Yachts
pp. 66-67 · Read in the full issue
Vanuatu racers storm-lashed
A sudden and violent storm marred the second race in the Epiglass offshore series staged in September by the newly formed Vanuatu Cruising Yacht Club.
The 100-nautical mile race was held off the island of Efate overnight on September 13- 14.
As the race began, crews were mainly concerned to keep their craft moving in near no-wind conditions. The yacht Capella actually withdrew from the race due to the calm.
Then the storm hit almost without warning in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Storm sails replaced the full
rigs as the yachts ran before its fury.
A gust of 55 knots close to Hat Island was reported by Ned Kelly as she ran for shelter in Havannah Harbour.
Only Moonraker completed the course, crossing the finish line at 7 am on Sunday. The yacht faced big seas and 40knot winds in a beat from Nguna to Monument Rock. ‘As dawn broke, all yachts bar Moonraker had retired and were running for shelter behind Tuku Tuku Point, Havannah Harbour and Nguna,’ Moon raker’s captain Bill Webb said.
Among contestants were Yoco, Na Sau, Ersatz and Windfall.
All retired yachts returned safely. Minor gear failures were common.
• Doreen Beatrice.
Owned and sailed solo by Syd Durrant of New Haven, England, this two-year-old 8.2 m cutter visited Rarotonga briefly. Doreen Beatrice left England in June 1978 and sailed to Gibraltar, the Ca naries, the West Indies, the Leeward and Windward
Islands, Puerto Rico, Panama and the Scoieties. After a four day gale in the Societies, the yacht lost its sail, and as Durrant was motoring in through the passage to Papeete the engine failed.
Doreen Beatrice was washed onto the reef, where it sus tained considerable damage.
Luckily for Durrant the mem bers of the yacht club in Tahiti took it upon themselves to repair the battered vessel. At a cost of over 50 000 francs, the boat was rendered seaworthy once again. The reason for this charity, Durrant explained, is simply, ‘because they’re nice people’. Doreen Beatrice is westbound, with probable ports of call at Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand and Singapore. • TAIYO. The 28 m steel brig antine Taiyo from San Francisco USA has been visit ing the South Pacific under charter to UK-based interests undertaking an unusual histori cal expedition. The leader of the expedition is Glynn Christian from the UK, de scended from the same family as that of Fletcher Christian,
leader of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island.
Glynn Christian is writing a biography of Fletcher Christian and the Taiyo expedition is researching the story. The ex pedition has the approval of the Royal Geographical So ciety of which Glynn Christian is a fellow. Fletcher Christian twice visited French Polynesia in an attempt to found a settlement there, and Tubuai in French Polynesia as well as Pitcairn Island have been visited during the Taiyo cruise.
Films and interviews were taken during the calls to French Polynesia and Pitcairn.
Skipper of the Taiyo is Terry Purkiss from UK and the mate is Tony Fletcher from Aust ralia. The two other crew members are Hop Cowen from USA and Sabine Schumacher from Germany. The 10 others on board are all members of the expedition and are from UK, New Zealand and USA. • AQUILON 11. Calling at Tubuai in French Polynesia was the 11m sloop Aquilon from Montreal, Canada. Skip per Daniel Trickey was no
newcomer to Tubuai he had worked there as a mechanic for eight months in 1977-78 while on a solo voyage which first took him from Canada across the Atlantic to Portugal.
On that occasion his solo ✓oyage then took him back across the Atlantic to the West ndies, then through Panama :o the Marquesas and Tahiti, to he Cook Islands, Wallis Island, fonga and then Noumea in 'Jew Caledonia. It was in sloumea that he met his : rench wife Marie Noel, and he two of them are now sailing ogether in Aquilon 11. During heir present cruise they visited ’onga, and after leaving Tench Polynesia they were leaded for Vancouver in Canada and later for Hawaii.
NIMBUS. The 10.5 m cutter Jimbus is owned, built and kippered by Bill Sellers of Jew Zealand and has been isiting the Cook Islands, tellers followed an Atkin de ign in building the cutter, sing experience gained in wilding a number of other achts. Sailing single-handed, e left New Zealand in May nd spent a year cruising the ;lands of New Caledonia be )re reaching Rarotonga in the :ooks. In Rarotonga he was )ined by Goldie Milligan as rew and they plan to spend ome time cruising in Tongan r aters. Later they will make for le Bay of Islands in New ealand, and Bill says ‘any ling goes’ for his subsequent lans.
