‘Busman’s holiday' for senior pilot

Press, 14 April 1979, Page 19

‘Busman’s holiday' for senior pilot

One of the Lyttelton Har-. hour Board’s senior pilots |1 (Captain K. R. Mobbs) is; i embarking on something ; akin to a ‘’busman’s holi- ■ i day” next week. h He is a member of the It crew of the Lyttelton yacht! Schantal for the annual M Auckland-Suva yacht race. i The Schantal, owned by ] Mr Don Dalton, will be : joined in the race by two ' other Lyttelton yachts the t Imp and Foxy Lady. The Schantal is due to [ leave the port next Friday! and will be slipped at Audi-1 land before the start of the’ race in May. A former British seaman ' now living in Lyttelton has 1 come to the defence of Brit- ; ain’s shipping lines, after an item in this column on Thursday. Reference was made to the dominance of European shipping in the port, the flag-bearers of Russia, Poland, and Rumania making up all the overseas shipping. The man, a former crew member of P and O ships, said a shipping slump had been niggling British shipping for the last six years and had now hit home. Big companies with huge investments in tankers, bulk carriers and gas carriers, such as P and O, were the most exposed. The “survival groups” had been the consortiums, he said, notably, Overseas Containers, Ltd.

Most of the consortiums • had reported huge increases! in profits over the last few! years when tankers and gen-; eral-cargo ships could not! even return break-even! costs. “Cargo liners remain the heartland of British shipping,” he said, and while Russian rate-cutting posed a severe threat, good profits were being made in a few trades. ARRIVALS Thursday Nil. Good Friday Nil. DEPARTURES Thursday Sinaia <4 p.m.). 10.838. Napier, Capi. Dragoescue Mihail (Guthreys). Union Hobart (7.30 p.m.), 4637, Dunedin, Capt. G. J. Tedd (U.S.S.). Good Friday Nil. EXPECTED ARRIVALS Union Hobart, Dunedin, today. Holmdale, Chatham Islands, today. Coastal Trader, Auckland, April 16. Kangourou, Wellington, April 16. Iron Baron, from sea, April 16. Union Lyttelton, Wellington, April 17. Coastal Trader, Dunedin, April 18. Kolle D., Nauru Island, April 18. PROJECTED DEPARTURES Union Hobart, Wellington, April 15. Coastal Trader, Dunedin, April 16. Union Lyttelton, Wellington, April 17. Coastal Trader, Auckland, April 18. VESSELS IN PORT Hanka Sawicka, Cashin Quay No. Khudozhnik Deyneka, No. 3 West.