Cruising
pp. 93-95 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• WANDERER IV, Eric and Susan His :ock's 48 ft steel ketch, arrived in Port Moresby on June 17 from Auckland via he New Hebrides. After a couple of /veeks' stay, Wanderer IV sailed for Torres Jtrait, Darwin, South Africa and England. • VALHALLA, a 45i ft Btoek Island cetch from Hawaii arrived in Port Moresby on June 28 from Fiji and New Hebrides. On board were Phil Deming jnd crew Dave McAdams, Lee Stopher, Doug Mitchell. After a short stay Val halla plans to sail for Indonesia and Singapore. • ESQUILO, a 29 ft steel cutter from : rance sailed from Auckland, Noumea snd the Loyalty Islands to arrive in Port Moresby on June 28. After a short stay, Don Ntealey, his French wife Nicole and
Ifieir two-year-old daughter Sabrina plan
fo sail for Darwin, Ceylon, the Seychelles, then on to South Africa. • LOTOS 11, a 32 ft fibreglass sloop From Germany, arrived in Port Moresby on June 29 from Vila. Skipper Dr Gunther Schneider told PIM he had a pleasant trip except for a collision with a whale 100 miles west of Malekula. Fortunately Lotos II suffered no damage but Dr Schneider received some bruised ribs when he was thrown from his bunk.
After four weeks' stay, Lotos II plans to sail for Torres Strait and Indonesia. • KALEWA, 37 ft sloop, registered in Vancouver (BC), arrived at Rarotonga on June 27 from Whangarei, New Zealand, with owner-captain John Cofrin, Carl Straubel and Gretchen Waters, Americans living in Canada. The cruise started from Sydney and it was planned to call at Bora Bora and Hawaii before returning to British Columbia.
O WINDAWAY, 36 ft ketch registered in Vancouver (BC) arrived at Rarotonga on June 25 from the Society Islands with owner-skipper A. Clements, his wife and their two sons. Their cruise started from British Columbia a year ago and since then they have called at California and the Marquesas and Society Islands. Plans were to visit New Zealand. • VOORDEWIND, double-ender ketch registered at Ghent, Belgium, arrived at Rarotonga from Bora Bora on June 28 with owner-skipper L. Vallaman. Mr Valla man, who built the yacht, is an ex shipwright, and hopes to complete a cir cumnavigation. He left Zeebrugge on September 17, 1972, and ports of call included the Canary Islands, Barbados,
Panama, the Galapagos, Marquesas and Society Islands. From Rarotonga, he planned to sail to Tonga, and said that future plans would depend upon the weather, • SEEKER, a 30 ft fibreglass yacht, made her first visit to Fiji in June with single-hander Jim Kennedy who is cruis ing the Pacific after retiring last year as a space engineer in the United States.
Seeker came to Fiji from Samoa where she went on a reef off Pago Pago, and spent three weeks in a land-locked lagoon before being lifted out. From Fiji, Seeker is expected to sail for the New Hebrides and then on to the Solomons and the Caroline Islands. • PIM was brought up to date on the movements of SHEBESSA, an English ketch, in a note from skipper Norman Martin and wife Sheila. During 1973 Shebessa cruised from Melbourne to Sydney, Lord Howe Island, Noumea, New Hebrides and the Solomons to New Guinea. She spent the cyclone season in Madang then left in April for Samara!; thence to Cairns where she was joined by Johnny Matthews, from London, and John Stockton, from Adelaide. After cruis ing the northern part of the Barrier Reef, Shebessa headed for Thursday Island then Darwin. They expected to leave Darwin late June for Dili, Bali, Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling, the Maldives, Seychelles, Mombasa, then down the east coast of Africa to Durban. Next year they'll return to England to complete a circumnaviga tion, either direct or via Rio. The Martins send their regards to all other cruising
yachties.
• KEEWAYDIN, 61-year-old Bermuda rigged ketch, is on her first round-the world voyage after 10 years of extensive refitting. Her new owners, Lundin Bartil and David Sundbaum, are operating their passenger/crew basis world cruise out of a small Swedish town. When she left Suva for Vila (June 27) only seven hands were aboard, most of them crew mem bers. From Vila, Keewaydin will sail for Cairns, Australia, and from there work her way slowly towards home. She is
powered by a 160 hp auxiliary motor and has wall-to-wall carpets, central heating and 16 spacious bunks. • CORAL SEA, 31 metre Polish yacht, was a recent visitor to Rarotonga, carry ing Captain AAichelowski and a crew of 10. She arrived via Amsterdam, Casa blanca, Galapagos and Rangiroa. • STRANGER IV, a 41 ft ferro-concrete yacht registered in Auckland, called at Suva during June on a round trip from New Zealand to Fiji. On board were New Zealanders lan Reid, Philip Dumper, John Nash and Glen Miller. • THURSTON, a 23 ft fibreglass sloop, registered in San Diego> California, ar rived in Fiji at the end of May with Gordon and Sylvia Thurston and their daughter Sherry (12). The Thurstons, who are Canadian citizens, are emigrating to Australia.
They left San Diego, where they had
Top picture,
Keewaydin in
full sail on Suva Harbour and at right, at anchor at Suva wharf.
»een living, last year and spent some nonths in Honolulu before coming to iji. They intended staying in Fiji only ong enough to re-rig Thurston and take m fresh supplies. However, Gordon is it present in hospital with hepatitis and vill not be fit to sail for at least another ix weeks. • With the hurricane season over a lumber of harbours in the Pacific are ’alive" with cruising yachts. One of hese is Pago Pago which, early in June, irovided mooring space for 21 ocean joing yachts. Some of these were locally >wned, others came from such places as >witzerland, Sweden and New Zealand, he visitors included TE MOANA, ILLIHEE,
Aerry Maiden, Seven Seas, Storm
Itrutter, Lissa, Fabjous Joy, Willi
Waw, Keewaydin And Magic Dragon.
