Builders get that sinking feeling at MHW event

In his days as an All Black giant, Chris Jack learned a thing or two about exercise and nutrition, and this served him well as he plied his footie trade around the world.  

Post rugby and now a Registered Master Builder, Chris is happy to share this knowledge with not just his mates on the job, but with men all over the country each year during Men’s Health Week.

Chris is a Men’s Health Week ambassador, keen to encourage others in his too frequently ‘pie-and-coke-for-lunch’ occupation that healthy eating is an incredibly important part of their health regime.

For the last few years Chris has led a team of Registered Master Builders in challenging a group of celebrities in a fun event with a twist, all designed to mark the start of Men’s Health Week.


That’s why Chris and a group of guys ended up at Auckland’s Okahu Bay early one morning in June, tools and timber in hand, filled with Americas Cup enthusiasm and ready to build a sailboat.

The event was carried live into TV One’s popular Breakfast show, with weather guy Matt McLean keeping the Registered Master Builders and the team of celebrities up to their boatbuilding tasks. Pretty soon it became obvious that one of these was not like the other, the builders deciding from the outset that maybe Dennis Connor was right and that a catamaran was the secret weapon.   

Saws roared, hammers flew and heaps of glue and duct tape later, two ’vessels’ were in the water as Men’s Health Week was launched. A lack of wind saw paddles being employed, and after a frantic few minutes the celebs were pulling their boat ashore as the challenge winners. But where were the builders?

Sadly their cat didn’t make it, being swamped when one pontoon filled with water.

“We’ll wait until the start of Men’s Health Week next year and take them out then,” a rueful Chris Jack said after inspecting the builders’ sodden boat.  

“But we can’t wait that long to start focusing more on our health – that’s something we need to be onto every day, not just in Men’s Health Week.”  

See Chris Jack speaking at the boat build.