First Kiwis to Circumnavigate.

[Priscilla]

The remarkable untold story of the first New Zealanders to sail around the world

In 1954, Tony Armit and a mate set sail in a homebuilt yacht, and made it around the world. Nearly 70 years later, Armit has finally told the story.

www.stuff.co.nz

 

[accnick]

Great story, and perfectly Kiwi, in the best possible way.

 

[Brawr]

What a fantastic adventure. Totally agree with the above sentiment too!

 

[robtoujours]

Not mentioned in the article but the yacht was a design by Bert Woollacott. He would already have been in his mid 70s at the time.

A little more information here:

Marco Polo History

His designs are interesting to look at.

Photograph Index

Of course, MARCO POLO was totally unseaworthy with that offset companionway.. Dunno how they made it past Auckland..

 

[Devo Yacht Club]

Devonport Yacht Club is hosting Tony Armit to present the story of this circumnavigation (and his book!) on Thursday 1 December from 7:30pm. It's a FREE event and everyone is welcome. Club visitors, please get a club member to sign you in at the door and you're good to go!

 

[Steve]

Nice set of carbon sails.

 

[Priscilla]

Of course, MARCO POLO was totally unseaworthy with that offset companionway.. Dunno how they made it past Auckland..

Could well have been the first ever successful port tack circumnavigation which mitigated some of that inherent design flaw .

 

[Jono]

Thanks. I will be there.

 

[Jono]

Bump?
Any other Anarchists going? It would be nice to meet and put faces to names. I suspect I will be one of the few under 60. And to stir things up in that conservative neck of the woods I'll have a pink Fat Face sweatshirt on.

 

[Jono]

Yep I went. And if I wasn't the youngest, I must have been close. No other Anarchists introduced themselves.
It is a lot of book. Apparently Tony wrote long letters home during his adventures. And then his father typed them up by hand and gave them back to Tony on his return. So decades later a book was born. I'm going to "give" my copy to my father for Christmas and then I can steal it back in the New Year.
Certainly different times then. And Tony has continued his adventuring life throughout.
A pleasant evening. For those who don't know Auckland the Devonport Yacht Club is very nearly a place that time forgot. And with one of the best views in the world. I was also pleasantly surprised at the bar selection. The patrons must enjoy a fine wine or a well crafted beer.

 

[TheDragon]

Very cool, thanks for that read, will have to try to get the book. I grew up in East London on the SE coast of South Africa, near where they got hammered, and from age 15 onwards read all the great circumnavigators books and dreamed of doing it. Now at age 66 I have finally gotten around to trying, having crossed most of the Pacific this past season.

One sentence in the article really brings back early memories - "And bend sheets of corrugated iron into canoes, then plug the gaps with melted tar they’d scraped from the road edge on sweltering days.". Our father did this with us in our backyard, literally hammering a sheet of corrugated iron flat, to the dismay of our mother, and then shaping it and securing the ends with a piece of wood, sealed with tar. It was barely floatable, and almost unpaddable, and would sink readily so he tied a rope with a bouy on the back so he could swim out and recover it for us. Here's a pic of us, my brother at the back, in it on a pool in the Nahoon river inland from East London, around 1966 when I was 10.

 

[Priscilla]

 

[167149]

Very cool, thanks for that read, will have to try to get the book. I grew up in East London on the SE coast of South Africa, near where they got hammered, and from age 15 onwards read all the great circumnavigators books and dreamed of doing it. Now at age 66 I have finally gotten around to trying, having crossed most of the Pacific this past season.

One sentence in the article really brings back early memories - "And bend sheets of corrugated iron into canoes, then plug the gaps with melted tar they’d scraped from the road edge on sweltering days.". Our father did this with us in our backyard, literally hammering a sheet of corrugated iron flat, to the dismay of our mother, and then shaping it and securing the ends with a piece of wood, sealed with tar. It was barely floatable, and almost unpaddable, and would sink readily so he tied a rope with a bouy on the back so he could swim out and recover it for us. Here's a pic of us, my brother at the back, in it on a pool in the Nahoon river inland from East London, around 1966 when I was 10.

View attachment 557242

remember a coupla things on the learning curve of those. 1 was a seat midway had to be nailed in to stop it spreading/ collapsing and that the top edge of the sheet ( sheer) had to be turned out and beaten flat to stop cutting kids and fishing lines, grew up in the 60;s on the whau river auckland and actually found an upturned car roof a far better boat up creeks and in shallows (47 ford v8 was a prized roof to find), some of us local water rats were dracooned in by the Augustins to be test pilots on their mini speed boats ..... iron horse lawn mower engines... they were fun and not slow, thanks for waking the memories

 

[Priscilla]