Yachts

• SPOTLIGHT, a bright red Jarkan 10.5-metre cruiser racer, is taking Mayer and Doris Page, with their sons Darren and Justin, on a South Pacific cruise. Spotlight left her home port of Melbourne on December 29 last year, and headed for the Bay of Islands in New Zealand where the Page family spent several months cruising before setting sail for Rarotonga. During the first leg of the journey Spot light encountered Cyclone Paul, in which the racer Smackwater Jack, was lost early this year.

This is the first long-range voyage for the Pages, who bought their first yacht when Darren, 10, was a baby.

Mayer, too, has sailed most of his life, and most of his spare time over the last 18 months has been spent racing in Spot light, out of Melbourne and around the Australian coast.

He claims to have been an avid reader of PIM, particularly the yachting section, since his interest has been kindled in Pacific cruising, as he says that much can be learned from a single phrase or comment about a place or a situation.

After two weeks in Raro tonga, the Pages were bound for French Polynesia, and then back west to Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia and home in December this year. Spotlight may be one of the few voyag ing yachts around that has its own printed stationery with national emblem to com memorate her 1980 South Pa cific cruise. • MELEKAI. If not the gran dest of all the yachts which have recently made Avatiu Harbour in the Cook Islands a busy port of call, Melekai, a 15-metre catamaran, is by far the biggest. The wooden hulled Alani Icallia design used by Melekai is creating wide spread interest in the harbour.

Skipper-owner Steve Lobb, wife Yenna and their sons

Stevaki and Ano are from Hawaii and for six months be fore their arrival in the Cooks they cruised through the So ciety Islands. The catamaran is equipped with a ‘school’ for the two boys and the library appears comprehensive enough to exhaust most students. The family has lived on board Melekai for six years, from the time when younger son Ano was a young baby.

The Lobb family intend to re main in the Cook Islands for some time yet and then plan to revisit the Society Islands.

• Reve Mouille. Regis

tered at Seattle on the US West Coast, the 13-metre ketch Reve Mouille has been south bound in the Pacific since June of last year and recently has been spelling in the Cook Islands. The ketch, built 11 years ago, is skippered by Buzz Dakin from Seattle with his brother Richard and Shelley May from New Zealand as crew. The brothers sailed from Seattle down the US coast to San Francisco and then outward to the Marquesas, the Tuomotus, the Society Islands and then the Cook Islands. They plan to call at American Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and will weather the hurricane season in New Zealand. Buzz said in Raro tonga that the voyage has been ‘very enjoyable, but not terribly exciting our first landfall was a real anticlimax when we found the land exactly where we thought it would be’.

• NEPENTHE. The Rhodes designed 12-metre sloop Nepenthe skippered by owner Mike McDonough, is at pre sent on a South Pacific Islands cruise after departing from Los Angeles in USA in 1977. The long delay before entering the South Pacific was caused by a stay of about two years in Hawaii. Also on board are Patricia Krumwiede from France and her young daugh ter Melanie. Nepenthe has called at Palmyra Island, Christmas Island and Penrhyn and Rarotonga in the Cooks.

Nepenthe also visited French Polynesia and has plans to visit Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. • AEOLIAN. The 8-metre sloop Aeolian has left Funafuti in Tuvalu after spending more than four months there. Solo skipper Morris Fiksdal thanked the government and the people for helping him to make his boat seaworthy again and

for enabling him to head for Pago Pago in American Samoa. Earlier he overstayed his visitor’s permit and was held in custody. Prison labour helped him repair his yacht. • JAHAMA. The Hawaiian registered 11-metre yacht Jahama struck a reef in Fiji waters in May and was a com plete loss. The owner-skipper Ann Smith and crewman Dale Spears spent a night in a rub ber dinghy after the grounding and later spent five days on an uninhabited island before being rescued by the Aus tralian yacht Chiresorg, out of Brisbane. They survived on coconuts and on drinking water which had been left on the island by copra cutters.

