Dumas in New Zealand
There have been many solo ocean passages and circumnavigations, but few as challenging in concept and timing as that of Argentinian Vito Dumas in his ketch
Lehg II.
8m Lehg.
Dumas’ first
Vito Dumas on Lehg II.
The boat’s sailplan,design and layout.
A chart of Dumas’ circumnavigation around the 40os parallel.
Dumas at Cape Town.
sails heavily-reinforced. He carried no radio as he feared being sunk as a spy.
He left Buenos Aires on 27th June 1942 on the short first leg of his voyage, a mere 110 miles across the vast estuary of the Rio de la Plata to Montevideo, the main port of Uruguay. This stretch of water had become greatly significant to New Zealanders because, only 2½ years before, HMNZS Achilles had taken part in the Battle of the River Plate, the first naval action of Wwll.
This resulted in the scuttling of the German battleship Graf Spee on 17th December off Montevideo. Here, Dumas took his farewells from his many local friends and headed east, alone, across the South Atlantic for Cape Town, on 1st July 1942.
Conditions were bad. A violent southwest pampero had blown for days and seas were high. Lehg II had 4,000 sea miles to go. Very soon a serious leak developed from a shake in a plank forward. In 50 knots of wind, with canvas, red lead and putty Dumas succeeded in slowing the leak but knocked himself about badly in the process.
By 5th July he had a septic, open wound in his right arm. Struggling to manage the rig and keep on course, he contemplated amputating his arm. Then, overnight, the infection burst and he had blessed relief.
Because of his weakness, instead of expending effort in taking in sail for stronger winds, Dumas decided to leave all sails set at all times and let the boat look after itself with a set tiller, surfing down the troughs. This pattern proved so successful that he used it for the rest of the voyage. Only in the heaviest conditions would he stay at the helm and drive the yacht up and down the ocean rollers hour after hour at speeds which made for fast passages.
Lehg II reached Cape Town, 55 days and 4200 miles out from
Montevideo, on 25th August 1942. Apart from a brief meeting with a British submarine, the trip was uneventful in terms of exposure to warfare.
Cape Town gave him a great reception. Dumas stayed for 20 days, rested up and re-provisioned, and departed for Wellington on 14th September 1942. He rightly anticipated that this passage across the Indian Ocean would be the most challenging because of the well-established pattern of frequent gales and high winds. Since he had perfected the mechanisms of sailing the yacht on the Atlantic crossing, he had better control of the vessel in the far more difficult conditions of the Indian Ocean.
Despite constant gales and freezing conditions, he experienced some calms as he approached the south coast of Australia and was once visited closely by three huge waterspouts. Passing south of Tasmania he made landfall in New Zealand at Cape Providence in Westland, then clawed his way up the west coast to arrive in Wellington.
The passage from Wellington across to Valparaiso was in enormous contrast to Dumas’ past passages, with many becalmed days. The ocean was truly Pacific. He reached Valparaiso on 14th April 1943 where he stayed in the comfort of this Spanish-speaking country, well looked after by the Chilean Navy.
He’d put considerable thought and planning into the timing of the voyage around Cape Horn. He decided that the optimum date to go around the Horn east-wise was midwinter, sometime between the beginning of June and the middle of July, when winds were on average less violent.
He left Valparaiso on 30th May 1943 and, after a relatively easy passage (if a passage around the Horn can ever be called ‘easy’) Lehg II arrived in Mar del Plata, Argentina, after only 37 days at sea and with Dumas at the helm for only seven.
After a brief trip to Montevideo for a week to thank his Uruguayan friends for their support, Dumas entered his home port at Buenos Aires, with ships’ sirens and whistles shrieking, to finish his voyage on 7th September 1943 – a total voyage of 20,420 miles and 272 days.
Dumas inspired many later ocean yachtsmen to follow his example, leaving sail on in heavy weather. In 1946 he made a third solo voyage in Lehg II to New York and back, and a fourth to Bermuda and New York in Sirio in 1955.
After his return, he gained the Spanish term for ‘The Wave Tamer’. He was a hero in Argentina – the Government gave him a pension and issued a postage stamp in his honour. In 1956 the Joshua Slocum Society gave its first Slocum Award to him in recognition of his extraordinary single-handed passages.
Dumas inspired many later ocean yachtsmen to follow his example, leaving sail on in heavy weather.
Argentine stamp of Dumas.
Dumas shooting the sun.
Lehg II surfing in the Indian Ocean.
Dumas in the cockpit of Lehg II.
Dumas on the cover of Argentinian magazine El Grafico.
Vagabond (nearest the camera) which towed Lehg II out to sea leaving Wellington.