Cruising Yachts

• BOUNTY, 42 ft ketch, was due to sail from Pago Pago to San Francisco, via Honolulu, in March.

The ketch has a new owner. The previous owner, a Californian, Mr.

Gordon Johnson, had to abandon his cruising plans because of his son’s sickness. (PIM, Feb., p. 115).

The new owner is Mr. Ben Deathridge, of the US Navy. He is having the ketch sailed to San Francisco by a three-man crew, Lyle Hines, Jamie Lopez and another man. He and his wife plan to live aboard the ketch until his retirement next year. The couple then plan to cruise down the coast of Mexico and perhaps bring the ketch back to the South Seas. • LA BELLE SOLE, 64 ft. Ame rican luxury ketch, was due to sail from Sydney for New Guinea, Ceylon and the Red Sea in late March.

On board are Roger Franson, a Los Angeles engineer, his wife Anne, their children Keith 10, and Karen eight, and crewmen Alan Hare, 27, of England, and an Ecuadorean from the Galapagos Islands, Teppy Anger meyer, 19.

La Belle Sole reached Sydney on February 18 after a 12-month trip across the Pacific from Los Angeles.

The ketch called ,at the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas, the Tua motus, Tahiti, the Cooks and Auck land.

Matahiva, in the Tuamotus, and

merston Island (Northern Cooks) e two of the most interesting land s.

At Matahiva,” Mrs. Franson told “we were astonished to see boys e more than babies swimming nd with three and four foot rks.

They were in a shallow concrete I and played with the sharks, ing them on the tail and pulling r noses.

We were told it was to get the s used to sharks so they would be afraid when they went pearl ng in later years.” m Belle Sole made a detour to merston to carry badly-needed ipment, medical supplies and d to the island, as the ship which mally calls there was months rdue. » MATATUA, 36 ft New Zealand ;er, arrived at Sydney on February after a three-month stay in Bris ic. )n board were Mr. and Mrs.

Drge Fletcher, of Auckland, and ir 27-year-old son, David, lince last April, Matatua has ted Raivavae (Australs), Papeete, orea, Raiatea, Fluahine, Bora Bora, ;o Pago, Fiji, Vila and Noumea, drs. Fletcher told PIM that she I her husband were very disap nted with Papeete.

The Tahitians were unfrinedly and y interested in making money,” said. ‘We had to pay fantastic prices for

food. A sliced loaf of bread cost the equivalent of 50c, fish were 90c and $2 each, and even watermelons were $2.

“Old potatoes cost 10c a pound and three pineapples cost us Si.

“I wouldn’t advise any yachts to call there—Papeete doesn’t cater for them. Moorea is much nicer and miles cheaper.”

Matatua was to leave Sydney in March for Russell and then Auckland, NZ. • STORNOWAY, 33 ft black hulled New York yacht, reached Sydney from Noumea in early March.

Aboard were Alf Peterson and his

wife Marjorie who intended to rest in Sydney for a short period before setting off for Japan.

Fifteen years ago Alf Peterson made a singlehanded circumnaviga tion in Stornoway. Now Marjorie has had a book published about the trip called Stornoway, East-West. • TAM ATEA, 48 ft 8-metre class yacht, has been sold by Suva Defence Club secretary, Mr. Heath Hemphill, to Mr. Gordon Ross Cochrane, of Auckland.

Mr, Hemphill bought the yacht in Auckland in 1952. She was sailed to Suva that year by Captain Stan Brown who had as his crew well

wn Suva yachtsmen, Jack St. an. Tommy More, Ten Bentley the late Tommy Miller.

Ir. Cochrane plans to sail iatea back to Auckland about the of April, he Tamatea was launched in 1937. was easily the best yacht in Fiji, won the Fiji open championship Royal Suva Yacht Club champ hip 12 times, and numerous other ihies. ► REBEL, 35 ft trimaran from Francisco, which reached Pago 0 from Rarotonga last October, resume her Pacific cruise in /■ 1 a note to PIM, skipper-owner, rvin Glenn, said: “We plan to e for Western Samoa about / 1, then call at Niuatoputapu Vavau on our way to Nukualofa, re we will stay for the King’s mation. From Tonga we will 3ably go to Fiji, the New »rides, New Caledonia and Aus ia, arriving at Sydney in Dec >er.”

Ir. Glenn said that he had jerted” Rebel for a month late year to help Dr. Robert Griffith his 52 ft cutter Awahnee from o Pago to Honolulu (PIM, Mar., 115). He then flew “home” to id Christmas aboard Rebel. le and his wife, who had been king for the Education Depart it, had also found time to cruise and Tutuila and the Manua nds.

