Sailing alone across Tasman

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33513, 19 April 1974, Page 4

Sailing alone across Tasman

When Annette Wilde sails her yacht, the Valya, out of New Plymouth for Mooloolaba, via Brisbane, on April 27, she will be making sailing history as the first woman entrant in the single-handed transTasman race.

The young Christchurch woman will be sailing the heaviest boat in the fleet, a 33ft ferro-cement yacht which she and a partner built. Alone, she will sail about 1200 miles, a voyage that will take two to three weeks.

Her progress through turbulent seas to New Plymouth to qualify, for the race last week received considerable publicity. Now she is readying the yacht to join the fleet of 13 for the start of the race. How does she handle the heavy gear on her nine-ton yacht? “A man would not handle a yacht of this size without winches. They are essential to haul sails up tightly, and to sheet them in —even more so in a seaway when the sometimes violent motion makes it essential to winch with one hand and hold with the other,” she says.

“But I find that it is most important to have the right tricks. You can never set a sail up really tightly when it is full of wind no matter how strong you are.” SEVEN WINCHES The Valya has seven winches, a modest number by today’s standards. The biggest is the anchor winch designed to handle a 351 b anchor, and 200 ft of chain weighing about 4001 b with which the yacht can anchor in up to 70ft of water. Childhood friends would not recognise today’s soln yachtswoman. A quiet, .studious girl, /she rejected a teaching 7 career, working at various jobs until her interest was caught by a 20ft yacht for sale. With a partner, a technician at the University of Canterbury, she “bought the

stout little ship which soon taught them seamanship. Annette made some sails for the yacht, a spinnaker that she remembers as “a great success, but my sewing machine made hard work of the terylene for a storm jib and main so 1 was not so proud of those." They found their yacht slow and small, and so the decision was made to build a bigger craft in ferro-cem-ent. AMAIH r shipwright ’ In the years of building the' Valya, Miss Wilde became ai capable amateur shipwright.! She learnt to weld and to operate a lathe, a drill press, and band saw. Many of the parts for the yacht were cast in marine aluminium. Annette made patterns for these, and she and her co-buiider learnt to cast. “We made pumps, which were very difficult, and thej portholes and stanchion bases,” she recalls. “I found it very satisfying work when it went well," but sometimes we had disasters and work had to be redone.” Her technical interest, and ability led to a job as an audio visual and demonstration technician with the physics department of the [university, her only "worth-

I while” job which she was; sorry to leave when the; I Valya seemed ready for sail-; i ing. COLD-WEATHER COMFORT Even after three years of building, the yacht was; launched much too early, for; it was another two years be-, fore finishing work w*as com-' pleted. The mast was step-, ped, a motor installed, and many fittings added. A diesel- [ burning heating stove proivides comfort in cold weather. . Meanwhile, Miss Wilde studied for her amateur radio licence. On the yacht she has< a former Army 62 set which! covers marine, amateur, and time signals. To provide ready transport of materials to and from the yacht during building, Annette learnt to ride her partner’s motor-cycle w r ith side-

car. One of the more unusua (sights on Christchurch road: I was Annette astride a big (500 c.c. single motor-cycle an< i sidecar, towing a fully-lader ■trailer. j When asked if she was making history as rhe first isolo yachtswoman, Annette ' Wilde laughed: “Anne David i son was sailing a similar size 'yacht many years ago after i her husband was lost over board, and Nicholette Walker sailed the Atlantic about lo years ago.” Annette Wilde likes sailing above all. Her plans for the future include a lot of sailling and very little else. “It is really satisfying to make a passage, especially when conditions are right, and the yacht sails fast and well. My reasons are a bit more complex than that, but it is hard to explain,” she says.