Cruising Yachts

• Aegaean, Mr. C. D. Nord

lund’s 38 ft ketch, left Suva in the last week of July to continue her cruise to New Caledonia and Aus tralia. Mr. Nordlund, of Vancouver, is sailing with his wife and two young daughters. (PIM, Aug. p. 103). • AWAHNEE, 52 ft American cutter, which spent many months in the South Pacific in 1961, completed a trip round the world in July when she took part in the trans-Pacific yacht race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, finishing sixth in Class “B”. On board were owner-skipper Bob Griffith, his navigator-wife Nancy, his son Reid Higgins, and five crew members, Bob Green, Sparky Putzker, Bill Smith, Jim Shearston and Mike Johnson.

Awahnee left Honolulu on her round-the-world cruise in October, 1961. Her first stop was Tahiti. Dur ing the cruise, she sailed 30,000 miles, had 156 different anchorages and spent 273 days at sea. • CYTHERA, Peter Fenton’s much-publicised Sydney yacht that was stolen from Lord Howe Island last April, was in the news again recently when a Supreme Court writ was issued against her in Sydney claiming £lO,OOO for salvage.

The writ was issued on behalf of the owners of the MV Colorado del Mar. It claimed that on April 17 at Norfolk Island, the Colorado del Mar had discontinued unloading opera tions and had put to sea to recover Cythera from people who had unlaw fully removed her from the owner’s control. The writ also claimed that the Colorado del Mar was damaged by impact with the Cythera during salvage operations, and loss of time and expense were incurred by the owners. • HUNAKAI, 36 ft Block Island ketch, was due to leave Suva about mid-August for the New Hebrides, BSIP and New Guinea with Mr. H.

M. Christopher and family, who be gan a voyage round the world from San Pedro, California, in July, 1962.

O IPARA, a 16-ton ketch, sailed from Poole Harbour, Dorset, Eng land, on August 4 on a round-the world voyage via the West Indies,

Panama and the South Pacific. Owner and skipper of the ketch is Mr.

Donald Dalby, 49, a retired Nigerian Government officer. The crew com prises four young bachelors and Mr.

Dalby’s daughter Paula, a 17-year-old pop singer. Ipara will visit out-of-the way places to record folk songs. • KOAE, Mr. C. B. Taylor’s 30 ft ketch from Seattle, was still in Suva in early August with no imme diate plans to move on. Also in Suva at the same time, similarly marking time, were Terry Dalton’s 30 ft Lobo del Mar and John Goetzche’s 32 ft ketch Valkyrie.

"Valkyrie", photographed in Suva by Stan Whippy.

• NORDLYS, 71 ft American schooner, which is well known in the South Pacific, will be seen below the Equator again soon. Nordlys is now owned by Lt.-Col. Harold Palmer who brought her from Astoria, Ore gon, in June in just under 14 days under cruising rig. Palmer is planning to cruise and race her in Hawaii and also to make a South Seas cruise in the near future.

Nordlys was once owned by Omer Darr and Robert F. Johnson, but she was seen in the South Seas early last year under the ownership of E. W. de Koning. She was put up for sale in September last year after returning to Honolulu from Auckland. • TE VEGA, the big schooner that Omer Darr made a familiar sight during her short-lived Hawaii-Tahiti passenger trade, has been bought by Stanford University and is being used as floating headquarters for scientists making an oceanographic study in the South Pacific and Micro psia. She left Honolulu on August 3 for the South Pacific, and reached Suva towards the end of the month.

She sailed for Rabaul on the 27th.

Her eventual destination is Singapore. • TIGONDEROGA, first to finish n the 1963 trans-Pacific yacht race [Los Angeles to Honolulu), has been nought by Robert F. Johnson, former 3wner of Nordlys.

’ he a ll J ft , . Australian P^° n w owned a ” d skippered by Wh w^i rner n Cammeray, New South Wales, finished fourth m Class “ A ” of f the race - Thirty-two yachts look part. . a i j „ . , • TRINUI, Alexander Grimes’ 30 ft trimaran, which left Rarotonga for Auckland on May 28, was forced to backtrack to Nukualofa on June 22 after reaching a point less than 200 miles from New Zealand. Trinui was forced back by heavy westerly gales and a shortage of food. She was expected to resume her voyage about July 20 and to reach Auckland early m August Trmm left Southampton on Novlast y ear with 21-year-old Alex Grimes, a former chief officer

with the Northern Steam Ship Com pany, and Roy Garside as crew. Stops were made at Panama, Tahiti and Rarotonga.

