LONE YACHT VOYAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27392, 18 May 1950, Page 4

LONE YACHT VOYAGE

England To New Zealand

Resident Correspondent

LONDON, April ?8. By May 15, providing his regular army discharge comes through in time, 35-year-old Major Adrian Hayter, M.8.E., M.C., will be starting on the most lonely and perilous adventure of his life—a solo yacht voyage from England to New Zealand. He has decided to return to his home in Takaka this way rather than by liner or plane because he wants to see places and meet people, and because he likes sailing.

The boat he has chosen, for what is thought to be the first solo voyage to New Zealand, is a roomy craft ideal for single-handed sailing, the nine-ton yawl Sheila 11. She is well known round the southern ports of England, and has been on several long trips in this part of the world since she was built in 1911. She is fitted with a small auxiliary motor and a receiving, but not sending, radio set. Major Hayter plans to spend a year on the trip, and will sail via Gibraltar. Malta, Suez, India, Singapore, the East Indies, and Australia.' Two of his longest legs will be of roughly 1501) miles each—from Lymington (near Southampton) to Gibraltar, and from Aden to a port on the west coast of India. He is more worried about the

He fought through the war in Malaya and Burma, and won the Military Cross. Since the insurrection commenced in Malaya he has been fighting the bandits. For some time he was in charge of Ferret Force,' a special commando group charged with hunting out the rebels in the depths of the jungle. Prior to returning to England he was commandant of the jungle warfare school, which trained soldiers and police, not only from the British and Malayan forces, but from neighbouring countries as well. He still carries with him an engraved cigarette case given to him by 12 Siamese students, most of whom, he today relates with chagrin, went over to the bandits as soon as their course was completed. He

difficult stretch down through the Red Sea and through the hurricane bell north of Australia, than he is of the stormy Tasman crossing. At present Major Hayter does not know very much navigation, but he has bought a sextant, and is now busy studying down at Lymington, where he is living on another yacht. Before he leaves he intends to make two or three trips to give him confidence in his calculations and in his equipment. From the several accounts he has read of previous solo voyages, he expects to cover at least 60 miles a day. at night, unless conditions are particularly favourable. he will heave to. He expects to do the trip on £6OO. Although he has grown interested in sailing onlv since he returned from Malava in July last year, quiet-spoken Major Hayter is just the type of man to succeed in such a venture. He was educated at Nelson College, and left his father’s sheep station on

The Daily Times will publish as they become available, articles written by Major Hayter during his voyage.

D’Urville Island in 1932 to go to Sandhurst, where he took a British commission. He then went to India, and after a year with an English regiment joined the Gurkhas, with whom he has served most of his army career

was awarded the M.B.E. recently for his work with this school. The bandits, says Major Hayter. are mostly Chinese, and they are really tough. Many of them are adventurers who could not settle down after the excitement of war, but there is a stiff and well-disciplined leavening of ardent Communists and patriots who want to see the British leave their country. They are not popular with the peaceful Malays. He considers that a strictly military solution to the problem is remote, for the country is too difficult for largescale operations. Economic aid to Malaya so that the standard of living will improve and thus harden resistance against the Communists is the long-term solution, he thinks. The army must be prepared to carry out such tasks as transporting the produce of outlying farmers to the centres of commerce and paying them on the spot. At present many farmers are terrified to leave their holdings with their grain and thus play into the hands of the roaming bandits. Of one thing he is certain, Malaya must be held. If it goes, the rest of South-east Asia will' quickly follow suit.