Yachts

The Middle Har

Bour Yacht Club

reports from Sydney;

About 30 yachts are expected to take part in the 1982 KB Sydney- Suva race of 1730 nautical miles between Australia and Fiji. It is the longest ocean race across the southwest Pacific and will begin in Sydney harbour on May 22. The Governor-General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cowen, has been invited to start the fleet. Arrangements for the 1982 event were launched in Suva at a ceremony attended by represen tatives of the organising clubs, the Middle Harbour Yacht Club and the Royal Suva Yacht Club.

Pre-entry interest has been shown by Lou Abrahams’ Challenge from Victoria. Challenge finished second in this year’s race, and then sailed on to Hawaii to represent Australia in the winning Clipper Cup team.

Doug Jewry from Mooloolaba in Queensland is another owner show ing interest. His 18-metre Siska I! has taken line honours in the Brisbane to Gladstone race off the Asutralian northeast coast and in the inaugural Brisbane to Noumea ocean race. Metung , owned in Victoria by Bill Woodwa/d, is likely to be competing in the Sydney-Suva for the fourth time. Also competing again will be Widgeon , skippered by John Bish. Tasmanian yachtsman Hedley Calvert, expects to enter his cruiser-racer Huon Lass.

The 1982 Sydney-Suva race has again been timed to be a passage race for yachts on their way to Hawaii for the Clipper Cup series in August in which Australia will igain be strongly represented. Last the first two placegetters in the ace, Marshall Phillips’ Sweet

Caroline and Lou Abrahams’ Chal lenge >, sailed on to Hawaii and won the Clipper Cup with Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin.

Joan D . Pease Re

ports from Pago Pago

American Samoa:

• PATANELA. This 19.2-melre gaff schooner caused great excite ment in the cruising community when it arrived in Pago Pago towing the remains of a ketch salvaged on Suwarrow atoll. Owner Norm and Pat Hunt from Fremantle, Western Australia, spent a month refloating and repairing Pacific Mariner which was swept up on a reef with two other yachts in a storm the first week in June. One boat was pulled off immediately, but the hull of Julia Grande remains there. The Hunts are negotiating with the owner of the ketch for clear title.

Patane/a, which is the Tasmania aboriginal word for ‘spirit of the storm’, is returning to Australia after a circumnavigation which began from Fremantle on July 31, 1975. The Hunts have visited 42 countries and have avoided the easy routes in favour of adventure.

Crossing the Indian Ocean, they stopped at Cocos Keeling, Diego Garcia, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Reunion. Although they called at anchorages in South Africa for seven months, they decided to enter Europe through the Suez Canal which provided unwanted excite ment for the Hunts and their two children who were then aboard. One evening as they were near the canal entrance people on shore fired rifles at them. Although no one was hit, the incident was unnerving. ‘We reported this to authorities, but nothing was done,’ Norm said.

In the Mediterranean they visited Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Balearic Islands and Gibraltar and

then sailed to England where the children were enrolled in school for a year. Norm and Pat then elected to sail the northern route across the Atlantic and called at Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Entering the United States in Maine, they continued down the east coast to Delaware Bay, entered the intracostal waterways and cruised as far south as Fort Lauder dale, Florida.

Although the Hunts called at anchorages in the Caribbean, they did not transit the Panama Canal but made many slops in South America Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Brazil and Argentina. They went through the Magellan Strait, the route taken by Joshua Slocum, and the Chilean canals. ‘Although I’ll admit Switzerland and Austria are the most beautiful countries in the world, the Chilean canals would come next,’ Norm said. ‘lt was somewhat like Norway pure natural beauty and no people for 600 miles.’

Patanela called at Robinson Crusoe, Easter Island and Pitcairn and entered French Polynesia at Mangareva in the Tuamotus. In the Societies the schooner anchored at Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Borabora, Maupiti and Mopelia before going on to Suwarrow.

