Cruising
pp. 88-90 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• CHANSON, 40 ft sailing cutter registered at Los Angeles and which left Rarotonga last July headed for Tonga and Fiji, returned to Rarotonga in late September from Hawaii. On board were skipper-owner Harold A. Kilmer and Jean Reilly, who intend to visit French Polynesia and Fiji after engine repairs have been carried out. • UNTIE, 41 ft gaff-rigged cutter, arrived at Rarotonga on September 30 from Papeete with single-hander Mr A. C.
Murdoch who left Milford Haven, Wales, in his yacht six years ago. He called at Malta, where he stayed for one year before visiting Spain, Morocco and the Canary Islands. He stayed at Grenada, West Indies, for four years, then left the Panama Canal and sailed direct to the Marquesas. Mr Murdoch is bound out of Rarotonga to Russell, NZ. • LA PAZ, 35 ft sloop registered at Morro Bay, California, arrived at Raro tonga after a very rough passage from Papeete with owner-skipper Leland H.
Richey and his wife, Shirley, on Septem ber 6. From Morro Bay they had called at Mexican ports, Costa Rica, the Mar quesas and Tahiti. They left Rarotonga on September 18 with plans to call at New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea.
They are returning to California, but were undecided about what other ports to call at between the Coral Sea and Hawaii. • NATHALIE, 36 ft Swiss sloop registered at Basilea, arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete on September 11 with owner-captain William Ischer, Bernard Boudin and Jean Pierre Deruwe. Their cruise started from France two years ago and took them to Caribbean ports, Colombia, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and French Polynesia. Nathalie left Raro tonga on September 14 for Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia and with plans to complete a circumnavigation. • MAREDEA, 60 ft American yawl registered at Wilmington, Del., arrived at Rarotonga on September 20 from Papeete with co-owners Dan Leahy, Christine Rooney and Bill Wilson. Also on board were two crew, Vic Culina and Jacques Shelly. Mr Shelly is French, the rest Americans. Maredea once belonged to the US Naval Academy which used her for racing. The present cruise, which her co-owners hope will be a circumnaviga tion, started from New York on Novem
jer 16, 1973. Calls were made at Carib >ean islands, Panama, and the Galapagos, Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society islands.
Mans were to call at Tonga then stay in slew Zealand for the hurricane season. • WHITE HORSE OF KENT, 38 ft :etch, arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete >n September 8 with British single-hander 'olin Ushar, who is New Zealand-bound.
Ar Ushar built the yacht in Capetown md sailed in December, 1971, to Rio de aneiro, then to the Caribbean where he pent a year. He gave the Galapagos a niss as the yacht has engine, but ailed at the Marquesas. • LEZARDER, 32 ft American cutter, rrived at Rarotonga on August 31 from ahitl and Bora Bora with owner-captain Mark S. Anthony and crew Mary Anne ohnston, Patricia Buxton and Gunther Mrchner. Plans were to call at Aitutaki, ’almerston and Niue Islands. • STARBOUND, 47 ft ketch, arrived at uva in September from Pago Pago after ruising from Annapolis, Maryland, Trough the West Indies and a number f island groups to the east of Fiji. She ; owned by George G. Stuermer, of luntington Beach, California. • VELA, 40 ft cutter, went aground n a reef just off Makaluva Island, Fiji, n September 19, when about to enter uva Harbour. She had arrived from ago Pago carrying owner, Charles /ilcox, and three members of his smily. Divers inspected the yacht before decision was made about salvage. • Among other arrivals at Suva in eptember were TOPAZ, 79 ft schooner, ■om Pago Pago; PUFFIN, 27 ft cutter, nd DOVE, 33 ft sloop, both from Tonga nd on the way to NZ; and JAGA. • MATANGI, 36 ft sloop, arrived at ago Pago in September from Auckland, ia the Cook Islands, carrying owner dipper, Mr A. L. Cantwell, of Auckland, is wife, Jennifer, and son, John. • ORCA, 39 ft sloop, skippered by /illiam J. Truscott, South Pasadena, alifornia, arrived in Pago Pago in Sep ?mber. Since leaving Newport Beach, alifornia, in September, 1972, Orca has ailed at Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji and New ealand. • STOERTEBEKER, 39 ft sloop, flying Te flag of West Germany, was a recent rrival at Pago Pago. She is under the ommand of Heiko Koeter, of Polderwag. he crew includes Eckard Brunjes and oslyn Boote. The sloop left Bremerhaven i August, 1973, and visited Dover, Vadeira, Las Palmas, Barbados, Panama nd Tahiti.
