Cruising
pp. 87-89 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• EOLUS, 218 ton three-masted bar quentine visited Suva in May while on a round-the-world cruise. She left Ports mouth, England, in December, 1973, and since then she has visited Spain, the Canary Islands, the West Indies, and parts of the Pacific. After leaving Suva she was to call at Norfolk Island and Aus tralia. From Australia she will sail to the Far East across the Indian Ocean, and round the Cape of Good Hope for England. She carries a permanent crew of 15. On this trip she has 23 "guest crew" who pay the owners $4,000 for the cruise. She is owned by a British syndicate, Foundershire. She carries modern equipment such as radar, auto pilot, and an echo sounder. The 200 hp Dorman engine can drive the Eolus at 6 knots and the 550 sq ft of sail can put the speed up to 8 knots in suitable winds. Eolus reached Sydney in early June and took aboard some more "guest" crew. • QUEST, 52 ft motor sailer, which rode out the hurricane season at Rush cutters Bay, Sydney, was scheduled to leave on June 8 for Hobart, New Zealand, Rarotonga and Tahiti. Owner Charles Carter, told PIM before he left it would be a leisurely cruise. He planned to sail down the east coast of New Zealand as far as Bluff before leaving for Raro tonga and Tahiti. His plan then is to turn back to Tonga, Fiji and New Cale donia, and the Australian coast, with Mooloolaba as his landfall. He will then >ail north and west to Singapore. With lim are his wife and two daughters, n Sydney he signed on a young English man, Michael Strachan, as a member of he crew. Michael may leave the Quest n New Zealand. Mr Carter's son, Charles, vho has been cruising with the family n Quest since it left San Diego about the fiddle of 1971, left it in Sydney to go o Taiwan, where he will attend college.
Mhen he reaches Rarotonga Mr Carter lopes to renew acquaintances with an >ld friend, Ron Powell. • CRUSADER, 51 ft sloop, which had >een at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, waiting or the end of the hurricane season, left m May 18 to sail north along the Aus ralian coast. Owner Don Sorte, originally ntended to sail for Indonesia, but has :hanged his plans, and his latest plan is o visit Manila, Taiwan, Hong Kong and apan. It was also possible that he would all at various points in Papua New guinea. He had a crew of two men and hree women when he left Sydney.
• STORMSTRUTTER, 45 ft Canadian ketch registered at Vancouver, arrived at Rarotonga on May 10 from Papeete with owner-skipper John Samson, his wife, Patricia, and daughters Barbara and Christine. They are on a Pacific cruise which started from Vancouver three years ago. The ketch left for Pago Pago on May 15. • SURPRISE, 38 ft sloop, was an un expected visitor to Sydney late in May.
Carrying Italian owner, Ambrosio Fobar, who is sailing solo round the world, the sloop ran into a heavy storm in the Tasman Sea. The seas, whipped up by cyclonic gales, overturned the Surprise.
Fobar was thrown into the water and was saved only by an 8 ft lifeline attached to a wrist. The sloop did a 360 deg turn and Fobar was able to scramble back on board. The radio was wrecked and food was ruined, so instead of sailing from Auckland round the Cape of Good Hope, as planned, he sailed to Sydney instead. It was the second time seas turned the Surprise over. The first time was after she had rounded Cape Horn, when she went over from stern to bow. The Surprise left Sydney early in June for the Cape of Good Hope and Italy. • RONAKI, clinker built keel-less yacht, arrived in Suva recently from New Zealand. From Suva the Ronaki will cruise in other parts of Fiji, and then sail back to New Zealand, via Tonga. To make up for the lack of a keel she carries about tons of concrete as ballast. On board are the owner-skipper, Rob Ray, and brothers Derry and Alec Wood. • ZEW MORZA, 31 metre schooner, registered at Szczecin (formerly Stettin), Poland, arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete on May 4 on a world cruise. On board were Captain Zdzislaw Michalski and 10 crew all of whom are shipyard workers.
