Cruising

Yachts

• SOLONG 11 , 37 ft sloop from Auck land, arrived at Rarotonga on May 12 with Terry Fitzpatrick, Gary Terry and Mervin Helsey. Their next port of call was to be Tahiti. • RHIANNON, 30 ft sloop with Mike Jacker and Lewis Gordon arrived at Rarotonga on April 30 from Bora Bora.

Their cruise started from New Orleans and took them to Mexico, Panama, and the Galapagos and Marquesas Islands and the Tuamotu and Society Islands.

Their plans for the future were uncertain. • LINDA, 61 ft ketch registered in Panama arrived at Rarotonga on May 1 from Papeete. On board were Captain Dario Del Greppo, Luigi Romolo, Rinaldo Vecchi and Silvano Oprandi, all Italians except for Romolo who is an Australian citizen. They were bound for Suva, Noumea and Sydney. • BANSHEE, 34 ft sloop registered in Los Angeles, arrived at Rarotonga from Maupiti on May 12 with Jim and Joy Lauffenburger and their cat. They will continue their round-the-world cruise with calls at Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. • PAKA, 65 ft motor yacht, was a May arrival in Suva from Australia. She is owned and skippered by George Talbott, of Hawaii, who owns a chain of liquor stores. After Suva, Mr Talbott planned to visit Tonga, Samoa and Christmas Island and then return to Hawaii. While in Suva Mr Talbott had a public brush with the Customs Department over a couple of motor-cycles, on which a bond was de manded, and over the clearance of spare parts sent from Honolulu. • HAEATA, 21 m yacht, was wrecked on an uninhabited island in the Cook Is lands in August The nine people on board eight men and a woman spent 12 days on the island before they were picked up by the Acheron, which heard their Mayday distress call. The Acheron took them to Atiu, which was about 25 km away The Haeata was on its way from New Zealand to Stockholm, home city of the owner, Eric Persson Mr Persson built the yacht at Nelson. With him were an Australian, an American and six New Zealanders The Haeata was on her maiden voyage, which started unhap pily About a week after leaving New Zea land she was caught in bad weather and had to return to port for repairs • PAGON LEE, Melbourne-owned yawl, went aground on a reef east of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, in August An aircraft guided the coastal ship, Misima, to the reef to rescue the six oc

cupants of the Pagon Lee, and take them to Samarai The owner of the yawl is Mr R G. Lee, of Richmond, a Melbourne suburb Yachts which recently anchored off the Port of Refuge Hotel, Vavau, Tonga, in cluded: • SUNDAY MORNING, schooner, sailed by Charlie and Kath Hast and children from Newport Beach, California, to Pago Pago-Vavau-Haapai-Nukualofa- Vavau, then to Fiji • PING PONG, 9 8 m Ericson yacht, with Jim Feidon (skipper) and Vichi Richardson, bound for Fiji and possibly New Zealand Ping Pong sailed from San Diego in 1974 She was at Pago Pago before Vavau • HINEWA, 7 m cutter, sailed single handed by Dave Booth from Rarotonga Suva was next port of call

• STRANGER IV, 12 5 m cutter, with Mary and Dan Jordan and children The cutter was missing for some time be tween Pago Pago and Vavau It was at Late Island for several miserable days while Mary and Dan tried to mend a broken tiller and a split bow After Vavau the Jordans intended to sail to Fiji • IRISH MAID, sailed single-handed by Dave Benson arrived from Nukualofa, en route to Fiji • MIYAKOWASURE, 9 1 m sloop from Yokohama, sailed first to the US, Mexico and Tahiti, carrying Masataka Hori and Teruko Hori They intended to sail south through Tonga and possibly to Auckland • WINDWAGON, 18 3 m overall ketch registered in Los Angeles, arrived at Rarotonga on July 31 from Bora Bora with owner-skipper Ron Burton, wife