Trinui is made of 5/16th marine piy Her port float was damaged in a storm before she reached Rarotonga, but was repaired there. According to the Cook Islands News, Grimes and Garside noticed a considerable drift off course on the whole voyage from England, • SARI MARAIS, 45 ft yacht left Suva on August 3 for Beqa Island, with skipper Royce Hubert, of Portland, Oregon, who is on a round-the-world cruise. From Beqa Mr. Hubert was planning to go on to the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Australia {RIM, Aug p 107)

"Trinui", a 30 ft. trimaran, tied up in Nukualofa in July after heavy weather had forced her back on a cruise to New Zealand. —Photo: I. T. Simmons.

• SEAWYF, 16-ton Canadian yacht skippered by Mr. W. Rudolph, of Vancouver, was due to leave Suva about mid-August after a six-week stay. Her last reported plans on leav ing Fiji were to visit New Caledonia and Brisbane, and to return to Cana da after about four months in Aus tralia. {PIM, Aug. p, 108). • SIESTA, 35 ft cutter, reached Lord Howe Island from Brisbane on July 10 en route to New Zealand.

She was anchored in the lagoon for nearly a week before moving on.

Last October, Siesta made a hazardous voyage from Noumea to Brisbane with a crew of six New Zealanders. {PIM, Nov. p. 119.) Her owner-skipper is Colin Piesse. • SOLO, 57 ft Sydney yawl, was due to leave Papeete for Pago Pago and Apia on July 23 after spending several weeks in Tahiti for the Bas tille Day festivities. Our last report of Solo was from Rarotonga where she arrived en route from Sydney via Nukualofa on June 26.

Solo is owned and skippered by Vic Meyer, who said in a note to PIM from Papeete that he had taken on an all-girl crew for his trip to the Samoas. The girls are Helen Waters and Sue Devenish-Meares, both of Sydney. Helen Waters was previously a crew member of Kalona which reached Hawaii on June 22. • STAGHOUND, Paul Hurst’s 40 ft. ketch, last reported in the Tro briands, reached Den Pasar, Bali, in July. In a note to PIM from Bali, Paul said: “After the Trobriands, we spent a while at Samara! and Sariba Islands visiting the Staffords (of the yacht Meridian ) whose whereabouts we learned through PIM. Then we poked along regions of Papua, where we were the first yacht, to Port Moresby. En route here we had a couple of weeks in the Torres Straits and at Thursday Island, and a week at Dili in Portuguese Timor. Harry Fink, who owns the Kylie, of Sydney, signed on at Port Moresby and will continue for a few more months.” • STA-RETA, 40 ft twin screw motor sailer, arrived at Suva on July 13 from Auckland after an eight-day journey. Owner Richard King, a member of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and of the Royal Akarana Yacht Squadron, described the journey as “not very pleasant’.

Apparently the weather was not all he hoped for.

Sta-Reta is a luxury yacht, built in 1951 to the design of Wellington naval architect, Athol Burns.

She is ketch-rigged and equipped with an electric winch, a Bendix auto matic pilot, depth recorder, radio telephone, rock gas (instead of primus stove), and a refrigerator which is worked from one of the two 16 hp Liston engines. The engines, in cidentally, can push the Sta-Reta along at 8 knots flat out.

Mr. King had on board Tom Buc hanan as navigator, and C. Noonan, a Culverden (NZ South Island far mer) and P. Gardiner, of the RNZAF (Wigram), as crew.

Buchanan won the Auckland-Suva yacht race in 1956 in the Wanderer.

These men later returned to New Zealand.

After a cruise through the Fiji Group with well-known Fiji yachts men Don Lane and Alf Lee, Mr King planned to return to Suva foi the South Pacific Games. • TAHITI, 30 ft ketch with skip per Lorin Smith and Leo Wayshner arrived in Rarotonga from Honolulu via Papeete at the end of June. The ketch left Honolulu early in March.