yachts

Ian G. Menzies Re

ports from Darwin , Australia:

• Wandering Star. As Tre

vor Richards put it, “it was really a bit of a busman’s holiday,” when he set out from the Royal Cape Yacht Club in South Africa to circumnavigate the world. A navi gator in the merchant marine, Tre vor settled on a Peter Ibold-de signed Endurance 37, built in the Thesens shipyard in Knysna, as his choice for his single-handed adven ture.

The Endurance 37, either cutter or ketch-rigged, is proving to be a popular cruising design, with no fewer than five passing through Darwin this season. With a beam of 3.5 m and a draught of 1.75 m, the Endurance 37 has a full length keel with cutaway forefoot to give it excellent stability and tracking.

Trevor’s Wandering Star has been cutter-rigged, and was fitted out under his personal supervision.

With galley to port and a rear-facing chart table to starboard, the saloon lies amidships and seats six com fortably. The saloon/doghouse en joys all-round visibility and has provision for an inside steering position, which Trevor elected not to instal. Glare and heat from the tropical sun has been reduced by tinting all glass with 3M Scotchtint Brand window insulation film.

From the saloon, a companion way to port steps down to give access to a raised double berth to starboard, then through a head and shower, to a V-berth in the fore cabin. A feature of Trevor’s interior design, apart from his excellent cross-flow ventilation system, is that the entire sleeping accommodation up forward can be sealed off completely from the saloon via a sliding hatch and hinged door.

Trevor began his circumnaviga

tion in January ’82, with passage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and east coast USA. After par ticipating in the excitement of “that” America’s Cup, it was then south again, through the Panama Canal and across the South Pacific.

Bora Bora and Western Samoa were Trevor’s favorite stopovers on his solo voyage.

Bundaberg was Wandering Star’s first Australian landfall, and it was there that Trevor Richards’ days of single-handing came to an end: her name is Liz Cretschmer from Michigan, USA, and she had flown to Bundaberg to join her mother on her yacht Epoch for passage across the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. Now she is Trevor’s first mate and sailing with him via the Seychelles to South Africa. Talk about hi-jacking, cou pled with romance, on the high seas Despite the fact that Trevor is a proficient navigator, he has installed the electronics to back up his manual skills — a Walker 402 SatNav. Also a “ham” operator, call sign VP2 EAE, he has a Yaesu FT707 as his basic communications tool. Power for these electronics is assisted by 9.5 amps of solar panels, via twin battery banks.

One feature on Wandering Star is her very comprehensive ground tackle: 20.5 kg CQR with 76 m of chain, 15 kg Bruce with 9 m of chain and 91 m of nylon rode, and 16 kg Danforth with similar chain and 61 m of nylon rode.

In a blow, Trevor evidently in tends that Wandering Star will stay put!

From Darwin, Liz and Trevor made passage for the Seychelles with South Africa as their destina tion before the year was out. We wish these two very special people, “bon voyage”! • BUNGEE. Steve Theodore is a man of determination. Despite the

fact that, as he wryly puts it, he “left most of his fingers behind in Viet nam, while trying to defuse a booby trap,” he still managed to build his Adams 45 all 16 tonnes of it.

Bungee, which is an Australian Aboriginal word for “friend”, had her keel laid in Gladstone, on Queensland’s central coast, in early 1980. Eighteen short months later, Steve had her ready to launch.

Though still lacking an interior fit-out, and with rigging yet to complete, Steve motored her up the Queensland coast to the war mer climes of Bowen.

The trip was not without its traumas. The Model 260 Thomyc roft diesel that Steve had installed, with its continuous 45 kW output, behaved impeccably. It was the propeller that let him down badly. It broke down no fewer than four times on the trip a mite disconcerting in the reef-strewn waters of North Queensland. It seems that a locking pin was the culprit, and still is, so Steve now carries plenty of spares.

Work ashore in Bowen helped to bolster finances and Steve was able to complete the fitting-out of Bungee. Steve has kept it simple, with a compressor-driven refrigera tor/freezer, and very basic electro nics. He relies on only his Tamaya sextant and charts for his naviga tion.

Leisurely cruises further up the Queensland coast to the Lockhart River then followed, where Steve and his family found good anchor ages and a warm welcome from the local landowners. When Steve’s wife Pauline, and baby son Ben jamin, flew south to visit her folks, Steve decided to tackle the long haul to Darwin. With him were his

daughter Alethea (11) and her friend from the Lockhart River, Skye Yeomans (12).

Steve now reckons he could not have wanted for two better crew.

Though Alethea was a real ”sea baby”, with about eight years living on board, Skye’s total yachting experience amounted to less than two months. By the time the pas sage to Darwin was over, the two girls were steering a true compass course, could trim sails and take a watch by themselves. They also confidently handled the vessel in quartering and lumpy seas, with winds up to 30 knots, as they crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Steve admits however that they did have one really close shave.

Broad reaching off Cape Croker, on the Northern Territory’s north west coast, they suddenly spotted breaking water a mere 100 m ahead. They put Bungee hard over, hove to, and then, with the aid of the two girls, Steve cranked on all sail. With their hearts in their mouths, and some deft tacking, they managed to slide past the almost hidden shoals. And all this with the propeller once more out of action. Steve now advises keeping well out to sea off Croker Island.

The whole family were re-united in Darwin when their son Stephen (12) also joned them, Darwin was, in fact, a bit of a home-coming for Steve and the two eldest children.

The family had lived aboard their former vessel, the trimaran Sweet Caroline, in Darwin some years before.

Steve and his family had in tended to wait out the cyclone season in Darwin before pushing westward in ’86, but a charter with a difference changed all their plans.

Liz Cretschmer and Trevor Richards, on left, entertain lan Menzies and his first mate, Michelle Frichot on board Wandering Star.

Photo: I. Menzies.