Cruising Yachts

Pacific Shipping And Cruising Yachts

Work At Savaii "Going Well"

Following an inspection trip to Savaii early in July, Wes tern Samoa’s Director of Works, Mr. L. McQuitty, said that the clearing of the channel to the new Asau wharf was progressing “remarkably well”.

IE said that following the blasting of the channel by a New Zealand lavy demolition team earlier this sar, the dredge Palolo had cleared alf the width of a 1,200 ft channel > a depth of 35 ft and was now working on the other half.

Anew island is growing on the reef t Asau where the dredge is deposit ig sand and crushed coral from the iannel.

Mr. McQuitty said that a bulldoezr

would soon start working on this island to form a base for the Asau airstrip which will extend along the reef.

Mr. McQuitty said that a bulldozer scheme to be completed about this time next year.

Much depends upon the successful completion of this harbour. Apart from the need for a port from which to ship Savaii bananas, a provision of the Potlatch Forests Inc. agreement to develop the Savaii timber industry is that the wharf be completed.

Parliamentary approval to legisla tion allowing Potlatch to go ahead with its plans, involving the expendi ture of millions of dollars, was ex pected in July and a formal agree ment between Potlatch and the Samoan Government will be signed shortly afterwards.

Replacement For

"Jacques Del Mar"

The 1,379-ton passenger-cargo ship Jacques del Mar has been taken off the Sydney-Lord Howe Island-Norfolk Island-Noumea run and replaced by a bigger freighter.

The new freighter, Jacques del Mar 11, was formerly the Sletbay. She was bought by the Jacques del Mar’s owner, Societe Maritime Cale donienne, Noumea, from the Skibs- Karlander Line, Oslo, for a sum “well in excess of £Stg. 100,000”, according to Sydney agents.

The new Jacques is 1,950 tons deadweight and has a cargo capacity

Footnote: When the New Zealand Navy team blasted the channel at Asau, they set off the biggest ex plosion ever heard in Western Samoa.

The team set off 28 bombs, spaced at 35-ft intervals, each ignited with four sticks of dynamite and exploded simultaneously. Dead fish rose to the surface after the blast, and the Asau people saw to it that none was wasted.

The smallships harbour Nukualofa was a busy lace in July (see story, 3rd column).

more than 2,000 tons, including ezer and cooler space. Her equip nt includes two cranes and two s of conventional gear.

Jacques del Mar 11, under Captain lile Savoie, left Sydney on July on her first run to the Islands.

Fhe first Jacques del Mar, which 1 been on the run for 2i years, ; Sydney on the same day for rt Moresby, Lae and Madang. ter Madang her future was un tain as she has yet to be sold.

; Operating Loss

R "Moana R 0A #/

Fhe Moana Roa, the New Zealand vernment-owned ship plying be jen Auckland and the southern ok Islands showed an operating s of £NZ81,836 in the year ended trch 31. fhe operating loss has risen from L 335 in 1962-63. fhe Moana Roa, which is managed the Government by the Union am Ship Company, suffers from uncertainty at times of return goes and the limited extent of the vice, a report of NZ’s Controller I Auditor-General says.

The total loss in 1966-67, after allowing for insurance, depreciation, and interest on capital, was £177,138. t-u * „ „ .. . i The report says that it is hoped ° " b L l£ h , t° £25,000 as a result °f the freight and passenger rate increases levied from April, 1967.

New Fishing Company

TA ctadt IKI i ac

Iu Biaki Un Lat

Anew fishing company, which hopes to sell fish locally and also to export them to Australia and the United States, has been set up at Lae, New Guinea. The company has

a 50 ft $50,000 trawler, MV Luka nuki.

The company, Huon Fisheries, is owned by Mr. Keith Bradley. New G u j nea repo rts say his trawler will be launched in early August and will immediately fishing for tuna and crayfish arou y nd Lae Mr. g ra( ji e y has set up a SIO,OOO freezing works in Lae to handle the fish caught A •• , . , r Meanwhile, the joint Austrahan- Japanese fishing company, South Sea Fishing Company, began fishing in Huon Gulf in July as part of its extensive survey of territorial fishing waters.