• ELLA, 32 ft cutter, owned and skippered by Walter Poitevent, of Hono lulu, was a recent arrival at Pago Pago.
She left Honolulu in March, 1974, and visited the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society and Cook Islands before Pago Pago. The Ella crew includes Beth Church, of San Francisco, and Don Murray, of Winnipeg. • LEIF THE LUCKY, 34 ft sloop, arrived recently at Pago Pago, and will make its home there. The master, Leif V. Gustafson, sailed her from "some where in the Western Pacific" to take up a position in American Samoa. He de clined to say where he started from, but said he made calls at Truk, Ponape and N'auru on the way. • FRI, the nuclear protest yacht, which was towed out of the test zone in 1973 by the French authorities, recently sailed into Papeete from NZ, carrying 12,000 anti bomb protest cards from all countries bordering the Pacific. After leaving Tahiti the Fri will sail to Fiji and the Marshall Islands. • Among yachts in Honiara in Sep tember were MYONIE, 36 ft ketch, and SEEKER, 30 ft fibreglass yacht. Myonie, with owners Al and Helen Gehrmon, from Florida, USA, is on her third circumnavi gation. The Solomons is familiar to Al— he was in Guadalcanal in 1943 with the US "Sea Bees". Myonie left New Zealand in May, with stops at Fiji, Canton (Phoenix Islands), Funafuti (Ellice Islands).
Seeker, with single-hander Jim Kennedy, of Los Angeles, USA, is bound for Kusaie and Ponape in the US Trust Territory. • Last news we had of WANDERER IV, with Susan and Eric Hiscock, on their way back to England from New Zealand and Sydney, was that they had safely arrived in Darwin. • SEVEN SEAS, 33 ft sloop, with owners Hans and Bridgette Wolf-Sternig from West Berlin, arrived in Port Moresby on its way to Europe via Suez. They in tend having a working stopover for a while. © PLUNCH, 33 ft sloop from Hamburg, arrived in Port Moresby in September from Suva and Noumea. On board were owner Gunter Hermann and crew mem ber Dittmar Viohle, who hope to work in Moresby. • NOELNAI, built in Port Moresby of ferro-cement by well-known couple Graham and Noela Byrnes, departed Moresby in September for Samarai, Lae and Madang on the start of their Indo nesian cruise. • MAR-Y-PAZ, 60 ft ketch built by Alan Orams in New Zealand for Kermit and Delores Wall, reached Port Moresby
after starting in the Auckland-Suva yacht race and continuing through New Cale donia and the New Hebrides. They intend cruising to Bali and eventually Hong Kong. ® Other recent visitors to Port Moresby were KRANICH, 40 ft Piver tri maran, with Eckard and Vera Luedthe and their three children, en route to Germany, and DULCINEA, 37 ft sloop, which arrived from Pago Pago and left mid-September for Bali and Singapore. Crew includes Californian Judy Erickson. • JINDIVIK, 33 ft Australian trimaran, was badly damaged and later overturned and sank in heavy seas recently off the southern Papua coast. Three men on board, owner Adrian Vandernilt, Cliff Shugg and Paul Carney, set out from Townsville. Heavy seas ripped off the port float; about two days later the tri maran overturned. The three men managed to salvage a life raft on which they drifted to the Papua coast. They stumbled ashore near the mouth of the Purari River. • CURLEW, an 81 ft schooner, arrived in American Samoa in September from Apia. The wood-hulled craft was built in Maine and is owned by Francis C.
Romen, of Santa Monica, California, who plans an indefinite stay in American Samoa. • IE MOANA, 50 ft ketch owned by George A. Perry, of Wilmington, Dela ware, returned to American Samoa in August after a visit to Western Samoa.
Previous ports of call included Panama, Tahiti and Cook Islands.
Transport Briefs
• The NZ Government “banana boat”, the Moana Roa, which made 145 voyages out of Auckland in the last 14 years, has been handed over to the Royal NZ Navy, and will be come a survey ship. She sailed 580,000 miles in those 14 years, plying mainly to the Cook Islands, but as a commercial proposition she was a disaster.
Captain Fraser, the master, and the chief engineer, Mr W. H.
Maidens, served with the ship since it was built. • A new shipping service linking
Fiji with Singapore was begun in
September. The ship, Liverpool
Clipper, chartered for the service by Ben Shipping (Pte) Ltd, Singapore, from the Portland Shipping Co of Glasgow, will carry general and re frigerated cargo. The service will operate once a month. Fiji agent is Seatians (Fiji) Ltd.