Yachts

• KLARABORG: Still gracing Honiara’s waterfront is this 30 m ketch, reputed to be the oldest sailing boat in the world to be still in use, writes Jimmy Cornell. Built in Sweden in the 1850 s, she was first called Jesper and for many years was used as an ore carrier and later as a general cargo boat.

Her present owner, Ove Lin ner, bought Klaraborg in 1965 and lovingly converted her to a luxury, yacht with a 19th century flavour. Leaving Sweden at the end of 1967 with a large crew of young people, Klaraborg made an

extended circumnavigation,

returning home seven years later. Soon Ove left Sweden again, crossed the Atlantic and arrived back in the Pacific.

The Marquesas were sighted 88 days after leaving Panama due to very light winds. One year was spent in French Polynesia before sailing on to Suwarrow, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand and eventually arriv ing in Solomon Islands in June 1978. Since then Klaraborg has been based in Honiara, doing charter work, giving visi tors a chance to visit the other islands on board this beautiful traditional sailing boat. Ove’s constant companion is New Zealander Jan King, • PAI NUI: American skipper Chris Garrett with crew Teresa Affronti and Chris Sengezer are delivering this 17 m Spark-

Klaraborg off Honiara - the world’s oldest sailing boat?

Photo: Jimmy Cornell.

irrian and Stephen-designed . ketch back to the United [States from Solomon Islands. [Registered in Panama, Pai Nui [has spent the last few years in the South Pacific doing char ter work from Tahiti to Aus tralia. • PRETENDER: Jim Rooney and Gill Hotchkiss arrived in the Solomons on this Catalina 27 sloop (8.80 m). They left their home port of San Diego in June for Mexico and Hawaii, stopping only briefly at Nukuman Island before carry ing on to Solomon Islands. The cyclone season will be spent in Australia, with no fixed plans for 1980.

• Captain Bligh: This

12.20 m Kraken trimaran with skipper Peter Whitelaw and :rew Chris McMahon, Pam Hartgerink, Hannike Aling and Heather Sinclair is making a vhirlwind tour of the Western Pacific during the present cyc one season. Leaving Sydney n September, Captain Bligh irossed to Thursday. Island, hen Port Moresby, Samarai md the Woodlarks before leading for the Solomons. The Jew Hebrides, and New Caledonia are to be visited en oute to New Zealand. Then :’s back to Sydney.

CON TINA: This 14.30 m )al 2-46 ketch from Los mgeles left California four ears ago, with Dr Peter East lan and his wife Betty on card. After sailing first to rench Polynesia, they con nued on to the Cooks, Niue, le two Samoas, Tonga, Wallis nd Fiji. The 78/79 cyclone sason was spent in Suva, uring hurricane Meli, Con ina was safely moored near losquito Island. In June 79 le Eastmans left for the New ebrides, Banks and Torres, n route to Rabaul, they visi id the Solomons. After sending the cyclone season Papua New Guinea, they an to return to the Solomons, 'oss over to Australia and sail • Sydney inside the Barrier eef. Dr Eastman is the author : Advanced First Aid Afloat id he also writes short stories t sailing magazines.

Mandolin Wind: During

shakedown cruise in PNG aters, this Hartley 32 fer •cement sloop arrived in abaul with owner Chris urley, John Cotton, John urray and Julie Marsh. After cturing in marine engineer-

ing at the Technical College in Lae, skipper Chris is taking a long cruise around the islands to take up a similar position at the Nautical College in Madang. After two more years in PNG, Chris plans to sail home to New Zealand via Fiji.

•Caravela Of Exe:

Retired couple Ted and Mary Lyne left Exeter in England in June 1975 on board their Alden 42 yawl. Caravela of Exe crossed the Atlantic to Bermuda and the United States, sailing all the way to Canada. Turning south they sailed via the Yucatan Chan nel to Mexico, Belize, Gua temala, Honduras and Panama, reaching the Pacific in October 1976. After calling in at Costa Rica and Isla de Cocos, Caravela of Exe, sailed to the Galapagos, French Polynesia, Cooks, Niue, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand for the 77/78 cyclone season.

In 78 they sailed to the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and back to New Zealand via Fiji.

In February 1979 Caravela crossed to Sydney and fol lowed the Australian coast to PNG, visiting Samarai, the Trobriands and New Britain.

From PNG they plan to return to Australia.

Seventeen cruising yachts cel ebrated Christmas 1979, anchored off the Rabaul Yacht Club. On Christmas Day the yachties got together for a bar becue in the grounds of the Rabaul Swimming Club, which

lasted well into the night. Sail ing from the Solomons shortly before Christmas our normal crew of Jimmy, Gwenda, Doina and Ivan Cornell on Aventura was joined in Rabaul by my nephew Klaus Witting, who had flown out from Germany to join the yacht indefinitely.