During their six years of cruising the Hunts have had many encoun 'rs with port officials not all

smooth. The most difficult was in Yugoslavia where I was locked up because we had anchored overnight during a storm and had no visa. I had to go before a judge with an interpreter and was fined $25,’

Norm said. In Brazil they found that Australians cannot enter with out securing a visa beforehand, but were finally granted one. The rudest officials were the French in Tahiti,’ Pat said. They screamed at us because we didn't have a visa yet we were told in the Tuamotus we didn’t need one,’ she added. ‘Our most fantastic and interesting wel come was in America,’ Norm said.

The schooner, with Pacific Mari ner in tow and the Hunts’ Mini Moke on deck, will call at Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia before returning to Australia. • ADAGIO. The 10-metre

fibreglass sloop Adagio which

anchored in Pago Pago last November will leave American Samoa soon to sail to Tonga for the hurricane season. Owners Will and Judy Hardy of Columbus Mississ ippi in USA bought their vessel in Coco Beach, Florida after boat shopping for several months. ‘When

On their way to Whangarei, New Zealand, are the Pampero crew Rob Palmer; and Alice, Ben and Dean Dalla Costa, who visited Pago Pago in August. Joan D.

Pease picture.

With only her mizzen mast standing, Pacific Mariner sat in Pago Pago harbour in August rafted to the schooner Patanela.

Norm and Pat Hunt (pictured) from Fremantle, Western Aus tralia, were on the home leg of a circumnavigation in Patanela when they salvaged Pacific Mariner from the reef in Suwarrow. Joan D. Pease picture.

we decided to go cruising we got our money together, put our belongings in two cars and drove along the gulf coast to Miami. Every time we saw a mast, we stopped to inquire,’ Will said. Judy added, ‘lf I had a nickel for every boat we saw. I’d be rich.’

Through persistence they finally

found a vessel they could afford which met their needs. As luck would have it the owner had lowered the price by several thou sand dollars the day before Will and Judy looked at the sloop. ‘ln three minutes we knew it was the one we wanted,' Will said. ‘We were lucky because after lowering the price the owner took out a newspaper ad which attracted many people, but

we made a deposit right away.’

After their purchase the couple worked for a year in Miami to save money for the cruise and set sail in March 1979 calling at the

Bahamas, Haiti and Jamaica before transiting the Panama Canal. They anchored in the Perlas Islands and the Galapagos before arriving in the Marquesas. ‘Other than the Bahamas, these are the best cruis ing grounds we’ve been in,’ Will said. ‘The Marquesans were friendly, there was plenty of fruit and beautiful fishing.’

In the Tuamotus, Adagio called at Apataki and Takaroa and then sailed to Tahiti. In the Society Islands the sloop stopped at anchor ages in Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa and Borabora. Before arriv ing in Pago Pago, Will and Judy stopped at Suwarrow, and no other boats called during their two weeks on the atoll. • LONER. Loner is a 10.9-metre timber yawl, 42 years old, yet owners Fred and Diane Speary keep the vessel in such fine condition the age doesn’t show. The Spearys,

from USA, and their cat Clyde left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in April 1980 for an intended circumnavi gation. They have owned the yawl for 13 years and have sailed to South America and the Caribbean, so when they left Florida they headed directly to Panama to cross the canal and sail to French

Polynesia.

They made an unscheduled stop in the Galapagos which was not the high point it usually is for yachties.

Fred had an infected tooth which a dentist extracted. Immigration officials at Wreck Bay would not give the couple the customary three-day visa but still charged them the $6O processing fee. At the dentist’s insistence, they were al lowed to stay at anchor for six hours and then continued toward the Marquesas islands. They called at Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Ua Pou and Nuka Hiva.

They lost the rudder from Loner in Hiva Oa, and Fred who is a shipwright built a new one with timber he was able to buy on the island. T keep my tools aboard, so I built it in the cockpit,’ he said. The couple called at anchorages in Tahiti, Moorea, Borabora, Mopelia and Aitutaki before arriving in Pago Pago. • TRITON. The Rawson 30 sloop Triton from San Diego in USA called at Pago Pago in August.

