Cruising

Yachts

• March found Gizo in the Solomons literally saturated with visiting yachts.

WALU, a 48 ft ferrocement yawl, with owner-skipper Richard Roderick and crew Alan and Pam Walker and Paul Button, was one of them. They plan to reach Indonesia via Port Moresby and Darwin. • TIKI, a 72 ft ketch, the mother ship to the Martin fishing boats out of Cairns, Queensland, arrived at Gizo with owner skipper Ray Morris, his wife Dianne and daughter Rebecca, and crew James Morris, Dan McLaren, Phil Mclntosh and Linda Casey. Tiki was heading back to Cairns. • HONNALEE, a 42 ft ketch built in Vancouver, Canada, for Roy and Rika Gingell, dropped anchor in March at Gizo with the Gingells and their cat Brutus on board. They have been cruising the Pacific for seven years and plan to add the Admiralty Islands, New Guinea, Indonesia and Singapore to their list in that order. • CRUSADER, 51 ft sloop, a well known visitor at many Pacific ports, was "just wasting time" in Gizo, said owner skipper Don Sorte. Don and crew Alan Coathup, Warren Hart, Lorri Hampton and Lorraine Ling will later make for Indo nesia and Singapore. Crusader's friends will be happy to know that all three poodles and the parrot are alive and kicking. • HAN-BRI, 32 ft sloop, with owners Hans and Debbie Schmidt aboard, were also at Gizo with bows pointing towards Kieta, Rabaul and then Japan. • KIN TAN, a 33 ft steel sloop, which has cruised extensively in Papua New Guinea waters with owners Paul and Sharron Kinnison, called at Gizo before cruising the Solomons. New Heb rides will also be visited before Kin Tan heads back for Australia. • VAGABOND, 42 ft steel ketch, built in Holland for skipper Len Martinson, arrived in March at Gizo with Len, wife Inga and black cocker spaniel Lotta.

Plans are to head for the Philippines, then on to Hong Kong, later Singapore and back to Europe. • MAR-Y-PAZ, a 60 ft Herreshoff ketch which was in Gizo with owner skipper Kermit Wall, wife Dolores and Siamese cat Missy, was earlier in Madang where she was struck by lightning. No one was injured but repairs were needed

to instruments. After a brief cruise through the Solomons, she will be slip ped at Madang for repairs. Then the Walls hope to make for Indonesia and Singapore. Before leaving Gizo they asked PIM to tell Don Sorte of Crusader that they will be "eternally grateful" to him. Don spent the best part of three days under Mar-y-Paz's keel repairing the prop. © CYMRO, a 43 ft cutter on passage from the UK to Auckland, arrived at Rarotonga on March 17 with owner skipper Barton Evans and his three child ren, twins, a boy and a girl aged 20, and a son aged 16. Ports of call included Las Palmas, the Barbados Islands and the Marquesas. Mr Evans, a chartered accountant of Welsh descent, has the Welsh National Emblem painted on his yacht and is emigrating to New Zealand. © ROEBUCK BAY, 42 ft wooden ketch, left Melbourne in October 1974, stopped in Auckland, and arrived in Honolulu in January. It is now on course for British Columbia with skipper William H. Tournier of Melbourne, and crewman Harold Richards of Sydney. • CHALETO, 66 ft fibreglass ketch, arrived in Honolulu in February from Auckland, with stops en route at Fiji, Rarotonga, and Tahiti. It left Honolulu in March for Newport, California with stops at Lanai and Maui. On board were skipper Robert A. Martin of Auckland, his wife Joy, and their children David, and Pamela. Also on board was crew man Michael Lorimer of Whangarei. • ILLUSION, a 30 ft fibreglass covered plywood sloop, arrived in Hono lulu in February with skipper Mike Farrand, and crewman Alan Coubray, both of Auckland. They have cruised Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, New Guinea, the Solomons, and Tarawa since leaving Auckland in July, 1973. • TEAL, a 27 ft fibreglass sloop, arrived in Honolulu in February from

Bora Bora, with skipper and wife, Lee and Aurelia Brandon, of Encino, Cali fornia. • TEQUILA, a 46 ft triple-planked sloop, arrived in Honolulu in February from Auckland, with stops at Suva, Apia, Pago Pago, and Palmyra. On board were skipper D'Arcy George Whiting of Auck land, his wife Molly, children Anthony and Debora, and crewman Mary Hazard.

After loosing a prop, they fabricated one of teak, which worked well. • KUNDA, a 35 ft trimaran registered at Brisbane, Australia, arrived at Raro tonga on March 24 from Papeete with owner-skipper Jeffrey Montague and Lucile and Sue Montague on board. They left for Tonga on March 27. © LA FLOR, a 30 ft double-ender Tahiti ketch, arrived at Rarotonga on March 27 with owner-captain Rolf Heimann and Jane Holbrook. Their cruise started from Melbourne and took them to Rapa, Pitcairn and Tahiti. Mr Heimann, working in collaboration with the Green peace Organisation, collected samples of plankton and fish in the vicinity of Mururoa Atoll. They planned to visit Aitutaki before returning to Australia. © Nearly 20 ocean racing yachts, including one from Australia, will try to beat a century-old record for a sail pass age from London to Sydney and back in the Financial Times Clipper Race to begin in London on August 13. The Australian entry is Josko Grubic's 84-foot ketch provisionally named ANACONDA II which will carry an Australian Navy crew.

It will rival the GREAT BRITAIN II which round-the-world yachtsman Chay Blyth has loaned for a British joint-service entry. The record they will be attempting to break was set by the PATRIARCH which made the outward passage around the Cape of Good Hope in 69 days and the return via Cape Horn in a similar time. • AUDACIOUS, a yacht from Seattle, arrived at Tarawa (GEIQ in March with owner-skipper George H. Stout and wife Johanna on board. They left Seattle last July and called at San Diego, Hilo (Hawaii,) Honolulu and Majuro before reaching the Gilberts. Mr Stout is a pro fessor of chemistry at the University of Washington. They will head for Fiji be fore returning to the United States. • TARA-NUI 11, 50 ft New Zealand built cutter, sailed from the New Heb rides to Sydney for a refit before setting out on a world cruise; then cruised the NZ Bay of Islands before heading for Australia's Great Barrier Reef. She carries owner-skipper David Rumble, wife Lillian and 12-month-old son Jason, and crew Brian Keelty. The Rumble's home is at Hunters Hill, Sydney.

Many thanks Crusader!