Ir. Glenn added: “We enjoy PIM f much, but we don’t agree with r magazine’s inference that Gov- Dr Lee’s programme is having a imental effect on Samoa. We feel the overall effect of the pro rime is very good.

Still, it was very interesting to e an outsider’s views.” > PORPOISE, 38 ft ketch, with i. Louise Myers, of Illinois, USA, three crew members, reached ney on March 15 from Auckland, he ketch was to rest in Sydney two or three weeks and then head Japan, via the Barrier Reef, New inea, the Philippines and Hong ’g 4rs. Myers has been sailing the th Pacific in Porpoise since she California in 1964. She has ted Hawaii, French Polynesia, h Samoas, Fiji, Tonga and New land.

• VALKYRIE, 31 ft ketch, which reached Durban last September (PIM, Nov., 1966, p. 115) was still there in January because her 72-year-old American lone-handed skipper, John Goetzcke, had to have operations for hernia and appendicitis in December.

Mr. Goetzcke is on a round-the world trip from the Virgin Islands. • ELEUTHERA, 48 ft steel ketch, with Earl Schenck Jr., and his wife Paula will make another trip from Honolulu to the South Pacific this year. No departure date has been set yet.

Eleuthera made a trip from Tahiti to the seldom-visited Austral Islands in 1965 (PIM, Dec., 1965, p. 113). • WHISPER, an American yacht, with Hal and Margaret Roth aboard, was to set out on a cruise in the South Pacific in March from Sausa lito, California. • ELSIE, 30 ft cutter, sailed solo by 60-year-old American, Frank Casper, which spent about 18 months in the Pacific in 1964-65, was at Grenada, West Indies, in December.

We last reported Frank, who rarely stays still for long, at Durban in January, 1966. (PIM, Mar., 1966, p. 112).

• Slea No Mara, 40 Ft

schooner, was being refitted in Sausalito, California, recently by Tony and Anne Carter for a trans pacific cruise to Australia.

Mr. Carter chartered the 75 ft ketch Sirocco from a Las Vegas architect, Mr. Jack Belcher, in 1964-65 and spent some time in the South Pacific.

While on the Sirocco in Tahiti, he met and married his wife, Anne. Now Mr. Carter has long-range plans for charter work off the Great Barrier Reef when he arrives in Australia in Slea No Mara. • NAM SANG, 66 ft American yacht, was due to leave Sydney in mid-March for Los Angeles via the Bay of Islands (NZ), the Cooks, and French Polynesia.

Her current owner, Mr. J. Thomp son, of Los Angeles, told PIM he planned to sell Nam Sang in Los Angeles and buy a smaller yacht or, if he couldn’t find a suitable one, to build one.

He expected to take nearly three months to reach Los Angeles as he hoped to stop at one or two of the Austral Islands in French Polynesia.

Nam Sang has a crew of seven and an attractive girl cook. “Sammy”

Malbert, 24, of California. One of

the crew is 21-year-old Tom Waters, of Los Gatos, California, whose 30 ft trimaran Voladora was wrecked at Bora Bora a year ago ( PIM, April, 1966, p. 113).

Nam Sang will stop off at Bora Bora to have a look at the wrecked, vessel, which is being looked after by one of the locals, Steve Ellacote.

“I hope to return to Bora Bora one day to repair the trimaran as she wasn’t a write-off,” Waters told us. • DOVE, 24 ft fibreglass sloop, with 17-year-old solo American yachtsman Lee Graham, reached Port Moresby on March 26 from Honiara.

He has the tomcat he picked up in Fiji.

Graham left California in Dove when he was 16, and hopes to be come the youngest solo yachtsman ever to circle the world.

When we reported that he had left Honiara in mid-December for New Guinea (PIM, Feb., p. 113), he was actually setting off on a cruise around the Solomon Islands. • DORA, 48 ft French ketch sailed by a French couple, Mr. and Mrs.

A. G. Merlot, with their daughter, Brigitte, was in Brisbane in March for repairs to damage caused by cyclone Dinah.

The ketch was blown ashore on Macleay Island, Moreton Bay, during the cyclone and the rudder was damaged. Island residents helped the couple make a jury rudder and Dora went to a nearby boatyard for slip ping.

Dora will stay in Brisbane for two or three months before leaving for the Barrier Reef.

The Merlots began a cruise round the world in Dora from Cannes in 1961. They crossed the Pacific, calling at a number of islands, last year (PIM, July, 1966, p. 111).