Owners Bill and Shirley Taylor left their home port in April and made the crossing to Nuka Hiva, in the Marquesas, in 26 days. 'We knocked two days off my previous record. I singlehanded in another boat two years ago and took 28 days to the Marquesas,' Bill said. From Nuka Hiva the Taylors sailed to Tahiti where they spent several weeks and went to Moorea and Borabora. The 9.4-metre sloop then sailed to Pago Pago and is now continuing on to Fiji. How long will they cruise? Ml’s open-ended,’ said Shirley. 'We’re retired and have income properly, so we are in no rush.’

PAUL RYSA VYreports

from Rarotonga, Cook

Islands:

• ALCESTE. Named after the woman in Greek mythology whom Hercules rescued from hell, this

25-year-old 10-metre Buchanan

sloop sailed in to Rarotonga in late

July. Skipper-owner Dr Ronald

Andrews said he was particularly pleased to be visiting Rarotonga again. Ten years ago he made a brief call at Rarotonga when he was doing a circumnavigation in a yacht called Merlin. He is accompanied on his present cruise by Jill Bannerman and her 14-year-old son Matthew. The sloop left Plymouth

Judy and Will Hardy. They plan to shelter Adagio in Tonga for the hurricane season.-Joan D.

Pease picture.

in UK 10 months ago and has since visited the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, Panama, the Gal apagos, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus and Rarotonga. Dr Andrews has no modern navigation equipment on board and has used sail power alone. In Rarotonga he hopes to repair the small petrol auxiliary engine which broke down about the time he left Panama. His future plans are to call at Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. • PHOENIX 11. This 12.5-metre ketch, registered in Holland, called at Rarotonga briefly on its way to Australia. The yacht, which is sailed solo by Sam Ulyn, left Holland in July 1980 and has since visited England, Spain, Portugal, Gibraller, Morocco, the Canaries, the West Coast of Africa, Barbados, Grenada, Panama, Equador, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti and Rarotonga. Sam is never too long in one place, because he is anxious to see his brother in West ern Australia. His brother migrated to Australia 29 years ago and Sam has not seen him since, so this is a long awaited reunion. On the way to Australia, Phoenix // will make brief slops at Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

► SYLVIA. Owner-skipper Bob

Welles, his wife Sylvia and their '°ns Scott and Bill sailed their

17-melre Ross-designed ketch

Sylvia into Rarotonga late in July.

Sob was slightly annoyed when he poke to me because he had arrived n the harbour at nine o’clock at light and had been told by the •olice to put out to sea until aorning to await immigration and uaranline procedures. He said that i one-and-a-half times round the '°rld he had never before been told 3 leave an anchorage at night. He lid that Avatiu harbour does not ave an easy entrance, and an lement of risk was involved in his aforced departure at night. ‘But I ill And Rarotonga beautiful, al iough there have been many

changes since 1968,’ he said. He said that the number of yachts cruising Cook Island waters had greatly increased since his earlier visit. • MANGATEA. Registered in Seattle in USA, the 14-metre cutter Mangatea was one of many cruising yachts which berthed in Avatiu harbour, Rarotonga, in August. The three-year-old modified Atkin de signed vessel is owned and skip pered by Len Skoog with Carla Hein as sole crew. Len, who is a machinist and boatbuilder, built Mangatea himself and began his Pacific cruise in September last year from Seattle. Stops so far have included Mexico, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, the Societies and Rarotonga. Mangatea is making for Tonga and the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. The return cruise plan is indefinite, although Len is thinking of making Seattle ‘some time in 1983’. • FALCON. The 14-metre ketch Falcon , owned and skippered by Don Anderson, is following a tra ditional route across the Pacific.

Don, who is from San Francisco in USA, bought the seven-year-old yacht in September 1980 and left San Diego in December of that year for Puerto Vallarta in Mexico.

