New Adventure
pp. 49-50 · Read in the full issue
Skipper Quinn And His Girts In A New Adventure
Lee Quinn, 37-year-old skip
per of the 45 ft. ketch Neophyte, who was divorced in San Jose, California, in February, and who specialises in sailing the Pacific with all-girl crews, was married in Honolulu in March to one of his former crew members, Mrs.
Bernice Berkson.
LESS than 24 hours later, Quinn flew to Tahiti to prepare for a cruise to Australia in the Neophyte with an all-girl crew of four.
His wife, who divorced her former husband to marry him, was reported to be planning to join him in Aus tralia.
Quinn’s former wife Mary, 35, was granted a divorce on the ground of extreme mental cruelty. The Quinns had been married for 18 years.
Mrs. Quinn told Superior Court Judge M, G. del Multolo that Quinn told her to stay home while he and his girl crews sailed the seas. She added that Quinn had fallen in love with one of his crew members.
The judge gave her the couple’s house at Los Gatos, California, but awarded Quinn the Neophyte.
On land, Quinn runs a steeplejack business which ex-Mrs. Quinn says is “devoted to painting anything that no one else will”.
His cruising exploits with all-girl crews first aroused the curiosity of the Press in January last year after he completed a crossing in the Neophyte from San Francisco to Hawaii. Later in the year, Quinn and an all-girl crew sailed the Neophyte from Honolulu to Tahiti.
More Docile According to United Press Inter national, Quinn claims that women make better crew members than men as they are more docile, they want to please, they take orders, and do not cause trouble at sea like some men.
Quinn’s latest women crew mem bers are: • Barbara Sodt, 27, advertising copy writer for the Chicago Tribune. • Mrs. Virginia Frey, 35, a divorcee from St. Petersburg, Florida. • June von Donop, 42, from Seattle, an apartment owner who for the past three years has been an ac countant for a Honolulu firm. • Mrs. Mary Worden, 49. of Baltimore, Maryland, school teacher. (Over)
This photo of one of Lee Quinn's girl crews was taken by Warren Roll in Hono lulu last August. Seen with Quinn in the centre is his former wife Mary, who divorced him in Febraury. On the right is his second wife, formerly Mrs. Bernice Berkson.
Miss Sodt is making the voyage because she is “a romanticist” who wants to see places she has read about in adventure books.
Mrs. Frey is making the voyage “simply because of the love of travel, and time on my hands”.
Reports reaching PIM did not make it clear whether the Neophyte was already in Tahiti when Quinn flew there; but the reports say that Pago Pago will be a port of call en route to Sydney.