The grounding was on a reef at Qele Levu east of Vanua Levu. Ms Smith later claimed the grounding was caused by the failure of a navigation light on the reef, and she blamed

Reve Mouille - landfall an anticlimax. Abbie Cogan picture.

Melekai - not the grandest, but certainly the biggest. Abbie Cogan picture.

Fiji marine authorities for fail ing to properly maintain the light. • BLUE MOOREA. In Fiji re cently was the 12-metre US cutter Blue Moorea from Oregon making a South Pa cific cruise which has taken in the Marquesas, Tuomotos, Tahiti, Tonga, New Zealand and a number of other calls to lesser-known islands. Blue Moorea, named after Moorea Island in Tahiti, made the crossing from New Zealand to Fiji in 10 days. Owner-skipper is retired pharmacist Bob Ross who said the crossing had been the roughest encoun tered since leaving the US coast. His wife Phyllis and son John make up the crew. • CHUKLYN. This 12-metre Brandlmyer ketch, built of fibreglass over plywood with a ferrocement keel, belongs to Chuck and Lynne Turnau from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Their second Pacific cruise left from Vancouver in August 1979, with a 38-day passage to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. Lynne and Chuck’s first Pacific voyage in Chuklyn was during 1975-77. After cruising in the Marquesas, Tuamotus and So ciety Islands Chuklyn joined the throng of yachts heading southwest for Rarotonga from Bora Bora, and spent several weeks in Avatiu harbour in May. The trip was to continue an to Aitutaki, Pago Pago and Fiji, and the Turnaus expect to spend this winter in New Zealand. Their tentative plan is to circumnavigate through the Mediterranean. • TOTI. Russ and Marilyn Nason left San Francisco on March 1 in their 10-metre wooden sloop, Toti, which takes its name from the village where Marilyn grew up in South Africa. After sailing down the American coast, Russ took the yacht out to Hawaii, while Marilyn flew ahead and met him there with a new son, lan Sebastian, who was nearly a year old when Toti arrived in Avatiu harbour, Rarotonga, in late April this year. After spending four months last year cruising around the Hawaiian islands, Toti made the crossing to Papeete, carrying 2000 dis

posable napkins. The Nason family spent about eight months in the Society and Tuamotu islands before sailing southwest to Rarotonga. Toti was in Avatiu harbour for nearly two weeks before head ing north to Aitutaki, and then on to Samoa, Tonga and Fiji.

Toti was built in 1954, and has belonged to the Nasons for two years. • ARIES. This Westsail 32 yacht left Seward, Alaska in July 1977, with owners Don and Muriel Border on board. In Papeete they were joined by Jib the cat, who was also on Aries when they put into Avatiu harbour in Rarotonga in early May. The Pacific stretch of the journey started from La Paz, after a run down the Canadian and American coasts to San Lucas and Mazatlan in Mexico and a crossing to the Marquesas. From Nuku Hiva Aries travelled around the group and then on to the So ciety Islands where the Borders visited all the islands in the group except Maupiti and Tetiaroa. After their stay at Rarotonga, they were bound for Aitutaki, American Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji, and expect to spend the winter in New Zealand. Plans after that are

Liberty III (David and Teresa Lucas) out of Vancouver, Canada, now bound for Tonga in a South Pacific cruise which began in October and will con tinue ‘for as long as the budget allows’.

indefinite but may include a circumnavigation via Northern Australia, the New Hebrides and Ceylon. The Borders would like to go through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal if the world situation allows, but whatever the route, the voyage will be a leisurely one, as the couple like to meet people along the way and are in no hurry to get home. They have owned Aries since it was built in California in 1976. • SEA STAR. Rarotonga resi dents were treated to a vision of the old beside the new when the 31-metre schooner Sea Star , reminiscent of the old islands trading schooners, tied up alongside the inter-islands cargo ship Manuvai for four days in Avatiu harbour in early May. From Mapleton, Oregon, Sea Star is captained by David McMichael with first mate Alan Lawes. This graceful schooner had come from Tahiti with guest master mariner and his wife Charles and Myola Smith from New Zealand, and four other crew. Sea Star was bound for New Zealand via

