Cruising Yachts

• MOOREA, 43 ft sloop, arrived at Suva on June 30 from San Diego, California, via Tahiti, Tonga and Samoa. Skipper is Mr. H. Douglas Gamble, a California lawyer. Mr. and Mrs. Gamble left the Moorea in Tonga, while Mr. Gamble returned to America on a business trip. Mrs.

Gamble was waiting for Moorea in Suva.

On board when the Moorea reached Suva were Mel Baldwin and Karl Burton, of Los Angeles, and Ray Hasler, who was a member of the crew of the Tatariki, which sank dur ing the Auckland-Suva yacht race.

Hasler left the Falcon, another competitor in the same race, at Nukualofa to join the Moorea.

The Moorea was scheduled to leave Suva early in July for Auckland. • KAIROS, 32 ft steel-hulled German sloop, arrived at Port Moresby in June from New Zealand and Noumea.

The owners, Mr. and Mrs. F. Koch, left Hamburg in 1964 to sail round the world. They planned to spend about a fortnight in the territory be fore leaving for South Africa and home. They arrived in NZ last

November from Suva, and spent the summer there. PIM last mentioned Kairos in January. • RUFUS L, 36 ft steel yawl, ar rived at Suva late in June from Aus tralia. On board were the owner skipper, Wilson Hissey, of Port Lin coln, South Australia, and a crew of four.

Hissey, a farmer and an engineer, built the Rufus L in his spare time.

It took him four years. The yawl was designed by Fiji architect Colin Philp.

The Rufus L cruised along the Aus tralian coast, and through Pacific Is lands before reaching Suva. Hissey planned to sail her back to Australia after his Fiji trip. • CREWCUT, 23 ft yacht, arrived in Suva from Auckland late in June, sailed single-handed by Peter Nor gate, of Whangarei. The trip took 23 days.

Norgate planned to spend 10 to 14 days in Fiji, recruit a man to act as crew, and then sail home. ® CORSAIR 11, 53 ft ketch, ar rived at Suva on June 30, on a round the-world tour, which started in Cape Town in April, 1964.

For 1,500 miles of the journey she sailed under jury rig after losing her mainmast. The mainmast was rebuilt in Papeete.

On board were Mr. Jeffrey Stanley, a Capetown businessman, his daughter, Patricia, Mary Clayton and Jack Hargraves, both New Zealanders, who are completing round-the-world trips, and Roland Ernst, a Swiss, who joined the crew at Papeete.

Mr. Stanley expects the Corsair II to return to Capetown early in 1967. • DOVE, 24 ft fibreglass sloop, arrived in Suva early in July from Tonga with solo yachtsman American Lee Graham, 17, and one cat.

The youthful Graham, who plans to be the youngest yachtsman to sail solo round the world, started out from California last October with two cats, but one went missing at Pago Pago.

He lost the second in Suva when it was killed by a vehicle on the road outside the Royal Suva Yacht Club.

Between Fulaga, in the Lau Group, and Suva, en route from Tonga, he was accompanied by a member of the crew of the Corsair, which arrived in Suva the same week.

When he leaves Suva Graham plans to head for the New Hebrides, the Solomons. New Guinea. Indo nesia. Malagasy, South Africa, the Caribbean, home and perhaps college.

• NO BUTS, 28 ft yawl, arrived in Page Pago on June 28 from Hono lulu, via Manahiki, Rakahanga and Puka Puka. On board were the owner, Charles Carr, of Honolulu, and John McNierney, of Pennsyl vania.

Carr planned to stay in Pago Pago for about a month, but his plans when that period expired were not stated. • BARLOVENTO, 65 ft schooner, owned by Hardy Wright of the Virgin Islands, left Pago Pago on June 28 for Tonga and Fiji, and on home to the Virgin Islands via the Suez Canal.

Barlovento had been in Pago since last November when Mr. Wright’s wife became ill and they both re turned home.

