Yachts

• JELLICLE. Veteran Pacific voyager Mike Bales was encountered recently in Funafuti by PlM’s yachting correspondent Jimmy Cornell.

On his well-tried and worn 8 m wooden folkboat, Mike has already spent many years cruising Pacific waters to be come a familiar sight in many of the islands. A retired naval officer, veteran of World War 11, twice court-martialled but

still honourably discharged

from the Royal Navy, Com mander Mike Bales, RN, left the UK in 1959 aboard Jellicle.

In his 14 years spent in the Pa cific, Mike has worked on vari ous islands, but always returns to Tonga, for which he has a special affection and where he has been involved in several projects, from skippering the ship TOFUA to teaching navi gation. Speaking Tongan well, he always sails with a Tongan crew, sharing with young Ton gans his vast experience of the sea. His latest crew is Peter Pasikala, with whom he has sailed from New Zealand to Fiji, Wallis, Futuna and Tuvalu, before continuing to the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and PNG. Life aboard Jellicle is kept as simple as possible.

Mike is a purist who believes in following the tradition of the early small boat sailors such as Joshua Slocum. After 20 years and nearly 160 000 km of sailing in his small boat, Mike still has no desire to change it for anything bigger or more fancy. • ROSCOP. This 14 m fibreglass ketch from Antwerp is taking Belgian couple Rein and Marie-Louise Mortier on a voyage around the world.

They left Belgium in April 1977, sailing for the Canaries and across the Atlantic to the West Indies. They cruised the Caribbean Islands before tran siting the Panama Canal in July 78. From the Galapagos, Roscop sailed for Easter Island, then the Marquesas and the rest of French

Polynesia. American Sa was the next stop en roul Fiji, from where the Mor plan to sail to Australia for cyclone season. •ORPLID. Headed for I Zealand and Australia is German yawl Orplid f Bremen, with Rolf and Ste Stukenberg on board. Buil a cadet training ship, classic wooden yacht was viously well known as HAMBURG VI She took in several trans-Atlantic ra before being bought by F who cruised for nine yean the Mediterranean before i

pff on the present world >e. Leaving in 1976. Orplid it two years in the Carib , entering the Pacific in :h of this year. The route iji included Galapagos, ch Polynesia and rican Samoa.

N I. This 13 m wooden h from Seattle called in at n September on her way ew Zealand. The Califor couple Dick and Sherri i left in April 1978 bound Hawaii, Tahiti, American oa and Tonga. After the one season they plan to rn to French Polynesia and probably home.

Lemark. The 10.7 M

man class sloop has been e for the last 10 years for British couple Beryl and i Allmark. They left the UK [heir previous yacht, 8 m : IN, cruising for two years European waters. After uiring the larger Telemark, Allmarks set off for the bbean, where they spent e years among the islands, ama Canal was transited in 1978 on the way to the quesas, Tuamotu and So

ciety Islands, Tonga and Fiji.

En route to Australia, they plan to visit New Caledonia. • POTPOURRI. Potpourri of Port Hueneme, California, was cruising in Fiji waters during August and September. Al and Karen Huso left the States on board their 10.6 m cutter in August ’7B bound for Hawaii.

Since then they have visited Tahiti, Rarotonga, American Samoa and Vava’u. From Fiji, Potpourri is planning to sail to the New Hebrides and New Caledonia to spend the cy clone season in New Zealand. • DIOGENES. Gustaf Wollmar is on his second circum navigation in his 16 m yacht Diogenes. On the first voyage he left Massachusetts, in 1974 bound for Panama. Crossing the Pacific via Galapagos, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Diogenes returned to the USA via South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. After watching the America’s Cup in Newport in 1977, Gustaf left immediately for a second trip around the

world. This time from Panama he sailed up to San Francisco, then on to French Polynesia, Cooks, American Samoa and Fiji. Although sometimes taking crew, he has single handed this large yacht on several of the passages. From

Fiji he is bound for Australia.

• Le Voyageur. Le

Voyageur is American singlehander Sam Craig. He left Los Angeles in his Catalina 27 sloop in July ’7B and made a 21 days passage to Hawaii.

He worked and surfed a season there, before sailing for the Line Islands, American Samoa and Tonga. En route for Australia, Sam plans to stop in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

• Fawn Of Chichester.

Another yacht bound for Aus tralia is the British Cavalier 30, Fawn of Chichester from Cowes. Alice Sampson and Roger Morgan left Burnham on-Crouch in August 1977, crossing the Atlantic via Madeira and the Canaries. The Lesser Antilles, Columbia and Panama were visited before entering the Pacific in May, ’7B. They sailed via the Galapagos, French Polynesia and the Cooks to spend the last cyclone season in New Zealand. This year Fawn of Chichester has cruised in Tonga and Fiji and plans to call at the New Hebrides and New

Caledonia on her way to Bris bane.

• Aragon. This Grp 10.4 M

cutter in the Skookum class from Portland, Oregon, is taking Doug and Janet Bogar dus on a Pacific cruise. So far they have visited the Marquesas, Tuamotu and So ciety Islands, the two Samoas, Vava’u and Fiji. After New Zealand their future plans are still undecided.

•Canard Laque. The

black Hong Kong-built Clipper 42 ketch is named after the Chinese delicacy Peking Duck. Her owners Swiss couple Ute and Pierre Graf, have already logged over 65 000 km in eight years of cruising in European, Atlantic and Pacific waters. Their Pa cific cruise started in 1977 and has taken them to French Polynesia, Hawaii, Alaska, Bri tish Columbia and California.

Back in Tahiti, Ute and Pierre sailed in June 1979 for Suwar row, both Samoas and Fiji. En route to Queensland, they plan to visit the New Hebrides, Sol mon Islands and Papua New Guinea. • BECAUSE. Dick Thuiller. a retired building contractor from Victoria, BC, Canada, is seeking a new way of life on the ocean, after his wife was killed when a plane he was piloting crashed. He built Be cause, an 11 m cutter, sturdy enough to take him anywhere in the world. Sailing the yacht singlehanded he left Canada in June '7B calling at Hawaii, French Polynesia, Rarotonga, American and Western Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. His next stop - New Zealand. • TARA 11. The Vancouver 27

sloop of Canadian coi George and Suzanne Har left Vancouver, BC, in Aus 77. After sailing the US V coast, the Hartleys sper year in Hawaii working cruising. Kiribati, Tuvalu Fiji were visited en route Australia. • TRUST, 11.9 m cutter fi Whakatane, New Zealand taking yacht designer Mick chard on a shakedown crj among the islands of south-western Pacific. Ei yachts have so far been b in this fast cruising class Orchard 39. Mick sinj handed the boat from N Zealand to Tonga in Ap where he was joined by ci members lan Williams and v Craing, the first of a batch people to join Trust at vari< stages of the voyage, th object being to experience ( shore cruising. After visit Haapai and Vavau, Tr sailed on to Western Sarr with Wallis and Fiji on the il erary before returning to Ni Zealand. • SHANNON, 12.2 m ket( from Santa Barbara, Califc nia, in the Sea Wolf 40 clas arrived in Vavau, Tonga, at tl end of May. Singlehand Jack Knapp left home in Mi 1978 hoping to eventually fu his dream of sailing around tf world. After spending thr( months in Hawaii, Jack saik to Tahiti, where for six montf he sailed among the Socie Islands. En route to Tong; Western Samoa and Fiji. R 30 years Jack has worked £ a commercial fisherman fist ing, mainly for albacore, fror Mexico to Canada.