Samoa and Tonga after hei visit to Rarotonga. Captain McMichael then plans to con tinue on to Australia, across the Indian Ocean to South Africa and eventually home tc America. • MAGDALENA. Since Heinz and Avamaria Bald bought their 14-metre steel ketch Magdalena 10 years ago, they have been constantly at sea and have no intention ol returning home to Oldenburg in Germany until they are too old to continue sailing. That time should be a long way off,, for Magdalena, according to Heinz, is this retired couple’s; ‘sanatorium’, and the sea she sails on is their ‘swimmingi pool’. To maintain their ketchi in superb condition Heinz andl Avamaria often work from sun rise to sunset. This was confir med by neighbouring yachts ini Avatiu harbour in May, who had seen them in action at ports in the Tuamotu and So ciety Islands. Magdalena has taken the Balds through the West Indies several times, around the Mediterranean,

Joker In happier days. The Australian-registered 9.2-metre vacht owned by Bill Webb of Port-Vila sank off the New Hebrides after strik ing a submerged object.

down the American coast to Brazil, home to Germany and back through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands among other places.

The latest leg of the journey is taking them through the Pa cific, with the hurricane season spent in Tahiti where they were joined by their daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Magdalena arrived at Rarotonga in early May for two weeks and was then bound northwest for Samoa, with possible calls at Suwar row and Manihiki in the north ern Cook Islands, and on to Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand for the next cyclone season.

Heinz has hopes of meeting in New Zealand his idol, Eric His cock, whose books, translated into German, have proved invaluable in their travelling.

The Balds’ destination after that is uncertain.

• Blown Away. The C&C

designed Whitby-45 sloop Blown Away is registered in the unlikely US port of Chicago from where owner-skipper Steve Colman comes. Steve and his first mate Sherry Krawchuk are on an east to west circumnavigation and the most recent report of their travels is from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Blown Away left the US coast from Annapolis, Maryland, in October 1978 and wintered in the Caribbean, later sailing on to the Galapagos Islands after passing through the Panama Canal. Steve and Sherry said they were fascinated by the Galapagos and were impressed by the strict en forcement there of conser vation measures. A park guide accompanied them on their

tours of islands in the group.

Blown Away later spent eight months in French Polynesia before continuing to Raro tonga, and is proceeding to Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, New Zealand (to wait out the hurricane season), Australia, Papua New Guinea and then to the Red Sea. • BORN FREE. Now heading for Australia via the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia is the US-based Cascade sloop Born Free which passed through the Cook Islands in May. Skipper Don Raidy bought Born Free in 1976, six years after the sloop was launched. He has been sailing with his wife Katheryn, son John and their cat since Sep tember 1977. They left their home port of San Diego and sailed to Hawaii, Pago Pago,

Western Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. The Raidys were in Fiji for six months during the hur ricane season, but were caught in Hurricane Meli which struck Fiji last year. Sev eral of their friends lost their yachts, but these accidents have not diminished the desire of the Raidys to keep travel ling. From Fiji they sailed to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and when they reach Australia they plan' a detailed cruise of the Great Barrier Reef. They plan to spend some time in Sydney and will then make for Nelson on the South Coast of New Zealand and will cross Cook Strait to the North Island.

Their homeward leg will be through the Society Islands where they plan to spend sev eral months. • SKANA This 16-metre cutter belonging to George and Sid ney Thorson left Los Angeles in July of last year and arrived at Rarotonga for four days in early May after cruising in the Marquesas, Tuamotus and So ciety Islands. Accompanying George and Sidney Thorson when Skana reached Avatiu harbour were Bix Crary, Beryl Eddy and David Petersen who had all joined the yacht in French Polynesia. Sidney, though, had flown to Raro tonga from Papeete. The 18month-old Skana was built in Newport Beach, California, with a modified Islander 55 hull. Skana spent four days on

a reef in the Tuamotus, but was fortunately hauled off without too much damage.

