YACHT TEDDY’S RETURN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 May 1931, Page 8

YACHT TEDDY’S RETURN

ROUGH TRIP ON TASMAN VIEWS ON OCEAN RACE After having encountered heavy, adverse wen tiier oil her voyage across the Tasman from Sydney, tile Norwegian yacht Teddy reached Mangomu shortly after !> a.m. oil Wednesday last. She was brought over by a crew of three — the owner-navigator, Captain Erling Tamils, and two Auckland yachtsmen, Messrs K. Goodwin and E. W. Bone, 'file ship’s dog. Spare Provisions, is also on hoard. Captain Tamhs was more than pleased with the behaviour of his little vessel in Ihe rough conditions encountered on the return voyage from Sydney and he was no less satisfied with his r-access in winning the ocean race from Auckland to Sydney against the Melbourne yacht Gilliam and the Auck-land-owned Kangi. He showed some annoyance, however, at the statements made by the owner of Oimara to the nfi'ect that he had used liis engine sparingly so ns to make a sailing race of the contest in fairness to Teddy. ' SURPRISE AT RESULT OF RACE “It is well known that the owner of Oimara. used his engine to the limit of tiie petrol allowed him under the conditions of the race,” said Captain Tamhs. “Oimara. would he no match for Teddy in any condition hut a fiat calm, when she could get ahead with her engine, as she. did. Oil one day we sailed 185 miles, which is very much more than Oimara did oil any one day, even with her engines. “After/th,-. delays we had on the way to Sydney with tiie calms I thought we had no chance in the race and was surprised to find we had been given a handicap of 00 hours and had beaten Oimara by two days on that allowance. If we had boon in luck with the weather we would have beaten Oimara to Sydney. Teddy is a fast sailer and seaworthy and in strong winds we would have been forging ahead while Oimara was hove-to or at least making little progress.” Speaking of the return trip, Captain Tembs said that after leaving Sydney on the ’evening of 7th April- they ran into bad weather. Tiie conditions became worse and on the second day out tho sea was extremely heavy and the wind was howling with a force estimated at about 00 miles ’■ Teddy was hove-to for a day and a-lialf. •Throughout the voyage the wind was practically dead ahead and on several occasions the hove-to so that the ground made would not he lost. The seas were bad enough hut the wind at times was so violent that it was impossible to make headway. Sour: of the gear carried away and once lie lost one of his lioadsails. YACHT SEVERELY TESTEDCaptain Tamhs said lie would not have liked to have been at sea in a lighter-built boat. Some of the crashing seas severely tested Teddy but her sturdy construction brought her through. He felt that there were, times when a lighter vessel would have been in serious trouble. When Teddy reached Mangoimi she was short of fresh provisions, but the stock of water, biscuits and tinned fish was sufficient to have lasted the crew for another month. Cnni" 1 " Tamilspoke highly of the Aucklanders who sailed with him, ineludiim- Messrs H Brown and W. G. Parkinson, who to:k part in the race, hut were compelled to return by steamer for business reasons. Ho was, however, somewhat rueful on the subject of the crews’ appetites. They ate so heartily, he said, that if the ship had been provisioned on her usual scale they would soon have been on short rations.

Before leaving Auckland Captain Tamhs was given three lucky pennies, two of them by the Mayor, Mr G. Baiklon. One of the Mayor’s coins he threw overboard for luck in a fiat calm. The sequel was a fair wind for about five hours. This seemed to he good business, but lie desisted as calms were so frequent that he felt lie might laud in Sydney penniless. Teddy 'is to receive a thorough overhaul oil arrival at Auckland in readiness for her departure for the South Sea Islands.