[?]s of Cruising Yachts

E RAPUNGA with George Dibbern ew was to get away from Auckland ;bruary for Brisbane. “Tell them,” eorge, “that I’m coming across to the booby prize as only entrant in rans-Tasman Race—which wasn’t through lack of entries”. TE fGA may make an Island cruise in all goes well. iIIMERE of Sete. France, sailing an 1 route, reached Tarawa from i via Canton Island and possibly way-ports on December 4. From she was to head for Japan via the ,11s —American Atomic Energy Com i permitting—and eventually con icr circumnavigation via Indonesian and the Red Sea. This yacht left July 2, 1957, and our first and last of her was from Balboa just a jo. Since then Jean Bluche and his uzanne and 12-year-old son Jean roken the journey for some months rich Polynesia. lINRISE ex-VIKING, lost in the gos in 1956, will be recalled—under »t name she sailed round the world hat popular Swedish couple Sten rita Holmdahl. As SUNRISE, Joe negg of Austria was in command, the wreck he was picked up by 4 and remained with that American until some months a,ro when ft her at Madang. There he job as skipper of the local 64-ton ALARK after qualifying for a local s ticket. Joe expects to be in late May to take delivery of a e launch on behalf of a New Guinea ser.

TOPIA, in which Fred J. Petersen trouble in Indonesian waters re has been sold at the port of , Malaya, though it is not yet clear r the purchaser is in the United or Malaya. Mr. Petersen flew home enang, later cabling the crew that isel was sold and that thev should r the voyage ended. UTOPIA is a y 18 ft. motor sailer and the voyage iced from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, y 1957.

EADWlLL—reported incorrectly in >er “PIM” as FLEETWELL—in id for some months past after ? from Sydney, may head for the this autumn. This 29-ft. clinker

built converted ships lifeboat is manned by A. Svedlund, of Finland, and A.

Taumees. of Estonia. • MAMARI, 28-ft. Auckland ketch with Messrs. J. Oliphant, G. Petersen and C.

Sherry aboard, arrived home February 10 at the end of a nine month’s cruise as far cast ils Tahiti and as far west as Sydney.

J he . 7if S^ nan CIOSSing on the home ru ™ oo u ays. • WANDERER, the 98-ft. schooner owned by actor Sterling Hayden, was the cause of some publicity in the US after sailing from ’Frisco for Papeete on January 16. He had his four children on board—evidently without consent of their mother. WANDERER was reported in the Marquesas in mid-February. Hayden plans to shoot some scenic movies there for a while, before continuing on.

• CRUSADER of Auckland, 47-ft. ketch purchased recently by Mr. W. Endean, will probably sail from there for the US via Is,and P ort s in May. With him will be Major w s - Moss (“HI Met by Moonlight”) and foUr others * SHEMARA with French actress Josette Day and her husband aboard is one on which we await details. This yacht reported missing on the Queensland coast during the mid-February hurricane, having sailed from Cairns shortly before the blow. As there were no further reports we assume that the y acht was located sheltering somewhere. Perhaps some Queensland reader can supply details of where this > acht had come from or whether it was a l° ca l hired craft.

LATER: Report received from our Noumea correspondent, this 800 ton yacht

[?]Polo", which was being repaired in [?] in February after running aground on Arutua reef. See page 115.

I that New Caledonian port in late ry. The yacht is owned by Sir i and Lady Docker, and is under to Monsieur Salvay, millionaire r husband of Josette Day. The left Noumea, February 25 for Isle es, then Suva and Tahiti. Crew s 33 including the master and a NTA MARIA, in which Danish re aster Mariner Asker Kure was sup -0 die—according to the newspapers II said to be very much under the of Captain Kure, somewhere in the ranean. Having sailed from 1 in July, 1955, for the South Seas e wondering about the sequel and wer came from the Slocum Society.

MATANGI and the Fergusons are und French Polynesia according to received from Mrs. Ferguson at February, written in Tubua Bay, And they are still having ad leaving Papeete they sailed for then overnight to Fare, Huahine, they stayed several weeks just g about. In the New Year they down the channel which runs the )f Huahine, in company with Roy and his boys on the yacht SEA f, to the village on stilts called i goes on: “With the help of the /hief we found a perfect anchorage two boats put out bow and stern and tied together with spring Ye had no warning of the big nd rains coming until we noticed ; barometer failed to flutter back; It kept going down at an alarming r e still didn’t worry too much as lorage was practically land-locked, re reckoned without the winds. The f Haapu are the greatest! In the F winds screaming and roaring at s an hour they came out and is drive stakes into the coral and id secure the two yachts. Then i stood watch with us on deck igh the night until long after the be hurricane had passed overhead, d with six anchors and no damage h damage has been done to these ■the vanilla crop being especially t. However, the sun finally came waters receded and the people i laugh and sing. tayed another week and then spent jetting up our six anchors and ided for Uturoa on Raiatea. For we do not recommend it. The i excellent, wide and of cement, b good water available. But it’s cruising yachts; Too high. 51 sailed right under it and we b tying her off for the night.” ;rgusons plan to move on to Bora April; then Rarotonga and Tonga. tRANATHA (last mentioned In in December, when she was re in a Huahine reef) is now duly report the Fergusons. The winds pushed and dragged her hull out deep pass and only a piece of lains to indicate where she once >ONFLEET SOLD: The schooner Etch MOONFLEET which has been the Bay of Islands, Suva, for the ee years has been sold to a New doctor.

FLEET, formerly the KONA, of i registry was bought off an i syndicate by Alan Gray, a chief Rcer in the Fiji Royal Naval r Reserve, who was on secondment w Zealand at the time, nd his wife intended to sail the .EET back to the Dominion last when Alan’s term was up but icnts fell through and he went to

New Zealand leaving the ketch here in the hands of Petty Officer Bill Kite.

Bill said that Alan had tried to register the ketch under the name NORTHWIND but found that there were so many NORTHWINDS that he had to settle for something else —MOONFLEET.

Forty-one feet long, with a 13 feet beam and a draught of about seven feet the MOONFLEET is registered at Suva.

The Auckland doctor was expected to arrive at Suva in the TOFUA on February 24 to sail the MOONFLEET back to Auck land. • MARCO POLO was in Honolulu in February under repair after damage sus tained on the run from French Oceania when the 28 ft. ketch ran agroond on Arutua reef. The yacht arrived in Hono lulu on January 6. On board are Axel Petersen, owner-skipper, and Froment who joined him at Tahiti. Peter sen is returning to Denmark fromi NZ, ana Froment's destination is France men the vessel hit the reef, the two of them sail *“ a rubber dinghy by means of a sheet an island 12 miles away and enlisted the aid of the natives, who managed to g the ketch off and on her way. • WHITHER, out of Los Angeles,with Mr. and Mrs. G. R. Lopez and infant

daughter on board, was in Hawaii in January. Plans are unknown except that they will cruise in the Pacific for the next couple of years. • INTREPID and her skipper Allan Phifer are both held up in Honolulu.

Phifer was extensively burned when a can of alcohol with which he was filling a stove, exploded. He was taken to hospital while fellow yachtsmen undertook the job of cleaning up INTREPID for him. He bad been planning to leave for Tahiti in early February.

"Utopia”, here seen leaving Suva last year on her voyage north, has now been sold in Malaya. See page 113.