Cruising

Yachts

• CRUSADER, 51 ft sloop, is moored at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, waiting for the end of the hurricane season. Owner skipper and former deep-sea diver, Don Sorte, from Vancouver, then plans to sail for the Great Barrier Reef, and Bali, and after that "I don't know". Crusader left Vancouver two years ago, and since then has cruised through the Pacific Islands, to Brisbane and Sydney. On board in Sydney are Ricky Folemar, of Florida, Hanz Lander, of Toronto, who joined the yacht at Panama, Robin Powell, of Bris bane, three poodles and a parrot. Skipper Don plans to recruit three more for the crew before he leaves Sydney. • LANDSEER 111, 43 ft ketch, arrived In Tarawa in January after cruising in the Trust Territory for four months. On board were the owners, Mr Don Coleman and his wife, Robyn, and their two daughters, brother Bruce Coleman and Mr Tom Getty, business manager of the Micronesian Independent. Mr Coleman bought Landseer 111 about four years ago in Sydney, and since then he and his family have sailed through the Great Barrier Reef. They stayed in Papua New Guinea for 15 months. In PNG Landseer 111 won the Rabaul-Kavieng yacht race.

The family then visited the US, and the Marshall Islands. They plan to visit other islands in the GEIC, on their way to Fiji and New Zealand. • QUEST, 52 ft motor sailer, carrying Charles Carter, of Corona, California, and his wife and three children, is at Rush cutters Bay, Sydney. Quest left San Diego about the middle of 1971, and has since cruised through Hawaii, Micronesia, many parts of the Far East, and the Philippines before calling at a number of South Pacific Islands. Places visited in the South Pacific are the Ninigos, Manus, Kavieng, Rabaul, many parts of the BSIP, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

At Bougainville, ex-PIM reporter John Eccles and his wife joined the Quest to cruise to the New Hebrides. Mr Carter, a retired sea captain, plans to visit Hobart and Auckland and then the Great Barrier Reef, before heading east, round the Cape of Good Hope and later into the Mediterranean. His children are Charles 18, Charla 17 and Christopher 16. • PEN DUICK VI, 74 ft French ketch, sailed from Sydney on February 5 on the third leg of the Whitbread round-the world race. Pen Duick VI set out on this leg on December 29, but on December

30, during a 25-knot wind, broke her 81 ft mainmast and limped back to Sydney.

She was carrying a new 88 ft 9 in. main mast. She was more than five weeks behind the other competitors as she set out on the voyage across the Tasman and the South Pacific to Rio de Janiero.

Skipper Eric Tabarly was confident that in spite of the time lag, he will catch most of the other 16 yachts. • GREAT BRITAIN 11, 72 ft ketch, took line honours for the third leg—Sydney- Rio de Janiero via the Pacific and Cape Horn —in the Whitbred round-the-world yacht race. The crew had to hand-pump water out of the boat in relays for about three weeks before arriving at Rio. When Great Britain II arrived at Rio the nearest yacht Sayula 11, from Mexico, was about 600 miles behind. However, Sayula II was leading on corrected time. • SEEKER, 30 ft fibreglass sloop from Los Angeles, is in Neiafu Harbour, Vavau, Tonga, and lone skipper James Young Kennedy says he intends to remain there until the end of the hurricane season. He considers this well-protected harbour a haven of refuge after the violence he encountered in American Samoa. In Pago Pago, the Seeker was looted of $2,200worth of equipment, Kennedy alleges, and extensive vandalism was done while she was in government custody. Kennedy told PIM that for $5OO he gave the American Samoan Government a signed release and a lot of advice about con trolling looting before it controlled the government. During a midnight walk on the road around Pago Pago Harbour Kennedy was accosted by rock-throwing youths in a robbery attempt and was saved at the last minute by a policeman in a prowl car. He considers himself lucky because last year two Chinese fishermen were stoned to death and robbed in the same area. Kennedy hastily cleared American Samoa for Apia, Western Samoa,

on October 1. For three days and nights he fought high winds and poor visibility without reaching Apia. He was attempt ing to return to Pago Pago Harbour when, due to malfunctioning equipment and fatigue, he put the Seeker on a reef a few miles west of the harbour entrance.

For 48 hours, through four high tides the Seeker pounded on the reef before being driven 200 feet across the coral into a land-locked lagoon. She didn't spring any leaks so after three weeks of negotiations and expenditure of $4OO a contractor lifted the boat into an open lagoon. With equipment repaired, but without a haul out, the Seeker again left Pago Pago on November 1, 1973, and the skipper had a pleasant sail to Apia and on down to Vavau. PIM reported the Seeker in Rarotonga in June last year.

Kennedy left Los Angeles in May, 1970, single-handing the Seeker to Nuku Hiva, Tahiti, Boro Boro, Hawaii, Rarotonga and Pago Pago. He says that he intends to visit Fiji, New Hebrides, Solomons and Carolines within the next year.

The Seeker in Vavau Harbour