Yachting: Kiwi ingenuity alive and well in a heartland shed

By Suzanne McFadden

In a box on top of his garage in Hawkes Bay, Team New Zealand designer Richard Karn tests other people's whacky ideas on how to make the black boats faster.

As an inventor himself, Karn happily listens to the suggestions that flooding the America's Cup base every day from of scientists, yachties, retired folk and free thinkers.

Karn spends half the week working from his home office in Napier, where his laptop is powered by a windmill he designed.

He is the research engineer for Team New Zealand, figuring out the flow of air and water over the rig and keel.

"People phone in or knock on the door with their ideas on how to make the boats faster," he said. "Some are very good, and definitely worth pursuing. Others are pretty weird.

"You still have to look at the whacky ones - I always give people the time of day.

"Some ideas are really ridiculous, but you just explain to them why it wouldn't work, and they go away happy. You really have to keep an open mind."

Karn has a passion for inventions. He made headlines in 1988 when he designed the controversial speed pods on the kayaks of Olympic champions Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, which were so fast they were banned by Olympic officials.

"As a kid I was always into making contraptions," says the 44-year-old. "When I was at primary school my friend and I would build go-karts and land yachts and race them up the street in Napier. I still have all the engines of the model planes I built.

"That's the sad thing about kids today. It's all instant gratification. Kids tinkering with things like that is a lost art."

Karn, who has a masters degree in mechanical engineering, has been working on America's Cup boats since 1985. He was first asked to run the testing programmes for the campaign which produced the innovative KZ7. He hasn't missed a Cup since.

Every Wednesday morning, he hops in his ute and drives five hours to Auckland to work out of the Team New Zealand base.

On Saturday morning the fluid dynamicist drives home to Napier again. He proudly calls himself the only provincial man in Team New Zealand.

"I find it very frustrating working here in Auckland," he says from the big black shed on Syndicate Row. "Napier is a long way from here, but the drive is automatic now."

At home, he can do his work from the 7m by 3m box he built over the garage where the views are stunning. He is surrounded on three sides by vineyards and the Pacific Ocean is on the horizon.

A little wind generator he made sits on the fence outside. Karn has also devised a system to recycle the family's waste water.

He doesn't like leaving home, and his two daughters, Hannah (8 ) and Zoe (4), find it difficult that Dad disappears for half the week. But there is now a light at the end of the tunnel - the America's Cup will be over in about three weeks' time.

"I couldn't turn this job down. It is the best yachting can offer," he says. "I'm working with like-minded people who are powerful thinkers. I'm always working with the best design tools, the best equipment and the budget is good."