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The Schooner Te Hongi de Clumpertee |
HISTORY
FROM:
"LITTLE
SHIPS"
by Ronald Carter,
Wellington, New Zealand.
Publishers Second Edition
June, 1948
I now propose to discuss three vessels which have been owned over a period of years by Mr. H. F. Lamb, of Wellington. The first, a schooner now know as the Te Hongi has quite an interesting history. She was built by Mr. John Stewart Banner, of Hokianga, in 1934 but was never used by her owner. She measures 42 feet overall, 10 feet beam and 6 feet draught of water. She is built of Kauri pine and is of double-skin construction. About 1935 she was bought in an unfinished state by Mr. Shelley Atkinson, of Auckland, who commissioned Mr. John Wray of Ngatoki fame to sail her down the west coast of Ouehunga, in order that she could be brought over land to Auckland. I think most New Zealand yachtsmen are familiar with that hair-raising passage which Mr. Wray fully described in his book South Sea Vagabonds; of how, after putting to sea with the uncaulked hull they nearly lost her, and the excitement of crossing the notorious Manakau Bar. Suffice to say that after many trials and tribulations, the Lady Edna, as she was then known, was safely jacked up in the yard of Mr. Sam Fort in Ellersilie Auckland, and practically rebuilt.
I watched her being rebuilt and
there is no doubt that Sam made a good job of her. She did not stay long in
Auckland, for she was bought shortly after her launching on the Waitemata by
Mr. H. F. Lamb of Wellington, and was sailed to this port by her owner and the
late Mr. Tony Clark, who went missing while on active service in the second
Word War. Her name was altered to Te Hongi and Mr. Lamb made a number of
coastal passages in her, two of which were sailed to Lyttelton, single handed.
Te Hongi’s present owner is a visiting Swiss yachtsman Jack
Milkwalder, who is preparing
his vessel for a passage to the United States of America. Mr. Maikwalder, who
has had considerable yachting experience, had the misfortune to lose his yacht
Tronkje’um, which got caught in the surf on the inhospitable coast of Pitcairn Island, while he was
crossing the Pacific in 1944.
FROM THE CAPTAIN
I have not discovered how the Te Hongi got to the United States. There are several ways: around Cape Horn; through the Panama Canal; through the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and finally across the Atlantic.
I have been trying to get information from the Canal. But have not found a record of the Te Hongi’s transit. It would really be something if it did go around Cape Horn!
There is a film "Underwater" filmed sometime in the 50’s that used the Te Hongi in a sailing sequence. Some of the previous owners friends went through a year of correspondence with RKO studios to get a black and white print of the film as a present. The story takes place somewhere in the Caribbean, so the Te Hongi must have been there as a charter vessel.
The previous owner was Dr. Robert Reed who owned the Te Hongi for over 20 years. I think he bought it in the early 60’s from a gentleman that kept it in the Chesapeake Bay. Dr. Reed sailed the Te Hongi to the Bahamas and back in the 60’s. Most of his other sailing, to my knowledge, was in the Chesapeake Bay.
I bought the yacht from Dr. Reed’s widow in the late 80’s and have been slowly rebuilding it. In 1994, I got to do some long over-due sailing.
The Story of Te Hongi from Australia to the Chesapeake
As told by Jim Squire via Email
Spring/Summer 2004
Dear Tom Tucker-I found your
name through the internet and Google. I owned
Tehongi from 1951 to 1955
having bought her from Jacques Markwalder and sailed her from Victoria south to
Panama and then to the Sassafras on the Chesapeake where I sold her through a
broker. Since then I have owned Tehongi
II and presently own Tehongi III. If you
would like to know more I’d be happy to
give you some history. I am now retired
and have the time. I am Jim Squire.
On Thu, 06 May 2004
21:21:11 -0700, James & Yvonne Squire <tehongi@shaw.ca>
wrote :
Better for me using email rather
than a letter so bear with me and I must
remind myself that this is about
Tehongi and not me!!
As I recall Jacques bought
Tehongi in Wellington and set off for
America
with a girlfriend and a
crewman. Tehongi had previously been in
a couple of
Tasman races and done quite
well. Anyway they sailed directly from
Wellington to Tahiti and made it
to Rapa Rapa in 30 days. Jacques sent
the
crew ashore to get a cask of
water on that island and the crewman was mobbed
by women as the island men were
all working in Tahiti!! Tehongi was
self-steering for the whole
trip. Apparently an excellent trip.