The tourist cruise started from Poland on November 8, 1973, and ports of call included Kiel, Amsterdam, Casablanca, Las Palmas, Barbados, Colon, Panama, Galapagos Islands, Nukuhiva, Rangiroa and Papeete. Zew Morza left Rarotonga on May 7 for Auckland, Sydney, Port Moresby, Timor, Madagascar, Capetown and Poland. • BENDORA, 30 ft Canadian sloop registered at Vancouver, arrived at Raro tonga on May 6 from Huahine, Raiatea, Bora Bora and Papeete with John and Jean Taylor. They spent one year in Mexican waters before sailing to the Marquesas. Bendora left for Tonga on May 20. • MOLOKAI GIRL, 39 ft American sloop registered at Las Vagas, arrived at Rarotonga on May 6 from Auckland after a stormy voyage of 24 days. On
board were skipper Fred Mack, his wife, Else, and a male crew member who joined the yacht in Auckland. Molokai Girl called at Rarotonga a year ago, bound from the USA to New Zealand, and is now making a return voyage via Papeete and Hawaii. • DULCIMER, 40 ft ketch registered at Vancouver (BQ arrived at Rarotonga on May 7 from Papeete, Maupiti and other French Polynesian islands with skipper Philip J. Grange and Gillian M.
Kidd. Previous ports of call included La Paz, Mexico, and the Marquesas Islands. Dulcimer is bound for Auckland via Tonga and Fiji. • TEACHERS PET 111, 32 ft cutter registered at Los Angeles, arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete on May 12 with owner-captain Carlos A. Derives, his wife Kathleen (both school teachers) and daughter Donna (13). Their cruise started in February from Long Beach, California, and calls were made at Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society islands. Plans were to call at Tonga, Fiji, the New Hebrides and Loyalty Islands, and to arrive in New Zealand about November. • MANU OTE Mill, 42 ft sloop registered at Vancouver (BC) arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete on May 12 with skipper H. J. Genciala and one crew member. • KAVENGA, 41 ft ferro-concrete sloop, arrived at Rarotonga on May 28 from Tauranga, New Zealand, with owner-skipper Pat Bowle-Evans, John Grieve, and brothers John and Steve Millar —all Canadians. Mr Bowle-Evans had worked in New Zealand as project manager for a paper mill extension and had his yacht built by Ferro Craft Ltd of Auckland. They sailed direct for Rarotonga and two days out their engine packed up. They were becalmed for four days and, during this time, sighted an other yacht that motored over. This was the 35 ft ketch SPRAY with Tony Pearce and his father-in-law, Vernon Willmen, on board. Spray left England in Septem ber, 1972, on a cruise to NZ, and was bound from Rarotonga to NZ when this unusual chance meeting occurred. The meeting was celebrated by a dinner on board Kavenga. Plans were to stay a week In Rarotonga, then proceed to Tahiti, Hawaii and Vancouver. • CHANSON, 40 ft sailing cutter registered at Los Angeles, arrived at Rarotonga on May 24 with owner-skipper Harold A. Kilmer and his wife Jean.
