Cruising

Yachts

• TRIPTYCH, a 65 ft trimaran (pictured)—believed to be the big gest in the world at the time of her launching in 1965—wi1l be based at Suva until the hurricane season ends in April.

Her Canadian owner, Mr. Mat thew Burpee, was hoping to start a charter business in Fiji, but now plans to move on to New Zealand at end of the hurricane season.

“We’ve heard that the Fiji authori ties want to save the charter business for local people,” he says. “However, we wouldn’t be taking anything from anybody. We do our own advertising in the United States, and most of our passengers would be repeat passen gers who went with us in the West Indies.”

He left his former cruising base in Grenada, he said, because the local political situation had made it diffi cult for charter yachts to operate.

A retired Ottawa dairy farmer, Mr.

Burpee and wife Betty had Triptych built in England at a cost of more than $lOO,OOO.

Under sail, the big tri has reached a speed of 16 knots. Her normal cruising maximum is around 10 knots. • WHITE SQUALL IPs skipper Ross Norgrove was inquiring (PIM, Aug., p. 99) about an “old sparring partner Jim Shortall”. Jim has written to PIM after reading the inquiry.

He left the ship’s radio officer busi ness and became a crayfisherman operating off NZ’s Bay of Plenty.

“There is a strong possibility that Shortall will be back on a chop suey diet, several thousand dollars poorer but with a clearer understanding of why the price of crayfish is so high,”

Jim wrote. And he was right. Not long afterwards he was back in Auckland. • EXPLORER, a Swedish fishing vessel, arrived at Rarotonga on Janu ary 5 and sailed two days later for Australia via Norfolk Island. On board were the skipper, Roland Pers son, and co-owners Tony Ludvigsson, Dan Magnusson and Eskill Carlsson, with crew Kent Wallin, Jon Halus stedt and Kjell Klingwall. Explorer left Sweden on September 28, 1971. and called at Heligoland, Denmark, Canary Islands, Barbados and the Galapagos Islands before arriving at Rarotonga.

• SUNSET SUE, 35 ft Hong Kong-built ketch and a newcomer to the world of cruise yachts, was due to leave Suva late January en route to Florida, via Tahiti, Galapagos and Panama. She was built last year for Florida yacht broker and paper mill manager A 1 Crocker, who shipped her to Sydney before sailing her to Fiji with his wife Nancy and 13-yearold daughter Susan aboard. A self steering vane was fitted during the ketch’s two-month stav in Fiji.

• Thekla Christina, 60 Ft

steel-hulled sloop, owned and built by Melbourne man Ernst Eggers, arrived in Suva early December on her annual cruise to Fiji. Mr. Eggers, who has interests in a honey factory in Suva, planned to spend a few weeks in Fiji waters.

Also in Suva in January were the 36 ft Swedish sloop SUZIE H\ the 69 ft Honolulu yacht BA RUN A , now based semi-permanently in Fiji; the 40 ft Seattle-registered yawl SHAULA and the Los Angeles sloop VAGA-

Bunda

• KELASA, gaff-rigged cutter, which left Sydney in April, 1968, is still afloat, writes her crew, Adrienne Matzenik, to PIM. She and the skipper, fiance Harry Gilbert, have been becalmed for two years in Durban after sailing through the Pacific Islands and wherever the spirit and wind took them. Now they are afloat again, still with Kelasa. They left at the end of November with a course lying for Cape Town, St. Helena, Ascension, Barbados and a “general meander” through the West Indies; then through the Panama Canal with, if time permits, a stop at Galapagos,

and on to Hawaii, Canada and Cali fornia. Adrienne writes that also anchored in Durban at different times were Allan Quigley with YOUTH from Adelaide, Keith and Angela Higgins (NZ) in WINDCALL —the Higgins acquired another crew mem ber in Durban, a baby daughter— Ken Furley in FORTEENA (NZ) and John Morrison in MARISTELLA. • RIGADOON, a cruising ketch from Miami, Florida, USA, is anchored in front of the Cairns

(Queensland) Sailing Club planning

for a May 1 departure for the Torres Straits and the Indian Ocean. Since leaving Hog Harbour in the New Hebrides, owners Jeanne and Carl Moesly have cruised the Banks Islands, the Torres, Solomons, Bougainville, Buka, New Britain, the Trobriands, Ampletts and New Guinea. They sailed direct to Cairns from Samarai. Writes Jean and Carl: “Hospitality has been marvellous at all stops and the cruising just great. ,• , • LE TAKINAL, 32 ft diesel cruiser was in Port Moresby in January taking on supplies for the last half of her 8,000 km delivery cruise from Singapore to Marshall Islands in Micronesia. The crew of five Americans, according to letter from member Jerry Myers, is in corporating the “little ship” delivery with a grand sightseeing tour, Le Takinal will be used for charter big-game fishing and diving in her home-port of Majuro. Ports of call after Singapore were Pontianak

(Borneo), Benoa (Bali). Timor,

Darwin, Thursday island and Port Moresby. Still on the list are Kusaie (East Carolines) and Majuro.

The "Triptych" at 65 ft one of the biggest tris in the world, has reefed her sails at Suva and waits for the end of the hurricane season.