News of Cruising Yachts
pp. 119-121 · Read in the full issue
• TRANS-PACIFIC RACE, for the second time [in succession, was won in July by Ira P [Fulmer's 39 ft. ketch STAGHOUND on corrected time. Her elapsed time for the 2,225-mile fair-wind run was 12 days, 23 hours, 9 minutes, ¥ seconds. Fastest time was made by Richard B. Rheem's 98-ft. ketch MORNING STAR. Second [and third in actual corrected-time placings [Were Frank Hooykaas' 75-ft. schooner CON STELLATION and the sloop NALU 11. • LOS ANGELES-TAHITI RACE will be sailed mext year according to advice from Eugene Pverton, chairman of the 1956 Tahiti Race Committee of Trans-Pacific Yacht Club, Los Angeles. It is very much hoped that ' some South Pacific yachts will contest this second race of the revived series. Final entries in the 1953 race were poor. Race No. 2 will start in the first week of June, 1956, to allow a normal Papeete arrival during the annual July celebrations. A dozen American yacht owners ctad already expressed interest. MORNING STAR is an almost certain entry. Other probables: Lyman Farwell's 84 ft. schooner DRIFT Walter Johnson's 72 ft. schooner NORDLYS (already known in Papeete), Ira Fulmor's STAGHOUND, 800 Paschall's 53 ft.
KIRAWAN. Australian and New Zealand yacht owners should contact Mr. Overton at 727 W 7th Street, Los Angeles 17, Cal., for fuller letails. There is the possibility of a staggered start to permit all yachts to complete the p a^ol Jt the same time, as was done • WANDERER 111, with Eric and Susan Biscock, completed the circuit arriving safely It St. Mawes, Cornwall, recently. The 30 ft tfoop is the smallest English craft to have made iuch a voyage for a good many years, if ever kfore. • PHOENIX, 50 ft. American ketch from Honolulu, arrived Papeete June 20 on the Itart of a world cruise. Built in Hiroshima, lapan, m 1954, this stout little vessel is as pleasing a type of ocean cruiser as one could ■nsh to see, with her ample sheer-line. The ftory of her cruise from Japan to Honolulu ippeared recently in the American Saturday evening Post. With owner Earle L. Reynolds s a crew of six. PHOENIX measures 24 tons |as a beam of 14 ft. and a draught of 7 ft' [he has 1,000 ft. of canvas and a 25 hp Hesel. The south run from Honolulu was nade m 26 days of good sailing weather. • LITTLE BEAR, 37 ft. American ketch from l? n Francisco, with owners Buzz and June nampion—and a dog—arrived Papeete July 8, rom Honolulu via Takaroa. Destination is pven as Auckland via Bora Bora, Cooks, Samoa, Tallis, and Fi,i. Built 1948 at her home port V her owners, this ketch carries 690 ft of pnvas and a 50 hp auxiliary. The ketch left
[Honolulu June 1, having tarried there since December 19. • QUEST IV, with lone-hander Fred Fawcett- Kay, which left Brisbane in March for the Solo fmons, was still cruising in that Group in July. • ONRUST of Holland, which Dick Tober f sailed down through Polynesia two years ago, was reported early July as about to sail from h Hobart for Auckland. Tober has been working in Tasmania for the past year or more. Dirk [ is reported now to be married. • LA PALOWA of Auckland arrived Raro tonga July 2, 23 days out. Owner Bill Wilson of New York, and companion Ronald Helmer of Calgary, Canada, then planned to sail for Papeete within a fortnight. The yacht was [purchased at Auckland. • SEVEN SEAS of Holland arrived Rarotonga [from Papeete on June 22. The passage took 9 days. • YASME, 37 ft. cutter of Poole, England, is on the way, and should be seen in the Pacific next Winter. Owner Danny Weil is a keen radio amateur, and the yacht is also equipped with a commercial radio installation, call-sign GMTY. • Latvian-born, Israeli-naturalised Joseph Havkins cleared New York June 30 for Panama and the Pacific, destination a seat at the Olympic Games in Melbourne. This will be the first time that a yacht flying the Israeli flag has entered the Pacific—name of the 23-ft. [sloop as yet unknown in Sydney. Havkins is
sbs ,ha - • WHITE SQUALL of Auckland is now not planning to sail to the US until next March. , MOONR4KER, which visited Tahiti two at charles, ° n - N ? r,h Carolina, England-bound, in May. Also there
Pacific bound* 1 FEL ' C,TY
ANN ' Pac 'fic-bound. • MAREVA, Mr. James McConnaughey's Papeete based motor-cruiser was out cruising 'fj"* ,S ' a " ds (French oceania ) *" • TAHEA, 28 ft. Los Angeles ketch which Rolph Thorvaldsen sailed to Papeete early this year, arrived back home July 24. Lone-hander Thorvaldsen caused a commotion in Hawaii
March' «llJTat some"timt!® then®
cleared Kealakekua Bay, Kona, May 20 for Honolulu but failed to arrive. An extensive Coastguard search was organised and abandoned when TAHEA suddenly arrived a * Los Angeles. Bad weather seems to have dogged the yacht. Thorvaldson said TAHEA wa ? ,eakin 9 seriously due to storm damage a few days out of Papeete - • MARIA cleared Cowes, England, TOvaM Y of “o' for' VCS »M VS n 3 Aske . r Kure - Kure has b «" given two year! to live by his doctor. Formerly a skipper of deep-sea vessels, he is reported to have said goodbye to his wife and four children, to die somewhere at sea in the Pacific. , Aries, American R. J. Reynolds' 92 ft.
ketch, will again not appear in the Pacific this year !t will be remembered that Mr. Reynolds had the yacht built in England and planned to base it at his Tahiti property two years ago.
Pressure of work has prevented the tobacco magnate from coming to Tahiti since then. • BOUNTY of Auckland, which has taken more beatings per gallon of Pacific than any other yacht south of the Line, is still in the Macleay River, NSW, slowly refitting while owner Furley and his merry men earn some more money ashore. This summer BOUNTY is likely to head for Auckland, in readiness for yet another island cruise next autumn. • KONA of Honolulu, on the move again cleared Whangarei, NZ, July 3, and arrived at Suva via Kadavu on July 18. Skipper Paul Blackford advises that the yacht is for sale (see ad. in this issue) but will meanwhile cruise Fiji waters and if unsold, may head for the New Hebrides and New Caledonia in a few months. Roger Skolmen has returned to his Forestry studies at University of California.
Bob Houtz has a job with a manganese mining company in Fiji as geologist. Mr .and Mrs Frank Robinson came down from the States to join the yacht at Auckland. • HAPPY RETURNS, mentioned in July, is from present indications, endeavouring to clear Polynesia before next hurricane season The ketch-rigged converted Scilly Isles life-boat cleared Medeira for Las Palmas late July and was heading thence for Curacao under motor and sail. With Christchurch, NZ, fisherman owner Tom Acland is an Auckland marine engmeer Walter Kelsall; an ex-policeman, Ronald Coley; and John Powell of Wales Destination is Auckland.