Cruising
p. 98 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• CHALLENGE, 30 ft sloop sailed by solo yachtsman Henri Cordovero was one of several resting in Sydney in February, awaiting the end of the cyclone season before taking to the blue water. Following a voyage down through the Pacific to Auckland, Challenge is expected to visit Port Moresby next. KALEWA, a 36 ft sloop from Canada, with Glen and Joan Reid also passed through Auck land to Sydney on a cruise that began in Vancouver. ORIENTAL LADY, Jon and Karen Ebbing’s 40 ft ketch rigged trimaran, was in from New Guinea. PIM last reported them waiting out a cyclone in Rabaul in February, 1970. STARDRIFT, 30 ft cutter from England via the Bahamas, the Pacific and Auckland with Nicholas and Fairlie Clifton was also in Sydney.
• Aquarius.— A 41 Ft Ct-41
ketch carrying Felix Cramer and his family is back in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands after a three-month voyage from Taiwan via Guam and Ponape.
Various mishaps including engine failure and the loss of a forestay, required repairs en route. Felix has now returned to his job at Kwajalein missile range. • MEI MARU, 30 ft ketch owned by Dr. Earl Hansen of Oakbank, California, is based for this year at least in Kavieng, New Ireland. After a trip through the South Pacific and a period in New Zealand, Dr. Hansen headed north and in New Guinea he ended up with a job in the Public Health Department. Now he is District Health Officer at Kavieng, and on completion of his term, aims to continue a round-the-world cruise, with first port of call in Indonesia. • NEXUS, the 33 ft sloop, which has been carrying Chuck and Frances Harris around the Pacific for the last four years, with appearances m Sydney, on the Barrier Reef, in New Guinea, New Zealand and a dozen other islands, belongs to the Harris family no longer. Chuck and Frances sent PIM a card recently saying that they reached Honolulu, spld Nexus, continued on to California and are now building a 45 ft cutter. In their
four years cruising they logged 30,000 miles.
They sailed home to California on the 61 ft New Zealand ketch Tyrant, with John and Maureen Guzzwell and their sons, James and John. The new owner of Nexus is Tom Welch. • SEA HAWK, ketch formerly owned by Bob Rowley, has been sold in Honolulu after 4* years and 9,000 miles of cruising, and he is now at Opua, Bay of Islands, NZ, newly married to Deidre, and concentrating on building a new cutter. It is to be of William Atkins design, Tally-Ho Major, 34 ft 6 in. overall, and will carry a lofty rig with 800 sq. ft of working sail and 1,200 sq. ft for light weather. • Lloyd’s Register of Shipping has introduced a new certification scheme for Glass Re-inforced Plastic yachts, an aid yachties will find useful when building new craft. GRP yachts are universally accepted in the United States now, and while wooden-hulled yachts make up the majority of cruisers in the Pacific, GRP’s are ap pearing in increasing numbers in this region, according to Lloyds.
GRP’s were first made as general craft in 1943, but it has been only in the last 10 years they have come into their own, as have the slower ferro-cement yachts. Today they vary between 22 ft and 50 ft.
Lloyds says the new scheme will ensure proper quality of construction of GRP’s and enhance safety require ments. Inquiries should be directed to the Secretary Lloyds Register, 77 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3. • STORNOWAY, British auxiliary vawl which extensively cruised the South Pacific in the late 1960’5, was laid up at Palma, Canary Islands, ott North Africa, awaiting repairs, in January. The yawl was dismasted in gentle winds, en route to the West Indies, and her rigging had to be cut to prevent sinking. Rails and upper boards on Stornoway’s starboard side were subsequently damaged.
She was sailed to Palma under jury mast and is awaiting a new mast, plus a possible major engine repair. • HI SPAN I A, French yawl on a five-year global cruise, with solo yachtsman Max Graveleau, was at Pitcairn just before Christmas. The weather allowed him ashore only once in the six days that Hispania was anchored in the lee of the island, but the hospitality was good, as usual.