News of Cruising Yachts

► ABACUS, 35 ft Lion class p, with Park Shorthose skipper and Jay Castille crewing, arrived ionolulu early in May some 29 ng days out of Pago Pago. Aba had earlier spent some time in oth sailors were enthusiastic about hospitality shown them by Mrs. llis Malley at Nabavatu, Fiji, re they rode out a hurricane, and Randy Payne and his staff at ning Island. bacus carried HM Royal mail n isolated Fanning to Honolulu. ark reported light headwinds n Suva to Pago followed by a \ hard thrash to windward with seas rougher as he approached yaii. arlier. Park’s wife Gloria had n to Honolulu from the South ific after being aboard the island er Aoniu at the wharf at Nuku a during a hurricane. i DWYN WEN, schooner, with Latham at the wheel, left Hono for Los Angeles recently. Dwyn

Wen was in French Polynesia last year. 9 GIT AN A, 34 ft yawl from Long Beach with Bill and Marcie Taylor and their three children, was due to leave Tahiti for Hawaii about May 7. Gitana recently spent several weeks at Tahaa, Bora Bora and Rai atea. • JOHN HANNA, 30 ft yacht, with K. Wing, of California, and J.

Counterman, of Michigan, which recently spent some time in Fiji, put into Aneityum, southern New Hebri des, in late April with a broken rudder and other damage. After repairs, she was due to go on to Vila. • MALABAR VIII, an Alden schooner, arrived in Honolulu on April 14 after a 20-day passage from San Diego, California.

Skipper-owner Dan, Burhans re ported two storms, some blown sails and deck gear lost. He planned to continue to Palmyra for oceano graphic work for Scripps Institute, then to Tahiti and Australia.

Navigator from Sanj Diego was Nick Mikami, who crewed on Phoenix on her round-the-world and bomb protest voyages. Crew mem bers were Pat Adams, Bill Gove, Eddie Bergh and Henry Wakefield.

Malabar VIII is a Bermuda Race winner. • OPPORTUNITY , 34 ft. 9 in.

American yawl, with James Watson and Charles McCudden, of Seattle, was in Rarotonga in April, having arrived from Papeete on March 29.

Our last news of Opportunity was from Ua Pou, Marquesas, last July. • GOLDEN HIND, 36 ft. ketch, with Lyle and Norma Graham and their sons Michael, 19, and Lee, 14, left Rarotonga for Pago Pago on April 2. They had earlier spent six months in French Polynesia (PIM, May, page 103). • FORTUNE, American yacht with Dave and Nelly Goeffney, left Suva on April 11 for Noumea. The Goeffneys planned to visit Australia before returning to Hawaii. • BLUE PETER, Bill Phillips’ 40ton motor yacht was still in Suva in May following two misadventures last year {PIM, Jan., page 110).

GENEVE, Michel Mermod’s Ft. Marconi-rigged sloop, which ed in Suva from Nukualofa on :mber 12, was still in Suva in . Mermod began a round-the d voyage in Callao, Peru, last MONSOON, Herb Hope’s 47 ft Diego-registered yacht, which led Sydney on March 21 after ng Tahiti and New Zealand, iwly escaped being dashed on ocks at Point Danger, near the ;nsland-New South Wales border r in May on a voyage from i, northern NSW, to Brisbane, 'een Iluka and Brisbane, a dis ; of 113 miles. Monsoon battled ns for three days and three ts. mile and a half off Point Dan -50 mph winds drove the yacht rds the rocks, but the crew aged to steer clear with only sail up when the wind changed he last moment, image in the storm included a ihed mizzen mast and shredded r. Hope, 31, an electronics en *r, of Los Angeles, said in Bris on May 9 that the damage Id take two weeks to repair. He n a world cruise, which will idq stops in New Guinea and In :sia. onsoon’s crew is Garry Tremain, a commercial artist, of Welling- NZ, Owen Jones. 39, an elec m, of the Isle of Wight, England,

and Ron Cameron, 27, a schoolteacher, of Palmerston, NZ. • MYONIE, 36 ft cruiser with Captain A 1 and wife “Mike” Gehrman, was “somewhere in the Malacca Straits” early in April, one week out of Singapore and bound for Aden.

The Gehrmans, who left their home port of Miami in November, 1961, on a world tour visited Tahiti Fiji, the Solomons, the Carolines (Truk, . an d Peleliu) and the southern Philippmes (Zamboanga) before calling at Singapore in March.

In Zamboanga, harbour pirates looted the Myonie of radios, cameras, navigation equipment and all the

Gehrman’s clothes; and in Singapore the cruiser’s dinghy was smashed by an incoming tide while Myonie was tied up at the Yacht Club. How ever, the Gehrmans are pressing on regardless, and after Aden, they plan to go through the Red Sea and Suez Canal to the Mediterranean. j n a note to from “somewhere j n the Malacca Straits” written on April 3j the Gehrmans said they had met t h e American schooner Fairweather in Singapore. Fair weather called at the Marquesas, Fiji, New Zealand, New Hebrides and Port Moresby in 1961-62. She was scheduled to leave Singapore for Madagascar early in May.

