News Of The Small-Ships

Irmen To Sail Own Yacht

To Fiji

Warrant Officer Gordon Kells, of e RNZAF, on transfer to Fiji 3m Auckland, sailed his 32-foot >op Temptress there in November. :companying him on the voyage 11 be Sergeant Peter Joll, Flight rgeant Bill Lewis and Mr. Rob irlyne an Auckland yachtsman, le crew will return from the de cry voyage by air.

Temptress is a modified type of the 11-known American H-28 design, ;ently completed after 5 years of ire-time work by W/O Kells. She s a 11 hp. auxiliary, the cooling iter for which circulates in the How cast-iron keel—a desirable iture for tropical service.

She was to be the subject of an location trial by No. 6 Squadron the RNZAF, When the yacht was Dut 300 miles north of New aland a Catalina was to take off m Hobsonville and try to locate ■ by means of radar. To aid in the lar location, the yacht was pro ed with a metal reflector device ich would greatly increase the active reflection range. If this •ves as effective as hoped all ocean ng yachts may be encouraged to ry such a device.

V. NZ National Film Unit camera n was expected to travel in the

aircraft.

Temptress was also equipped with a low-power radio transmitter for the voyage.

Estrella Del Mar

Captain Emile Savoie’s recently acquired twin screw cargo vessel Hauturu, completely reconditioned, with a large tricolour floating over her

new name (Estrella del Mar ) andi port of registry (Noumea), and with the white Savoie house-flag with its. six blue stars at the masthead, cleared Auckland for Sydney and the Islands on October 15.

Chief Engineer for the delivery voyage to Noumea was Mr. George Beeston, of Auckland, who served in. the vessel under her former owners,.

Northern Steam Ship Co.

The ship has been fitted with a

modern twin-channel radio telephone set which contacted Noumea direct from Auckland in daytime. Captain Savoie hopes to keep in constant con tact with his Maria del Mar, at pre sent under the command of Captain J. C. Depoortere, of Noumea, who recently returned from France with his Master’s Ticket.

Captain Savoie purchased the

wreck of the ill-fated Lolowai some time ago and from it salvaged the electric winches and derricks which have now been installed in Maria del Mar.

Break Of Day For New

Hebrides Mission

The Presbyterian Overseas Mission in Auckland purchased the 32-foot

motor-sailer Kotaretare in Octofc and renamed her Break of Day The boat was dedicated at a servi at an Auckland wharf and left the on October 16, manned by three we known yachtsmen, bound for tl New Hebrides via Norfolk a: Noumea. She will replace a vess lost in last summer’s hurricane.

The yachtsmen manning her a Mark Anthony, former owner of t; yacht Rangi, lost on Norfolk ear this year, Mr. S. Smith, a crew mei ber of that yacht, and Mr. H. Poi of the well-known Auckland yacl Sea Wolf. They will return by aii The Mission has purchased anoth small vessel for the Hebrides—c livery later this year.

Phil Ante Ii For Honoluli

Philante 11, the Fairmile pa senger vessel which arrived Papeete from England in July, le there for Honolulu on September 2 It is understood that, contrary earlier reports, a sale could not I arranged at Tahiti. New Zealai owner Athol Rusden was in coi mand when she sailed. Others the original crew had returned New Zealand earlier.

Another Schooner For

Tahiti?

According to reports from Papeet Captain Fraud, former Master I

: CFPO schooner Oiseau des lies, II shortly bring a vessel from ance —said to be a large schooner. ) details are yet available, except it the vessel would be used by a peete company in the general inter md trade.

/Sea U Des Iles For Sale—

At A Price

fhe Campagnie Francaise des )sphates de I’Oceanie’s 400-ton :1 3-masted schooner Oiseau des , which recently returned to Maka- Island following an expensive re in Auckland, was reported in ober to be on offer through an tlish ship-broker.

Tie recent refit was estimated to e cost £30,000, so the acceptable e is likely to be a high one.

