Cruising Yachts

ORE HU MO AN A, 40 ft catamaran, arrived in Port Moresby in late July from the New Hebrides and Fiji. Skippered by a New Zealander, Dr. David Lewis, Rehu Moana is on a world tour. This began in Plymouth, UK, in 1964 when Dr. Lewis took part in a trans- Atlantic yacht race for solo naviga tors.

In the United States, he was joined by his wife and two young daughters; and in Chile, by a friend, Miss Priscilla Cairns.

Dr. Lewis created considerable interest in New Zealand by navigating from Tahiti to Auckland without the use of instruments.

In an article on this voyage in the latest (March) issue of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Dr. Lewis said he believed he had demonstrated that the methods used by the old Maoris were “accurate enough to render the major traditional voyages navigationally quite feasible”.

From Port Moresby, Rehu Moana will sail to Darwin, Durban, the Congo, Azores, and back to England. • PORPOISE, 38 ft ketch, arrived in Suva late in July on a Pacific cruise from Honolulu. She had previously called at Apia and Niuafo’ou, The ketch is owned and skippered by Mrs. Louise Myers. Also on board are Mrs. Myers’ 11-year-old son Charles and Peter Quackenbush and Gordon Hooper, of California.

From Suva, Porpoise will visit various islands in the Fiji Group.

She will then head for Pago Pago where Charles Myers will leave the ketch to return to school in Hawaii.

Mrs. Myers and Co. will go on to Tonga, New Zealand, Tasmania, the Australian mainland, New Guinea, the Philippines, Japan and back to Honolulu.

The voyage is expected to take about two years. • SANS SOU Cl, 91 ft auxiliary ketch, arrived in Suva in July in the course of a Pacific cruise. She sailed from Los Angeles to Hawaii, then down to Tahiti and across to Samoa before reaching Suva.

After two weeks cruising in Fiji, Sans Souci was to sail to the New

Hebrides, New Guinea, Canton Island and Honolulu.

On board on reaching Suva were Captain Eric Schiff, his wife and five children, who live in Los Angeles. A daughter was scheduled to leave the ketch in Suva to return to a secretarial school at Oxford.

Captain Schiff hopes to be back in Los Angeles by December 15.

In Pago Pago in June, he expressed interest in leasing uninhabited Rose atoll to build a Polynesian-style re treat ( PIM, Aug., p. 87). • CORSARO 11, 68 ft Italian naval training yawl, sailed from Sydney on August 9 for the United States via South Pacific Islands and Hawaii. She is on the second stage of a world voyage.

Corsaro II arrived in Sydney on December 7 after a two-month cruise from Hawaii, having called at Fanning Island, Pago Pago, Suva, the New Hebrides and Brisbane. She then took part in the annual Sydney- Hobart yacht race (PIM, Jan., p. 112).

Noumea was her first scheduled port of call after leaving Sydney. • HIGHLIGHT, 35 ft Lodestar trimaran which left New Zealand for a Pacific cruise in May, 1965, has been in Noumea, New Caledonia, since last November.

The owners David and John Glennie, of NZ, decided to stay in Noumea for the hurricane season, and both found work locally.

They were in the news last year (PIM, Nov., p. 9) after leaving an Englishman on Suwarrow Atoll, Cook Islands.

Shortly after arriving in Noumea, Kalo Morrison left the yacht to take up a position as waitress with the Noumea Hotel.

John Bracegirdle (ex-Mamari), who recently joined Highlight, will sail with the Glennies to the Great Barrier Reef. The Glennies plan to work in Australia to build up funds for more cruising. • NAOMI, 45 ft yawl, was due to leave Whangarei, New Zealand, for Raoul Island (Kermadecs) and Niue on July 28.

Her owners, Mr. and Mrs. D. J.

Gilberd, of Whangarei, have dedi cated themselves to improving the standard of living at Niue, according to a report in the Taranaki Herald.

The report said that Naomi’s cargo included a hundredweight of fish hooks given largely by the public at Whangarei, an echo-sounder to help the Niueans find fish shoals and establish their feeding grounds, and a 12 ft aluminium boat with a jet engine.

If the boat is a success under island conditions, several more may be built in Whangarei for the islanders.

“In the past the islanders have not had boats capable of landing decent fish,” Mr. Gilberd told the Taranaki Herald.

“We have already taken up a couple of Z-class yacht hulls which are proving excellent.

“The islanders spend the whole night fishing and their catch is con sidered good if they get six little flying fish.”

