Small Yacht Has Long Stormy Trip

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28480, 9 January 1958, Page 10

Small Yacht Has Long Stormy Trip

Three men in a small, stormbattered yacht reached Lyttelton yesterday from Auckland after a voyage lasting 43 days. The yacht, the 22ft sloop Susan, had weathered four major storms, and the crew had not had dry clothing or bedding for almost five weeks.

The Susan was skippered by Its owner, Mr D. L. Hindle, of Celia street, Redcliffs, who is returning to his railway job at Lyttelton after having had six months' leave of absence to visit Australia. His crew comprised Mr Lome Liesegang, a 26-year-old linotype operator from Queensland, who is touring New Zealand; and Mr E. T. Leeds, aged 27, joint headmaster of a private school at Gisborne, who joined the boat “for a 10 days' holiday.” Tasman Crossing The Susan was built in Auckland by Mr V. W. Walton, of Grey Lynn, who made a double crossing of the Tasman in her. She is said to be the smallest yacht ever to have crossed the Tasman. The sloop is also thought to be one of the smallest vessels to have made the Auckland-Lyt-telton trip; certainly the hippocket log (a blue covered school notebook), of jfe a- record of F4UKImOMMR*Bt arduous cruise. ‘ Mr. Hindle and Mr Liesegang took the Susan out of Auckland on November 25, and struck their first storm off Mayor Island not far. out. They were blown into the Bay of Plenty, and were not heard of for 14 days. The search and rescue. organisation was alerted, but..’the vessel put into Hicks Bay for shelter and was safe. Five big seas wgre taken aboard, and the cockpit was filled with water. ' Putting the boat to rights wap ’a major task as the crew worked among ’’mosquitoes as big as black cats.” : After getting to Tokomaru Bay on the next leg, the . Susan put out and ran into a heavy gale and had to run back. By December 12 the sloop was in Gisborne trying to dry out and find a leak. Mr Leeds went aboard and told his colleagues: "Even at this slow rate of progress it will only take 10 days at the longest” Mainsail Damaged But four hours after leaving Gisborne the Susan’s mainsail was blown out in a southerly and the yacnt had to put back for repairs. Finally, on Christmas Eve, Gisborne was left behind, and aboard with the crew was a moist plum pudding waiting to be cooked the following day. The following day the plum pudding was so moist, sodden in a violent gale, that it could not be eaten. There was no Christmas dinner.

Then on December 29, the Susan ran into a north-west gale in Cook Strait. The, navigation lights were swept away, the dinghy was washed off and saved by a lifeline, and a tremendous wave ripped off the hatch cover twisting the hinges and flooding the cabin. Desperately the crew went to work with buckets bailing out, and for two sleepless, hungry days they crouched below as the yacht ran under bare poles more than 100 miles out to sea.

“We were too frightened to go to sleep even if we had been able

.“We had to lock ourselves in and hope for the best,” said Mr Hindle. < In the excitement the chronometer was not wound and from then on navigation was by a not-too-reliable alarm dock. "Shs took a terrible battering from th* tremendous waves,” said Mr Hindle last evening as he relaxed and sipped beer on his parents’ lawn. “I'd hate to imagine the wind speed; it was fantastic.” Picking their way through a boat covered In tea and broken packets of breakfast cereal, the crew spent the next two days bringing their craft back to the coast off Kaikoura. "Then we made the Kaikoura peninsula,” Mr Hindle sai4"No, you missed one storm out,” corrected Mr Leeds and Mr Hindle went on to tail of tlie neat blow. ■ ' Battered to Kaikoura The Susan was within 28 miles of Lyttelton on Thursday last week when a heavy., southerly swept her back to Kaikoura. Mr Hindle was given permission to lie down oh a bed for a* afternoon by a sympathetic hotel pro. prietor on the first dry mattress he had you coullf ntit ieh' anw®# of it through linen .'OHsvi. Mr Leeds said. When the Susan triad to„leave tor -' Lyttelton x onr ISMaV. the anchor fouled antflhO'lMM th wait for assistance MM. - She flnaUy B*o a.m. on Tuesday and tosiae’Glodley Head at 2*o p.m. jredteMay. It was only yest«ra|y : “tbM the auxiliary motor wurMfsuhded to go with a dose of v .