Cruising
pp. 97-98 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• FOUR WINDS, a 60 ft schooner was at Rarotonga in June arriving from Rimatara, Raivavae and Tahiti.
The skipper was 18 years old John Lipscomb, and as a film is being made of the cruise, the crew is divided into a sailing crew and a camera crew. The sailing crew com prises John Lipscomb, Dan Gibson (17) and Steve Mclntyre (19), none of whom has had much sailing ex perience. In the camera crew are James Lipscomb (John’s father).
Chuck Bangert who does the under water filming, and Jim Buckley (sound). Another crew member became ill and was left behind in Tahiti. The cruise began seven months ago out of Los Angeles, with calls at the Galapagos and Tuamotus before arrival at Tahiti. Plans are to call at Tonga, Fiji, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands and New Guinea.
By the time they reach New Guinea the cruise will have lasted another year. They may leave the yacht in Fiji and visit Mount Cook, New Zealand for skiing in August. • SEEKER, a 30 ft fibrolite sloop, arrived at Rarotonga on May 31 with James Young Kennedy, an American rocket design engineer, on board. He had spent a year in French Polynesia and had made calls at Christmas Island and Penrhyn. He planned to stay a fortnight in Rarotonga before sailing to Aitutaki. • CHICO, 30 ft sloop, arrived at Rarotonga on June 2 from New Zealand with skipper Peter Carmichael and two crew on board. The voyage took 11 days. Richard Wilson, one of the crew, has taken part in yacht races between New Caledonia and New Zealand. Plans were to call at Tahiti and Honolulu. • INVICTUS, a 45 ft ketch, arrived at Rarotonga from Whan garei, New Zealand, on June 19 with Mr Selwyn Matheson, his wife, Jewel, their two-year-old son, Brett, and four crew Rob Sharp and Graham Coole, both of Auckland, Mark Poumieu, a Canadian, and Jeoff Buston, an Australian. Mr. Matheson visited Rarotonga in 1959-60 and 1961. He intends sailing to Tahiti
and then Hawaii, where he may sell the yacht. • FI A, a 40 ft cutter, arrived at Rarotonga from Tahiti on June 20 with Swedish partners Carl Seipel and Hans Berawall. They bought Fia in San Francisco and have been sailing her for almost two years.
Carl Seipel is a Doctor of Economics and has taught at American univer sities. Hans Bernwall is a business man and has acted as a district manager in many parts of Sweden.
Plans are to spend a month in Raro tonga before visiting Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, and to spend three more years cruising before settling down to life on shore again. • BARCAROLE, a 25 ft Top Hat from the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, arrived in Port Moresby in June bringing Graham Birrell, Chris Mitchell and Canadian Peter Segsworth, who joined Barcarole at Cairns. The boys reported that the trip from Cairns was a “milk run”.
They plan to stay in Papua for a couple of months and then sail to Indonesia. • STARDRIFT, 30 ft 6 in. double ended cutter from Dover, UK, arrived at Port Moresby at May’s end after spending the summer in Sydney. Owner Nick Clifton reported strong winds and heavy seas during his 16-day sail from Sydney. After a few weeks in Port Moresby, Nick planned to sail to Thursday Island, Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas islands and then on to Durban (SA). • RIVAL, the 37 ft Lake Mac quarie (NSW) sloop, which has won the Sydney to Hobart classic
and the Brisbane to Gladstone event, was among June comers to Port Moresby—after a rough passage.
While on their way to Port Moresby, skipper Albie Burgin told PIM, they competed in the Brisbane to Gladstone race but without success, meeting cyclone Emily and losing the mast after a 180 degrees capsize. Rival made Gladstone with a jury rig and a new mast was stepped within a week. On board when anchor was dropped at Port Moresby were skip per Burgin, Col Beck, Jim Henderson and world-traveller Monty Jones from Montana, USA. Next move is a month’s sail around the PNG coast. • TIKI, 40 ft double-ender ketch arrived at Rarotonga from Tahiti on May 1 with single-hander Jean Charles Troalen, of Brittany, on board. Mr. Troalen bought Tiki eight years ago and started his present voyage from Bandol, near Marseilles. Calls were made at the West Indies and Panama, and from Rarotonga he plans to sail to Wan ganui, New Zealand.
O WINDENZEE, 54 ft steel ketch from Auckland was in Suva from mid-June until July 5, when she left for the New Hebrides, the Solomons, New Ginea and parts yonder. She’s owned by the Dutch family, Bob and Tini van Vught and three children, who built her in Auckland for a leisurely sentimental voyage back to Holland. Five crew members have hitched a ride.
