[?]s of Cruising Yachts

(islation to control the move s of cruising yachts came into in New Zealand on October 1. has not yet read the legisla in full, but it is assumed that lew regulations will apply to ig foreign yachts as well as NZ s. tie of the legislation will be table to most yachtsmen; some won’t; and some of it may be the cause of some bad feel j acceptable portion requires r acht intending to cruise more 50 miles off-shore to be sea y and equipped with certain mm safety equipment. Yacht are to be allowed to appoint ;tion committees to police this ement. But the law does not r to lay down the necessary Ications of such amateur in •rs, nor does it appear to y the exact meaning of the “seaworthy”. ly yacht club officials have o deep-water cruising experi whatever. There is also the ility that a yacht belonging club might be more leniently with than an outside yacht will be required to call upon ub for a safety clearance. For yhere there is no yacht club rered to carry out inspections le local harbour master per :his task, two-man inspection commit ill report to the Marine De mt on condition of hull, gear, machinery and “general suit ” of the yacht. A copy of this together with a statement yachtmaster giving intended ition. proposed route, names iboard, their nationalities and mes and addresses of next-of nust be furnished to the is Department before an is clearance will be granted, ng sailed, a yachtmaster may lange his route or destina cept through Act of God—and vill lie with the yachtmaster event of any incident. Any to comply with the law can a fine of up to £lOO 7), and the cost of any official can be recouped to the ex the full value of the yacht

a nd ali its stores, plus half the value of the possessions of those aboard While the well-found yacht will

probably present no difficulty in

obtaining an inspection clearance,

the requirement of stating route and destination prior to sailing will be

unpopular. A radio-equipped yachts

man might be able to clear himself

by notifying such intended changes,

but due to antenna difficulties the radK) range of a small yacht is often very restricted—even wh Q re a radio transmitter is carried.

Presumably so long as a yachts

man complies with the law his boat will not be subject to any charge should an official search be insti tuted. But there appears to be no

provision for a yachtsman to sign

away all rights to a search and thus free himself of the requirements of the law if he so wishes—which many believe should be a fundamental right so long as the lives of others on the high seas are not endangered

The absence of this latter provision

is, in the opinion of a good many

deep-water yachtsmen, the most

objectionable feature of the legis

lation. For those who expect assist

ance when they find themselves in

trouble, the legislation is fully

justified.

• OFIATU (OFAATU?), a home-built Auckland yacht, about to sail for Nuku alofa in August, was prevented from sail ing on two counts. The first was that the yacht was not well found and that the owner-master had no knowledge of celestial navigation, and the other was that the owner, Neil Donaldson, 39, was allegedly attempting to evade payment of main tenance of three children who had been removed from his control by the Child Welfare authorities. Donaldson was him self born in Tonga and he said in Court that he was going to Tonga to appeal to Queen Salote to intervene in having his children returned to him. • WILD GOOSE II of Seattle, Wash., which was leaking and sought assistance en route from Penrhyn to Honolulu in August-September, arrived safely at Keala kekua Bay, Hawaii, September 5. • WAIMIHI of Auckland, 34-ft. steel ketch manned by D. Price and A. J.

Brown, arrived back at her home port early September after a five months cruise to Australia and New Caledonia. • MARCO POLO, 28-ft. ketch which Aksel Pedersen of Denmark purchased in Auckland three years ago, and in which he left that port in July, 1958, arrived at Plymouth, England, on September 7. The yacht had earlier been sailed round the world by owner-builder Tony Armit, and companion Brian Loe. • MARLYN, the chartered New Zealand Fairmiie launch which cruised to Tonga and Fiji recently, had a “wonderful cruise” according to a Wellington newspaper re port. This news caused some surprise in the Islands where it was known that the situation aboard was at times a good deal less than happy, resulting in the curtailing of the cruise, which was originally in tended to include Samoa and Tahiti. • WANDERER 111 with Eric and Susan Hiscock of England, arrived at Suva from Vavau on September 4—next port Auck land, some time in October after a short rest in Fiji. Calls were made at Moorea, Rarotonga, and Nukualofa after leaving Papeete and before Vavau. (Over)

[?]nley (left) and owner Tom Buchanan of [?]ckland yacht "Wanderer" photographed Suva in September. See page 115.

