Cruising Yachts

• WIND WAGON, 50 ft ketch, arrived at Suva on May 12 from California, after “roaming the Pacific” since April, 1965. On board were part-owners, Peter Munch and Bob Connelly, Mrs. Connelly, Maureen Ryman and Neville Swan.

The two last-named joined Wind Wagon at Auckland.

Mrs. Connelly said at Suva that the party planned to visit the Astrolabe Lagoon, Kadavu, and then sail for Samoa.

For 10 years, till her present awners bought her, Wind Wagon svas used as a houseboat. She was built 26 years ago. • HINANO, 42 ft American :atamaran, owned and skippered by Fim Sulivan, sank in a violent storm ■ecently one day’s sailing from 3ahu, Hawaii. The catamaran left Fahiti for Hawaii during the Easter lolidays. Sulivan and his crew were Rescued by a passing freighter bound or San Francisco.

Sulivan had purchased Hinano in Newport, California, and sailed her lirectly to Tahiti before the ill-fated :ruise to Hawaii. • PIPE DREAM, 34 ft trimaran •wned by American missionary Alvar Volfsen, was up for sale in Vila, 4ew Hebrides, in May, for $A2,679. * ipe Dream has figured in PIM everal times in the last couple years, fter arriving in places far removed rom where her owner intended to :o. • RE HU MO AN A, 40 ft cata maran, owned and sailed by a New Zealander, Dr. David Lewis, is re uming her voyage round the world fter four months in New Zealand, he was due to leave Auckland in ite April to return to England.

Last year Dr. Lewis sailed across be Pacific to New Zealand, using nly the navigation methods of the

ncient Polynesians—studying the

:ars, wind and current directions and etching the habits of seabirds ( PIM eb. p. 112).

He was accompanied by his wife, aughters Vicky and Susan, and a 'Oman friend, Miss Priscilla Cairns, 'ho kept a check on the catamaran’s Durse using modern methods. They rrived in NZ on December 14.

On the return journey Dr. Lewis ill again be accompanied by his ife, daughters, and Miss Cairns.

They plan to sail via Tonga, Fiji, the Solomons, New Guinea, Darwin, Durban, the Congo and the Azores. • AVENTURE, 42 ft French ketch with Alain and Ann Herve, has been in French Polynesian waters recently. She arrived in Tahiti from Panama via the Galapagos and Marquesas in February. • MOORE A, 44 ft American yacht, sailed by Mr. H. Douglas Gamble (owner), his wife and a crew of two, arrived in Papeete on March 27, en route to New Zealand from the United States.

The Gambles planned to spend about two months in the waters around Tahiti before sailing for Samoa, Noumea and Auckland. • HI FI, 43 ft Australian yacht, arrived in Valparaiso, Chile, on April 23, after crossing the Pacific from Dunedin, New Zealand, in 45 days. On board were Stan Field, skipper, with Neil Cook and Peter Arglis as crewmen. • A RUNT A PRINCESS, 37 ft 6 in. yacht owned by Mr. A. Mark, of Hong Kong, was nearing the end of a delivery voyage from Hobart,

Tasmania, in mid-May, with a crew of four New Zealanders—F. T.

Cookson (skipper), F. Underwood, L, Boielle and P. Taylor.

Writing from Manila, Mr. Cookson said: “We left Hobart at the end of January and called at Sydney, Noumea, Honiara, Ponape and Guam (both of which I would re commend for hospitality to all cruising yachtsmen) and Manila.

The next stop is Hong Kong.” • TE MARINER, 34 ft yawl, was reported in May to have been bought by Noel Stroud, former skipper of the Chinese junk One Step, which caught fire and sank off Trial Bay, NSW, last December after a trip to the South Pacific {PIM, Jan., p. 111). Te Mariner was owned by John Dean, who slipped out of Noumea in March while a case was pending against him for illegally importing firearms into New Caledonia {PIM, April, p. 105). • DOVE, 24 ft sloop, sailed solo by American 17-year-old Lee Graham, left Pago Pago, American Samoa, on May 1, for Vavau, Tonga.

Graham hopes to become the young est sailor to sail single-handed around the world.

Graham reached Apia, Western Samoa, from Honolulu and San Pedro, California, last October {PIM.

Nov., p. 18).

Since January, he has been sitting out the South Pacific hurricane season in Pago Pago harbour. During his stay he was given cameras by a National Geographic Magazine photo grapher to record his voyage for the magazine.

After a month in Tonga, Graham, plans to head for Fiji.

• TAWARRI. 42 ft sloop, with owner and skipper Peter Mounsey and Norman Ferris, won Papua-New Guinea’s first ocean yacht race on April 7.

The race was held by the Papua Yacht Club over the 130 miles from Port Moresby to Kerema, in the Gulf of Papua.

The other entrants were: Cimba (schooner) entered by W. Holmes; Dactyl (Fiver trimaran) M. Wood; Morning Sun (ketch) D. Wilson; and Red Boomer (ketch) W. McNeil.

Morning Sun and Cimba came second and third respectively on cor rected times.

Tawarri, with Peter Mounsey, his wife Lesley, and Norman Ferris, left Sydney for a world cruise last October {PIM, Nov. 1965, p. 113).

Since then she has visited Noumea, the New Hebrides, including the Banks and Torres Groups, the Solomons, New Britain, Vitu Island and Madang. She also spent three months at Angoram on the Sepik River.

