TEST OF BOAT AND CREW.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20097, 28 November 1930, Page 11

TEST OF BOAT AND CREW.

TRANS-TASMAN VOYAGE. YACHT OIMARA PREPARES. The Victorian challenger for the trans-Tasman yacht race, Captain F. J. Bennell's Oimara, is to sail for New Zealand with its original crew, despite the fact that no New Zealand entrant for the contest, which was to have begun from Melbourne on Boxing ;Day, Imgton the boat will be put up for sale lington the boat will be put for sale, and, with the assistance of a syndicate, a new boat, Oimara 11., will be built to take part in the race next season. Captain Bennell is confident of success. Additional spice has been added to the excitement of the lonely venture by the fact that notable sea captains differ in their opinions concerning the risk, and it will be more in the nature of a test of endurance and seamanship | thaE the celebrated race for the Amerj ica Oup. The Cup races were over a I 25-mile course just outside Sandy Hook, : at the entrance to New York harbour, but the Oimara's crew have to face a 1300-mile run, and they will be lucky if they arrive at Wellington within sixteen days of their departure from Melbourne. Because her course ran through the regular shipping lanes. Shamrock V.'s crossing of the Atlantic was not so dangerous as Oimara 5 s voyage across the notably treacherous TaMnan will be. Besides, Shamrock is 140 tons, while Oimara is only nine tons, or one-fif-teenth the size, while her crew will be amateurs, in place of the professional seamen of the English yacht. Nevertheless, Oimara —"Maid of the Sea" — last year won the 200-mile yacht race across Bass Strait to Tasmania. Oimara's Bun to Sydney. To seek an entry from New South Wales for the race, Captain Bennell set sail from Melbourne, hoping to reach Sydney in four days, but head winds and heavy seas drov3 Oimara to cover, so that the run took in 111 13 days. She ran out of oil at the entrance to the harbour, and was forced to move up to the anchorage on kerosene, but she had weathered storms all along the 500-mil« route splendidly, without shipping ! drop ox water. The run showed ihat Oimara wai thoroughly seaworthy, and capable o: undertaking a long crnise, but si though there were larger and bette yachts in Sydney waters, none wouli take up the challenge to the trani Tasman race. On the return run fai weather was, experienced, and the re cord time of three days was made. _ The crew of Oimara has been advise' ; iy Captain A. H. Thorp*, «-i»boca

master at Lyttelton, and at one time of the steamers Westralia and Ze&landic, to take the greatest care when about 200 miles off the New Zealand coast, as in-that region the weather is generally very thick and the wind is liable to change every few hours. Captain Bennell proposes to work sixe honr watches, having two men, including the helmsman, on deck all the time. Life-lines will be worn by eaeh of them. Until the New Zealand coast is sighted the crew will be strictly rationed, although . Oimara will carry enough food for months.