Blue Peter

• MARCO POLO, a 35 ft 6 in auxiliary-powered racing yacht, ar rived in Rabaui from Hong Kong in April aboard the MV Chungking for Mr. Kenneth Syme, a Melbourne shipping company director.

Mr. Syme, who took delivery of the vessel after arriving in Rabaui in the Aros, had the yacht built in Hong Kong for £5,500.

After stepping the mast, he planned to sail the yacht to Melbourne via Buka, Samarai, Cairns and the Bar rier Reef. Two crew members, Jeff Garland and Peter Colclough, both of Melbourne, flew to Rabaui to join Mr. Syme.

Mr. Syme will probably enter Marco Polo in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race in December. • MARINERO, 38 ft. San Diego ketch, which has been cruising the South Pacific for three years, was due to leave Tahiti for Hilo, Hawaii, about May 15. Owner Floyd Chris tenson, his wife Doris, and two chil dren Keith and Karen plan to stay in Hawaii for at least two years.

Mr. Christenson, who sent us this information from Tahiti, also gave us the news of the yachts Ghana and Yasme 111 in these columns. • SEA WIND, 38 ft ketch with Malcolm and Muff Graham, left Suva on May 4 for Vila, Port Mores by, Bali and Singapore after five months in Fiji waiting out the hurri cane season.

Mrs. Graham said in a note to PIM from Suva that she and her husband’s stay in Fiji had been made enjoyable “largely due to the courtesy of the Royal Suva Yacht Club, which extended its privileges to us.”

She added: “As we continue tra velling around the world, there will always be a warm place in our hearts for the kind and courteous people we met in Fiji.” • TIARE, Eugene Overton’s 83 ft auxiliary schooner, was due to leave Los Angeles on May 1 for the Marquesas, Tuamotus and Ta hiti. The schooner will carry a crew of five, including skipper Over ton, and four guests—Dr. Ben L.

Bryant, Mrs. Leah Z. Wilson, and Messrs. Alan Nicholson and Lyle McNeile, all of Los Angeles. • TRINUI, Alex Grimes’ 30 ft trimaran, which left Fowey, Corn wall, late last year for Auckland and Pacific ports via Panama, reached Rarotonga from Tahiti early in May.

A young Englishman, Mr. R. Gar side, is accompanying Mr. Grimes on his trip. • VALKYRIE, 32 ft ketch of Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, ar rived in Hawaii on April 7, with owner John Goetzche and Rolf No wak, who plan a circumnavigation.

Valkyrie sailed on April 18 for Samoa and Fiji. • OMICRON, 20 ft. yacht, lone handed by David Field, a Canadian, arrived in Vila in April, after a 17day passage from Fiji.

Mr. Field has been travelling in the Pacific in various small ships, with and without crew, since he left Vancouver in 1956. He has worked in New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea and Rotuma at various jobs to raise capital to continue his sail ing.

His present voyage began in New Zealand a year ago. He bought Omicron in Auckland and sailed her to Fiji with one crew member, be fore coming to the New Hebrides on his own.

• YASME 111, Danny Weil’ ft yacht, was due to leave 1 for Panama about May 5. Di who had been making his thin tempt to sail round the world east to west, gave up on reac Suva in February after a serie accidents and misfortunes. i repairs in Suva, he headed bac the Eastern Pacific. His ulti destination is Texas, where he rejoin his wife (who accompz him on the earlier part of his and sell his yacht.

Danny intended to single-hanc yacht from Tahiti to Panama, i his Gardner diesel engine.

• New Zealand-New C/

Donia Yacht Race : Twenty

yachts are reported to have ent in the ocean race from Whang New Zealand, to Noumea sel start on April 18 next year.

The race is being held by Onerahi Yacht Club, of New land, in conjunction with the C< Nautique Caledonien.

According to the Auckland i the Cercle Nautique Caledonien offered £2OO as first prize on 1 dicap, £lOO second on handicap £5O third on handicap, plus £5O line honours and souvenirs or pla< to all crew members of these bo< The Onerahi club will give trophy as a minor prize and present engraved silver plaques all entrants.

Mother ships for the fleet be the Hamutana, a 70 ft laui and the Lady Stirling, a 48 ft ke which will maintain radio con with the shore and each boat.

The Cercle Nautique Caledoi will arrange for a French war; to patrol the finishing area and k radio contact with the mother si during the latter part of the race Yachts entering the race n have a designed waterline length not less than 22 ft. The minim crew number is four.

IN RABAUL: "Marco Polo", Mr. Kenneth Syme's new racing yacht, went on the slips in Rabaul soon after her delivery from Hong Kong in April.