From Mexico he sailed to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus and the Societies where the present crew of Sue Miller and Werner Burgi came aboard for the leg to Rarotonga.

Don is headed for New Zealand (where he will spend the next hurricane season) via Tonga and Fiji.

• Sayonara Alpha. ‘Le

Rolls-Royce de la mer’ is how a Tahitian newspaper has described this 32.5-metre yacht which dwarfed all the other yachts in

Avatiu harbour when it reached the Cook Islands. The luxury yacht is registered in Gibraltar but its base is St Croix in the Virgin Islands from where it is chartered out by its British owners. Sayonara is skip pered by Yugoslav Mehle Michel who has been sailing her, with a crew of only three, for the last six years.

Mehle said that the yacht has so many modern navigational devices and automatic sailing systems that she can be sailed solo. It might be easier to list what conveniences Sayonara does not have the list would be very short indeed. She does not have a swimming pool, but she does have air-conditioning, a fully equipped bar, two compressors for filling scuba cylinders, around ship telephone, wall to wall carpet ing, a quadraphonic stereo system, a video system with a library of more than 300 films, a speedboat for

waterskiing, deepsea fishing re

quirements, and a galley that would satisfy a cordon-bleu chef. There is much more. Sayonara , after im pressing everyone in Rarotonga, left for Suwarrow, a favourite spot of Mehle s, and will then return to St Croix.

Jane Deridder Re

ports from Kerikeri

New Zealand:

• DONELLA. The 13.5-metre cutter Done 11 a of Hamburg registry is the original Lauren Giles teak Done!la, another 14 or so of which were built later. Christian and Hannelore Eckhoflf of Capetown are the second owners of Donella, having bought her in 1975. ‘She was way ahead of her time when she was launched in ’5B with her short main and big foresail triangle, centre cockpit and walk-through passage way,’ says Eckhoflf. Eckhoflf had a fertiliser and transport firm north of

Capetown employing more than

100 people. He says he got tired of working 16 hours a day and fed up with customers and employees. So he sold everything, flew to England and bought Donella.

The Eckhoflfs sailed home via the Canaries, Cape Verde and Brazil, reaching Capetown in time for the

1976 Capetown-Rio Race. They

have always voyaged as a family, originally with all three of their daughters. With them in New Zealand is Anja, aged 16, now at school in the sixth form at Bay of Islands College. A second daughter is married and living in Brazil, a third in Sweden. Christian Eckhoflf tells the horrifying story of the time that Donella, heading for Nova Scotia, encountered the classic wind-against-current confused seas in the Gulf Stream between Bermuda and Newport, Rhode

Island. His daughter’s fiance was swept overnight at night. They managed to pick up the young man after he’d been in the water only 20 minutes. Eckhoff mentions that many a time he has told the tale to fellow yachtsmen who have then checked out their own man-over board gear only to discover that it was not in working order. • CAIRA. Inge and Werner Friedrich adapted the name for their fibreglass 12-metre Van de Staadt cruising vessel from a French expression which they say translates colloquially into ‘she'll be right Werner Friedrich bought Cairo in Majorca in 1976 and brought her home through rivers in Europe to Wescl on the Rhine in Germany where he and Inge owned and operated a business selling boat

safety equipment. They intend to spend the next few years cruising the Pacific ‘as long as possible, dependent on money and health’.

After a hurricane season in New Zealand the Friedrichs sailed to New Caledonia. Their immediate plans are for visits to Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. • BARONES (it’s pronounced baroness). A 1 Mayes, a paper mill engineer from Los Angeles in USA and his Dutch-born wife Rita Groot she’s a psychologist-writer who goes by her maiden name sailed from New Zealand to Noumea in their 10.6-metre Holiday class yawl Barones. The yawl, a Van der Staadt design, was built in Aalsmeer in the Netherlands in 1959 and the Mayes have owned her for 10 years. Before leaving New Zealand they hauled the mahogany-planked yawl at Deem ings slipway just across from Opua wharf. Al says, ‘They still know how to do work on wooden boats. We learned a lot. Though the Mayes

Fred and Diane Speary from USA on board their yacht Loner in Pago Pago. Cat Clyde is unsure whether the photogra pher is friend or enemy.- Joan D. Pease picture.