Mr. Gilberd said that at present the islanders were using hooks made from wire, or hand spears.

A retired contractor, Mr. Gilberd will design two water schemes for the Department of Island Territories while he is at Niue.

He will also erect windmills to pump water and design a slipway for surfboats.

Later Naomi will sail for Pago Pago. She will probably return to New Zealand by way of the Tongan group early in November. • TAURANGI, 35 ft Lodestar tri maran from New Zealand, was in Vila, New Hebrides, in mid-August,

after a cruise from Auckland via Fiji and New Caledonia.

Taurcingi is owned by New Zea landers Paul Braithwaite and Frank Melhop, who are looking for an extra crew member to join them in their travels.

From Vila they plan to head for Rabaul, leaving there in late Septem ber for Hong Kong and other Far Eastern ports. Britain via the Suez Canal is their ultimate destination.

O MARAVAL, yacht sailed by Neil Brown and Don Brewer arrived at Honiara, BSIP, on July 22 from Vila and Santo, New Hebrides, and San Cristobal, Eastern Solomons.

During a six-day stopover in Honiara, they attended a com modore’s night at the Point Cruz Yacht Club.

Maraval came eighth in the Auck land-Suva yacht race in May, and since then has been cruising the Pacific.

After leaving Honiara, Brown and Brewer planned to visit Tulagi, Gizo, Buin, Samarai, Port Moresby and Cooktown. • CORSAIR 11, 53 ft ketch from South Africa, arrived at Russell, New Zealand, in late July after a voyage of six days from Fiji.

On board were: Mr. S. H. Jeffrey, owner-skipper, Mr. J. Hargraves and Miss M. Clayton, of NZ, who joined the vessel at Rarotonga; and Mr. B.

Ross-Murphy, of Dublin, who signed on in Fiji.

O Lady Sterling, 48 Ft

Auckland schooner owned and skippered by Des Elliott, made a brief call at Whangarei, New Zealand, in early August, to have a radio fault rectified.

Elliott and a crew of seven were just starting a cruise to New Cale donia and Fiji. The radio fault developed after leaving Auckland, and it was decided to have repairs made before leaving New Zealand.

Lady Sterling, built 45 years ago, has been used for escort duty in the Auckland-Noumea and Auckland- Suva yacht races. She has a 65 hp diesel auxiliary engine. • GIPSY MOTH IV, 53 ft yacht owned and sailed solo by veteran yachtsman and pioneer aviator, Francis Chichester, aged 64, sailed from Plymouth, in late August, to attempt a 230-day circumnavigation along the routes of the old clipper ships. Chichester was the first airman to land a plane on Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands—in 1931.

He will sail non-stop through the Atlantic into the Roaring Forties, passing about 300 miles south of the

Cape of Good Hope, then due east for 7,000 miles to Tasmania and up the Australian east coast to Sydney.

This, he hopes to accomplish in 100 days.

He plans to spend about 30 days in Sydney before embarking on the return journey. This will take him about 5,000 miles through the Roaring Forties to Cape Horn, then a further 8,000 miles north through the Atlantic. This leg is also to be non-stop.

Gipsy Moth IV has been specially built for the voyage and is fitted with a watertight bulkhead about nine feet aft of the stemhead to increase the chances of surviving a collision with an iceberg.

In 1960, 26 months after he had been told he had advanced lung cancer, Chichester won a single handed yacht race across the Atlantic in 40i days in his yacht Gipsy Moth 111. Not satisfied, although he finished eight days ahead of his nearest rival. He made a second crossing in mid-1962 in a record of 33 days 15 hours.

Chichester was the second man to fly a plane solo from England to Australia—in a Gipsy I Moth. In the same aircraft he made the first solo Tasman crossing from west to east, and landed on Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands.

His autobiography, The Lonely Sea and Sky, was reviewed in PIM for September, 1964 (p. 87). © EILANDER , 34 ft ketch, sailed by four men and two women, left Sydney on August 12 for England via the Pacific, New Guinea, Indo nesia, Malaysia, India and the Red Sea (see also PIM, July, p. 111).

The ketch was built in Tasmania in 1890 and was extensively rebuilt in 1930.

The crew expects to take about 18 months to reach England. ® GOLDEN CREST, a former minesweeper and now a pleasure yacht owned by an American, General R. W. Johnson, was due to leave Auckland, New Zealand, on August 10 for a trans-Pacific cruise.

She will call at Tonga, Rarotonga and Tahiti, then cruise down the west coast of South America,