Solo yachtsman modifies attempt on record

Press, 3 November 1981, Page 11

Solo yachtsman modifies attempt on record

A solo yachtsman, Paul Rodgers, who had hoped to ' become the first person to complete a double non-stop circumnavigation of the world, left Fremantle on October 28 for a reunion with his parents in Dunedin. He said he hoped to meet his parents, Eric and Moya Rodgers, of Ravenswood, Dunedin, about 18 to 20 days later.

Rodgers left Fremantle without ceremony or fuss on the next stage of a twice-round-the-world trek after gales almost cost him his life.

Rodgers was towed into Fremantle’s Success Harbour on October 9 after a duel with the sea which he described as “the longest egg-and-spoon race in history.” For 3500 miles he had run the gauntlet of storms in the Southern Ocean with a damaged mast. .; His 17-metre, two-masted schooner Spirit of Pentax was knocked over after rounding the Cape of Good Hope. The sea caught the rigging, bending the mast level with the water.

Rodgers hauled it back into position and set up a jury rig which he hoped would get him to Australia. He was hit by a succession of gales, and rounded off the sorry voyage by falling on to a winch and cracking ribs. He was found off the West Australian coast 13 days later and towed to Fremantle.

He resigned. * himself to quitting; his bid to become the; first man to sail non-stop

single-handed round the world twice. He set off from Perth with a stronger mast and new rigging to meet his parents before continuing an attempt to sail, simply, twice round the globe solo. “I have run out of excuses for staying,” he said on the wharf before sailing. “I still have a pain in my side from these ribs but that is healing quite well. “I am feeling quite fit — in top form, I guess you could say.” The Spirit of Pentax was in far better shape than 19 days earlier, “So when I have the inevitable knockdowns, I believe we will not split a mast again.” Rodgers intended beginning his run down the West Australian coast to Cape Leeuwin before striking south of Tasmania for New Zealand. From New Zealand he would make for Cape Horn, aiming to reach Plymouth, England, in 12 months before retracing the route round the world. While in Western Australia, Rodgers declined an offer from a local millionaire to restart a non-stop double circumnavigation from Fremantle, this time as a race against a Perth yachtsman, Jon Sanders, who set out in September. However, Rodgers said the Southern Ocean was no place for a race.

“It is grown-up stuff down there — we could be playing with our lives,” he said. So far, Rodgers has covered about 12.000 nautical

miles of the 60,000 mile voyage from Plymouth. Before leaving solid ground at Fremantle he said,

“This is the thing I want to do and I know I will hever be happy until I go and do it.” -.y