Cruising
p. 69 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• Cruising yachts which visited Tubuai, les Australes, French Polynesia, in December-January included: • BOBELINK, a 15 metre ferro-cement schooner from Mendocino, Calif., with jwner-builder Gil Rodan, wife Marian and jrown children Grey, Carl and Heidi. From :he Bay of Islands, New Zealand, direct in 24 jays. Bobolink arrived on December 1, and eft on December 27 for Tahiti on the way jack to California after seven years Pacific bruising. • WANDERLURE (referred to in PIM, January), arrived on December 8 from Rurutu, with singlehander Art Hammond in :harge. Wanderlure had come to Tubuai rom Rarotonga. There had been an attempt :o anchor at Rimatara, but this was foiled by sad weather and the poor anchorage that was offering. Wanderlure is a beautiful little Mden schooner, 10 metres on deck and 13 netres overall, built in California 53 years jgo. Art Hammond had sailed singlehanded 'rom Panama, Galapagos, Easter Island, Pit cairn, Tuamotus, Societies, Cooks. He left on December 28 for Raivavae with one Raivavae man and one Tubuai man. He spent a week there before leaving for Rapa, Mangareva, and possibly Pitcairn again, and will return through French Polynesia and points west after the hurricane season, finishing up in New Zealand. The yacht is well equipped with diesl power, auto-pilot, deep freeze and ham radio. • GITANA DEL MAR. from San Diego, Calif., with Bob and Lois Fellman and crew Steve Zipsyanek and Tahitian Ferdinand Tairua, arrived on January 16 from Rurutu and Tahiti. They left the following day for Raivavae, Rapa and Mangareva to return to Papeete and poin s west after the season.
Their yacht, a 12 metre fibreglass sloop purchased in California in 1968, had been cruising for 18 months around Hawaii, the Marquesas and Tuamotus and Tahiti. • JOKER, 9 metre sloop, steel-built in Launceston (Tasmania) in 1971, arrived at Vila from Noumea late last year with Bill Webb, Glen Butcher, Dick Kennedy and Hans Christen on board. After leaving Vila in January to cruise through the Solomons, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka and through Suez to the Mediterranean, Joker was caught by cyclone June. She ran for anchorage at Vovo Bay, Epi in the New Hebrides, but broke an anchor and was driven ashore.
With keel and rudder badly damaged, she was rescued by the yacht FRANCIS,
helped by villagers and taken to Vila where she was repaired. Joker's crew were loud in their praises of a policeman, David, who organised help, and the Francis but complained that a French pilot of an Air Melanesiae plane ignored pleas for help at Valesdir airport. Air Melanesiae has always enjoyed a reputation for giving help in search and rescue work. • ALKINOOS, 35 ft sloop, which has a new owner, Alf Bradshaw, recently retired from British Works at Vila, is waiting out the cyclone season at Vila after repairs to hull at Stewart Burns' boatyard. She went aground on reefs at south Efate while on passage from Fiji. Alf and his son, Dale, will cruise to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. • BLUE STEELER, a 33ft modified River Nimble yacht, sailed into Tubuai, French Polynesia early in 1975 with owner Don Travers, who sailed from California the previous November. Don has written to PIM from Tubuai and reports: "As a result of two subsequent visits to Tubuai in 1975 my yacht has been sold in Papeete and I am married to a Tubuai girl. We are very happy raising vegetables and a new baby girl as well as catching fish in this
wonderful place."
• A sudden increase in the wind-force during cyclone June caught Vila Yacht Club members unawares. The winds, forecast at 40 knots, increased to 80 knots during the night. The 18ft Stingray catamaran HIGHFLYER lived up to her name but little damage was done to the fleet of Fireballs at the Malupoa clubhouse.
Larger yachts on the water at Iririki Island in Vila Harbour lost anchors and four were holed but damage was slight. • MAJURO, Marshall Islands. Atten tion all cruising yachts! There is now a Marshall Islands Yacht Club with plans for an operating clubhouse. The Commodore
is Mary Polopolus, shown in the photograph with the locally-designed and built 14ft Bikini sailboat. The Bikini is a fibreglass boat which is well-suited for pleasure sailing and racing in the large Majuro lagoon. For information concer ning the Marshalls or details on re quirements for entering the Trust Territory, contact the Marshall Islands Yacht Club, PO Box 725, Majuro, Marshall Islands 96960. • REBEL, with Americans Marvin and Lee Glenn, who are among the best known "yachties" to have visited the South Pacific, is in the British Virgin Islands doing charter work. They spent several years in the South Pacific in Rebel, visiting most Island groups and New Zealand and Australia. They expect to go to St Petersburg, Florida, in April, to supervise final commissioning of a new boat.
Ballerina, which they will operate for the owner in the Great Lakes in summer and the Caribbean in winter. They will leave Rebel in the Virgin Islands as a sort of "warehouse bedroom”.