Mr. Wright returned recently to Pago and intends to sail home as quickly as possible. • TOLU KATE A, 40 ft trimaran, was launched in Nukualofa on June 29 after three years of hard, patient, and often frustrating, work;. Building boats in most places entails few problems provided you have the know-how. But in spots off the beaten track, as in Tonga, the prob lems at times can seem insurmount able. There is, for example, the prob lem of parts from overseas, which de pend for delivery on the vagaries of shipping.

However, Wayne Batten and his wife Rae, successfully ploughed through all hold-ups and in all weathers to build their trimaran on their own back lawn. He is Tonga’s Director of Education. The Tolu katea, named by King Taufa’ahau, is 22 ft in width with a draught of 2 ft 9 in. powered by a 20 h.p. octroi engine, and has a set of sails. She is

Trimaran "Tolukatea", after launching in Nukualofa. See below.

designed to sleep seven, with all mod. cons, compactly built in.

The problem of transporting the Tolukatea from the back lawn to waterfront, caused no little interest in the community, but was success fully completed by tractor, with the trimaran snug in its cradle on runners of coconut trunks. However, the real problem cropped up when soft sand bogged down the runners. She was winched out to the mud flats of the reef at low tide, which was about mid night, and was finally floated in the early hours of the morning. In pitch darkness she had to be carefully eased out and over the edge of the reef to deep water.

The owners will take off in the Tolukatea for New Zealand at the end of the year when Wayne’s term comes to an end.— Dorothy Lavin. o WIND WAGON, 50 ft ketch from California, arrived in Pago Pago, American Samoa, in mid-July from Suva and Apia. She had arrived at Suva on May 12 after “roaming the Pacific” since April, 1965 ( PIM June, p. 109).

On board are part-owners, Peter Munch and Bob Connelly, Mrs.

Connelly, Maureen Ryman and Neville Swan. Wind Wagon was built 26 years ago and was used as a houseboat for 10 years until her present owners bought her. • BESA, cruising yacht from Yugoslavia, arrived in Apia, Western Samoa, in mid-July. On board were Josip Horvat, skipper, his wife Renata, son Marko and a crewman, Vlado Hrlic.

Besa is on a two-year world cruise and sailed to Apia via the Atlantic, Panama and Tahiti. • PORPOISE, 38 ft ketch from Honolulu, skippered by Mrs. Louise Myers, was due to leave Apia for Suva on July 19. Also on board are Charles Myers, aged 11, Peter Quackenbush and Gordon Hooper.

O KAHUTARA, 48 ft steel ketch from New Zealand, which was wrecked on a reef at Maiao, Society Islands, in May last year ( PIM, July, 1965, p. 107), has been refloated and in July was at Christmas Island, Line Group, where she will stay for some months.

On board are Rex Kershaw, owner skipper, his wife June, and their four children. In a letter to PIM from Christmas Island in July, Mrs.

June Kershaw related their ex periences since the shipwreck: “After 13 weeks of hard work

Rex. with the help of a friend from Tahiti, managed to shift Kahutara back over the reef and into the water.

We arrived in Tahiti on August 28 —three months after hitting the reef.

“After slipping Kahutara and re pairing the damage and building two new masts, we visited Moorea.

From there we went back to Tahiti, leaving Papeete on Christmas Eve for Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora.

“Sailed from there for Rangiroa in the Tuamotus, then on to the Marquesas, where we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We visited Bob McKittrick at Nukuhiva, then left for Hilo, via the Line Islands, arriv

ing at Christmas Island, on March 16.

“But Rex has a contract with Christmas Island Plantation, so we plan to be here until the end of this year when we will go on to Honolulu.

“Lisa and Brent are attending school here and are quickly learning Gilbertese. They also went to school in Papeete and have added French and Tahitian to their vocabulary.”

• Bachelor’S Wife . Yacht,

with owners Mr. and Mrs, G. Hume, was in Lord Howe Island in July, 13 days out from Sydney. The yacht was reported to be on a world cruise.