Tehongi grounded off Pearl
Harbour and badly damaged her false keel.
While hauled Jacques used a
spoke- shave (?) to level off the damage
and
that was that. Jacques said her sailing characteristics were as good as
ever.
Tehongi was single handed by
Jacques from Honolulu to Victoria where I
first saw her anchored off the
Royal Victoria Yacht Club. My wife had
run
off with my best friend and I
had quit my job. A sailing adventure
looked
the way to go. So I met
Markwalder—a small pipesmoking Swiss of about 40 > (at the time) with a
rather curt and self righteous manner.
He showed me a
fine looking boat—tiller-
steered from a separate small dog-house aft,
canvas decks, 5 ft.10 inch
headroom in the main cabin heated by a small wood
stove in the galley with two
burner kerosene primus on top. She was
powered
by a hand-start 10 h.p. “National”
diesel which drove her at 4 knots flat
out with a clean bottom. For a trial run we sailed to Vancouver and
back,
got caught in a storm on the way
and Tehongi behaved beautifully so she
became mine. More to
follow. Cheers—Jim Squire.
>Subject: Fwd: TEHONGI FROM VICTORIA Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 21:45:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
Thank you for the pictures
Tom Tucker and I will reply to your questions soon.
In the meantime however we
find Tehongi in Victoria Harbour in
January of 1952 with Jacques who was very good at boat things like rigging,
splicing, repairing the one cylinder
engine and you name it including navigation and all boat husbandry. And then there was me with lots to learn
having had a good education, a few golf championships under my belt and not
much else besides a lot of curiosity.
So we set sail in a rising
Sou-easter, with quite a bit of fan-fare (cruising was rare in those days)
toward Cape Flattery and points south—way south. 10 hours later I was sick as could be and
dramamine didn’t help along with rain and hail and spray and cold and you name
it. 6 days later under mostly storm
trysail and forestaysail in a miserable
storm that wouldn’t let up we had made about 100 miles of southing and pulled
into Coos Bay Oregon very ragged with sails blown out and all and I had lost
over 30 lbs. Tehongi was much more durable than I was.
Jacques left the boat in
Coos Bay and 2 months later I (reluctantly) with a new crewman left Coos Bay
and landed up first at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco where I was nicely
greeted and next at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beaach where I was asked to
leave because my crew signed chits at the bar.
Months later I was off to
San Diego where I joined the Seven Seas Cruising Association as a charter
member and then to Guadalupe Island ,
Turtle Bay, Puerto Vallarta and to Acapulco-off the Club de Yachtes where I
spent several months making friends, learning to water ski, cruising on other
boats, and having a bit of a night life.
Tehongi had behaved beautifully through all this. She was so easy to trim, self steering when
reaching and tacking, admired by many because she looked well—like a SCHOONER!! I remember at the time I hauled her at Acapulco and it took about 10 men to do
the job. An introduction to cheap
tropical labour.
I should add that some time
before I had got rid of the wood stove and just used a 2 burner kerosene
primus. I should also add that not until
years later did I get over my seasickness.
‘Nuff for today if I may call you Tom.
Subject: Fwd: Tehongi south-east to Panama. Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 23:10:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded
message follows -------------
42’x9’—“Canoe lines” as
someone said. Double diaganol planking
and no frames but strong longitudinal stringers, all kauri pine so no other boat quite like
her or seemingly so. 70 years old now
and Tom, what is she doing on the dry?
Garboard leaks?
So it was in Acapulco that
I met Lou Tole who was about 50, Australian in manner and fact, and his Mexican
visa had run out. So I had myself a new
crew who was first rate and off we headed for Puerto Angel to wait for a calm
crossing of the famed Gulf of Tuhantepec. And on a calm morning we left and
within half an hour the wind came up out of the North-east and blew like
crazy. The wind was so loud in the
rigging-shreiked in fact- that we couldn’t hear one another. We had shortened down to a full reefed
foresail and rolled at full speed for 2 days toward the Guatamalan shore with never a let up in the wind for a
minute and then at last at a dawn, not breath of wind and a huge volcano
blowing smoke rings I swear 10 miles off our bow. Light winds down to Acahutla, El Salvador
where we were nicely welcomed and then to La Union, El Salvador, where we sold
my old typewriter to the Salvodoranean navy for $20.00. A nice but tragic people.
