Weather Report Fails Whangarei Yachtsmen

Northern Advocate, 13 January 1948, Page 3

Weather Report Fails Whangarei Yachtsmen

TOO trusting a faith in the infallibility of weather broadcasts resulted in six Whangarei yachtsmen experiencing a rather trying return trip from Tauranga on the 26ft A class yacht Spray which arrived back on Sunday after five days of wind-bucking.

The Spray took 30 hours to get down and five days to get back. Skippered by Dave Fagan, who with Barry Wilson owns the Spray, A class champion of Whangarei, the yacht carried Bill Hannam, Jack Wilkinson, Bill Bedlington, Jack Eggington and John Cartwright as crew, and left the Town Basin at 3 p.m. on Christmas Day, Tauranga bound. Good weather was met with on the way down and at 9 p.m. on Friday the Spray stood off Mt Maunganui. However the good luck then gave out and the entrance to the harbour, against the tide, was anything but easy.

fell overboard into a school of porpoises and had to be fished out, or why the rudder gudgeon broke and Bill Hannam had to sit on the rudder, half submerged, for about 15 minutes while the gudgeon was repaired with wire. However, after 13 hours, including a period spent looking for the harbour without the help of the Frenchman’s light, which was out, the Spray dipped wearily into the Town Basin at 11 p.m. on Sunday and the journey which took 30 hours one way and 120 the other, was over.

First the auxiliary motor failed, then the dinghy broke loose. * Battling against the outgoing tide by sail alone made the entry tough and three hours had elapsed before the boys were able to tie up. Luckily the dinghy was found on the beach the next day—minus duckboards and oars. RACING SUCCESSES The pleasures of Tauranga made up for the difficulty encountered in getting there. During her 11 days’ visit the Spray took part in three yacht races, and gained first place in one of them.

In the first race, for the Wilkinson Cup, the Spray came fourth out of 15 yachts; it finished third out of seven in the ocean jace from the Mount to Karewha Island, and first in the Mt Maunganui regatta, in which five yachts took part on New Year’s Day. At 6 p.m. on January 7 the Spray took leave of Tauranga and slipped out of the harbour, homeward bound. Having heard, during a weather broadcast that the wind would change from north-east to south-west the sailors expected to be in Whangarei in two days at the most, after spending one night on Great Mercury Island. DIRECT OPPOSITE But the weather report was not quite on the beam. In fact the wind remained directly opposite to the direction forecast—north-east instead of south-west.

The boys, like Columbus,, sailed on, after ploughing through a heavy swell, but little wind, the Spray reached Slipper'island, where the sailors spent the night. Next day they set off again in a fairly rough sea ior Great Mercury Island, where they had to spend another night, whether this was a scheduled stop or not. Came the morning and the Spray began the last lap. it was expected, to Whangarei. It was then that the crew began to regret putting too much faith in the weather report. The wind remained in the north-east and whipped up a high sea which broke over the yacht and made some bailing and pumping necessary. ADVENTURES EN ROUTE When half-way between Cape Colville and the Little Barrier the skipper decided to- run for shelter at Leigh. This was done and the boys spent another unscheduled night there. Whangarei or bust was the order of the day the next morning and the Spray again set out for home, still bucking big seas and a north-east wind. Maybe that is why Bill Bedlington