‘Hams’ help vessel

Press, 24 May 1977, Page 12

‘Hams’ help vessel

NZPA Washington “Ham” radio operators at opposite ends of the world linked efforts recently to guide a motor yacht with 80 people aboard out of a Pacific tropical storm to safety. Five amateur radio operators — four in the United States and one in New Zealand — took part. The motor yacht Yankee Trader, which sailed from Florida three months ago on a world cruise, ran into a storm of near hurricane force a day out of Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific. “We took a beating,” the vessel’s radio operator, Mr Jules Wenglare, wrote in a postcard to Mr Daniel Dibble, of Kansas, one of the “ham” radio operators. Without the help of “ham” radio operators spread over a distance of 6500 miles — and the United States weather satellites 22,000 miles above the Earth — the 176 ft Yankee Trader might well have been in worse straits. The incident happened four weeks ago. but was only disclosed at the week-end. Mr Dibble, a lawyer, said that the incident was "no big thing,” and lasted only about an hour. However, Mr Wenglare expressed warm gratitude to Mr Dibble for the help he and the other ham radio operators gave to the Yankee Trader.

Referring to a log he kept, on the night of the incident, i Mr Dibble identified one of the other amateur radio oper-' ators as J. D. Wigg, of Tai-j hape. The charterers of the Yankee Trader, said that the vessel sailed on her seventh annual cruise round the world from Freeport, Bahamas, in February, Most of its passengers were Americans and Canadians. The Yankee Trader, a spokesman said, makes about 30 stops on the cruise, and has already visited the Caribbean. the Panama Canal area, the Galapagos, anjl Easter Island. She is now at Fiji. According to Mr Dibble and the United States Commerce Department, the story began early on April 22 when the Yankee Trader put out a call on short-wave radio seeking weather data for the South Pacific. The call was picked up in Chicago and New Zealand, but neither operator could help. Mr Dibble heard the conversation, and contacted the Commerce Department’s National Severe Storms Centre in Kansas. Weather Services offices in Washington and San Francisco were watching the 200mile wide storm and passed information to Mr Dibble about it. Mr Dibble, however, was unable to raise the Yankee

Trader, although he was able to talk to Taihape. When Taihape could not raise the Yankee Trader, a Pennsylvania operator relayed the information, which helped the Yankee Trader to sail out of the storm.