Inge and Werner Friedrich, cruising the Pacific in Caira.

Jane DeRidder picture.

have now been cruising for three years and have spent two summers in New Zealand, they say that it seems as if they’ve only just got started. Meanwhile they intend to hang on to their New Zealand charts, just in case.

• Wanderlure. This

schooner built by John Aldin in 1923, and belonging to Art Hammond of Green Valley in Arizona, USA, continues to wander through the islands of the South Pacific. Mamie Putt, a New Zealander, is sharing Wanderlure's

adventures with Art. Art, a one time electrical contractor, has been cruising in Wanderlure for 20 years.

Before coming to the South Pacific, Wanderlure cruised Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Art paused for some time in Panama where he worked for the Panama Canal Company and where he refitted and redecked the schooner. Art enjoys poking around out of the way places, the seldom visited Kermadecs for in stance, and has cruised more off beat islands than most other long time cruisers. They recently re cuperated from a rough passage to Noumea. Plans are to continue on to Vanuatu. That will be a fourth visit in as many years. • POLARIS is an unusual-looking ketch with its two fibreglass sport fishing outrigger poles hanging out five metres each side of the main mast like a giant insect’s antennae.

They are supports for a 20-metre dipole antenna hoisted on the main halyard. John and Nancy Alex ander talk to their family regularly by means of ham radio from wherever they happen to be. A son and son-in-law are both amateur radio operators. John and Nancy sailed as far as New Zealand which they visited for two successive sum mers. They are now on the last leg of their return trip to the US west coast via Aitutaki, Tahiti and Hawaii. Alexander, an aeronautical engineer, retired early from Boeing.

He and his wife left on their Seattle registered CT4I for their Pacific cruise just a month after his retire ment. John would like to start a consulting business when he gets back, using his mathematical back ground and cruising experience. ‘We could have used such a service when we were fitting out,’ he said. • GLAYVA. This powerful 15-metre British yacht made the passage from Opua, in New Zea land, to Suva in just seven days. She left in mid-July with strong winter

southerlies to speed her on her way.

Glayva, (the name of a fine Scottish liqueur) is a Ted Hood design fibreglass vessel which Tony Hallsworth of Lancaster completed himself, then singlehanded to New Zealand four years ago. No longer a solo sailor, Tony sailed from Kerikeri, his base for the past few years, with his Tokyo born wife Miwako(Mia), and his 17-monthold son Douglas, born in New Zealand. Ken Hart of Kerikeri also made the trip to Suva to gain experience in offshore voyaging.

First mate Mia is an experienced blue water voyager. She made the trip from Los Angeles to New Zealand four years ago in the 15-metre steel ketch Polack. She and Tony met in several ports along their shared route, including Rarotonga and Suva. Tony, a gunsmith by trade, has worked at a variety of jobs during his stay in New Zealand. He built the Kerikeri Stone Store Tearooms, and skippered the Kerikeri River sightseemg launch, Ernest Kemp. After several weeks in Fiji, Tony and Mia intend to island-hop through Kiriban, the Marshalls, the Carolines and the Marianas, hoping to arrive in Japan by May. They will first head up to Japan’s Inland Sea.

Glayva will probably spend two summers in Japan before returning to Kerikeri in four years for Douglas to start school. • POLETTE. Basil and Nancy, Campion left Auckland on their 12-melre steel ketch Polette in early May bound for Indonesia. Basil, owner of an Auckland engineering firm, built Polette after completing a circumnavigation on his previous much larger steel ketch, Polack.

