Alan Sefton’s excellent book, The Inside Story of KZ7, details exactly where the Kiwi campaign fell short. However, he believes the final result had nothing to do with the skipper.
Not one to brood over what might have been, Woodroffe returned to New Zealand to finish his last keeler, Emotional Rescue. Woodroffe sailed Emotional Rescue to Hawaii for several Clipper Cups. En route for one of them, Woodroffe met Selina in Tonga and, to cut a long story short, married her two years later in Samoa. The couple had two daughters, Sidney and Ruby.
Woodroffe sailed Emotional Rescue in the 1989 Coastal Classic. Held in atrocious upwind conditions with only 65 of the 155 starters finishing, Emotional Rescue won in 19 hours and 7 minutes.
As Woodroffe became more interested in sailing, surfing, and partying around the Pacific, Marine Power and Service suffered from a lack of attention and eventually wound up.
Beginning in 1996, Graeme and Selina Woodroffe ran surfing charters from Emotional Rescue in Fiji, with stints ashore in New Zealand during the off-season. When their daughters reached school age, they relocated to Mangonui.
Around 2010, Woodroffe banged Emotional Rescue onto an uncharted rock in the Bay of Islands, losing her keel. After repurchasing her from the insurance company, Woodroffe commissioned Kevin Dibley to design a retractable keel for Emotional Rescue. He kept her for another eight years before selling her to Carl Whiting, son of Penny, in 2018. Dibley has since designed a new rig and sail plan for Emotional Rescue.
The Woodroffes moved to Whangamata around 2014. A few years later, Woodroffe became unwell and spent his last couple of years in care, passing away on 30 August 2024. He is survived by Selina and his six daughters, Olivia, Zahra, Alexia, Jessie, Sidney, and Ruby.
Those who have sailed with and against him rank Woodroffe as one of this country’s best natural sailors. He had a gifted feel for what made a boat go, how to keep it in the groove, and an impeccable sense of time-on-distance. Unquestionably, he could have easily been up there with Blake, Coutts, Butterworth, Dalton et al and become a full-time sailing professional. That Woodroffe didn’t was his own choice; it certainly wasn’t for lack of raw talent.
“Graeme was one of the boys, and he could have won several more titles if he’d been tougher. In many ways, he was a flawed genius. As a starting skipper, he was one of the best ever,” recalled his brother Rick.
At the dawning of the professional era, the top-echelon sailors had to decide whether to remain amateurs or turn professional. For Woodroffe, the latter was never an option. His busy social life and love of a good party conflicted with the commitment, focus, and fitness required of the professional, especially when campaigns began costing millions.
While it’s sad that Woodroffe didn’t take his sailing more seriously, his fun-loving, gregarious, and playboy nature formed an integral part of his character. Winning races was part of Woody’s life, and not the sole reason for it. Bringing fun and laughter to people’s lives was equally important to him.
“He was a lot of fun to be around, and he really enjoyed life,” said Selina, “I really miss him.”
Graeme Woodroffe – you will be long remembered as a truly gifted sailor and the life and soul of a party.
We had good fun times together for which I am grateful to have met Woody.