Early in May, the sloop was at Thursday Island en route to Darwin, Cocos Island and the Seychelles.

The Mounseys hope to be in the West Indies by Christmas. • ULULANI, 63 ft auxiliary ketch, with a crew of four Austra lians, arrived in Papeete from Fatuhiva, Marquesas Islands, in mid- April.

The ketch had earlier spent 113 rugged days in an abortive attempt to reach the Galapagos Islands from the Marquesas, and had returned to that group on April 1.

It was the second rough passage the ketch had had since she left Sydney last August for what was to have been a four-month cruise to

the Bahamas. On the first occasion, the ketch rode out eight gales in the Tasman between Sydney and Auck land {PIM, Oct., 1965, p. 111).

Writing to PIM from Papeete about the crew’s latest experiences, Robert Finlayson, the sailing master, said: “We set out from Nukahiva, in the Marquesas, on December 9, 1965, for the Galapagos, thence Panama and the Virgin Islands, with a crew of four—Jack Meiss, Robert Finlayson, lan Maddocks and Mike Knight. Our previous large crew of 10 had dwindled to this in Tahiti; we also lost our skipper, Ray Jones, who returned to Australia aboard Nam Sang.

“The trades made such havoc of our sails and rigging that we headed towards the lighter winds of the northern limit of the trades, intending to use the engine to stay in the wind.

However our engine failed, then our drive shaft, and for a month we just drifted helplessly in the doldrums.

Our radio, also, had failed.

“We finally fixed the engine to some extent, but could only do two knots at the most. During the whole of January we made only 150 miles’ progress. February was a little better but our food was running low and we were virtually on starvation rations.

“We got to within 800 miles of the Galapagos when a particularly fierce squall hit us one night, blowing out our last remaining headsail and the mizzen. We had only 25 days of food left and as we had gone back 120 miles in the last 12 days, the only sensible thing to do was to return to the Marquesas.

“We turned back on our 95th day at sea—March 14—and four days later saw a Japanese fishing boat, Kami Maru No. 3, which we hailed.

They gave us a great quantity of

''Tawarri"

The 69-year-old, 64 ft Swedish schooner "Wahlborg" arrived in Auckland from Rarotonga in April. (See next page).

food, but, our lack of sails forced us to continue back.

“We took 18 days to reach Fatuhiva—after being 113 days at se T- . , . rT , , . , F j n !f y r on a dded that Ululani headed for Tahi i soon afterwards, and would set out for the Galapagos again, this time via Pitcairn Island, after refitting and restocking in Papeete. • WAHLBORG, 64 ft Swedish schooner, arrived in Auckland on April 17 from Rarotonga, with skipper Bosse Bergh, 32, a crew of five, and four passengers.

Wahlborg, which was built 69

years ago, is on a voyage round the world. She left Sweden in August, 1964, and has visited Brixham, Lisbon, Las Palmas, Barbados, Trinidad, Caribbean ports, Panama, L as Perlas, the Galapagos, Marquesas, Tuamotus Tahiti Moorea, Raiatea, , „„ o ’ ’

Bora , Bora and Rarotonga, Skipper Bergh left the schooner for a trip to Hong Kong via Sydney early in May, but he expected to return to Auckland, about September to continue his cruise—to New Caledonia, Australia and New Guinea —with a new crew. He left Wahlborg in the care of his chief mate, Tom Clark.

• A RITA, 48 ft ketch, built and sailed by Mr. A. R. Mcllvride, of Paihia, New Zealand, was scheduled to sail for the Kermadec Islands in late April, from Whangarei, NZ.

Mr. Mcllvride was to be ac companied by his wife, and four crew, G. Dixon, D. Field, L.

Clements and H. Hooker. ® WHITE WINGS, 14-ton yacht from Honolulu, arrived in Papeete in late April with Mr. E. C. Lenkeet and his wife Margaret. • SCHEDAR, 26 ft sloop, sailed single-handed by Frank Capers, a former United States Air Force navigator, arrived in Rabaul from Yokohama early in May.

The sloop was to call at Port Moresby and Queensland ports before going to Sydney. • DANTE DEO, 87 ft schooner, registered in Milwaukee, USA, ar rived in Fiji on May 9 from Nukua lofa, Tonga. She had previously visited Rarotonga and Niue.

Skippered by Tom Kirth, the vessel is on a scientific expedition in the South Pacifid, Tlfe expedition is headed by Dr. Donald Butterfield.

Its members are collecting sponges and allied sea anemones as part of a research programme conducted by the University of Columbia, New York. They extract poisons from the specimens and send them to the university for use in cancer research.

The crew of 11 comprises seven Americans, two New Zealanders, a Jamaican and a German.

When about three hours out from Nukualofa, en route for Fiji, the crew discovered a 16-year-old Tongan stowaway, John Vaiolet, in one of the lifeboats.

“We radioed back to see if we could take him on to Fiji,” crewman James Anderson tells us in a note, “but were told that we would have to pay his way back to Tonga if we did. So we turned and took him back to Nukualofa.

“A pilot boat met us in the channel and took John aboard . . . with the Tonga police not looking too happy about the whole thing.

The stowaway wanted to go to America.”

After a stay in Fiji, Dante Deo will visit New Caledonia and be in Brisbane by the end of June. • SEASPRAY, 83 ft yacht, owned and skippered by Mr, Albert Tregidga of Nelson, New Zealand, arrived back in New Zealand recently after spending about six months in Fiji as principal prop in the filming of a TV adventure series.