Mia Hallsworth sailed in Polack from Los Angeles. The Hallsworths and the Campions recently cruised together again when Glayva and Polette spent New Year together in Whangaroa Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. • MAKANI. Captain John Littler and his wife Elizabeth, both orig inally from Canada, sailed their Formosa 41 Sea Tiger Makani from Opua in New Zealand to Lautoka in Fiji. With them was Ashley Bain formerly of Suva. The Canadian couple made the same passage some years ago when they sailed their 13-metre catamaran Doubloon to Fiji. They cruised there for many months and later sold Doubloon to take up citrus growing in Kerikeri, New Zealand, Captain Littler, who retired from the Royal Canadian Navy with the

Rita Groot and Al Mayes along side the 10 m yawl Barones.- Jane DeRidder picture.

[?]ritish yacht Glayva : Opua to [?]uva in just seven days. Basil tampion picture.

rank of commodore, was at one time captain of the cruiser Ontario.

Ashley Bain too has strong ties with the sea for his Danish Emberson ancestors include seafarers and ship builders. The last boat that his grandfather built was the Kadavu Leva. Friends and family in Tonga and Fiji will be interested to learn that Ashley has returned to the UK to complete his degree in econ omics. The Littlers will spend several months once again enjoying cruising in Fijian waters. Liz says ‘We have really had a rousing welcome from everyone here in fact it feels like coming home.’

Michael Prain Re

ports from Port

Moresby , Papua New

Guinea:

• KETCH-UP. An Australian radio amateur 3000 kilometres away stayed on duty in his station for 19 hours in August supervising the rescue of six people from the 16-metre US ketch Ketch-up which was a total loss after striking a reef between Papua New Guinea and Australia. The ham operator, Don Reimann, in Perth, Western Austra lia, heard the ketch’s mayday at night. He established radio contact and maintained calls every 30 minutes while a PNG Defence Force patrol boat went to the yacht on Portlock Reef in the Torres Strait region. The rescue bid was put into operation after Reimann alerted Australian marine authorities who then contacted

Png.

Reimann stayed in contact with the owner-skipper of the grounded yacht, Boris Levin, a retired doctor from Los Angeles USA, until the patrol boat Madang arrived at the reef. Landed later in Port Moresby Dr Levin said ‘The man on the radio was a fantastic guy he saved our lives. Anything could have hap pened to us if we had stayed on that reef.’

Ketch-up earlier had sailed north

to PNG along the Australian east coast, and was making for northern Australia out of Port Moresby when the grounding occurred in darkness.

On board with Dr Levin was his wife Barbara, an American man and woman, an Englishman and a Swiss woman. They salvaged some of their personal belongings, but little else. Efforts by the yacht’s crew and sailors from the patrol boat to haul the yacht from the reef by using anchors and winches failed. At one stage, the patrol

boat’s aluminium dinghy tipped,

spilling its crew into the water. The

yacht was eventually pushed off the

reef by rough seas and into water about 70 metres deep.

A Port Moresby salvage expert who later went to the reef in a

tugboat reported that the yacht was

beyond saving. Dr Levin had owned it for nine years and had cruised to the Pacific Islands, Central America, Australia and New Zea land.

Peter Mcquarrie

reports from Funafuti ,

Tuvalu:

• Dayspring 111 The

22.5-metre Dayspring 111 was a recent visitor to Funafuti from Suva. This interesting yacht is an all-steel ketch, and its masts and main boom are also of steel. Day spring is sailed by Ron and Aggie Russell who sell Christian literature throughout the islands. They are accompanied by a crew of seven.

The Russells visited Tuvalu in 1973 in the smaller ferrocement Day spring I and called at seven of the nine islands of the Tuvalu group.

This visit they also hope to include Nukulaelae which was missed last time. Dayspring is carrying bibles for the Bible Society in the South Pacific.

Liz Littler, Captain John Littler and Ashley Bain about to leave Opua in the 13 m ketch Makani. -Jane DeRidder picture.