South of Mexico very few cruising
boats came and we were made very welcome
Off a small village in
Costa Rica I speared some fish (great snorkeller me!) and gave them to the
villagers and they loaded Tehongi down with fruit in return. You could have traced our course to Panama by
our track of mango and melon seeds.
Interesting about our passage across the Gulf—TeHongi came across
intact. If you think of her “home-made”
galvanized standing rigging , her manila running rigging and cotton sails, she
did all right. Anyway when we got to
Panama we anchored off the Balboa Yacht Club and arranged for our right of
passage through the canal at the
enormous price of $8.36 including pilot!!
More next time Tom.
Subject: Fwd: Tehongi to Jamaica Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 22:17:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded
message follows -------------
Our Panama pilot was a good
guy and we picnicked under an awning in Gatun Lake waiting to go down. But on to Porto Bello where we saw nothing
but rain and jungle (been cleared since) and to the San Blas Islands where we
spent 2 weeks at the village of Tigre teaching the Cunas to spear fish as they
taught us about their way of life. Very
few yachts had visited there. Later we
pointed into the North -east trade to get to Jamaica and went over 500 miles to
Kingston without touching the helm
(almost) and it took three and a half days.
Tehongi performed!!
I was loving the way of
life in spite of the hanging-on seasickness but the truth was getting closer as
I was running out of money and the
solution I thought was to make Tehongi a charterboat so I had her hauled in
Kingston, took the dodger- house off, replaced the tiller with a wheel (using
the rear end of an old car) and so landed up with a fair sized cockpit. My crew
Lou was wonderful with all this and after we had made the changes he sailed
with me to Montego Bay and left Tehongi to live with his new Jamaican
girl-friend on a houseboat in some mangroves.
It was while hauled in Kingston that I met Errol Flynn who was hauling
his “Zaca” at the same time. He was big,
somewhat florid and pleasant and always
seemed to have a bit of an entourage.
It was Montego Bay anchored
off the Casablanca Hotel and taking tourists on day charters a thing that to my
knowledge had never been done, not in that part if the Caribbean at least but I
wasn’t greatly successful, and it was hard work, but also a lot of fun. One day Lester Hemingway showed up from under
a native canoe(literally) and chartered Tehongi to take fishing charters out—a
great scheme maybe but no fish. He
stayed aboard the boat for a few nights and slept on the sole in the main cabin
without mattress or pillow—don’t know how he did it. He got involved with the wife(the really
attractive wife) of the publisher of the London Times. Lester was an odd guy but good just the
same—helped me when I go caught by a norther
and again when I grounded off the Montego Beach Hotel . He loved Tehongi. More to-morrow Tom.
You’re making me relive the whole thing!!
Subject: Fwd: Montego Bay to the Bahamas Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 02:38:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded
message follows -------------
A few asides Tom: When Tehongi was hauled in Kingston I found
quite a patch of dry rot in her outer planking port (?) topsides
amidships. We did a large scarfing or
dutchman as a patch but forget what wood we used. Was surprised at finding rot
in the kauri.
Lester Hemingway was younger brotherto Earnest Hemingway.
A couple of years after leaving Jamaica I heard that Lou Tole, friend and
excellent crew was killed off the west coast of Jamaica when a native ferry boat he was skippering blew up with many aboard. A sandal of Lou’s which washed ashore was identified.
My crew for most of the
charter season was Lloyd George Thomas, the blackest Jamaican you ever saw and
as loyal and pleasant as anyone could be.
The Earl of Strathmore is (was) Queen Elizabeth’s cousin. He came on one trip, introcuced himself as
“Tim” and when under way took pictures
with a cheap camera of another guest who was a well fed midwestern
U.S. girl. “Tim” was slight, inconspicuous,
and when Tehongi heeled to a fresh puff,
went overboard. My flash thought was “Oh
no!!-not the cousin to our Queen” and grabbed him by a foot as he went under
the stern of Tehongi and with Lloyd’s help,
dragged him back aboard. Tim
seemed unfazed. He hung on to his
camera.
