Richard Allen, former fisherman and practising lawyer, has been sailing competitively since the age of five. His success in competition and extensive sailing knowledge won him a coveted place on the 1996 New Zealand Olympic team. He travelled with the team to Savannah, Georgia, as both a reserve and an Olympic Committee media advisor for the Tornado class.
When Richard purchased the Ranui he saw the perfect opportunity to fulfill a long held dream—to make the adventurous world of Pacific sailing and the many hidden wonders of New Zealand’s natural coastline accessible to those with the desire to explore. Richard holds both his captains ticket and engineer’s ticket.
Richard has also joined Greenpeace on many campaigns including two voyages to the Tasman to protest the shipments of nuclear rods from France to Japan and back, strongly supporting a nuclear free world. Richard has also served on the board of Greenpeace.
Richard has sailed the Pacific extensively and was part of the 2010 waka voyage which saw many Polynesian nations crew and skipper traditionally designed Polynesian sailing waka. The waka are all equipped with solar powered motors, eliminating environmentally unsound fossil fuel. The 2010 voyage started from Aotearoa and visited Tahiti, Raiatea, Moorea, Raivavae, Rarotonga, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and finally to Vanuatu to complete a project for his charitable trust.
New Zealand Children’ Health & Education Trust was established in 2000 by Richard. This saw Richard and his family on board Ranui sail extensively throughout the archipelago of Vanuatu. Ranui had on board doctors, dentist, nurse and medical supplies to bring emergency medical relief to the remote poverty stricken islands of Vanuatu. After five years of sailing the remotes islands the trust used Ranui to complete sustainable economic and asset programmes for the remotes islands. The first project was to build a wharram designed catamaran with the local boat builders to promoted sail transport as an alternative to fossil fuel while at the same time inaugurating the Sakao Sailing and Navigation School. www.nzchildrenstrust.org.nz
Recently the Trust sailed to the island of Uluveu, South East Malakula and installed a solar powered desalination plant. The remote islands of Vanuatu are in desperate need of clean safe drinking water and they experience long periods of droughts to the point where the people become sick from drinking the polluted bore wells. This plant has given the people of Uluveu the safety of clean safe water that is produce with the energy from the sun and does not use fossil fuels to achieve this.
Richard has just recently sailed to the Kermadec islands for the New Zealand Government. On these charters Ranui has given young interested sailors the chance to experience Open Ocean voyaging under the watchful eye of Richard and aboard the safe sailing vessel Ranui. Richards love of the sea and sailing has taken him on many Pacific adventures and he has sailed from the Antipodes to Tahiti and all in between. He has worked hard to promote sail power and demote the use of fossil and nuclear fuels.