KURREWA AND PEER GYNT REACH SYDNEY AFTER BOISTEROUS WEATHER
Reed. 7.35 p m. Sydney, Feb. 3. The Victorian ketch Kurrewa 111 was the first competitor to reach Sydney in the race from Auckland. Kurrewa 111 arrived at Sydney at 7.24 p.m., making her time for the Tasman crossing nine days 23hrs. 24 min., which will be regarded as a race record. After battling through a cyclone and terrific seas, the cutter Peer Gynt followed Kurrewa 111 across the finishing line at 12.44 p.m- Peer Gynt's time was 10 days, 4hrs„ 44mlns., but though she was shrs. 20min. behind Kurrewa, she has a probable lead on handicap. The radio operator of Kurrewa heard Warfarer last night but was unqble to contact her. Kurrewa was royally welcomed by ferries and overseas ships, which sounded sirens as she was towed up the harbour. Describing the cyclone in which two of the crew, John Downton and Terry Connors, were injured, skipped Frank Livingstone, said: “I have never seen such seas in all my cruising experience. Alan Bath, who was on deck when the biggest wave hit us, sprang into the rigging and clung to the crosstrees. The sea was so huge that he was still in the water 35 feet from the deck." He added that during the gale the yacht ran under bare poles with two men lashed to the wheel. Caught in the same cyclone, Peer Gynt lost all her deck gear, including life rafts and buoys. “We followed Kurrewa over and were never more than 60 miles behind her,” said the skipper, Trygve Halvorsen. "We were caught in the same wave but, having a deckhouse, the helmsman was protected and nobody was injured. The yacht lay over on her beam-ends and all the glassware was smashed.’ ' _ ,_ . The secretary of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, Mr. J. A. Ky<i, said this afternoon that until nearly all the competitors finish, it will be impossible to tell the winner, the 'favourite is now Peer Gynt. A flying-boat bound for Lord Howe Island, sighted an unidentified competitor at 1139 a m. about 170 miles from Sydney. _____
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19480204.2.55
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, 4 February 1948, Page 5
Word Count
352KURREWA AND PEER GYNT REACH SYDNEY AFTER BOISTEROUS WEATHER Wanganui Chronicle, 4 February 1948, Page 5
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in