SOLANDERI. visiting Raro )nga was this 14 m Wharran atamaran, owned and skip ered by Peter Hansen, of ngland. Hansen, who has wned the 10-year-old cat for ght years, left England in 972 and sailed to the aribbean, where he spent five sars. In February this year, ansen and his sole crew ember, Emy Thomas, sailed irough the Panama Canal to arotonga, via the Marquesas id the Society Islands. After )ending a few days in arotonga the catamaran saded for Samoa, Tonga, Fiji id New Zealand.
DAGON. On a circumnavi ation trip is Dagon. a 17 m icholson yawl, registered in elgium. The yacht arrived in arotonga in August from
Bora Bora. Skipper-owner Paul Orban has been sailing Dagon for three years, and is accompanied by Brigitte and Jacques de Reuck and Jacqueline Galland. After leav ing Belgium in 1977, the yawl made her way to Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, the West Indies, the Virgin Islands, Curacao, Panama, the Galapagos, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora and Rarotonga. After a week in Rarotonga Dagon sailed to Tonga and New Zealand, where she will wait out the hurricane season and then continue her circumnavigation with anticipated stops in Aust ralia and Indonesia. From there, the course is still indefi nite. • MIRANDA. On a short visit to Rarotonga was MirandA, a 12.5 m Melbourne-registered sloop. She is owned and sailed by Brian and Marian Sargood.
Travelling with the Sargoods is Bill Tooth, who came aboard in Bora Bora and will disembark in Tonga. The yacht was built for the Sargoods in 1952 by Ernest Digby, and after owning her for 12 years the Sargoods sold her to friends, only to buy her back after another 12 years had passed. Miranda has almost completed her long voyage, which began when she left Melbourne in May 1978. Her itinerary included stops at Darwin, the Cocos Islands, Mauritius, Durban, Capetown, St. Helena, the Ascension Islands, Brazil, the Caribbean, USA, Panama, the Marquesas and the Society Islands. • WILLY BOLTON. A visitor through the Cook Islands earlier this year was the 16 m ketch Willy Bolton, con structed with a teak hull. The ketch was sailed by owner skipper Bill Burke, his wife Pat, son Michael and daughters Casey and Betsy. Willy Bolton, registered in Reno, USA, left Newport Beach in December last year and sailed to the Marquesas after two tries.
On the first attempt falling winds left the yacht becalmed and it had to eventually divert to Mexico for resupplying. The second attempt to reach the Marquesas was successful, and later Willy Bolton went on
to the Tuomotus, the Society Islands and Rarotonga in the Cooks. After a visit to American Samoa the Burkes planned to return to USA. The yacht had several owners be fore the Burkes, having been built in the first instance for a member of the staff of the former US President Nixon.
The Burkes admit they have little sailing experience, but call themselves ‘text book sailors’ and say they are enjoy ing the cruise. ‘We’re either brave or stupid we are not sure which’ is their comment. • AMULET. Martin Gleeson and his wife Colleen from UK are sailing the 14 m cutter Amulet in the Pacific. It is of Falmouth pilot cutter design and is 90 years old one of the oldest active cruising yachts sailing today. The Gleesons bought Amulet in UK two years ago and sailed to Gibraltar, the Canaries, the West Indies, Panama, the Galapagos, French Polynesia, the Cooks, and Tonga and were last reported headed for Fiji and New Zealand. Their only anxious moment during the cruise was a collision with a
sperm whale, but the sturdy yacht was unharmed and so apparently was the whale which, according to the Gleesons, ‘made off at high speed’. The collision occurred in the South Atlantic, e ROYAL HAWKE. Not quite a year old, the 12 m sloop Royal Hawke has been taking New Zealanders Brian and Jenny Pollock on a coastal cruise of New Zealand and then to the Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Hawaii. Brian Pollock built the yacht himself in a four-year project in Auck land.
Sailing out of Sydney earlier this year, a rather battered cutter, Moans Lua, had to put into Rarotonga for extensive repairs. The 47-year-old 11.5 m yacht is owned and skippered by Peter Fry with Jennifer Watts as crew and is on its way to Peru. Moana Lua ran into bad weather east of Auckland and a large wave swamped and tem porarily capsized the boat. Part of the boathouse was damaged when the dinghy was torn free by the wave. Fry jokes that during the episode they didn’t have time to be frightened.
Nonetheless, the couple were glad to make a landfall.