• BOOMERANG, 35 ft trimaran, arrived it Rarotonga on July 5 with single-hander ilmar Lundgren. His cruise started from /ancouver and took him to Hawaii, ahiti and the Leeward Islands. He will risit Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. • TRIPTYCH, the 65 ft ketch-rigged rimaran with Canadians Matthew Burpee ind wife Betty on board was in Fiji in lune, writes Matt in response to an ippeal (PIM, May, p 107) from a reader or news of the pair. "Since leaving Fiji n August, 1972," writes Matt, "we have risited the New Hebrides —our favourite ipot being Tanna. We then went to New Caledonia —Yate, Noumea and Isle of >ines. Triptych was left in Noumea while /ve took an air trip home for Christmas, sur first in nine years—lots of snow and emperature down to minus 35F degrees, n early March we sailed to New Zealand, (topping at the Bay of Islands before rontinuing to Auckland. Since then, we lave done a complete refit and are just 3n a short cruise before settling down to i shore job for a while. We expect to get back to NZ in early to mid July." • RONAKI, a converted clinker-built fishing boat, was in Suva in June during i cruise of the Fiji Islands. On board ire her skipper and owner, Mr Ron Ray yf Auckland, New Zealand, and his two :rew members, brothers Derry and Alec Woods of Nelson, New Zealand. Ronaki nas no ballast keel. It was removed during her conversion from a fishing boat fo a pleasure boat, after spending 25 fishing out of Port Chalmers, New
Zealand. She draws only 3 ft 9 in. and to make up for the lack of keel she carries 3i tons of concrete as ballast.
She has left for New Zealand by way of the west coast of Fiji and Tonga. • SOFIA, 90 ft topsail schooner registered at Gloucester (Mass), USA, arrived at Rarotonga on June 21 from Bora Bora with skipper Eric Thiel and an all American crew of 10 young men and women. The cruise started from Sweden, where Sofia was built 53 years ago, and calls were made at Portsmouth, England, Kiel, Germany, and Vigo in northern Spain. Two years were spent in the small Spanish port of Alicante on the Mediter ranean coast, then the voyage continued to the West Indies, Costa Rica, Panama, the Galapagos, Marquesas and islands of French Oceania. After a week in Raro tonga Sofia was to sail for Tonga, Fiji, and New Zealand. "If funds hold out," one cheerful girl crew member said, "we'll probably visit Indonesia and then complete a circumnavigation." Sofia still has her original single diesel engine, but the masts, rigging and sails are all new. • MANYANA, 38 ft ketch, anchored at Rarotonga on July 3 from New Zealand with owner-captain George Swinbourne, who built the yacht himself, Robert Brunswick, David Weir and Hugh Todd.
The cruise started from Melbourne and after a call at Lord Howe Island they spent six weeks cruising in New Zealand's Fiordland without sighting another yacht.
Calls were made at Wellington and Auck land and they made headlines in NZ when they were granted an interview by Prince Charles who later had a carton of beer sent to Manyana by helicopter.
Except for New Zealander Hugh Todd, captain and crew are Australians. Prince Charles went to school in Australia. From Rarotonga, George Swinbourne plans to cruise to Sweden with cal!: at Tahiti, Bora Bora, Hawaii, Panama, West Indies and the Mediterranean. He will then return to Australia with stops at Rio de Janeiro, Tonga and Fiji. • The NZ Shipping Corporation's LORENA was diverted to Raoul Island in June to pick up the crew of the yacht, MOEROA. The Moeroa was an entrant in the Auckland-Rarotonga yacht race, and put into Raoul after it was damaged in a storm. While at Raoul she dragged her anchor and was dashed against the rocks and wrecked. On board were owner skipper Gary Treadgold, Debby Lee, Sharon Reid, Murray Williams and Murray Cornwall. • INTERLUDE I, 33 ft sloop, arrived at Rarotonga on July 2 from New Zealand with John McKenzie, Allan Lee and Rob Blackburn. The yacht is a steel-hulled, professionally built half-ton cup racer which was to have entered the recent Auckland-Rarotonga yacht race. However,
because of the time involved in fitting out for cruising they could not make the race-starting date. Plans were to sail to San Francisco with calls at Tahiti, Christ mas Island and Hawaii. • VICTORIA, 72 ft ketch, arrived at Rarotonga from Whangarei, NZ, on July 5 with American owner John Barkhorn and seven crew. The yacht was built in New Zealand recently and this was her maiden voyage. Next ports of call are Tahiti and Honolulu where Mr Bark horn lives.
• PIM has had a note from a girl teaching in a Tongan outpost who wants to spend her vacation (December 1974/ January 1975) under sail. She's a 25-year old Canadian Erika Steinhubl, and she'd appreciate hearing from any yachties planning to be in the Tonga area about this time. Her address: PO Box 27, Pangai, Ha'apai, Tonga.
This is JAHAMA, a 36 ft fibreglass sloop registered at Honolulu, pictured in Suva Harbour on her fourth visit to Fiji in the five years that her skipper, single-hander Jack J. Ross, of Honolulu, has been cruis ing around the Pacific. Jack, a retired US Army major, came to Suva via Pago Pago, Apia and Wallis and Futuna. At one stage of his voyage, he was at the wheel for 13 hours when his auto-pilot broke down and he had to steer by hand. Jahama left for Honolulu early in July—quite a trip for a lone yachtee at this time of year with both wind and current against him.