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There's no way around it. D'arcy Whiting was a piece of work. During WWII, the New Zealand Navy wouldn't have him, so he enlisted in the Army and fought Rommel in the desert sands of North Africa.

D'arcy's glass was always half full. There was nothing more he enjoyed than a good laugh. I first met D'arce in Sydney, Australia, before the start of the 1973 Sydney to Hobart. He'd just delivered his 47 foot TEQUILA across the Tasman, cabin filled with cases of beer bunk-top high in anticipation of the annual Australian beer union workers Christmas Holiday's strike

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The Sydney Customs knew D'arcy firsthand and were waiting. When TEQUILA came to dock at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Darcy shifted his Martec into reverse. But nothing happened, and the momentum of all that beer caused TEQUILA to mount and splinter the dock like some Antarctic icebreaker. The dozen Customs standing on the dock stepped aside, and no sooner had TEQUILA slid backwards and was secured in her slip than D'arcy invited all the men in white aboard for a little piss-up.

It seemed the Whiting family's TEQUILA and IMPROBABLE were similar in speed and we much enjoyed racing against each other in local regattas. As memorable as the racing were D'arcy's practical jokes...one of the best I witnessed first hand. Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island, 40 miles north of Auckland, was wall to wall boats on Christmas Eve when D'arcy and Mollie sailed TEQUILA into the crowded anchorage at cocktail hour. D'arcy prided himself on boat handling and crews from dozens of Kiwi boats were watching in anticipation of D'arcy possibly mucking up.

With wife Mollie on the foredeck ready to let the anchor run, D'arcy luffed his big blue sloop into a narrow slot at the head of the Bay. "Let the anchor run, Mollie," echoed cliff to cliff.

And then something happened no one expected except Mollie, who knew D'arcy's plan. The anchor splashed downward off TEQUILA's bow and into the water. Where it floated...."D'arcy, the anchor's not sinking, it's floating!," cried Mollie for all to hear.

This got everyone's attention! At the helm, D'arcy called back to Mollie at the bow, "What do you mean the anchor's floating?"

"I mean what I said, the anchor's floating!," replied Mollie.

Some years later I was able to witness D'arcy's wood carving skills that had produced the famous floating anchor of Mansion House Bay. D'arcy, Mollie, and family were cruising TEQUILA north from Fiji to Alaska and down the West Coast of North America.

They stopped at Midway Atoll, this time with more immediate propeller problems. One blade of the Martec had fallen off. There is no yacht equipment delivery service to Midway. But this did not deter D'arcy, who over a couple of days carved a most exquisite wooden propeller from a fallen branch of an ironwood tree. TEQUILA's new propeller was pitched exactly right and was used for the rest of their voyage without incident...

No wonder Rommel lost at El Alamein.