[?]s of Cruising Yachts

BEN GUNN, 41ft. ketch, with ■lorn family—Henry (Hank), lie (Niki), and young Carlile ie), at present in Whangarei, 'here Hank has a teaching job, ding north again in May. This t’s finish. Ben Gunn has been Pacific since 1960, after leav fystic, Connecticut, in May, Ben Gunn crossed from Gala to the Marquesas in 36 days rious passage, they remember, e helm was tended only 72 and spent three months in iciety Islands before going on •otonga, Tonga and Suva, ar in Auckland in October, 1960. as given a major overhaul at Bay, including installation of two-cylinder Fetter diesel, ■e was discovered the mean : Kiwi hospitality,” reported recently. “It is hoped that lay some member of the Royal la Yacht Club may visit the Island Yacht Club in Mystic, and perhaps then the grati fy the Ben Gunn crew can be ” In April last year Ben Gunn another trip, to Tahiti, Raro- Niue, and Fiji. But May ark the beginning of the last r the Horn family. Reported “Money and time are running d after a short visit to the ;s, Tuamotus and the Mar our fine little yacht will be for sale in Honolulu. The to reality of the white col e and shoes, dresses and >x schools—and worst of all, nd ice—will constitute a diffi ;adjustment. But all good must come to an end.” Ben was built in 1931 and is 1 with white cedar below the long leaf yellow pine topside ak frames. Bulwarks and ire of teak. [OAIA, a block island ketch, iz and Ray Overton, arrived Marquesas on March 18 after ly crossing from Manzanillo, BACUS, yacht, with Park and Shorthose, is expected to leave lu for Papeete about May 1. )HN HANNA, ketch, with J. man and C. K. Wing, are leave San Pedro, California, Dut May 1 for the Marquesas.

LYING CLOUD, 65ft. stay looner, was in Auckland in With owner C. J. Daniels :rew of five, Flying Cloud is e-year round-the-world cruise.

Mr. Daniels hopes to spend a year in New Zealand. Flying Cloud left Los Angeles last November and called at the Marquesas and Tahiti. • DIANA, 43ft, yawl, owned by 70-year-old Englishman Norman Young, reached Sydney in early April from NZ. The yawl’s crew of four joined in NZ—all are single migrants from Britain who found it hard to settle down. But they plan to re turn to the Pacific at the end of four years, during which Diana will sail to Britain via Durban and then head back via the Panama Canal.

It is the second circumnavigation in Diana for Mr. Young and he says he hopes to continue cruising “for the next 20 years”. Mr. Young

retired in 1954 as Comptroller- General of Britain’s National Debt Office. From Sydney Diana will head for the Great Barrier Reef. • TAURANGI, 42ft, double ender yetch, should be in Sydney ex-Auckland by the time this is in print. She was built by owners Jack Crooks, Peter Baxter and Jack Har greaves, all of Invercargill. They did the job in their spare time. In Sydney the owners expect to seek jobs before sailing on for new hori zons. • RAKINO, 28ft. ketch, left Auckland in early April for Sydney on the first leg of a round-the-world cruise. Aboard were Bill Mitchin

son, David Scott and Micky Dagg.

Dagg plans to go only as far as Sydney. Owner-builder is Mitchin son, 28, who had the Rakino de signed on the lines of the Marco Polo. Scott is aged 21. Both have had plenty of yachting experience. • OMIERON, 20ft. yacht (also reported as being spelled Omicron) also headed out of Auckland in April for Suva and thence New Guinea via ports of call. Owners David Field, a Vancouver electrician, and his friend Joseph Saunders, a car penter, of Auckland, are in no hurry.

They say a couple of years to New Guinea will do. The small yacht is Auckland built. • AOTEA, 32ft. yawl, owner built by T. Riley, aged 20, a Hawera boat-builder, will be lone-handed to Sydney from New Plymouth some time soon. Riley then expects to turn around and sail her back again.

The Tasman is certainly getting busy, • EUSKALDUNA, Hongkong built sloop, after braving her way through two typhoons, reached Ra baul in April on her way to Chile {PIM, April, p. 109). She afterwards left for Honiara, on the South Pacific crossing.

Owned and skippered by two Spanish-born Guatemalan bachelors, Manuel Carvajal and Alfredo Caza lis, Euskalduna had made a long and dramatic voyage from her starting point, Hongkong.

Leaving the colony in July, 1961, Euskalduna ran headlong into Typhoon Flossie, was battered and beaten before mountainous seas, lost her dinghy and eventually drifted for seven days before being towed into Taepei.

In almost as bad shape as their ship Carvajal and Cazalis spent several months in Taepei and Taiwan.

Euskalduna meanwhile went through

repairs and was almost seaworthy again when the second typhoon struck.

Of 500 small boats in Taiwan all received some damage—more than half were demolished. Euskalduna received another beating, being flung up on to the pier where she is shown in PlM’s picture with a des pondent Cazalis alongside.

Again there were more repairs and more stretching of the bank accounts before the sloop was ready to put to sea again.

After the typhoons came good sail ing all the way down to Manila, Hollandia, Madang and finally Ra baul—where Euskalduna went on the slips again to have her prop repaired.

Ten feet in beam with five foot draft, the 29-foot sloop looked like a harbour toy on the cradle—far too small for the long voyage ahead of her to Chile and Guatemala.

Without a dinghy, with a bilge-drain ing cockpit (but no bilge pump!) and only a two-cylinder engine for emer gencies, only expert seamanship— and probably some luck —will get her through.

Admitting to only a rudimentary knowledge of celestial navigation Carvajal and Cazalis have had phenomenal luck so far. Neither can read a sextant but they are still making the desired landfalls. When they sailed bravely out of Rabaul their plans were BSIP, Samoa, Fiji, the Marquesas, Chile and finally home to Guatemala.

• SOLO, 57-ft steel yawl known on the Tasman, left S on April 13 with owner Vic ! on a 12,000-mile round-Au trip. Solo cruised from Sydt Tahiti last year. • KEHUA, 30 ft ketch whii been frequently mentioned i last three years, has been s< Auckland, new owners unknow consequently future cruising pla known. She had 17,000 miles c water cruising in her log. Co-c were Selwyn Matheson and Ashcroft. • Nukualofa’s “Yellow Pier” to have taken on the role of basin now that the main s along the waterfront has beet pleted, says PlM’s Nukualofa pondent. He adds there ha; an enthusiastic increase in yi locally, with several small yachts on the scene and more built from kit sets. Other era! appeared with new coats of pai more are being overhauled.

9 Te Rapunga, 32Ft.

known in the South Seas, si St. Marys Bay, Auckland, in after completing its first voyagi being refitted. The ketch ar owner, 73-year-old Captain < Dibbern, had sailed to Kaw farewell the American yacht Captain Dibbern was undetern the ketch was refloated and < for inspection.

Typhoon whirled down on Taiwan Harbour, hurling the "Euskalduna" on to the Even more unfortunate were the scores of sampans shown beached and broken on opposite shores. See story below.