Aoniu For Refit

he Tongan Government vessel in was expected in Auckland early 'ember for refit and repairs. The el. which was acquired in Fiji in 0, recently touched a reef in the pai Group, but was also due for •haul. was expected that Captain Carl ison, Master of the Hifofua, Id bring the vessel south and re to Tonga immediately. The kland Agents for the Tongan eminent were advertising for a master for Aoniu early in )ber.

End Of The Koro

lie small vessel Koro, sunk, raised reconditioned near Vila, is now more. She came to grief on a

Left to right: Captain Emaile Savoie's Estrella del Mar enters the Islands trade.

Captain Joe Spring, who returned to Auckland after sailing as Cheief Officer in the Oiseau des Iles. Wanderer II Iying in Papeete harbour-soon to sail for Sydney via ports.

eef in New Caledonia and became total loss. (See elsewhere this issue).

Bsip’S Hygeia At Samarai

The BSIP medical vessel AV iygeia left Honiara on September for Samarai (Papua) for slipping.

Tie Hygeia is the first Protectorate essel to use the Samarai slipway.

Break Of Day Ii

The 32-foot launch Break of Day r , purchased in Auckland by the ‘esbyterian Overseas Mission, arrived ifely in New Hebrides on November Equipped with only a low-powered iotor and very small sail area, it ade an excellent passage via Nor ilk and Noumea, in charge of Auck nd yachtsman Mark Anthony, hav g sailed from Auckland on October ). Two days were spent at Norfolk land making certain engine repairs.

The launch replaces Break of Day, st a year ago in a New Hebrides irricane.

The Te Aroa

Messrs. Jagger and Harvey’s grace -1 topsail schooner Te Aroa, which ;nt on the reef at Mauke Island i August 8, was some time later ttered by heavy seas and carried r up into the shallows, beyond any pe of salvage.

Stortebecker 111

Papeete, Oct. 30.

The 33 ft. yawl Stortebecker 111, ned and skippered by Dr. Franklin ans, late of the Indian Medical ■vice, on a wandering voyage from w Zealand to the Tuamotus, spent couple of weeks in Papeete in tober. Calls had been made at pa and Raivavae, where the three

wagers (Dr. Franklin-Evans, Frank

isen and Ron Lamb) were kindly eived and hospitably treated by French officials. Stortebecker 111 ae out from London in 1949-50, 1 has been cruising in and around ynesia ever since.

White Wings

-ying in Papeete harbour, Tahiti, October, in charge of Captain ber, was the beautiful and luxuri ly-appointed American yacht ite Wings, owned by Mr. Richard Reynolds, an American tobacco lionaire. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds yed in Papeete by TEAL plane October 29, to join the yachting ty in a leisurely cruise in Poly la.

'Aurabada For Ng Sea

Scouts

.aurabada, the famous old Papuan patrol vessel, which was uited into the RAN during the

war and has been lying idle in Port Moresby for the past year, has been handed over there for the use of local Sea Scouts.

Nolan Luggers On Ng

Copra Job

Former pearling luggers, the 65-ft.

Ellen and 56-ft. Gwen May, are now engaged in carrying copra between Wewak and Madang, New Guinea.

Both luggers formerly belonged to the late John Nolan, who died dur ing diving operations off Samarai about two years ago, shortly after he began trochus and shell fishing in the area.

The luggers spent 18 months tied up in Townsville following Nolan’s

death, and sailed in convoy for NG under the command of Mr. A. T.

Frodsham some time ago. A third Nolan lugger, Josey, was expected to join the other two on NG copra work early this month.

News Of Cruising Yachts

Ngataki, home-built yacht in which Aucklander Johnny Wray cruised to the Cook Islands and Tonga in the 30’s, before disposing of her to build himself a roomier motor - cruiser, recently changed hands in Auckland. Through the Agency of Andrew Donovan, a lead ing ship-broker, Mr. J. May, late owner, has sold her to Mr. and Mrs.