• Miss Fancy Free, 30 Ft
New York ketch sailed single-handed by former university professor Ray Rawls, arrived in Suva from Auck
We don't see very much of this sort of thing these days—but when Sir James Doig wanted to repaint the bottom of his 72 ft yacht "Windhaven" in June, he simply lashed her to the jetty at The Fijian hotel and when the tide dropped, got on with the job. He has taken on two Fiji boys as crew.
land on June 18. Rawls was planning to cruise around Fiji for a couple of months before continuing his circum navigation, starting with Noumea and Australia. • LUSTY I, 50 ft Seattle schooner skippered by Mike Williams was in Suva in June and early July. Crew were Terry Anderson and Steve Young and a Cook Island girl Rouru Tikimoe. Williams was planning to move on to the New Hebrides, the Solomons and New Guinea from mid-July, • INGRID, a 50 ft steel ketch from Sydney, arrived in Port Moresby from Kieta. Owners, Erich and Ingrid Smolarek stayed a few weeks and then sailed for Thursday Island, planning to visit Darwin and then on to Africa en route for Europe. • FALCON, a 55 ft Herreshoff Marco Polo ferro-cement ketch from Panmure, NZ, arrived in Port Moresby after an enjoyable sail from Kieta via Rabaul and Samarai. On board were Neil Shannahan, Carl Rosieurm, Gunther Werner. Larry Rayner and Ray Ditton. Early July saw them sailing for Thursday Island, then Darwin, Cocos (Keeling) Island, Christmas Island, then across the Indian Ocean to Port Elizabeth.
• BAVARIA, a 48 ft ketch from Santa Barbara (California), arrived shortly after Falcon. Joseph Meyr and his brother Ambrose reported that their sail from Vila was fast and enjoyable with strong winds and moderate seas. Soon after they sailed for Thursday Island, Darwin and across the Indian Ocean to Durban. 9 CHALLENGE, a French designed 30 ft cutter from Toulon, France, anchored in Port Moresby for a short while. Skipper Henry Cordovero said that like Stardrift, Challenge had also experienced rough seas and strong winds on the 16-day direct sail from Sydney. He said Emmanuelle Larcher, his crew, had fared well, considering it was her first trip. They left Port Moresby for Thursday Island then on to Cocos (Keeling) Island en route to Durban. • OMICRON, with her Canadian single-handed skipper David Field, arrived at Banga Island, near Munda in the Solomons on June 6. Her first port of call in BSI was Nila in the Shortlands. On the way to Simbo, Omicron narrowly missed a hiding from cyclone Ida and reached shelter unharmed. Also at Nila was yacht RENDEZVOUS bound for Gizo in the eastern Solomons and then the New Hebrides.
O ENSENADA, a 27 ft black cutter arrived at Lae, New Guinea towards the end of May after a 15day trip from Bundaberg, the Queens land sugar centre. On board were a staunch cruising couple Dave and Flo Croucher. • AQUARIUS, 41 ft ketch, left Kwajalein in the Marshalls on June 28 taking with her Mr. Felix Cramer, his wife and three little Cramers, bound for Honolulu and the US West Coast. The Cramers have been on Kwajalein for 10 years and now plan some leisure cruising before returning to the world of jobs and school.
• Thom Nelson, writer employed on Kwajalein, has ordered a fibre glass Tahiti ketch from Dreadnought boatworks in Carpinteria in Cali fornia. The 32 ft, 10-tonner will be custom finished for “me, my type writer and my cameras,” he says. He has been active in American yachting circles for several years, both as a yachtsman and a photo-journalist. He plans a return to the Pacific when the boat is completed, “to finish some writing I’ve been doing in Micro nesia, and then I want to visit all the places and people down south that I’ve been reading about in PIM”. • Seven skippers of yachts, which took part in the 1972 Brisbane to Gladstone Ocean Race and ran into cyclone Emily, plan to form a yacht ing club with one of the stiffest con ditions of entry of any yacht club in the world. It will be open only to yachtees who have “successfully navigated a pleasure vessel in winds exceeding 100 miles an hour in open waters.” Of course, those who don’t “successfully navigate” under such conditions usually qualify for the biggest club of all! To date those qualifying for the new club, which is similar to the American yachtees’
Century Club, are Graham Evans of PILGRIM, Peter Riddle of MARY BLAIR, Peter Rysdyk of ONYA OF GOSFORD, Neville Gossom of MAKARITU, Robert George of KINTAMA, Peter Hopwood of HARMONY and Albie Burgin of RIVAL. Each will receive a special pennant and bulkhead plaque and there will be an annual dinner. • DAWN STAR 11, 28 ft, all fibreglass Twister class yacht with experienced George Fairley, wife and new baby, was in Vila in June before moving on to Port Sandwich. Dawn Star 11 is two years from England, via Panama, and is next headed for New Zealand. • WINDRIFT 1, 46 ft NZ ferro cement ketch, arrived in Fiji from Wangerei on May 20 and was due to leave for Tonga, the Cooks, Tahiti and Hawaii in mid or late July, Skipper is Tommy Carroll, a Pan Am pilot on long-service leave who built the ketch in New Zealand. He has been cruising in New Zealand waters for 12 months and plans to spend the next three years moving round the South Pacific. With him on board are PanAm hostess Jean Dolby and IBM engineer John Hutchinson, who is making his way round the world.
O Among the cruising yachts in Suva in July were OTI-MAI (Tor tola), BLANQUITA (Honolulu), and
Day-Spring And Paul-Mark
SON, both of Auckland.