The company’s mother ship,

ipuan Prince, which made a survey the Sepik and Ramu Rivers in ne (P/M, July, p. 107), was re •rted in the Gulf with four small iwlers.

About 47 men—l 6 Japanese, 25 jw Guineans and six Europeans— ;re crewing the boats.

Iw Trawler For

Tayfishing In Tonga

Anew company, Friendly Islands aders Limited, has been formed Fiji to use the 85 ft fishing trawler yromel to catch crayfish in Tongan iters.

The company has a nominal capital £F20,000 in 40,000 shares of 10/ch.

Coromel, which was bought by the mpany in June ( PIM , July, p. 106) is expected to arrive in Fiji from 2w Zealand in late July.

The company hopes to handle out 100 tons of crayfish tails a ar.

Suva will be Coromels base. From ere the tails, which will be snap 3zen on board, will be exported the United States.

Ipanese Ship Runs

Jround In Papua

Kiki Maru, a 2,842-ton Japanese rgo vessel, went aground on the istern Fields, a reef about 100 miles st of Port Moresby, in July.

The ship, owned by the Tokyo tipping Company, freed herself the me day and sailed to Port Moresby r an examination of her hull.

She was on her way from Brisbane, Queensland, to Dampier, Western Australia, with a cargo of ore trucks when the accident occurred.

Divers at Port Moresby found buckled plates below the waterline on the ship’s starboard side.

Big Job Finished

At Rakahanga

Islanders at Rakahanga (Cook Islands) have built anew causeway from the island’s boat passage to the village road.

It is the biggest project completed in the Northern Cooks on a voluntary basis.

The causeway is 200 yards long, three feet high and 20 feet wide, and contains about 400 tons of gravel and sand and 100 tons of cement. All material was carried by hand.

P Ng Shipbuilding

Contracts For $214,757

The Papua-New Guinea Admini stration has awarded contracts total ling $214,757 to four shipbuilders for the construction of four vessels for general purpose use in territory waters. This has been announced by the acting superintendent of marine, Captain W. J. Gibson. (Over)

'he shipbuilders are Toboi Ship ping Company Pty. Ltd., Rabaul; idaberg Slipway, Bundaberg, ;ensland; H. Morris, of Brisbane; 1 Capricorn Charters, of Mary ough, Queensland. The contracts er the building of two 46 ft and ► 58 ft vessels.

Captain Gibson said the vessels ild be used by Administration artments for surveys, patrols and eral transport. The Administra i fleet totalled 82. n Rabaul, in June ( PIM, July, p. ), the managing director of Toboi □building Company, Mr. Henry aw, complained that the letting of ;e of the contracts to Australian ipanies might lead to more enchments of his native em cees.

St Lautoka Harbour

Ster Appointed

'aptain John L. Harrison has been ointed to the new post of Harbour ster at Lautoka, Fiji. He is 39 went to Fiji in 1966. a the past the functions of hour master at Lautoka were in hands of the senior Customs :ial in the area.

'aptain Harrison had Royal and rchant Navy experience before he ed Fiji’s Marine Department, iefore the appointment to Lautoka, was responsible for the Marine aartment’s hydrographic work.

V Jetty And Ramp

I Port Moresby

i new Port Moresby Harbours ird jetty and ramp is expected to completed by February, 1968, at □st of $220,000.

Tie chairman of the board, Cap i G. A. Hawley, said this in early f.

Ie said the old Customs wharf a had to be reclaimed and possibly

a third transit shed would be built as well as the ramp and jetty.

The jetty would provide a landing point for tourist ships’ tenders, the Gemo Island and Napa ferries, and small pleasure craft.

Public shelters and a large car park would be built and an organised lighterage system would be started soon.

Well-Known Chandlers

Sell Retail Business

W. Kopsen and Co. Ltd., of Sydney, which has been selling small ship and yachts’ fittings and equip ment to the Pacific Islands for nearly 90 years, has sold its retail marine business.

The firm is to concentrate on the marketing and promotion of its marine equipment lines in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and South-East Asia.

Kopsen will continue exporting boat and yacht fittings and marine engines to New Guinea, the Solomons, Fiji, New Hebrides, New Caledonia and both Samoas.