Back to the trip—As I said
before money had been a problem for me and I had hoped to recoup with a charter
season but it didn’t work that way and at the end of the season was still short
of money. I must make my way to the
States, sell the boat, and go back to Canada and respectability, or so I
thought at the time. The North-east
trades were strong and I needed easting so with crew Lloyd and friend Gerry
Murison sailed south and east around Jamaica and left Point Morant to port as
we pounded into the trades toward the Windward passage between Cuba and Haiti.
Tehongi was a good windward boat but I don.t know any boat including racing 12’s, that can buck strong trades, but
we did, and made landfall three days
after leaving Jamaica at St. Nicolas Mole, the north-west point of
Hispaniola. I’ll continue “Montego Bay
to the Bahamas” after a short cruise on
Tehongi III to-morrow Tom. Any questions?
Subject: Fwd: Montego Bay to the Bahamas, continued Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 01:00:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
You can ask why we didn’t
sail directly from Montego Bay past the
Cayman Islands and west around Cuba taking advantage of the Gulf Stream but at
that time things were tense in Cuba, run by gangsters and Batista, so I simply
wanted to give Cuba a wide berth.
St. Nicolas Mole is a
sheltered anchorage five miles deep with
lots of history. It at one time and
various times had a Spanich Fort, A French Fort, and a British Fort, at
different places in the harbour and all with cannons!! Thevillage at the head of the bay was small
and bare but the few people were courteous.
Gerry and I were spear
fishing a couple of milesoff the village one day while unbeknown to us Loyd was
cleaning our fish in the dinghy. My spear-gun
was loaded when a 6 foot shark, attracted by the blood from cleaned fish, made several passes at me while I tried to
fend him off with my spear gun. We
didn’t know much about sharks in those days and I felt lucky to get away and
wiser as well.
In a calm sea one day we
left the Mole and motored to Tortuga where the pirates used to hang out. We found their excellent anchorage, fresh
water spring, and an old ammunition storage bin. The few people we saw were very black which made us think that if there had been
white skinned pirates, they didn’t leave much of a racial heritage.
In all that we had done
after leaving Panama we had seen no other yachts besides Errol Flynn and “Zaca”
in Kingston Harbour and were treated as though people had seen no other yachts.
Subject: Fwd: The Way Tehongi Was Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 05:00:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
Hi Tom and you told me
about Tehongi’s layout today and it didn’t help my memory but I’ll do a little
trying—The steps from deck level 4or 5 of them on a narrow companionway taking
us to the galley and a coal and wood stove against the forward bulkhead with 2
burner primus stove on top. Under the
companionway a covering board removed to show the 10 h.p. “National” single
cylinder diesel started by a spoonful of lube oil down the air intake for
compression and winding the 15 inch flywheel by hand-drop the compression
release and bang-bang-bang-stop cranking.
That engine turned a big wheel--(drag).
Anyway, starboard of the galley big locker with lots of stowage—tools at
the top- food etc. below. Forward to the
mainmast and salon with single berth to starboard, double to port and table
attached to the mainmast and swung up to get it out of the way. Varnished plywood panels port and starboard
in the main cabin, navigation table and charts ahead of single berth, head ( I
think) opposite nav table. Ahead of nav table and through a door into a
cabin where were stored linens and clothes.
There were 4 portholes(fixed) on
either side of the hull. The floors
(sole) were of light coloured natural hardwood with close fitting boards. The bilges were always full of bottles—mostly
kerosene and the fridge area back in the
galley must have been an ice chest. For
some reason I don’t remember very
much. How about the fellow I sold
Tehongi to through R.W. Walworth, the
broker on the Sassafrass?
Question—where did the “de Clumpertree” come from? Anyway there you are Tom. I’ll continue the trip and the Nassau
adventure next edition. Cheers from Jim
Squire.
Subject: Fwd: “Underwater” scenes near Nassau Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 04:48:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
Hi Tom—I’ll try to get
pictures—I think my son has some.
