WAITANGI IN SYDNEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27058, 18 April 1949, Page 5

WAITANGI IN SYDNEY

HEAVY SEAS ENCOUNTERED TILLER AND RIGGING BADLY DAMAGED NZPA —Copyright SYDNEY, Apl. 16. The ketch Waitangi covered the last 300 miles of her voyage from Auckland to Sydney under reduced sail and with an improvised tiller. Her original tiller snapped last Saturday at the height of a gale.. At the same time the gale damaged the mainsail and tore 12ft of tracking from the foot of the mainmast. On April 8 the yacht was hove-to in heavy seas with waves up to 50ft high. The crew made fast for the night and went to bed. Netft morning, in a stiff gale, they found that the tiller had snapped and that the mainsail and mainmast had been damaged. The skipper, Mr E. B. Chapman, and the crew replaced the tiller with a windlass handle, using an old fishing rod as a crosspiece. The replacement lasted only about a day before breaking down. Mr Chapman used a harpoon shank for the second replacement, which held for the remaining 300 miles. Mr Chapman said they sailed through some filthy weather, but the Waitangi never shipped a sea.