Wendy, their young son and two crew members, Paul and Joe Next ports of call were to be Niue and Tonga • CONQUISTADOR 11, 10 7 m sloop registered in Auckland, arrived at Rarotonga on July 16 and left for Tahiti on July 29 with skipper Renfreo Meese, Robert Giles, Helen King and Alexander Hanna • KETCHUP, a red-hulled 11.9 m Canadian ketch, arrived at Rarotonga on July 2 from Tahiti with skipper Ron Tilloston and Bruce and Oliver Tilloston They left for Tonga on July 8 • SONADORA, (Dreamer) 15 85 m catamaran registered at Guernsey, Chan nel Islands, arrived at Rarotonga from Bora Bora on August 5 with Ron and Carol May They were bound for Niue and Tonga • KATIKA, 18 9 m ketch registered in Sydney, arrived at Rarotonga on August 5 from Tahiti, bound for Niue On board were owner-skipper Joe Turek, his wife, Erica, and teen-age daughter, Kathyrine, with crew Steve Krueger, Steve Glennon and Hoyt Eason Mr Turek and wife and daughter were sailing home to Sydney to complete a circumnavigation lasting four years • NATHANAEL, 15 m gaff-rigged schooner of French design arrived at Rarotonga on August 8 from Tahiti, Tonga-bound With owner-skipper Hans Jobert and wife, Christiane, were Miguel De Peyrecave and Paul Giacobbi • SPINDRIFT, 12.2 m overall Colin

Archer ketch, registered in San Diego and built in 1943, arrived at Rarotonga on August 1 1 from Bora Bora On board were owner-captain George Budd, a US citizen, and Welshman Dave Reynolds Mr Budd is sailing to Japan which he hopes to reach in May 1 978 in time to at tend an International Rotary Convention to be held in Tokyo • CHAMPION (US), 16 2 m Lap worth-design diesel motor yacht arrived at Bora Bora in time for the Fete Na tional, Bastille Day celebrations Owner skipper Larry Briggs of Hawaii and Eric Lund, 18, of California, left Los Angeles in February, making an 1 1 -day passage to Hawaii From Honolulu they visited Palmyra, Washington, Fanning and Christmas atolls of the Line Islands In Bora Bora circumnavigator Dwight Long joined the Champion to revisit the Socie ty Islands In the late 1930 s he sailed the 9 8 m ketch IDLE HOUR to Bora Bora where a Tahitian boy, Timi Tefaaroa, join ed him on his successful world cruise The Champion is powered by a 671 GMC diesel engine and at present is the only motor yacht circumnavigating the globe She is equipped with four genera tor systems, 10 900 litres of fuel, 3 640 litres of water and has a range of over 4 024 km at 9 knots They are bound for American Samoa and on through the South Pacific to reach Singapore by Christmas • BONNIE G, 16 2m Lapworth design ketch, from St Louis, Missouri, arrived in

Tahiti in July for a visit expected to last several months, carrying owners A 1 and Bommie Gilland, nephew Douglas Scott, of Alaska, and Sam the parrot They left San Diego in December with Al then knowing nothing whatever about naviga tion On the way down the coast to Mex ico Bonnie G sailed close to SOR CERESS, skippered by Ray Schachter, who obligingly passed on some knowledge of the rudiments of naviga tion Al and Bonnie planned to sail through the Tuamotus and Marquesas then go to Hawaii for the northern winter • ERIKA 10 m sloop from Dana Point, California, arrived in Papeete in June with German-born Erhard Autrata, who was sailing single-handed Erhard built Erika himself and left California in August, 1 976 for Hawaii, where he stayed for five months before turning south to the Mar quesas He intended to cruise through the Society Islands before making plans to move elsewhere • FEARLESS, owned by Al Chipman of San Diego, arrived in Tahiti in May for an extended visit Fearless was built in 1926 as a John Alden design schooner and was changed to ketch rigging in 1 949 She raced off the east coast of the US for many years, and upheld her record in NZ, when she won the first tall ships' race in 1976 Fearless has been in the Pacific for about 10 years, and has called at the Australs, Pitcairn, Easter Island and most islands between Tahiti and NZ She was a protest boat, under different