Other yachts in Rabaul for Christmas were: • BOUREEN; Alan and Janette Murray, accompanied by their children Alana (9) and Kenrick (7), left New Zealand in April 1978 aboard their blue Piver Victress 40 trimaram Boureen. Sailing first to Tonga they visited most islands in the archipelago, before heading for the two Samoas and Tuvalu. They timed their arrival in Tuvalu to coincide with the independence celebrations on October 1, 1978 joining Aventura and Honeymead already in Funafuti. After the celebrations Boureen sailed to Kiribati for the cyclone season, where the Murrays spent nearly four months in Abaiang, mostly in the village of Tabontebike. The villagers often entertained them in the maneaba and, as the two Murray children are very fair, they were popular with their Gilbertese playmates. The trimaran commuted once a month to Tarawa, taking on every occasion passengers,

the maximum being 13, plus pigs, chickens, vegetables, general baggage, etc. In February 79 Boureen headed for Butaritari, where they spent a month, then for the Marshalls and Carolines. Ten weeks were spent among the Polynesian inhabitants of Kapingermarangi, where Jan and the children were left alone on the yacht, while Alan took the monthly fuel ship to Ponape to get parts for their disabled engine. While he was away, the weather deteriora ted, 50-knot winds blew and the islanders helped a very worried Jan reanchor the yacht. • HONEYMEAD: Queensland dairy farmers Norma and Chester Lemon are undertak ing their second Pacific voy age after a recent refit to their 13.64 m ketch Honeymead.

They returned to their homeport of Brisbane at the end of 1978 after a four-and-a half-year grand tour of the Pa cific, which took them to most South Pacific countries and across the equator to Alaska via Hawaii. They consider wild and rugged Alaska to be the climax of their journey and the Alaskans the most hospitable people they met anywhere.

The cold weather sent them south again to British Colum bia, west coast of the United States and Mexico to French Polynesia. After sailing to the Cooks, Tonga and Fiji, they made a detour to Funafuti to participate in Tuvalu’s independence celebrations.

From Tuvalu they returned to Australia via the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

On the present trip Chester is planning to revisit some of the places in the Solomons, New Guinea and the Philip pines, which he first sailed to with the US Navy during World War 11. He spent the whole of the Pacific war in this area and when he was discharged in 1946, rather than return to his native Oklahoma he settled in Queensland with his Aus tralian wife Norma, whom he had met during the war.

Leaving Australia in Sep tember 1979, Honeymead sailed to Samarai, the Trobriands, Madang and Rabaul. For 1980, they are still debating whether to head for the Philippines or the Solomons first.

Chester and Norma Lemon from Queensland in Rabaul at the start of their second Pacific cruise. Photo: Jimmy Cornell.

• WHY NOT: A 13 m Robert Perry design cutter is taking American couple Jack and Jo Anne Ford on a leisurely cruise around the Pacific.

After retiring from the US air force, Jack took delivery of Why Not in Taiwan. In March 1977 the Fords sailed to Guam, then to PNG and the Solomons, returning to PNG for the 1978/79 cyclone season. Nine more months were spent in 1979 in the Solomons, cruising exten sively among the islands. Why Not returned to PNG again at the end of 1979, the crew planning to sail to Guam and the Philippines in 1980 and possibly to continue to Sin gapore and Sri Lanka. • JOLLY II ROGER: Another American yacht spending the cyclone season in PNG waters is Jolly II Roger, a Cal 2-46 from Portland, Oregon.

Retired contractor Phil Tworoger (hence the yacht’s name) and his wife Doris left home in 1975, spending more than a year cruising along the west coast of the North American continent from Canada to Mexico. In January 1977 they crossed to the Marquesas, spending the ensuing 15 months in French Polynesia. Suwarrow was visi ted en route to American Samoa, Western Samoa, Wallis and Futuna. The 1978/79 cyclone season was spent in Fiji, during cyclone Meli, Jolly II Roger being safely moored in Suva. In 1979, the Tworogers sailed to the New Hebrides, Banks, Torres, Solomons, Ontong Java and Rabaul. In 1980 they plan to head for Indonesia and Sin gapore after which their plans are uncertain. • TOMBA: Also from Portland, Oregon is Tomba, a Garden 51 ketch built in Taiwan in 1975.

Retired orthopaedic surgeon Dr Tom Enloe, wife Barbara and son John left California in September 1978 bound for Mexico. In April 1979 they crossed to the Marquesas in 26 days, then sailed through the Tuamotus to the Society Islands. Later on Tomba called at Rarotonga, Tonga, Fiji, the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands before arriving in Rabaul in time for Christmas.