So these men ( one of them
introduced himself as technical director) wanted Tehongi as a double for a
schooner they had used in Hawaii. They
agreed to pay me $150.00 a day and I must take the boat around to Lyford Cay on
the west point of New Providence which, a day or two later is what Loyd and I
did. There was a live tank next to the
small dock with a 7 foot shark lazing in it with it’s jaws wired together. There was also an open barge anchored a hundred yards out from the dock with lots of cameras and scuba gear aboard.
That was our setting more or less for the next ten days. We anchored Tehongi within hailing distance
of the barge and watched the
action. I met Jane Russell’s double who
was an ex-Miss Florida and wow. There
were 2 stunt men who appeared hard worked and they were good guys— one of their
main jobs was to hold on to the shark underwater while the cameraman got ready
and then push the shark out in front of the camera at the right times. There
were half a dozen men on that barge working quite a bitand Miss Florida waiting
too long (for her) between takes, would
swim over to Tehongi and Lloyd would
serve us lime squashes as we lazed under the awning in the cockpit. Harry Tatelman, the producer, was not amused,
as he considered Miss Florida his property though she felt otherwise, or so I
believe. I forget what Harry looked like
but it wasn’t good.
In the afternoons we
would raise sails and sail close to the barge coming about quite a bit
and a couple of times I wore Gilbert Rolands’ shirt and hat while the camermen
did their work.
Harry Tatelman was annoyed
with Miss Florida and showed it one afternoon when with camermen, helpers, and
Miss Florida aboard we sailed out in a stiff breeze with a fair chop while the
camermen took pictures from up in the main and fore spreaders. Miss Florida got actively sea-sick and I
asked Harry to take her back to the dock but he would have none of it. I sailed off the wind to ease the movement
for her—I shouldn’t think it would be nice to be sick with half a dozen men
around when you’re a woman, especially a beautiful one.I didn’t like Harry and
liked him a lot less after that.
The next day Miss Florida’s husband came over from Florida
(had she alerted him?) and I thought him
a nice little guy.
It all came to an end too
soon and the film crew left. Lloyd and I returned to Nassau, hauled Tehongi for
bottom cleaning at a good yard, and took stores aboard for our next and last
leg—to the Chesapeake!!
Subject: Fwd: From Nassau to the Chesapeake Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 08:10:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
We left Nassau sometime in
June of 1954, bore north keeping the Berry Islands to port and then west
keeping Grand Bahama to starboard. We
had all sails set most of the time and
got kicked along with our one lung diesel over the flat spots. We found ourselves out in the middle of the
Gulfstream with lights of Miami visible in the night and why didn’t we go to
Fort Lauderdale as it was now close? I
remember why now—friends had told us that to sell Tehongi—and I felt we had to
sell her so that I could go back to western Canada to make an “honest”
living—the best broker would be R.W.
Walworth who had a brokerage on the Sassafras River in the
Chesapeake. My friends had to be right
so instead of going to Florida we bore North and, pushed by the Gulfstream, landed
up at Moorhead City , North Carolina.
The waters of the Bahamas are shoal for a boat of 6 foot draft and it
had been a relief to get out into the deeper waters of the Gulfstream but now
in Moorhead City we were in the Intracoastal Waterway and back to shallow water
again. Why didn’t we go east around
Hatteras? Good question, besides, we were in the waterway now with it’s 8 foot
depth (most of the time) and hundreds of markers and little bridges that had to
be raised when we approached them.
Anyway, creeping to Norfolk was hard work as we had to keep watch every
second and we had to often wait for bridges to go up but on to Annapolis to get
clearance as the U.S. Consul in Nassau had told us it would be our port of
entry.
Norfolk had been huge and
impersonal while Annapolis was the
opposite— nice little harbour, clean looking yacht club, polite people. And so we entered by showing passports, ships
papers, and clearance from the Bahamas.
We were granted clearance and a cruising permit so all was well, or so
we thought. I asked Lloyd how he liked
the look of the United States and he answered,”Well Skippa, lots of big buildings, lots of white people—I
think I like Jamaica.” So I bought Lloyd a bus ticket to Miami and a flight
ticket to Jamaica and we parted best of friends.
After a week or so in
Annapolis where I had met nice people I proceeded to Baltimore on the way to
The Sassafras and tied up at a courtesy berth at the Baltimore Yacht Club. Having heard from someone that Tehongi and I were
in Baltimore newspaper reporters showed up
and with the publicity that’s when the trouble started with three U.S.