A. C. Brown who at some future

date, intend making a Pacific cruise,

Chiqiiita. 35 foot Auckland cutter whose arrival at Honolulu from Papeete was reported last month, departed for Los Angeles in mid-October. Owner-skipper Jack Campbell expected to complete the trans-Pacific crossing early in November.

At San Francisco the almost-new reverse sheer yacht will be put up for auction.

Mr. Campbell and his companion, Donald McLean, have been accompanied since Papeete by Mr. Oliver, an English schoolteacher.

Apart from a scare in the Tuamotus, when they began drifting at night with out wind or motor in the vicinity of reefs, the passage from Papeete was excellent, the 2,800 miles being covered at an

average 130 miles per day.

Miru, with Dr. Tom Davis and famill of Rarotonga aboard, was reported at St Simon’s Island, Georgia, on October 18 after a good passage up from Callao an: through the Panama Canal to Miami, Fla Heavy weather was encountered on thi next leg of the voyage which has ended a Boston, and an over-enthusiastic radii amateur at Dayton Beach alerted th Coast Guard when he heard mention fror the yacht’s radio that they were bein buffeted. However, Miru arrived safel at St. Simon’s and the remainder of th voyage via New York was throug: sheltered inland waterways. Miru lei Wellington on May 31 and Callao, Per* on September 12.

On November 3 the ketch reache Boston—lo,ooo miles across the Pacific I five months. Dr. Davis, CMO of Cook Is was late for his post-graduate course o: Public Health at Harvard University. Fo this he blamed five storms encountered o the voyage.

The name Forerunner will not ring bell in the Eastern Pacific—but Springbo certainly will. Under that name thi little 26-foot-overall yawl, then under th South African flag, came down through Panama and arrived in NZ waters vi Island ports about 1948.

In Auckland Springbok was purchased b Mr. D. Wing, and given again her origina name of Forerunner. He used her fo local cruising until early 1952. In Marc!

Mr. G. Douglas, lately of the Blue Funae Line and holder of a foreign-goin Master’s ticket, arrived in Auckland, me Mr. Wing, and sold him the idea of

acific cruise. Buying a half share Mr. louglas moved aboard, and the little raft slipped quietly out of Auckland ist May 15, with a proper clearance, for hkualofa.

Between then and November 3, when le yawl arrived back in Auckland, the fo men visited Haafeva, Haapai, Vavau, iva, Matuku, Totoya, Lakemba, Vanua balavu, Wakaya, Makogai, Levuka and fain Suva, sailing from there on ctober 16. At various times they met » with Fitheach Ban, Viator. Wakaya, anu Moana and Omoo, similarly engaged i lolling round the Islands. Omoo, a eel Belgian-owned vessel, left Suva in igust on her voyage round the world.

Forerunner is now back at her moorings the Tamaki River, Auckland.

Manu Moana. 38-foot New Zealand ►op, which has been in Fiji waters for feral months (photo October), left Suva tober 28 on the return voyage to Bay Islands. fhe crew for the south-bound passage ;luded owner Holden, K. Rowe of ►llington, J. Keniedy. an Australian d Bob Narahu, a Gilbert Islander ning to New Zealand to train as an ctrlcian. trthnr Rogers, Mr. Tom Hepworth’s ► verted Brlxham trawler, will remain Papeete until at least next April. » continue on to Auckland. The ner is prepared to take four paying ;sts for the last leg of the voyage, bably via the Cook Islands, he American luxury yacht White ron, the Australian-owned Wanderer and John (Desperate Voyage) Cald -I’s Tropic Seas are still reported at Tahitian capital. There has been an lition to the crew of Tropic Seas :e arriving in port—as Mrs. Caldwell Jntly gave birth to another child (sex eported) aboard the yacht “without lical assistance of any kind!” kaya, Auckland staysail schooner, t oresent at Nukualofa, and reportedly nng some volunteer yachtsmen to st on the passage back to Auckland.