Wilhelm Gustav Kopsen, a Swede, founded the firm in 1878 in Fiji.

When his offices were burnt down a few years later he moved to Sydney.

One of the present directors is

William Kopsen, 27, a grandson of Wilhelm.

For Geological Survey

In Coral Sea

The Australian Navy’s research vessel Diamantina left Sydney on July 12 to begin a geological survey of the Coral Sea plateau.

Scientists from the Lamont Geological Observatory, New York, were to join the expedition in another research ship at Townsville and co operate with geophysics scientists from the universities of Sydney and New South Wales on board the Diamantina.

The Diamantina carries 30 tons of explosive which will be used to take readings on the layers of the ocean floors.

Now He Can Go

To Rotuma

Captain Don Wendt, of Suva, is the first local ship master to get an endorsement on his master’s ticket, enabling him to take a ship to Rotuma, which is regarded as a foreign port.

Captain Wendt is master of the inter-island trader, Uluilakeba.

His previous ticket, called an “un limited ticket”, entitled him to take a ship of any size anywhere in Fiji, but nowhere else.

The recent examination, leading to the endorsement, which he passed, included celestial navigation, radar and ship master’s business.

Patrol Boat Launched

For P-Ng Service

HMAS Aitape, the first of five 100 ft Royal Australian Naval patrol boats to be based at Manus Island with the Navy’s Papua-New Guinea division, was launched at Mary borough, Queensland, on July 6.

Mrs. Paliau Maloat, wife of the

miber for Manus in the P-NG >use of Assembly, performed the inching ceremony.

A. second patrol boat, HMAS sail, was to be launched at Bris le on July 14. 3f 20 patrol boats being built for : RAN, five have been assigned to : P-NG division. The Navy hopes train New Guineans to man the boats.

W Ships For

Ierican Samoa

Fwo new government vessels for lerican Samoa were expected to ive at Pago Pago by September Governor H. Rex Lee said at his t staff conference in July, fhey will replace the government sel YF 340, which is due for jor repairs. jovernor Lee said the new boats uld be a 98 ft vessel, capable of to 14 knots, to be used on the nua run, and a 59 ft vessel, cap e of 25 knots, for use largely und the island of Tutuila.

U Lagoons Now

En To Shipping

„agoon passages to villages at bara and Fulaga Islands in the ithern Lau Group of Fiji have n opened to shipping following sting by the Fiji Marine Depart nt in July.

Captain Stan Brown, working on itract for the department, used 30 ss of gelignite over a 10-day iod to clear the boat passages and ) remove five large coral heads, fhe clearing of the passages means largest ships on the Fiji Register I be able to enter the lagoons.

Lans In Drunken

Awl At Betio

Members of the crew of the Fijian sel Ai Sokula, which arrived at io, Tarawa, GEIC, on July 2 did get much of a press from Colony or mat ion Notes, the colony’s :kly roneoed newssheet.

The crew staged a drunken brawl the vicinity of the Betio Club on iday afternoon,” the newsletter 1. “They were guests of the Betio b until their behaviour got out hand and after leaving the club y fought among themselves. They e all Fijians.”

) Anchor Fished Up

lailors on the inter-island trader 7 Uluilakeba found an old anchor late June at Nabavatu, Lakeba, the Fiji Group. The anchor is ieved to have been lost by a sail ship about 70 years ago.

The anchor is more than seven feet high and weighs between eight and nine cwt.

British Warship

"Attacked" At Ugi

When the British warship HMS Sirius arrived at Ugi Island, Eastern Solomons, on July 19 at the start of a three-day visit to the Protectorate, she was greeted by Pawa schoolboys in war canoes, who made a mock attack on her. The crew of the Sirius

threw thunder flashes overboard and the boys dived into the sea signalling “defeat”.

Later the crew went ashore for a “peace” feast, sports programme, and an impressive display of traditional dancing in which spear-carrying schoolboys dressed as warriors daubed with mud and ochre “attacked” the visitors on two sides.

The Ugi visit ended with a night rocket display by the Sirius.

The Sirius arrived in Honiara next day for a two-day stay.