Cruising Yachts

• LOBO DEL MAR, 30 ft Tahiti ketch of Newport Beach, California, with Terry Dalton and his wife, was wrecked on the north-east coast of Mare Island, in New Caledonia’s Loyalty Group, on the night of August 23, en route from Suva to Noumea. The ketch, which was on a leisurely cruise round the world, was a complete write-off.

The wreck occurred three days be fore the French High Commissioner in the Pacific, Mr. Marc Biros, ar rived at Mare in the naval vessel Capricieuse to make a five-day tour of the Loyalty Group.

As soon as he heard that a small vessel had been wrecked on the north east coast, Mr. Biros sent the Capri cieuse to the scene to render assis tance However, the Capricieuse was unable to approach the wreck because of heavy seas, and no one could be seen on the beach.

When the Capricieuse reported this, a party of gendarmes trekked across country over difficult terrain to search for the vessel’s crew—and Mr. and Mrs. Dalton were eventually brought into the settlement of Tardine. They were unable to bring many of their possessions from the wreck because of its inaccessibility.

From Tardine, Mr. and Mrs.

Dalton were flown to Noumea in a plane of the local air service, Trans pac.

Mr, Dalton said in Noumea that the wreck had occurred as a result of his and his wife’s fatigue. After leav ing Suva, Lobo del Mar had run into three gales which had exhausted them.

Mr. Dalton said they had sighted Mare on August 23, and late that evening had decided to enter Poane Bay to rest. Although the depth of the water in the bay prevented them from anchoring, both went to sleep as the drift seemed negligible.

During the night, an unsuspected current carried the ketch on to Ukerie Reef (which is connected with the shore), and from there they were able to escape with a few personal effects.

Mr. Dalton said he and his wife would stay in New Caledonia about a month, and would resume their voyage round the world as soon as they could procure another yacht.

He added that he was most appre ciative of Mr. Biros’ courtesy in in-

terrupting his schedule to try to assist him, and that the help given by the gendarmes at Mare was above praise. • DWYN WEN, 106 ft American schooner, with a crew of nine and four scientists from the University of California, arrived in Nukualofa on August 21.

• Extended Adolescence,

32 ft ketch-rigged trimaran from the board of Arthur Piver of California, will leave Hawaii in September for Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia.

The trimaran arrived in Honolulu re cently after an uneventful 18-day pas sage from San Francisco. The best day’s run was 180 miles.

The vessel is skippered by Jim Thompson, a physicist, formerly with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. • FJORD 111, a 49 ft cutter, was scheduled to leave Hilo, Hawaii, in early September on her first South Pacific cruise. Built in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1949, she is owned and skippered by Dr. George Lapin, a temporarily “retired” dentist from Long Beach, California.

Aboard with Dr. Lapin are Peter Dohm, formerly aboard Marinero as cook; Bob Buell, Misty Cumberlege, Peter Brinkman and Jack Clifton, all residents of California.

Lapin plans to call at Nukahiva, Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia and then go on around the world. • TE VEGA, 135 ft, two-masted schooner, which is making an oceano graphic research cruise in the Paci fic, reached Honiara, BSIP, on Sep tember 6 from Vanikoro, and sailed that evening for Bougainville and Rabaul.

Te Vega’s master is Captain E. B.

Olsen. A class of US graduate scien tists on board is receiving post graduate training from Dr. R. L.

Bolin, Professor of Marine Biology and Acting Director of Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University: Miss Isobel Bennett, of the Depart ment of Zoology, University of Syd ney; and Dr. Warren Thompson, of the United States Navy Postgraduate School.

Members of the expedition are test ing the temperature and salt content of the ocean at various depths and collecting samples of plankton and small fish.

The cruise is sponsored by the United States National Science Foun dation, and has included visits to Hawaii, Samoa and Fiji.

Te Vega is now owned by Stanford University. She is no longer the sleek vessel that used to take tourists be tween Honolulu and Tahiti, under Omer Darr, and which made a name for herself as the main prop in “Cinerama South Seas Adventure”.

Two additional deckhouses—to give her students space for equipment and for working—spoil her lines.

Below is a classroom complete with blackboard and maps.

Two of the crew, Captain Olsen and Bill McFadden, knew the schooner in her sleek, earlier days.

Bill McFadden was with her on her Hawaii-Tahiti trips under Captain Darr.