During 1980 the Enloes plan to sail to Indonesia, Singapore, Red Sea and Mediterranean.

• WHISTLER: This Cal 2-46 yacht is only registered in Lyons, Colorado, the land locked hometown of Dena and Dee Crumb. Setting sail in January 1976 from San Diego, Whistler crossed to Hawaii and then Tahiti, spending a year in the Society Islands. In 1977 they sailed to Suwarrow, American and Western Samoa, Wallis, Futuna and Fiji.

After a year spent cruising in Fijian waters, in July 1979 Whistler headed straight for the Banks and Torres Islands, then on to Santa Cruz and the rest of the Solomons. Intend ing to spend a year in PNG, Dena and Dee are keeping their options open. If the politi cal situation in the Middle East doesn’t deteriorate, they hope to sail west for the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, other wise they are considering the Philippines and Japan. Dena is a former electronics engineer with IBM and oh Whistler every single piece of electronic equipment works a rare phenomenon among yachts cruising in the Pacific!

• Tralfamadore: This

yacht, named after a planet in Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, is home for Mike, Di and one year-old Luke Gardner. The self-built Hartley-designed fer rocement 13.30 m ketch left Adelaide in 1977. A year was spent in Brisbane, where Luke was born. In 1979, with their increased crew, Tralfamadore took off for New Caledonia, New Hebrides, the Solomons and Papua New Guinea. Mike, who is a qualified accountant, will work for a while in Rabaul earning money to finance a cruise to Europe, particularly to Ireland to visit some of his family.

• SARA III: Young Swedish couple Christer and Britt Fredriksson are spending their second year in the Pacific on board their 8.80 m sloop. They left Stockholm in 1976, cross ing the Atlantic to the Carib bean and via the Panama Canal into the Pacific. The worst moment of the trip came in a storm in the Caribbean, when the yacht pitchpoled in heavy seas. Full of water inside, Sara 111 nearly foun dered and then was knocked down again by a huge wave and Britt washed overboard.

She swam back to the half sunken boat and helped Chris ter to pump out the boat and sort out the soggy mess. In Panama the boat was brought back into shape, the cour ageous Vikings continuing their planned voyage to the Galapagos, Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society Islands,

Cooks, Tonga and Fiji. Befor the onset of the 1978/79 eye lone season they sailed vii New Caledonia to Sydnev Five months later in April 197' they left for Lord Howe Islanc New Caledonia, Ne' Hebrides, Solomons and PNG From Rabaul they intend to sa to the Admiralty Islands, thr north coast of New Guinea Irian Jaya and on to Indonesia A return home via the Cape o Good Hope is planned fc 1981. • MOJO meaning ‘Luck’ i Malay. Mojo is a Bode ‘Helena’ design 11 m ste« cutter built in Malaysia by Au: tralian skipper Chris Came' Chris spent four years Malaysia, lecturing in art i Kuala Lumpur’s Institute « Technology. A sculptor metal, Chris found the tran sition to building a boat in ste an easy matter and it took hii only 18 months to finish th boat which was launched September 1978. In Januai 79, Mojo left Port Kelang, c the west coast of Malaya, fo Singapore, Borneo, Brune the Philippines and PNC Chris is accompanied on th cruise by his wife Choo ar six-year-old daughter Soolir In 1980 the Carneys plan ■ sail to the Solomons, Fiji ar Australia. • KOTICK: Rabaul residem and friends of all the cruisir yachts, Don and Lor Milligan, built Kotick, a Jc Adams 14 m ferrocemei wishbone ketch in Rabau After the boat was launched October, 1976 and name after Kipling’s White Seal, sh was towed to Bougainvilll where Don had been tram ferred. After fitting her out, June 79 Kotick sailed back Rabaul, when Don took up hr new appointment as Managi of Ross Engineering. • AEOLON: An unusual arrive in Funafuti early in Januai was a yacht from Port Vihl writes Peter McQuarrie. Then are very few yacht movement during the hurricane seasc and the Aeolon enters Funafuti lagoon during a wes= erly gale. She is a yacht witH out auxiliary engine and hs some trouble anchoring. In th process she went agroun and damaged her rudder. Th Aeolan is a Pearson 26. Sh is expected to leave for Suv after rudder repairs.

Above: Crew of Mojo: Soolim Carney, mother Choo and father Chris a sculptor in steel who turned his hand to boat-building.

Below: Tralfamadore leaves Vila, New Hebrides, under full sail. Photos: Jimmy Cornell.