Cruising
pp. 66-68 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• In mid-June it was reported there were 35 yachts in Nukuhiva headed for Tahiti. • ALKINOOS, a 32 ft sloop built in France in 1967 and owned by Jim Dun can, 30, of Vancouver, BC arrived in Tahiti in mid-June after Jim sailed single handed down the coast of the US and Mexico and then to the Marquesas and Tuamotus. His plans were to remain in Tahiti until Bastille Day, July 14, and cruise the Societies before heading on to the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. Asked why he decided to sail to the South Pacific, Jim replied that he got tired of sitting on a plough in the hot summer and freezing in the winter. • AMAZING GRACE, a 24 ft steel life conversion boat, was once owned by the Canadian Coast Guard. But they finally rejected the 25-year-old boat as being unseaworthy and sold it at public auction, where it was bought by Dave Boyes, 21, and Tim Noot, 22, both of Vancouver. Dave and Tim sailed Amazing Grace into Tahiti around mid-June with a big hole they acquired in the Mar quesas. Their plans were to remain in Tahiti about a month while they patched the boat and then head for the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji and Ntew Zealand.
Tim likes to surprise the Islanders with his favourite musical instrument, the bag pipes, as he strolls the streets playing the hymn Amazing Grace. • BABALATCHI, a 45 ft ferro-cement flush deck ketch from Vancouver, was in Tahiti during most of June. Aboard were Frank and Pat Braithwaite and their children, Joann, 12 and Patrick, 9.
They left Canada in August of 1974 and sailed to Mexico. Babalatchi was sailing to Rarotonga, Tonga and New Zealand before heading back home. • BETTY J, is a 40 ft yawl-rigged Cheoy Lee registered in Heber Springs, Arkansas. She is owned by Leonard and Betty Pratt and their two sons, Landon, 17, and Michael, 16. After a sail from Miami through the Caribbean and Pana ma, the Pratt family spent three months in the Galapagos before cruising to the Marquesas and arriving in Tahiti in mid- May. They planned to leave Tahiti around July 1 and sail to Rarotonga, the Samoas, Australia and New Guinea before going on around the world. Leonard is a retired pilot for Frontier Airlines in the United States. • BRIGHT EYES, a 35 ft Polynesian type Wharram catamaran, was built in 3i years by Trevor Tutte of Rochester,
England. Trevor, 25, and his crew-mate, Lynda Peters, 25, of Dundee, Scotland, left England in July, 1974, and sailed through the Atlantic, Caribbean, and the Panama Canal, before arriving in the South Pacific. They sailed to the Mar quesas and Tahiti, where they arrived on May 28. They left June 23 for Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand, where Lynda hopes to find work. Trevor plans to sail Bright Eyes on to Japan. • CANDIDE, an 84 ft two-masted gaff-rigged schooner from El Dorado, Cali fornia, left New Zealand on April 15 and arrived in Tahiti early in June, after having been caught in a gale, then in hurricane force winds. Owners Jon and Penny Stegenga and their son, Will, have been sailing in the South Pacific since June, 1972, and spent li years in New Zealand while Will attended school. Jon reports that Candida's shaft to the rudder was broken by the winds and high seas and they sailed 1,200 miles by steering with the sails until a hole could be bored through the rudder and ropes attached to steer by. A crew of three New Zealanders sailed to Ta hiti with the Stegenga family. • DOVE, a 33 ft Luders Design sloop, made famous by the circumnavigation of single-hander Robin Lee Graham, was in Tahiti in June. Dove was bought in 1971 from Robin by Dave and Sue Alfson of Los Angeles. Dave and Sue and Sue's brother, John Reinhart, have been sailing in the Pacific for a year and were in New Zealand when the movie Dove was playing. Dave says the rumour going around yachting circles that Robin was killed in a motor-cycle accident is com pletely false, claiming that Robin is living in the mountains of Montana. • FAIRWINDS, 40 ft Newporter ketch from Honolulu, returned to Tahiti for the second time on May 24. Owners Dave and Beverly Taskett of Berkeley, Cali fornia, have been sailing in the Pacific for years and have visited the Samoas, Fiji, New Zealand and French Polynesia.
Their plans were to leave at the end of June for Hawaii and San Francisco. • FELIX, a 40 ft steel ketch registered in Hamburg, was in Tahiti in June with owner Jack Alexander, Minnesota, aboard.