From Rarotonga Skana headed north to Aitutaki and on to Pago Pago where friends of the Thorsons were to join them for a cruise through western and American Samoan waters. Skana is then bound for Tonga and Fiji, where Bix and Beryl will prob ably leave the yacht. George and Sidney will also be leaving Skana in September to fly back to Washington, where the cut ter is registered at Friday Har bour. Their two sons will come down to the Pacific to sail Skana back to USA. • WHITHER. This 12-metre modified Piper trimaran, with sloop rigging, is taking Jim Staggs and Karin Ahlstrdm on a Pacific cruise which left from San Diego on November 25 1978. Jim Staggs actually left Whither's home port of Seattle exactly a year earlier on November 25, 1977, sailing down the west coast to work on the trimaran which he has owned for seven years before taking it on its first long range voyage. Previous trips were confined to the Pacific north west and the Canadian coast.

From San Diego the pair sailed down the Mexican coast, through Central America, and left for the Marquesas from Costa Rica. Just outside Hiva Oa, Whither’s mast broke, but fortunately Jim had carried

Born Free making for Australia. Abbie Cogan picture.

Blown Away, Sherry Krawchuk and Steve Colman - PNG-bound. Abbie Cogan picture.

wo pieces of extrusion with lim from Seattle on deck so he /vas able to build a new mast Dy splicing these together.

Wer a week long stay in Raro :onga the trimaran was bound : or Samoa, Fiji, Australia and :he Great Barrier Reef, the Solomons, Marshalls, Sardines, Marianas and eventually home to Seattle, /vith no definite date planned for the arrival. » HEIMAT. Another yacht from Vancouver which was in Avatiu Harbour in the Cook Islands in mid-April was Heimat, a 20-metre Westerly design which belongs to Karl and Henriette Bohlen. Heimat left Vancouver in June 1979, sailed direct to Hawaii, and then on to the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Papeete, Bora Bora and Rarotonga. Grant Bohlen accompanied his parents as far as Papeete be fore returning to university, and the Bohlens’ daughter and son-in-law will join them in Pago Pago for a three month cruise in the Fiji-Tonga area after their stop in Rarotonga.

Karl has been sailing, mainly around Vancouver and the north-west United States, for about seven years in a smaller yacht. This is their first long range voyage, which will prob ably continue on to New Zealand for the 1980-81 cyc lone season and on around the world ‘if the mate feels brave enough’. The Bohlens have owned Heimat, which was built in England in 1977 and freighted to Canada, for two years. • SPRAY. This 13-metre Ottawa-registered trimaran is owned and skippered by Howard Johnson, a Canadian who designed the boat him self. His crew are Adrian and Angela Lister, of Yorkshire, England. Spray, built in Cape town 10 years ago, has sailed across the Atlantic three times. On this trip Johnson voyaged from St. Croix to Panama, the Galapagos, the Marquesas, the Tuomotus, and the Society Islands. The Listers came aboard as crew in Tahiti, and sailed with John son to Rarotonga. From Rare-

tonga Spray will make the long journey back to St Croix via Aitutaki, American and West ern Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand for the hurricane season (where his present crew will disembark), Aus tralia, the New Hebrides, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Brazil. • WHIRLWIND. This Holman and Rye 12-metre racer skip pered by Noel Murray is in Rarotonga for a brief visit.

Whirlwind has raced in the Admirals Cup and won the cup seven years ago. She has since competed in 16 races.

Whirlwind left her home port of Tauranga, New Zealand, in early May, with skipper Mur ray, his sons Kerry and Shawn, owner Doc Hubbard, and lan Riddell. The sleek racer is on its yearly cruise and is bound for Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and then back to New Zealand for Christmas.

Spray - Atlantic veteran in the Pacific. Abbie Cogan picture.