Admirer of Cook to retrace voyage

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 15

Admirer of Cook to retrace voyage

By

HELENA WISNIEWSKI,

NZPA staff correspondent London A passion for the South Pacific adventures of Captain Cook inspired one York sailing instructor to quietly plot two years ago a journey retracing his hero’s voyage. Now John Paul, aged 53, claims the project he dubbed “In Cook’s Wake” will begin with the launching of the Ambition II — the boat he had

custom-built for the voyage — next month. “We have been painting furiously, and are just on the last stage,” he told NZPA. “We have a few months at the outside left.”

The Ambition II will leave the port of Whitby on England’s north-east coast on a two-year voyage that will include stops at New Zealand and Australia.

The boat is modelled on the boat Mr Paul used for

a “dress rehearsal” trip to the Canary Islands in 1986, the first leg of Cook’s circumnavigation more than 200 years ago. It has an all-steel hull, it can be “sealed as tight as a submarine,” and has specially designed sails. It has been fitted out for a crew of seven, one of whom is physically handicapped. All going well, the Ambition II should arrive off the coast of New Zealand and Cook’s first landing point at Hick’s Bay, by next September. But in spite of the careful planning, Mr Paul admits the project has had its share of hiccups. When a sponsorship deal recently fell through, for example, a full crew complement suddenly became difficult to find. The Ambition II so far has only four crew members, one of them deaf, signed on. “The only way we can finance it now is to ask crew members to share,” Mr Paul said. “The boat alone cost me between $135,500 and $162,000, so I’m pitching for $13,500 from each member.

“But we’ve still only got half a crew. I have tried so far to maintain a northeast England connection — Cook was born only a few miles from here — but I think we will take applications from anywhere ..

The voyage will take the Ambition II from Whitby, where Cook’s Endeavour was built, to the Canaries, Cape Horn, Tahiti, north-east Australia, and from Brisbane to New Zealand. “I have read a lot about Cook’s experiences in New Zealand,” Mr Paul said. “But we certainly won’t be able to do the figure of eight that he did when he charted the country. “I hope we will spend about three weeks there, mainly round Cook Strait.”

The Ambition IPs return trip will include a stop at Australia, where there will be a change of crew, and Madagascar. For its creator, “In Cook’s Wake” has so far been more a complicated land-bound exercise than a high seas adventure. “But I am totally committed to it — until such time it becomes totally impossible," Mr Paul said.