Cruising
pp. 59-63 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• STORMSTRUTTER, 46 ft Canadian ketch, arrived at Rarotonga on March 12 from Whangarei with owner-skipper John Samson, his wife, and friend Shona Ferman. They are bound for Bora Bora, then home to Canada via Alaska. The yacht, with the Samson family on board, was in Rarotonga in May 1974 during a Pacific cruise which had then lasted three years. • ROMANCE, 75 ft. 6 in. brigantine registered at Panama, arrived at Rarotonga in March from Papeete bound for Pago Pago via Suwarrow.
On board were Captain Arthur M. Kim berley, Helene Kimberley and 16 crew.
All are US citizens except the ship’s doctor, Mary M. Robertson, a South African; and Paul Skagfeld, a Canadian seaman. Romance carried three mates, a sailmaker, a cook and nine seamen. Built in Svendborg, Den mark, in 1963, the vessel is making a world cruise and left Rarotonga on March 9. She is an ex-cargo ship designed under Royal Danish Govern ment supervision for the Greenland trade, has ample diesel power and carries 4,500 sq ft of sail. • AFFAIR, 60 ft custom-built Cheoy Lee from Chicago, has been in Tahiti since January 9 for the duration of the hurricane season, before continuing her circumnavigation. Aboard are owner Theo Spectorsky and nephew Jeff Munger, 33, who is the boat’s cap tain, engineer Merv Bear of Florida, and Lee Adamson and Kathy Cleveland, both of San Francisco. Af fair, which was built in 1965, is all double-planked teak construction and carries all the conveniences of a modern home, including three double staterooms with three complete heads, air-conditioning, two deep freezers and an electric refrigerator. Their trip began from Ft Lauderdale, Fla in January, 1974, and has brought them through the Bahamas, a complete cir cle tour of the Caribbean, many visits along the Mexican and South American coasts and through the Marquesas. Their next ports of call will include the Samoas, Tonga, Fiji, New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Australia. • FIREBIRD, 85 ft aluminium motor sailer registered in Portland, Oregon, left California in July, 1975, visited Acapulco, sailed to Nukuhiva in 17
days and arrived in Tahiti on January 27 with nine people aboard. This 105 gross tons yacht was built for $1 1 /4 million in 1968 by Palmer Johnson.
She is now owned by Sam Rehnborg of California. With Sam in Tahiti were his two children, Lisa, 18 and Rod, 8; his professional captain, Bob Bucknell, and Stan Beck. Firebird carries 3,000 gallons of fuel, 1,800 gallons of water and a water-maker, three freezers, four refrigerators, five double cabins with three heads and fresh-water showers, two electric ovens and a propane stove and oven.
She also has radar, Loran, single side band radio, VHF AM radio and 2 30KW generators. Bob says she can carry enough fuel and water for six months.
From Tahiti they will sail in April to the Samoas, Tonga, Fiji, Brisbane, the Barrier Reef. Cocos islands, the
Seychelles and the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. • HIHIFO, Tongan for Westward, is a 42 ft cutter from Melbourne owned by Stan and Bilkis Field and their daughter, Juliana, nine. They sailed from New Zealand on February two, arriving in Tahiti on February 27, where they planned to cruise for two or three months, with no definite future sailing directions. The Fields have owned Hihifo for 14 years and have sailed extensively throughout the Pacific from Tahiti to the Cooks, Tonga, Fiji, Gilberts, New Hebrides, Timor, Indonesia, Burma and Thailand. • IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, 40 ft Morgan ketch-rigged yacht registered in Whistler Bay, Ohio and owned by Dr
Roger Mason and wife Elayne of San Diego, sailed away from Tahiti on March 1, to be delivered 10 the owners in San Diego. Returning the boat for the Masons were Bjorn Johanssen of California, Bruce Kjos of Minnesota and John Campbell of England. Im possible Dream arrived in Tahiti in August, 1975 and the owners flew home to resume business. e KYERI, 40 ft Hinckley-Owens cutter from Boston, carrying the Stewart family of Herb, Mary Louise and son Bruce, 16, said farewell to Tahiti on March 1 and sailed to Hawaii. Kyeri, a 20-year-old wooden boat bought in 1971 by the Stewarts, left Boston in 1974 for the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Panama, then sailed through the
More than 450 yachts have called at Rarotonga since 1965 according to a book kept by the port chaplain, the Rev Father George Kester, SS.CC.
Father Kester, a Dutchman, had his wish for an island for a mission fulfilled in 1947, when he was posted to Manihiki.