Their cruise started from California in March, 1962, and since then they've spent two years in Central America, one year in the Galapagos Islands and another year in Polynesia. They planned to sail to Tonga and then spend a year in and
around Fiji. Next countries of call would possibly be New Zealand and Australia and, Mr Kilmer added humorously, they might even complete a circumnavigation at their present rate of progress—if they lived long enough. • PINOCCHIO, 40 ft (11.75 m) ketch registered in Berlin, arrived at Rarotonga on May 31 from Mopelia and other Society Islands with Bernd and Elke Fengler. Previous ports of call included the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas and Tuamotus. Plans were to call at Tonga. • CIRCUS, 35 ft sloop, arrived at Rarotonga on May 30 from Whangerei, NZ, with owner-skipper Dr A. T. Cotton, David Judell, lan Beverley and Laurie Henbest. The brand-new yacht was to have entered the Auckland-Rarotonga Yacht Race, but was capsised and dis masted while crossing the Tasman from Hobart to Auckland. Circus was com pletely rolled over by a huge wave when 250 miles from Australia; the mast snapped and two cabin windows were stove-in. The four-man crew were in a trough of extreme low pressure with short, steep, confused seas and storm strength winds. They motored the sloop back, but by the time the damage was repaired the race had started. After a week in Rarotonga David Judell was to fly home and some of Dr Cotton's friends were to join'Circus in Rarotonga before sailing to Tahiti. • SHANTOH, 10 m sloop, and JAGA, 12 m ketch, which arrived in Rarotonga in April from French Polynesia, both left in mid-May. • CAPRICE, 31 ft fibreglass ketch built in Hong Kong, arrived in Port Moresby in mid May from Madang with Philip Baker, Ivan Gelderen and Olive Ruff on board. ® COQUETTE, 54 ft Samson design Ferro-concrete schooner, arrived in Port Moresby from Cairns on May 31, and Sill Cunningham planned to stay for a : ew weeks then sail for Lae. • TUI MANU (Mick York), 37 ft yawl, /von the Sydney-Noumea yacht race, which itarted from Sydney on May 30. Her :orrected time was 159.42 hours. Second vas HARMONY (Geoff Foster), 32 ft, in 160.04 hours, and ALCHERINGA (Joe )iamond skipper, owner Jim Bridgland) vas third in 164.19 hours. Line honours vent to BANJO PATTERSON (John Jarrett) >9 ft, in 197 hours, 32 min, 22 sec. • KATIKA, a 50 ft motor sailer ketch, sft Madang in June for Bali and Singa •ore via Irian Jaya, and possibly Manus sland. • PETER PAN, a 37 ft Nicol Cavalier rimaran with owner Reg Lincoln and
his 16-year-old son, Geoff, on board, was waiting in Madang in June for clearance papers to proceed to Bali and Singapore via Irian Jaya. (Mr Lincoln advises any one considering this trip to allow six months to obtain the necessary papers.) Peter Pan left Port Moresby in March and after a hard run to Samarai joined forces with Jeff and Carol Godsby on NANALOA for a leisurely and easy trip via Lae to Madang. • NANALOA, a 36 ft steel ketch with Jeff and Carol Godsby on board, is in Madang for a couple of months before leaving for Namatanai on the east New Ireland coast. • KEEWAYDIM, 24 metre ketch which arrived at Rarotonga on May 15 was expected to leave for Tonga, Fiji, the New Hebrides, and Cairns, Queensland, after a brief stay, sailed from Sweden in September, 1973, to Portsmouth, England.
Keewaydim was entered for a round-the world yacht race, but had to retire to the Canary Islands for repairs. From racing she switched to cruising with calls at the West Indies, Panama, the Gala pagos, Marquesas and the Society Islands. After repairs at Cairns she will cross the Indian Ocean to Capetown, and hopes to be back in Sweden by the spring of 1975. • THYME, 37 ft yacht, left Auckland in May for "four months of Pacific ad venture". On board were owner, Bill Townson, an Auckland boatbuilder, his wife Mona, and friends Emmet Hussey, Rod Fergusson and Stuart Mason. First call was to be in Fiji.
• CHARLEMAGNE, 62 ft cutter (War wick White, skipper), won the Auckland- Rarotonga yacht race in May on corrected time, from SIRIUS, racing cutter (John W.
MacKenzie) and ROULETTE (Fred Andrews).
Line honours went to another 62 ft cutter, KAHURANGI (Wally Stuhlman) in 9 days, 6 hours, 14 min, 40 sec. Charle magne was second across the line in 9 d, 15 h, 28 min, and TOTOLO, 46 ft cutter (Don Winstone) third in 9 d, 17 h, 11 m, 16 s. In the International Offshore Rule Mark 111 rating class Roulette was first, Kahurangi second and Charle magne third. The other yachts which took part in the race were EROS (Denis Drouyn), WHITE SQUALL (Ron Chalmers and NEREIDES (Dyson Gulliver). Nereides was the mother ship for the race.
After the race several of the yachts had Pacific cruises lined up. Kahurangi and Charlemagne were scheduled to sail for Tahiti, Sirius for Samoa and Fiji, and White Squall to Aitutaki, Palmerston, Tonga and possibly the Kermadecs. The land, although Roulette called at Aitutaki first.