“Nothing outstanding happened”

In 1952, when the engineless, 22-foot sloop was dismasted on a trip from Auckland to Norfolk Island, her crew viewed it all rather matter-of-factly.

The creation of the OCD (Ocean Cruising Division) at Royal Akarana Yacht Club in July 1951 formalised that club’s commitment to those members with a yearning for lengthy ocean passages.

The OCD’S first event was the 1951 White Island Race, starting in Auckland on Christmas Day, round White Island and finishing at Whangaroa. For 1952, the OCD included a second division for boats smaller than 24ft waterline, but sailing direct from Auckland to Whangaroa.

Among these smaller craft was the 22ft Susan, a Bert Woollacott ‘Sheryl’ design owned by Wally Walton. Wal and Jack Potter had cruised and raced together on the V-class 18-footers Magic and Reimuri and had crewed on Mark Anthony’s veteran 38ft Rangi in the 1951 Trans-tasman race. Wal bought the unfinished Woollacott hull off Barney Petrie in 1951 and he and Jack Potter finished her.

While working on Susan, which he named after OCD member Ken Pragnell’s baby daughter, Wal had the idea to compete in the Whangaroa race, then sail further north to Norfolk Island and return over the New Year break. He had flown in and out of Norfolk Island with the RNZAF, liked it and wanted to go back.

So it was that on Christmas Day 1952 the Susan started as a competitor in RAYC’S Auckland to Whangaroa yacht race. On board that day was the owner/skipper/navigator Wally Walton and crew Jack Potter and Lou Mcguire.

The weather to Whangaroa was fine and, despite being the smallest boat in the fleet, Susan did well and placed third on handicap. After the prize giving, Norfolk Island beckoned.

They were joined by Cyril Bennett (ex-owner of the V-class Magic), who had raced up on another boat. When he heard about the Norfolk trip he said there was no way they were going without him and besides, his inclusion would allow them the numbers to run two two-hour watches.

On 28 December 1952, they set sail for Norfolk in minimal breeze and spent the first night becalmed off Stephenson Island. Late morning, a steady 15-knot sou’wester kicked in and stayed for the next four days. Susan bowled along making around 120 miles a day with the spinnaker continually filled. It was fantastic sailing.

By New Year’s Day they were 150 miles from Norfolk. The breeze had swung slightly north and increased. Wal was on the helm with Lou on watch. Shortly before midnight, while reducing sail one of the wooden cross-trees collapsed. Wal tried to gybe to the opposite tack but it was too late and Susan’s mast went over the side.

The mast had broken about a third of its length from the base and, once the sails were recovered and the maze of stays and halyards untangled, they set about making her seaworthy.

Susan had no engine so the remains of the mast was rigged with temporary backstays, a forestay and set with a rolled up storm trysail and storm jib. By daybreak Susan was under way and manageable. Later, more sail was set using the spinnaker boom as a gaff.

It was slow progress, with Susan doing little more than 3 knots across some fairly big beam seas. A sight on the morning of the 3rd placed them about 65 miles from Norfolk and three days later they sighted the peaks of Mount Pitt and Mount Bates.

Arriving at Cascade Bay on the 7th January, they dropped anchor. Wal and Jack rowed ashore in the dinghy while Cyril and Lou stayed on board Susan, which was well anchored with 300ft of 3/8in chain.

A year earlier, Mark Antony’s Rangi, en route to the 1952 Hobart-auckland Race, had been wrecked at Cascade Bay when coral heads cut through her anchor warp. Wal wasn’t taking any chances with his holding tackle.

There was no one was in sight when they got ashore so they headed inland up Cascade Road. Eventually, a man astride a large white horse ambled down the road towards them. His first words were, “The bond is open. Would you like a drink?” and handed them a quart bottle of whisky.

The islanders recommended that Susan be moved around to Headstone on the other side of the island, away from the prevailing easterlies. They anchored there for three days while discussions were held on how to help them.

The Norfolk Island Administration gave permission for Susan to come around to Kingston Jetty where they could lift her out with their small mobile crane. There was also an old store shed there where they could rebuild the mast. Luckily there was minimal swell but even so it was a tricky operation and Susan tested the crane to its absolute limits.

For three and a half weeks they lived aboard Susan on Kingston Pier. The evenings were eerie and quiet. There was no electricity and no battery torches either, just a hurricane lantern for light in the evenings. The islanders’ penchant for telling lurid ghost stories of Kingston’s brutal penal colony days did little for a good night’s sleep.

Inside the shed (now part of the Norfolk Island Museum), they cut away the shattered ends from the pieces of the broken mast,

spliced and glued it and shortened the rigging. Once completed, things moved quickly.

A supply ship had arrived and the crane was needed to unload the whaleboats that would bring the cargo ashore. Susan had to go.

On January 20, she was lowered back into the water and towed out to the ship from which they re-stepped the mast. That same day, under small headsail and trysail, Susan sailed out to the south-east towards the Southern Cross, heading for Auckland.

She was loaded up with melons and bananas (and some frangipani for Jack’s mum) and sailed heavy and down by the bow. But the weather gods remained kindly. Fair winds took them all the way to Tiritiri where they put their first tack into a building south-westerly.

Rounding North Head, Wal did a quick detour into the Okahu Bay moorings and stashed all the fruit and plants on the deck of Tom Buchanan’s Wanderer before heading off up to Queens Wharf, docking late in the afternoon of 26th January.

The New Zealand Herald reported: “The 22-foot sloop Susan, carrying four Auckland yachtsmen, sailed up the Waitemata Harbour yesterday afternoon after having crossed to Norfolk Island and back. Neither the Harbour Board authorities nor the Customs Department knew anything about her until they tied up at the end of Queens Wharf to wait for health and customs clearances. Except for breaking their mast 150 miles from Norfolk Island, they reported that ‘nothing outstanding happened’ on the voyage.”

There were repercussions. As well as getting ticked off by Customs, every one of the crew was reprimanded by their employers for not returning to work on time (three of them were apprentices).

Wal and Jack were summoned to appear before a Royal Akarana committee and given a dressing down for embarrassing the club at a time when it was attempting to formalise its ocean racing credentials.

At the time, Susan was the smallest yacht to leave New Zealand for an overseas port and return but little was made of this fact in any of the newspapers and nothing appeared in Sea Spray magazine.

SO – WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Happily, Wallace Walton, Lou Mcguire, Cyril Bennett and Jack Potter, all in their 80s, are still with us. Susan is in excellent condition in Waipahihi Bay on Lake Taupo. Of the bananas and melons, none have survived, but the frangipani, healthy and fragrant, still grows in front of the house in Prime Street Grey Lynn where Jack’s mother used to live. B