[2] Holland started competitive sailing at the age of eight and was apprenticed as a boatbuilder in Auckland, where he built his first design, the 26' sloop White Rabbit in 1966.
The success of Eygthene led to a commission to design a One-ton class yacht for Irish businessman Hugh Coveney.
One of these boats, Silver Shamrock, built lightly by Killian Bushe at South Coast Boatyard and steered by Harold Cudmore won the 1976 Half-ton Cup in Trieste, Italy.
[4] This was followed by Silver Shamrock III in 1977 which was built in cold moulded spruce for the Half Ton Cup in Sydney, Australia.
[citation needed] Meanwhile, Holland's 'Nicholson 33' design, for the English boatbuilder Camper & Nicholson, had begun production and one of these, Golden Delicious, won the 1975 Fastnet Race.
[citation needed] Condor, the Maxi Class yacht built in 1981, still sails as a passenger boat in Australia's Whitsunday Islands.
Although built and launched with great fanfare, she did not perform as well as expected or as well as the more adventurous designs from the southern hemisphere sporting a mizzen rig.