Gales Hit Trimaran

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 1

Gales Hit Trimaran

(N.Z. Preu Auoetatlon) AUCKLAND, July 4. The 40ft trimaran Galinule arrivedat Port Fitzroy, Great Barrier Island, early this morning after a voyage in which it was battered by winds of up to 80 m.p.h.

The trimaran’s mast was driven through the deck and five sails were destroyed during six days of gales in the mid-Pacific on the way from Suva to Tauranga. The $lO,OOO trimaran, is owned by Mr D. R. Wightman. On board were his daughter,

Dale, aged 16, Graeme Wilson, aged 27, John Morgan, aged 23, Eddie Mitchell, aged 22, P. Reid, aged 22, and John Shackle. Most of the crew come from Tauranga. “We were in trouble,” Mr Wightman said today. The Galinule began its return trip to Tauranga on June 18, but six days away from Suva good weather gave way to gales with force-9 winds and 25ft seas. “With south-westerlies we were not able to head in the right direction and we were hove to for two days and a half,” Mr Wightman said. He changed course for Whangarei but had to travel about 150 miles to make 40 miles headway. "Then the weather im-

proved and we got into Port Fitzroy at about 1 a.m. today,” he said. “We had five gallons of'fuel left.” Temporary repairs were made today and Mr Wightman planned to sail for Tauranga tomorrow. Damage to the trimaran might be as high as $lOOO. The Galinule was first in the news when it was sailed from South Africa to New Zealand by Commander A. D. Cole, his wife and two child- ? ren and their 90-year-old grandmother. During the Auckland-to-Suva, yacht race several months ago the crew of the Galinule had to be picked up by the freighter Cap Blanca when the trimaran lost its