With him was his daughter, Kim, step daughter, Jane Gordon, son, John, and crew, Steve Rice. Jack bought Felix in Martinique and sailed to the Marquesas and French Polynesia in late April. They are going to New Zealand to live. But the most immediate plans were to fly back to the States for a short time. • GATITA, a 32 ft wooden sloop from Guayaquil, Ecuador, arrived in Ta hiti in June with single-hander Whitt Birnie, 29, of Westport, Connecticut at the tiller. Whitt bought the 27-year-old boat after backpacking to South America and sailed her to French Polynesia in June, 1972, after spending nine months in the Galapagos. Since then Whitt has
been exploring the islands collecting research material for a new book. His first photographic interpretation ol nature was a book entitled Start With the Sky published in the States. He says he particularly enjoyed Rapa and has been photographing the life under the water and on land. He will be in Tahiti for a while. • GAVIOTA 11, a 40 ft Trimaran ketch from Vancouver, with owners Wayne anc Brigid Walters aboard, arrived in Tahiti on June 12 and planned to sail the Societies for a couple of months. They rendezvoused with MARITA SHAN across the Pacific from Mexico. • GROG, a sleek 50 ft Kettenberc wooden sloop from Portland, Oregon, left Tahiti in June for Honolulu. Captain Dor West of Phoenix, Arizona and crew members Dick Miller and Kirby Bennetl arrived in Tahiti on the last day of Apri after cruising the Marquesas and motus. They could not find the entrance to the harbour when they arrived al night and were happy to find an English speaking fisherman (he was from Fiji, to guide them in. Don says they are com ing back next April and going to New Zealand. • HONEY WIND 11, a 40 ft Marinei ketch owned by Jim and Janet McNabb of Newport Beach, left Tahiti on June 13 for Hilo. It was their second attemp to leave French Polynesia after spendinc four months sailing the Marquesas, Tua motus and Societies. When they reachec Bora Bora, their bow stay broke and they developed engine problems and returnee to Tahiti. With them was crew membei Mike Taylor of Maine. • LA PAZ is a 35 ft Holiday sloop owned by Lee and Shirlee Richey ol Morro Bay, California. They left Californic in November, 1973 and sailed to Costc Rica, the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Tahiti,
Candide
oks and New Zealand, where they ;nt six months. When they arrived in w Zealand they discovered the keel s hanging on by only two of the ginal nine bolts. Lee, who is a pro sional diver and abalone processer, s La Pax had a knock-down of 90 jrees during a gale encountered from i/v Zealand to Tahiti. They arrived back Tahiti on June 9 and planned to re in for 30 days before heading to vaii. • LAUREE SUE, a 37 ft Alberg sloop n Vancouver, arrived in Tahiti in mid e. Aboard were the Stickney family: >rge, wife Joan, and daughters reen, 13, and Susan, 11. They left ada in August, 1974, and intended to to Mexico and home again, but de sd to see French Polynesia also. So f set out with photo-copies of charts only tracings of the dangerous Tua us. They will be cruising the Societies I the end of July before heading to d the Cooks, Fiji, Samoas and New land. > MARITA SHAN, a 61 ft ketch built Faiwan, is owned by Dr Jim Proctor Victoria, BC and wife, Carole. They red in Tahiti on June 12, along with r children, Margaret, Carita, Shannon, by and Mark, and crew member Peter zales of Pasadena, Calif. The Proctors
are US citizens living in Canada. They have been cruising for a year and will be in French Polynesia for two months or more before visiting the Cooks. • PAPAKI, a 28 ft double-end cutter from Lahaina, Hawaii, was built in 1948 and is now owned by Richard Postma, 24, Charles Sghonp, 25, and Leonard Scott, 27, all of Hawaii. Papaki and her three owners arrived in Tahiti on June 5 and plan to remain for several months before sailing to the Cooks. It is Richard's second trip to French Polynesia. He spent three months in the Tuamotus on a pre vious sailing trip and speaks the Pau
motan language.
• SILVER SWORD, Morgan 54 ft rac ing sloop from Honolulu, arrived in Tahiti on June 6 from Rarotonga and left the following week for the Tuamotus and Marquesas. Aboard were skipper Jay Lambert, his sister Lou, Walt Busch, Linda Cheyney, Pip and Cindy White and two newcomers, Pahl and Lowry Powers, all from Hawaii. Silver Sword was custom built in 1970 and won the Transpac- Tahiti race that same year under the name of WIDGEON. Jay's parents bought her in 1972 and in 1973 she sailed in the Transpac race to Hawaii. Then most of the present crew sailed throughout the islands of Marianas, the Marshalls and Carolines before coming to French Polynesia. They particularly liked Kapinga marangi, one of only two Polynesian inhabited islands in Micronesia. • SOUNDER, 43 ft fibreglass sloop from Santa Barbara, California, was brought to Tahiti in June, 1974, by owner Harold "Warty" Ward and a crew of three. They made a movie of the trip through the Marquesas and Tuamotus for television in the States, toured French Polynesia for six months and went back to California, leaving Sounder in Tahiti.
"Warty" then returned to Tahiti with crew member Kevin Sears, a professional abalone diver, and their girl-friends, Cindy Ward and Julie Jones. Their plans in late June were to sail to Huahine and wait for a friend to join them in a cruise to the Cooks, Fiji, Samoas and New Zealand. • MY LOVE, a 50 ft ketch registered at Pinetop, Arizona, arrived at Rarotonga on June 24 from Papeete and Bora Bora.