WANDERER of Auckland arrived at on September 10 and planned to re about three weeks before heading .uckland. where the voyage began 2. With owner Tom Buchanan at was Pat Ganley. Mrs. Buchanan re -1 home by air from Papeete. Mr. nan draws the attention of yachts -0 the fact that a small yacht slip iow exists at Avatiu, Rarotonga, by the PWD.

STARDUST, converted Fairmile of r . appeared to be having some more ;ic problems, this time at Papeete, ce appeared in a Papeete newspaper ng all and sundry that the yacht accepted no responsibility for any which might be incurred by the %RLA MANUS, former New Guinea ry schooner, skippered by Bill 11, arrived in San Francisco ex lu on August 9. She is up for sale.

RTONA, 48-ft. Los Angeles yawl, wner-skipper Ernest Franken, wife, mghter and two crewmen, arrived lu mid-August and left again for ; mid-September.

IUTWARD BOUND.—Latest news ohn Caldwell and family was from les. They were headed then for and Gibraltar. From there they ; they might cross to the West They reported meeting the Irving is in Rhodes, Greece, with their ft. YANKEE—“aII push-buttons and They are doing a yearly tourist m the Mediterranean through the canals to Scandanavia and back, et in Rhodes were Sten and Brita hi who sailed around the world r VIKING some time back. They >w a VIKING 11, and they are in rist charter business in Greece.

Honolulu in September and due to to the South Pacific later were: 37 1 Francisco ketch BLUE STAR, kipper Ernest Wilson; STORM -42 ft. schooner from San Diego, kipper Willard Hungerford; FREE ', 34 ft. ketch of Newport, Cali which left for Tahiti on September ier-skipper is Ron Linderman. io in Honolulu in September, but for the US were REJOICE, of iarbara, WHITE SQUALL, 33 ft. f Auckland; TE MATAI. 73 ft. :-Tahiti. iJERA, 30 ft. Tahiti ketch arrived lulu from San Diego on September pper-owner Fredrickson plans on in Hawaii till next April before g to Papeete.

HITI left Rarotonga end of July arly a year there, sailing to Tahiti, bis stay in the Cooks owner Lorin tiade two trips to Suwarrow with leil, the so-called Hermit of w.

HUA, completely recovered from ive damage at Rarotonga, sailed taki in August, planning to head i Pago then westward.

NIS, with single - hander Anton reached Honiara in August en New Guinea.

ERDEEN ANZAC, up for sale in month, and given in “PIM” as ft. is, according to a Rarotonga ?5 ft. with a beam of 19 ft. and 9 ft. “PIM”s” figure, says a fa correspondent, caused some con hen ABERDEEN ANZAC anchored the pass at Avatiu Harbour, and for a while could decide who she

was. ANZAC left Southern England last November on what was to be a five months’ voyage, but there was a three months’ delay when she struck a gale in the Bay of Biscay. • MARGARET, 26-ft. Auckland cutter, reported overdue for a time in July while on passage from Auckland to Papeete, be came a total loss on Mitiaro (Southern Cooks) on September 20. Yachtsmen B. G.

White, R. Sutton, and T. Young got safely ashore. • TAHOE returned to Rarotonga early in September after a five weeks cruise to Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti. With owner Reg Blake and crew member Brian Crawford was another Australian. They planned to head westward to Australia in a couple of weeks. First port will probably

be Nukualofa, and thence to Suva. • BEN GUNN and SI YI PAMBILI (Let Us Go Forward) arrived Rarotonga within two days of each other in September. Both will probably go to NZ via Tonga and Fiji, but for BEN GUNN this depends to some extent whether owner Hank Horn gets his motor going. This gave up the ghost in Bora Bora and the lack of it caused Hank some anxious moments when his anchor dragged soon after arrival in Rarotonga and had BEN GUNN bumping on the coral with a fresh easterly breeze blowing. These two boats have been more or less keeping company since the West Indies and are contemplating a rendezvous in Durban, South Africa, with Hiscock, of WANDERER 111 in 18 months time. With owners Roger and Bill Baker on PAMBILI now is a Canadian, A 1 Schofield, en route to NZ.