Yachts

Cruising

• ANTICIPATION took line honours in the May Air New Zealand-sponsored Auckland to Suva yacht race, but KISH MUL was winner on handicap.

The corrected time for Kishmul was seven days, six hours, 25 minutes 23 seconds. WHIS PERS, runner-up on cor rected time was second.

LIRIA was third and PLANE lANE fourth on corrected ime. Anticipation, whose time or the distance was nine days, jight hours and eight minutes, vas followed over the line by

■Rnest Beaver, Ang

Strom, Fireball Ii

md Whispers in that order, all vithin 26 minutes of each >ther. * Star of the 12-yacht fleet, Jack Rooklyn’s APOLLO, ook double honours in the in augural Air Niugini Cairns 3ort Moresby yacht race in \pril-May. Organised by the toyal Papua Yacht Club of 3 ort Moresby in conjunction vith the Cairns Cruising Yacht Squadron, the Cairns /loresby race attracted equal lumbers of Australian and 3 apua New Guinea entrants vhich raced in lOR and Arbi rary Di/isions. It was the first r acht race between Australia md Papua New Guinea. In a luiet south-easter, spinnakers vere cracked at the start vhich was won by the smallest >oat in the fleet, Bruce ardrew’s Davidson Vi-tonner, VELOCITY, but Apollo soon

made up ground and was first through the beacons followed by lan Hamilton’s Farr 1tonner AKARANA and Tony Galloway’s DUNCANSON 35, VERT GALANT. Fresher con ditions outside Cairns de stroyed many a spinnaker and by nightfall as the wind in creased to 25 knots, with mod erate seas, kites were stowed.

Shy-reaching across the 720 km of the Coral Sea, Apollo increased its lead over the rest of the fleet and crossed the finishing line in Port Moresby harbour in less than two days, averaging 9.5 knots. Conditions eased a little for 24 hours to slow the other yachts and assure Jack Rooklyn of a first on corrected time. The race gave Apollo its fifth line honours victory in succession beginning with the Sydney-Hobart race.

Second to cross the line was Moresby-based KARANA (Hugh Richardson), one of three Formosan 46s in the race and winner of the Arbi trary Division, followed by Akarana and Vert Galant.

MEKIM SAVE (John Wild) a Farr Vfc-tonner from PNG was fourth across the line, just over an hour behind Apollo’s cor rected time, for second place in the lOR Division.

During the night of the third day, the south-easter in creased to 30 knots with gusts up to 50 and the occasional six metre sea. In these conditions three yachts were beam ended resulting in an electrical fire aboard the Clansman 30, CAMERLINE (Bernie Potzscher), a lost shroud on Velocity and a few worrying moments about John Malin’s Holland 25, TOPAZ. • HERO, an 11 m Hans Chris tian design fibreglass cutter registered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, US. American couple Richard Holcombe and Carol Ritz left California in June 1977 for Hawaii, where they spent a year getting used to living afloat and replenish ing the kitty. From Hawaii they sailed direct to American Samoa, then on to Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. Rather than

return to California via the Pacific, they have now decided to carry on around the world, heading first for the New Hebrides and PNG.

• Eye Of The Wind, 150

tonne brigantine, is due in Fiji in July with an all-male crew of 24, aged between 17 and 24.

The voyage is part of Oper ation Drake, and the Eye of the Wind is covering a route closely following that of Sir Francis Drake in the Golden Hind in his circumnavigation of the globe 400 years ago. Eye of the Wind will sail to Papua New Guinea after leaving Fiji and will then return to England via the Indian and Mediter ranean Oceans. • lONE, 9 m fibreglass Spark man and Stevens Yankee sloop arrived at Tubuai, Aus tral Islands, in mid-March, staying till the end of the month, writes Don Travers in Tubuai. lone, with Jim and Joan McCammon aboard, left southern California in July last year, sailing first to the Marquesas and then to Tahiti.

They were married at Moorea

in January. Plans were to head back to the Society Islands and then on to the Samoas, Tonga and New Zealand. • Among victims of Cyclone Meli in Fiji were Junius Morris, 57, and Julie Summer, 19, crew of the OCEAN ROVER which was wrecked at anchor off Numoro Island eight kilo metres from Ono in Kadavu, south of Suva. Only survivor was Eric Morris, 27. He said his father was trapped under the Ocean Rover after it cap sized and his fiancee had disappeared. • CIA MARIA, 8 m Northerner fibreglass sloop from Sydney, arrived in Honiara with Dr Paul Seifert and wife Cecilia, writes Roderica Laymon from Rabaul. Plans were to sail to Vila and Noumea, before returning to Australia. Other sailing vessels in Honiara in early April included CON STELLATION, with Roberta Erg, who was looking for crew; WINGS, Dave and Sue Muse; CLARABORG, Jan and Ove Linner; and THURLOO, Roger and Jan Weller.

Apollo at rest in Port Moresby Harbour ... line and corrected time honours. Photo: PNG Post-Courier

• ALLEZ CAT, 10 m cata maran, motored into Rabaul and motored out again after a few days spent provisioning and replenishing the fuel tanks. ‘I would never go cruis ing on a sailing yacht,’ said Allez Cat’s owner/captain, Peter Spurdle. ‘I dislike every aspect of moving under sail.

Give me a good sturdy diesel and I’m happy.’ Peter is author of Into The Rising Sun, an account of a previously owned catamaran, the WHAI, in which he motored from NZ to Japan and back. Peter is accompanied by crew mem bers Paul Falconer, Robyn Marsten and Neil Ward, all div ing enthusiasts. • KRISTILLA, 9 m cutter-rig CT made in Taiwan, arrived in Rabaul with Richard Flavell and Chrystine Cypros, and children Kristin, 7, and Camilla, 6. Richard sailed the boat from Taiwan three years ago to Hong Kong, the Philip pines, Sulawesi, Papua New Guinea, to Cairns. He proceeded down the Great Barrier Reef into Southport for a layover period. The next part cf the journey took Kristilla to New Caledonia, Solomon slands and back to Papua New Guinea. ► AMBRYM, (previously MORNING SUN), 10 m ketch designed by the Australian architect Cecil Bowden, lomeported in Port Vila, New Hebrides, was acquired by Nicolas and Christel Gerardin n Santo. They completely efurbished the craft in prep aration for a homeward voy age to France. Their route rom Rabaul was to be through he Torres Straights to

Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Red Sea, and into the Mediterranean. • BACCHUS, a Peterson 44 cutter from California. Harry Disharoon and Donna Osborn left San Diego in April 1978 on this immaculate yacht. After a stopover in the Marquesas they sailed through the Tuamotus to Tahiti and the rest of the Society Islands. Head ing west, Bachus called at the Cooks and Tonga before mak ing for New Zealand. Harry and Donna plan to sail to Fiji, the New Hebrides, and Aus tralia in time for the next cyc lone season. Additional crew on the leg to Fiji were to be Larry Disharoon and Karen Nelson.

• Albatross, An 11.60 M

staysail schooner from Honolulu, Hawaii, skippered by Rob Jordan has been sail ing the South Pacific for the past three years, taking on crew for the longer passages.

So far, Albatross has visited French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga and Fiji.

Albatross left Tonga for American Samoa in May. • BULAWAYO, 15 m ferro cement ketch registered in Liverpool, England, but sailed from Seattle on the west coast of the US. Owner, lan Ablett, a Briton, spent nearly seven years building his dreamboat near Seattle. Accompanied by his wife-cum-navigator Sue, they finally set sail last year for Hawaii, then to Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand.

Bulawayo means ‘home of the elephant’ in Zulu. The Abletts hope eventually to reach Africa.