When he became port chaplain in 1965 he started to catelogue the yachts which called there, adding a few comments about each. These
comments make absorbing reading,
ranging from the lyrical to the amusing and dramatic. There are excellent drawings of many yachts.
The first entry was the Bounty, from Tauranga, New Zealand with Captain Des Elliott and a crew of six. The book
notes that Vic Meyer, owner/skipper of the Australian yawl, Solo, was a visitor In February, 1969. Many of the ", yachtees " have kept In touch with Father Kester. One of these is Sir Percy Wyn-Harris, a 1966 arrrlval,
sailing single-handed.
Many countries are represented In the book the US, Canada, Holland, Germany, Poland, the USSR, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, the UK.
The smallest yacht was the Vlaag, 19 ft, which arrived In 1971. The book records It was “sailing around for pure pleasure, of pure happiness, in search of a soul". The biggest was the Polish schooner, Zew Morza, 31 metres, a 1974 arrival.
Panama Canal to the Las Perlas Islands, the Galapagos, Marquesas and Tuamotus, arriving in Tahiti the last week in November. While in French Polynesia they cruised to many of the outer islands. Bruce, noted along the Papeete waterfront for his lovely scrimshaw pennants of boats, presented a pendant of the BOUNTY to the widow of James Norman Hall, one of the authors of this famous story, just before he sailed away. • MANDORLA, 38 ft Morgan-designed Columbia sloop from Portland, arrived in Tahiti on February 15, with owner Geoffrey Wilson, 32 and Kaarin, of Seattle. Their cruise began in Novem ber from San Diego and carried them to the Marquesas and Moorea. Geof frey was in the hospital with hepatitis the first week in March and it was un decided as to whether he would fly home or recuperate first and then sail to Hawaii. • MATTHEW, 30 ft Tahiti ketch registered in Pago Pago, sailed into Tahiti in December with owners David and Pidge Irvine and son James, 11.
Also sailing with the Irvines is the ship’s cat, Minnie, who has been with them the eight years they’ve owned Matthew. They left the US in 1970 and cruised to Mexico, Hawaii, the Cooks and Samoas, settling in Pago Pago for 4V2 years, while David worked as executive producer of KUZK-TV there.
James is attending school in Tahiti.
Their plans will carry them west again in a few months to Penryhn Atoll and maybe New Zealand or New Guinea • PISTACHIO, 55 ft long, 29 ft wide, specially-designed trimaran registered in Tortola, British West Indies, was built for Bob and Marge Law in British Columbia, which they left in Sep tember for a round-the-world cruise.
They arrived in Tahiti in December and planned to wait out the hurricane season, then resume their trip in April, calling at Rarotonga, Fiji, Tonga and Niue. Pistachio will be used for day charters when Bob and Marge return to the Caribbean. • SEA TRAIN, 31 ft Mariner ketch from Los Angeles, arrived in Tahiti on February 18, carying owners Jim and Linda Godber of Redondo Beach.
They left California in June, 1975, and sailed to Hawaii before visiting the Societies. Jim and Linda plan to cruise the South Pacific over the next two years, calling at Rarotonga, Tonga and Fiji. Linda is the boat’s navigator and Jim is the cook. • SPIRIT, 42 ft double-ended wooden ketch from Portsmouth, New Hamp shire, is spending the hurricane season in French Polynesia before continuing her trip west. Owners Ray and Ellen Jackson, with Peggy Fleder
john, Fred Baker, Kathy Pumphrey and Warren Plumbo, all from the Sausalito area, sailed from San Francisco on September 18, arriving in Nukuhive 24 days and two hours later, after skirting two hurricanes. Other problems were encountered when their anchor rode chafed through and again when they were caught 1/2 a mile off Tahiti in a 60 mph squall with all their sails up and no fuel for the engine, they waited all night and half the next day before fuel could be brought to them, allowing them to come into the harbour in Tahiti on December 3. • THE EST, 36 ft Columbia sloop from
Honolulu left Hawaii on Dec 6 for the Marquesas and Tuamotus and sailed into Tahiti at the end of January.
Owner Bert Lang and crew Pavel Kubac were on board. Pavel flew back to Honolulu and Bert plans to sail west to New Zealand after the hurricane season. • LAUCALA, 60 ft waterline ketch, arrived at Rarotonga on March 26 with Captain Hilton, his wife, Judy, and five other crew. The yacht, registered in Panama, was on a delivery voyage from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Fiji for the owner. Laucala left for Fiji on March 27.