Yachts
pp. 73-75 · Read in the full issue
• ROMANCE. An elegant visi tor to Avatiu Harbour, Raro tonga, in mid-March was the brigantine Romance which is being taken round the world by owners Arthur and Gloria Kim berly, reports Karen Garner- Williams.
Romance, once a Danish inter-island cargo carrier, was converted to an accurate
1850 s square rig brigantine for
the movie Hawaii. The Kim berlys bought her 14 years ago after filming was com pleted. She has a crew of up to 16. Romance now spends her days cruising in the Virgin Islands or on long ocean voy ages, and the Kimberlys have made more than 200 eight-day cruises out of the Virgin Islands, their home base.
The Rarotonga call was part of the Kimberlys’ second cir cumnavigation in Romance, leaving Ansanada, Mexico, in October last year. They crossed to Pitcairn Island (‘our favourite port in the South Seas’, Gloria says) and then to the Marquesas and the So
ciety Islands before reaching Rarotonga.
From Rarotonga Romance is headed for Palmerston Island, Samoa, Tokelau, a shipyard appointment and crew change-over in Fiji, New Hebrides, Tikopia, Solomon Islands, the Marshalls (where she may pick up anthropol ogist Nancy Munn on Gawa) and Papua New Guinea. From the Pacific it is through to the Orient the Indonesian islands, Singapore and across the Indian Ocean to the Cocos, Keeling and Sey chelles Islands, and on through Africa and South America home to the Carib bean around April, 1981. The young crew are from ‘all over’, although mainly from the USA on this voyage.
Romance measures 27 m on deck, 34 m overall, and has been home for the Kimberlys for many years. The couple are full of tales of the South Seas, about shark worship pers, shell money as legal ten der with an Australian bank and etiquette with Trobriands chiefs, for example. Their brigantine is decorated with many native artifacts and carv ings, including wooden rep licas of the Bounty and the Romance made by an old friend on Pitcairn.
Two American ketches sailed into Rarotonga’s Avatiu
Romance shows off her graceful lines in Avatiu Harbour, Rarotonga.
Photo Abbie Cogan.
harbour at the end of March on the tail of tropical cyclone Val, which hit Niue but by-passed Rarotonga with nothing more than minor flooding and high winds. • NIRVANA. The 14 m CAL 3 Nirvana is being sailed in the Pacific by a crew of three for owner Lon Skinner, who comes from Medford, Oregon (hence Nirvana’s unusual home ‘port’ those who know Oregon are surprised to see the name of an inland town in scribed on an ocean-going yacht). Skinner flies out from the States to visit his craft and her crew Captain Larry Ryan, with Eric Le Buse and Sarah Moon in their various
ports of call. He made two trips to French Polynesia to see Nir vana between October 1979 and March of this year, and was expected to drop into Rarotonga for several weeks during the ketch’s month-long stay.
Nirvana left Hawaii bound for French Polynesia last October, and the crew were talking about heading for Samoa after the Cook Islands.
They commented that Pacific Publications’ South Seas Guide has proved an ex tremely useful addition to the nautical information they carry, providing all kinds of extra information about what to expect at the next port of call.
Rogue, a 12.6 m one-tonner racing yacht from Sydney, owned by retired merchant banker Roger White, takes part in a Sunday race in Suva harbour. Photo Jimmy Cornell.
• SHADOW. Nirvana’s neighhour in Avatiu harbour for a week or so was a smaller CAL 36 ketch sailed by brothers Dick and Hank Lubkey from Minnesota. Shadow left Los Angeles last July and spent two and a half months in Hawaii, followed by another two-and-a-half month period at Christmas Island where they were waiting for registered mail. From Christmas Island Shadow continued on to French Polynesia, and arrived
at Rarotonga after two days on high seas caused by cyclone Val, which Hank describes as ‘not too bad’, although this is his first ocean cruise. Brother Dick, however, who is the owner of the ketch, has been sailing out of Los Angeles for several years, After a week in Rarotonga, Shadow was bound for Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand, after which comes the big decision to go home, or keep going?
The 11.4 m sloop Gambol, above, sails Into Suva after a six-year circumnavigation by owner Stuart Clay, a New Zealander and former farmer. At right Eric and Susan Hiscock sail their famous Wanderer IV in Suva Harbour. Photos Jimmy Cornell.