ownership, against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll Al and his crew of Kevin Gavin, of NZ, and Asa Aim, of Sweden, intended to leave Tahiti for California in August Asa, incidentally, was in Tahiti in 1976 in the yacht SAGA. • MANANA, 13 7 m custom-built Freedom ketch, from Corpus Christi, Texas, was a July arrival in Tahiti from San Diego and the Marquesas, carrying owners M. E. (Jack) Jackson and wife Betty, and crew Tom Jacobs, Steve Takacs and Pamela Bolton, all of San Diego After the July 14 Bastille celebra tions they intended to stay for another month and then sail to Pago Pago • TAANYA, 9.15 m overall catamaran from Christchurch, England, left Rarotonga on July 25 for Vavau, Tonga, with lone-hander Shawm Blachford Shawm arrived at Rarotonga on May 26 under jury rig after being dismasted in a squall He repaired his mast in Rarotonga and planned to replace his worm-eaten keel either in Tonga or New Zealand • SORCERESS, 12 5 m Garden ketch, arrived in Tahiti in mid-July from Los Angeles, via the Marquesas, carrying Ray and Jo Schachter Ray, who has been sailing for 40 years, was on his first long cruise In Tahiti they were joined by Gwen and Bob Case who flew in to join them on a cruise through the Society Islands Ray and Jo planned to sail for Hawaii early in October • SABRINA, 1 3 7 m fishing schooner, from Fort Bragg, California, arrived in Tahiti mid-June Owner Wayne Scott in tended to stay for several months He uses the schooner to catch albacore and salmon off the coasts of California and Oregon He has taken a year off to take his wife Dolores and sons Jeff, 21, and Rand, 19, to the South Seas They sailed to Tahiti via Hawaii, and expect to leave on the return journey in October • LA DESIRADE, 15 9 m Sparkman and Stevens yawl from Tortola, West In dies, was in Tahiti for most of July and August On board were the owner, Carl Lipscombe, of the UK, Marilyn Neff, of Florida and Kay "Nig"'Brown, of Pitcairn, who is a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian Carl frequently visits Pitcairn Two years ago his previous boat, the FAIRWINDS, was wrecked on the rocks there Eight years ago Carl sailed from Australia and since then, apart from his Pacific sailing, has visited Europe, the Caribbean and South America He once sailed solo across the Atlantic He plans to revisit Pitcairn so that Nig could celebrate her 21st birthday there and then sail for South Africa • TINUVIEL, 14 6 m wooden ketch, arrived in Tahiti late in June from San Diego, the Marquesas and Tuamotus on a >hake-down cruise Owner-builder Robert Miller, of NZ; with his wife Valerie, son Fristrun and daughter Bridgette, intended to leave in August for the Cook Islands, Tonga and NZ. Sailing with them from Tahiti was Greg Lynn, of Arizona

• GLAYVA, 1 5 2 m hood design sloop from Lancaster, England, left Tahiti in July for Hawaii and Vancouver with owner-builder Tony Hallsworth, who ar rived in Tahiti in March, four years after leaving his native England He sailed single-handed In the Pacific Glayva has called at the Galapagos, the Marquesas and the Tuamotus Tony so far has ridden out eight hurricanes He will make a tour of Canada and the US by car and then return to Tahiti • ALBATROSS, 116 m schooner, ar rived at Rarotonga on July 1 3 from Bora Bora with Rob Jordan (skipper), Jann Howell and Fran Palermo The cruise started from Hawaii and they were bound for Fiji

• There were 69 visiting yachts at Papeete for the Bastille celebrations on July 14 Many others anchored in some of the more remote spots around Tahiti and other islands Some of the yachts in Tahiti were Eleuthera, Seattle, Kestrel, San Diego, Moku Nani 11, Lahaina, Masina, Halcyon 11, Whangarei, Manathine, Mercator, Victoria, Ard Sholas, Auckland, Mae Ya Nang 11, Odyssey, San Francisco, Dawn Trader, Lune, Lancaster, UK, Katika, Sydney, Merlin, Australia, Moonshadow, Van couver, Courser, North Star, Malachi, Los Angeles, Om, Marie Michele, France, Fairy Tern, Victoria, BC, Golden Opportunity, Plymouth, England; Felici ty, Washington, DC Moontide, Desiderate, Aeolus, Portland; Sea Rover, Manele; Endless, Ventura, California Ranger, Canada, Kahikimoe, Honolulu

The schooner Albatross under sail.