Island cruising

Yachting

... from Auckland to Atata

By Sally Andrew

Brilliant sunshine, clear autumn skies and light southerly breezes in Auckland’s Waitemate Harbour provided a perfect start to the eighth annu al Island Cruising Rally to Tonga.

Thirty-three boats were off and run ning with air horns blasting, balloons and battle flags fluttering in the rigging, and shouts of “‘bon voyage” flying across the water.

This year’s cruise from Auckland to tiny Atata Island in Tongatapu was organ ised by the ICA’s new joint directors, Brian and Joan Hepburn, who took over the helm of Island Cruising Association in September, 1995.

Veteran offshore cruisers, the Hepburns have written four books on cruising: This is Not a Cruising Guide, This is a Guide to Cruising (Volumes One and Two), Safety at Sea, and The Kiwi Cruiser Log.

They have sailed over 20,000 miles through the islands of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia aboard their boat, Windemere 11.

The Island Cruising Association was originally founded in 1990 by Don and Jenny Mundell of Auckland whose organ isational skills, combined with 30 years’ experience in the South Pacific travel industry, contributed to the success of the ICA rally and regatta concept. Today, there are more than 600 ICA members.

The main theme of cruising rallies is safety.

Throughout the year, the ICA offers seminars on search and rescue proce dures; use of EPIRBs, flares and life-rafts; medical advice; navigation; weather fore casting; and heavy-weather sailing.

While at sea, regular radio schedules allow for position reporting, weather fore casts and sharing of information The rallies themselves are supposed to be fun and competitive racing is discour aged.

Motors are expected to be used in light winds, and brief diversions to Raoul Island or Minerva Reef are encouraged.

Every yacht receives prizes ranging from VHF hand-held radios to Tongan handicrafts and fishing lures.

Trophies are given for the most accu rate ETA (which is wild carded by an arbi trary luck-of-the-draw ‘adjustment’), the longest fish caught on passage and the most elegant on-board dining. There are

prizes for poems using all the boats’ names, and for the best-dressed pirate at the post-race party.

Serious protests are seldom made.

However, a protest was raised against the yacht Gallant Cavalier in 1994 because they had an iron on board.

The reason - Gallant Cavalier had been able to “‘iron out the waves and press on” despite the horrible conditions of the Queen’s Birthday storm!

Although most of the fleet are first time offshore sailors, many have exten sive off-shore experience.

Overproof an Adams 13 from South Australia, has plenty of miles under her keel and looks fast - maybe because of the jumping kangaroo on her hull, maybe because of the crew’s matching burgundy polo shirts.

Owners Peter and Judy Betts circum navigated Australia in 1989, and then did the Fremantle-to-Bali race. After cruising through the islands of Indonesia in 1990, Overproof sailed to Borneo, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Chagos.

Exciting stops in Kenya, Zanzibar and Durban were followed by a hard slog and

broken gear on the way back to Fremantle.

After their extended cruise in the Indian Ocean, Peter and Judy returned to work for three years - saving money so they could head off and cruise the South Pacific!

Overproof sailed from Tasmania to New Zealand earlier this year, and Peter and Judy are enthusiastic about their

upcoming explorations of Tonga, Fiji and

Vanuatu.

Ten Gauge is a steel Ganley ‘Tara’ design owned by Rob and Jenny McMillan of Mana Cruising Club,

Wellington.

The McMillans had a predictably tough trip up the coast of New Zealand to Auckland. Special gear aboard Ten Gauge includes a furling main and a remarkable

‘“forward-scanning sonar”.

No joke! It is made by an English firm, Incastec, and Rob has used it exten sively around the Marlborough Sounds.

Steaming up to a point of land, he can visually see the bottom rising or dropping away. When leaving the Sounds, a large target - 20 metres in front and 20 below

Island cruising Association’s new joint directors, Joan and Brian Hepburn of yacht Windemere II Pictures: SALLY ANDREW

the surface, round around the edges - held station with Ten Gauge as she sailed along. When they turned into Tory Channel the ‘targets’ - probably whales disappeared. This specialised sonar sys tem scans in a 90-degree arc from dead ahead to straight down.

The biggest boat in this year’s Island Cruising Rally is Runaway, a 47-foot Camper Nicholson built in England and owned by Dick and Claire Kanter of Boston, Massachusttes, USA. Married for 43 years, Dick and Claire owned a power boat in the Caribbean before getting the bug to sail. They chartered for five-and a-half years and then decided it was time to go cruising. Departing in 1994, the Ranters sailed to Bonaire, through the Panama Canal, to the Galapagos, Marquesas, Tuamotos, French Polynesia, and to Tonga.

The highlight of their voyage so far was the Galapagos: “If you don’t do any thing else in life, go there. It’s fantastic.

You can swim with seals, nose to nose, and they blow bubbles at you!”

Runaway will join the Musket Cove to-Santo (Vanuatu) rally in August.

This year, cruising rallies departed Auckland to Fiji (June Ist), all ports to Santo (August 3rd), and Musket Cove to Port Vila, Vanuatu (September 7th).

Week-long cruising regattas will be held

in Savusavu, Fiji (begin ning July sth), Santo (August Bth), and Musket Cove, Fiji (August 30th).

The emphasis of all these ICA rallies and regattas is friendship. “It’s fun to be able to leave the demands of everyday busi ness behind and seek new horizons, new lands and new people,” says Brian Hepburn, director of Island Cruising Association.

“Through cruising, Joan and I have made more new friends in the last few years than almost the whole rest of our lives - people from all around the world, from different walks of life, different cul tures, different colours and different religions.

“Some of these friend ships will last for the rest of our lives.” ■

Overproof, an Adams 13 from Australia, flies her spinnaker at the start of the rally

Island Cruising battle flags fly from the rigging as the rally to Tonga begins