He took a PIM staff man over the schooner when Te Vega called briefly at Suva at the end of August. He pointed out that Te Vega was now

The "Lobo Del Mar", which was wrecked in the Loyalties in August, photographed in Suva by Stan Whippy just before her ill-fated voyage.

Bill McFadden, of "Te Vega".

i staysail where once she was gaff igged.

“And she’s still a happy ship,” he aid, Te Vega was built in 1931 in Ger nany and was originally named Etak, >ut only for a short time. She was hen named Vega before finally being ailed Te Vega. • TANGANUI, 32 ft Wollacott loop, skippered by Nigel Watson, vith Tom Newland as crew, was due 0 leave Nukualofa about the end of leptember for her home port of Auckland following a voyage to "ahiti.

Tanganui left Kawau, NZ, for Tahiti, on May 18. On the way over, he called at Rarotonga; and she ouched there again on the way back.

The trip from Rarotonga to Nukua ofa took only six days. On one of hese days Tanganui covered 180 rules. • HEATHER, 28 ft cutter, single landed by Larry Nilsen, left Thurs lay Island for Koepang, Timor, early n September. Larry bought the cutter n Auckland.

In a note to PIM from Thursday sland “to let old friends know of my saving the Pacific”, Larry said that le had entered the Pacific via anama three years ago in the 36 ft utter Phoebe with the late Com nander Watkins. He later crewed iboard the 71 ft schooner Nordlys fom Oregon to NZ. • JOHN HANNA, 30 ft ketch rom San Pedro, California, reached ioniara, BSIP, on August 18 with a :rew of three. Our last report of this :etch was from Nguna Island, New Hebrides, on June 9.

John Hanna left San Pedro in May, [962, with Klee Wing, of California, md J. Counterman, of Michigan, on 1 world cruise. She has visited the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society and lslands, American Samoa, Fiji

and the New Hebrides. Isiah Koro imeca, a Fijian, joined the ketch in Suva. • KILKI, 27 ft Philip Rhodes designed cutter from Sandringham Yacht Club, Melbourne, was due to leave Whangarei, New Zealand, about August 27 for Nukualofa. On board are owner-skipper Stan Field and Clive Gartner, both of Melbourne.

Kilki made an 18-day windward pas sage across the Tasman, with only three days with wind abaft the beam. • LADY PAT, a 33 ft yawl, will make her first appearance in the South Pacific soon with owner-skipper Bill Sparks, of Honolulu, at the helm.

Crew members will be Suzy Bird, of Oakland, California, who made her first trans-Pacific crossing as one of the Neophyte’s all-girl crew, and Bob Agee, of San Diego, California, a commercial diver.

Lady Pat was to leave Kona, Hawaii, in the first week of Septem ber, She will visit the Marquesas, Tuamotus and Tahiti and then return to Hawaii. • NEOPHYTE, 45-ft ketch, that aroused the curiosity of the Honolulu Press more than local yachtsmen when she made the crossing from San Fran cisco to Hawaii in January with an all-girl crew, left Honolulu for the South Pacific on August 20—with an other all-girl crew. Neophyte is skippered by steeplejack Lee Quinn, who plans to sail round the world, replacing any of his girls who leave along the way with other girls. First stop will be at Nukuhiva in the Mar quesas Group.

Quinn and his crew are pictured on p. 112. • MALABAR VIII, 55 ft Ameri can schooner, arrived in Tahiti on August 24 after having been reported missing the day before. The schooner left Fanning Island on July 25 and expected to reach Tahiti no later than

August 15, but apparently ran into trouble on the way.

Our last report of Malabar VIII was from Honolulu on June 16 when she left there for Palmyra with owners Dan Burhans and Jerry Hyatt, three University of California oceano graphers and a crew of three. Her plan then was to spend three days at Palmyra and then head for Tahiti, the Tuamotus, Samoa and Fiji. • MARIS, 36 ft yawl, with Jack Earl (skipper), his son Mick and Bart Cox, of New Zealand, arrived in Honolulu on August 18 after a 17i day voyage from Tahiti.

Earl, a well-known Sydney marine artist, took the Kathleen around the world in 1947-58.

He plans to stay in Hawaii for six months. His wife will join him for a cruise of the Hawaiian Islands.