On board were Mrs Randy Weston, owner-skipper, her three children, Arthur, Pamela and Shea, and three crew, Henry Proske, Jerry Radimacher and Caroline Bliss. Next port of call was to be Pago Pago. • KARMA, a 26 ft sloop registered at Auckland, arrived at Rarotonga on June 22 from Bora Bora with single hander Leon Ernest Smith who planned to make Tonga his next port of call. • AKURAKU, 36 ft sloop, registered at Freemantle arrived at Rarotonga on June 5 from Papeete with Fred Grim minck, his wife, Lesley, and their young son, Tony. They left Freemantle in June,
Fter sailing the South Seas for the last [?] or three seasons, the captain and New of the 48 ft ferro-cement yawl, RWEN. Australian anthropologist Adrian ckey and Scots girl Anne Hill embarked the Sea of Matrimony recently. And re they are pictured at the Arwen's Im, champagne drinks in hand, after [?] ceremony aboard the yacht at Cam fay marina, Sydney, "being the place [?] love best", they told PIM. As any [?]od cruise yachtee would say about his asons for getting wed, Adrian said, ood crew are hard to find these days!" [?]ey are now off to the Solomons via [?]eensland and the Chesterfield reefs, hwen was named in PIM several times in 1973-74.
1972, and called at islands in the Indian Ocean, off South Africa, and South America and in the West Indies. Tony was born in Trinidad. They passed through the Panama Canal in February, 1975, and expect to reach Australia in September, after calling at Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia. • GYPSY COWBOY, 41 ft ketch from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, arrived at Raro tonga on June 9 with owner Bill Duncan and Captain Carl Ericksonn. They called at the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Panama where they stayed six months. Pacific ports of call were the Marquesas and Society Islands. The cruise has lasted 18 months and they plan to complete a circumnavigation within five years. • WENDY, 29 ft sloop, arrived at Rarotonga on June 10 with Bruce Silock and Anne Mac Niven from Papeete and Bora Bora. The yacht is registered at Southamption. Plans were to visit Aitu taki and Tonga. • WHITE HORSE OF KENT, 38 ft ketch, carrying owner-designer-builder Colin Usmar and Ruth Boydell arrived at Port Moresby on May 29 from Auckland.
Colin built the ketch at Cape Town in 1971. He planned to sail for Africa, via the Seychelles, after Port Moresby. • MYONIE, 36 ft ketch, was a recent arrival in Port Moresby from the Solomon Islands, carrying Dr Al and Helen Gehrman. They intended to sail through Torres Strait and then return to their home in the US after their third world cruise.
• RONNARCHY, 36 ft ketch, was abandoned about 60 miles east of Cape Brett, New Zealand, early in June, while on the way from Auckland to Fiji. The three people on board included the owner-skipper, Mr Rob Ray. The three were picked up by the freighter. Union Wellington, which was diverted to the area in response to distress signals. • MARIS, 36 ft wooden yawl, which left Sydney in September, 1974, arrived in Honolulu in April carrying skipper lan B. Kiernan, of Mosman, Sydney, and Mark Fraser, of Half Moon Bay, California.
On the way Maris stopped at Lord Howe Island, Rarotonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas and Hilo. • VIAJERA, 27 ft fibre glass sloop, arrived in Honolulu on May 12 from Papeete, carrying skipper William E.
Lonez, of Riverside, California, and Pamela G. Richmond, of Bay of Islands, NZ. • PAGURUS, 42 ft wooden ketch, reached Honolulu on May 26 from French Polynesia. She sailed south on August 4, 1974, from Santa Cruz, California, and before arrival at Honolulu called at Aca pulco, Galapagos, the Marquesas, Tahiti and Bora Bora. She weathered a hurricane and a six-day gale off Acapulco. On board Pagurus were skipper Albert Towle, Brad Towle and Russell Magardy. ® LEAU'I, 45 ft ferro-cement ketch, carrying Webster and Wilma Larsen, of Honolulu, returned to Honolulu on May 31 after a voyage to the Marquesas.
Also on board, as crew, was Tom Sawyer, of Millbrae, California. • LA CARETA, 32 ft sloop, carrying Anders and Gunnar Eriksson, arrived at Niue on May 20 from Rarotonga, and sailed on May 26 for Vavau. • MYANNA 111, 30 ft yacht, was a May 23 arrival at Niue from Rarotonga, carrying Daniel Roose and Denise Plourde.
She left for Vavau on May 31. • AQUARIUS, 34 sloop, arrived at Niue on May 26 from Rarotonga and sailed in June for Pago Pago. On board were Othell and Maxine Mallouf. © MOANA, 34 ft ketch, arrived at Niue from Rarotonga on May 28 and sailed on June 4 for Vavau, carrying Raymond Quint. • SHAULA, a 48 ft yawl registered at Seattle, Washington, USA, arrived at Rarotonga on June 27 from Pago Pago and Suwarrow. On board were owner captain Gordon Crawford and crewman Ken Vogel. Plans were to call at Tahiti, Hawaii, and the west coast of the USA. • MUSCARI, a 29 ft sloop, registered at Faversham, UK, arrived at Rarotonga on June 26 from Bora Bora with skipper D. J. Merely and crew H. M. Downie.
Next port of call was to be in Tonga. • ALEZA, a 40 ft yacht registered at London, arrived at Rarotonga from Auck land, Raiatea and Bora Bora on June 26 with an all-British crew —skipper R.
Hood, M. Price, E. Hammick and A.
Julian. Plans were to call at Tonga.