Immigration officers showing up to” take me
for questioning” to a dreary
office in a dreary building in downtown Baltimore “What was wrong?” and I
showed my Cruising Certificate. “You
should not have entered at Annapolis as it’s no longer a proper port of
entry. You should have come right on to
Baltimore.” My but-but-buts did no good and I was issued a document demanding
$5,000.00 as a fine for “Improper Entry”.
They didn’t say anything about the way I sent Lloyd back which I later
found WAS illegal but anyway, there I was without the money to pay and a 24
hour guard posted by the boat.
So what to do? First I went to some lawyers, paid them a
$250.00 retainer, and would they please get me out of this.
Two days later they said
they could do nothing, but kept my $250.00.
I went to the Canadian Embassy in Washington, told my story, and they
were nice, but said that Canadians didn’t have much weight in Washington, and
sent me on the British Consul in Baltimore who they said, had a lot more
pull. Then down came the U.S. Customs
with an additional fine for$2,000.00 for I don’t know what and I’m not sure
they did either.
And the British Consul who
was a nice person tried but said that he too couldn’t move the officials.
The situation looked bad
but then came a brain-wave and I called the professional at my golf club in
Victoria and he called fellow golfer Ed Eisenhauer in Tacoma Washington and the
next day the CHIEF of immigration showed up all smiles.
Subject: Fwd: Baltimore to the Sassafras and beyond Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 02:11:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: “tom tucker” <ttucker@enterface.ro> To: entrface@voicenet.com
------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
Did I say that the “Ed
Eisenhower” my home golf club pro phoned was the brother of President
Eisenhower?
So the chief immigration
officer, all smiles, said that all charges had been dropped but one, and he
wasn’t able to drop it for some reason.
Would I please take a short trip to Canada and reenter the U.S. (the
U.S. immigration border people would be
watching) to deactivate a deportation order that was about to be given me? What!!!!
Leaving Tehongi at the
yacht club I hopped on a bus to Montreal and returned 2 days later. The immigration officer at the border had
smiled as he returned my passport. Smiles all around and I was warned by a
Canadian official when I was back in Canada not to publicise this whole incident or the U.S. immigration people
would harass me for a long time whenever I tried to cross the border.
So it was pleasant in
Baltimore after my experience. I took
friends on short cruises around the area and cruised on other boats. The Chesapeake that I saw was varied in it’s
anchorages but the landscape was mostly flat and the water slightly brown, and
just before leaving for the Sassafras we were hit by Hurricane Hazel and yes,
we were right in the eye. The force of
wind was amazing but that’s a story best told by others. I took Tehongi to Georgetown on the
Sassafras, listed her with R.W. Walworth
Yacht Broker (who should have a place in Chesapeake boating history) and
went back to Canada. Mr. Walworth sold Tehongi within 3 weeks of my leaving.
I have a phone number of one of Dr. Reed’s sailing buddies. I hope he can tell me something about the vessel. When I first found the schooner in the Philadelphia Sea Plane Base the sign read "For Sale the Te Hongi" and something about Errol Flynn.
Who knows what stories this little ship could tell if it could talk. Maybe some of the stories are best left untold.
THE TE HONGI TODAY
The Little Ship today is a combination of the best of the old and the best of the new. She spends most of her time as a testing base for space age electronics and software. At present it is the test platform for a high tech company to test a satellite positioning system for near shore navigation. She carries RADAR, GPS, Several Computers systems, Test systems for renewable energy monitoring, a diesel heating stove, tungsten halogen lights, kerosene lights, and a partially solar driven refrigeration system.
Her purpose is to help in the development of new high tech systems relative to energy conversation, technology, and ocean navigation. She is also a floating class room for teaching sailing, celestial navigation, as well is the new electronic navigation.
In her spare time she is constantly being made better, stronger, and younger. During the summer of 1994 she was graced with a new two inch thick teak deck.
In 1996 she was sailed off shore to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. She performed several charters during the summer of 1998. She was used as a test-bed of a new navigation system that combines GPS information and auto pilot controls in 1999. In the year 2000 she was taken out of the water for some cosmetic work.
Check-out our products and free software at: http://www.enterface.ro/charts.html
or
http://www.voicenet.com/~entrface/navaids.html