Later plans are to cross to San Fran cisco, and to go on to the east coast of the United States. • MONSOON, a 45 ft schooner out of Newport, California, arrived in Honolulu recently after a 20-day trip from Bora Bora with the Keith B. Collins family aboard. Collins re ported an uneventful trip with strong favourable winds.

Monsoon left California in Feb ruary; cruised to Mexico; and then to the Marquesas in 25 days, Tahiti came next, followed by an extensive cruise in the Society islands.

The Collins family includes wife Connie, son Larry, 17, and two

The classroom for oceanographers aboard "Te Vega",

daughters, Linda, 13, and Lucynda, 8. They will remain in Hawaii until June. 1964, and will then sail to California.

The Collins family’s Monsoon should not be confused with Herb Hope’s 47 ft San Diego-registered yacht, which reached Brisbane in May after a cruise in the South Pacific (PIM, June, p. 111).

• NEW WORLD, an H-28 ketch from Vancouver, was due to sail from Thursday Island on September 4 for Singapore via Timor. New World is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Bill Graeber, who have spent the past three years in the Pacific, Our last news of them was from Whangarei, NZ, in February, 1962, after their arrival there from Suva and Papeete. • SARABANDE, 36 ft ketch from New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, reached Lautoka, Fiji, on August 27 after a 14-day cruise. On board are Mr. and Mrs. J, Doel and their sons Henk, 10, and Bob, 6, who expect to spend six months cruising in Fiji waters. Mr. Doel built Sarabande himself between 1951 and 1961. • TIARE, 83-year-old Eugene Overton’s 83 ft schooner, left Hono lulu at the end of August for San Pedro on the last leg of another South Pacific cruise by her veteran owner-skipper.

Tiare began her latest cruise at San Pedro on May 1 with a crew of four and four guests. She called at the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Tahiti, and other Society Islands and left Bora Bora for Honolulu on August 2, arriving there 16 days later.

This was Mr. Overton’s fourth cruise to Tahiti —the previous ones being made in 1927, 1939 and 1949.

He is reported to be the last survivor of the first trans-Pacific yacht race.

• SARI MARAIS, Royce Hubert’s 45 ft yacht, arrived at Vila from Santo on September 6. Mr. Hubert was previously in Fiji. He hopes to find charter work in the New Heb rides before continuing a round-the world voyage. • TRINUI, 30 ft trimaran with Alex Grimes, skipper, and Roy Gar side, has returned to Nukualofa after failing for the second time to reach New Zealand.

Trinui, which left Southampton for Auckland in November last year, sailed from Rarotonga on the last lap of her voyage on May 28, but was forced to backtrack to Nukualofa on June 22 after running into heavy wes terly gales. She was then less than 200 miles from New Zealand.

The trimaran reached Nukualofa on July 5, and stayed there until the 25th before making her second at tempt to reach her destination. How ever, bad weather again proved too much—this time when the vessel was within 25 miles of New Zealand’s North Cape—and she returned to Nukualofa on August 31.

Here is the story of Trinui’s second attempt to reach NZ, in the words of Skipper Grimes: “On leaving Tongan waters, we were close hauled all the way, but made fair time. On August 9, we sighted North Cape, New Zealand, when about 25 miles away.

“Then a howling southerly struck from nowhere, and drove us back. It swung to SSW and steadied for four or five days, and we were close hauled trying to get to the west to swing in and try again.

“We found this difficult as we were being pushed to the north all the time. This, coupled with the biting cold, driving rain which soaked every thing continually, and the worry of shortage of food decided us to set course for Tonga.

“It was a hard, close-hauled slog all the way. We passed within seven miles of the now famous Minerva Reef, and managed to get back into Tonga against head winds.

“The craft behaved well and proved very seaworthy, causing us no concern even during the height of the gale.” .

Grimes expects to sail again tor New Zealand about the end of Octo ber. His vessel has done about 15,000 miles in the past year. • WALRUS, an Australian cutter, with Sydney yachtsman Ray Swift and his wife, arrived in Tahiti from Whangarei, NZ, in September.

ALL GIRL CREW: Lee Quinn's yacht "Neophyte", which left Honolulu for the South Pacific in August, has only girls as crew. Seen here with Quinn in Hono lulu, they are (from left) Kathy Eckman, Mary Ann Quinn (Quinn's wife), Ava Walker, Sheree Lawrence and Bernice Berkson. They are all Americans, Photo: Warren Roll