Sandefjord Lives On

The 53-year-old Colin Archer ketch, famous for surviving a head-first capsize in mid-Atlantic, has reached Sydney - crewman Tim Maginnis relates her latest adventures

SANDEFJORD, the famous old cruising ketch which "pitchpoled" in the North Atlantic under Erling Tambs in 1935, arrived in Australia in June. She is on a circumnavigation of the world from Durban.

Now 53 years old, Sandefjord was not only designed by the great Colin Archer but built under his supervision in the Norwegian town of Risor. She was named after the Norwegian whaling centre of years ago.

Today she is owned by the South African brothers Patrick and Barry Cullen. With three additional crew members they have sailed her to the South Pacific by way of St. Helena, Ascension Island, the West Indies, Panama Canal, Galapagos Islands, Marquesas and Tahiti. The voyage began late in February of last year and, all being well, the-Cullen brothers hope to have Sandefjord (or "Sande" as she is affectionately known) back at her Royal Natal Yacht Club moorings in Durban around October this year. 

The other three crewmen are Wally Stright, a 26-year-old American electronics engineer who appears to have abandoned electronics in favor of international hitchhiking; Fanie Louw, a stocky 23-year-old South African goldminer who comes from famous Rugby stock-his uncle, Fanie Louw, was in the Springbok touring team to Britain-in 1937-38, and his father holds four provincial jerseys and finally the writer, an Irish journalist, who at a lofty 36 is the daddy of the team.

Only Barry, a former officer in the City Line, had any sea experience before we sailed; but after surviving a typically severe westerly gale off the coast of. Africa between Durban and Cape Town the greenhorns and I was by far the greenest of the lot -settled down to what has been a highly successful and enjoyable cruise in generally favorable weather.

We left Cape Town with six in the crew. In Table Bay, Mary Clayton, a petite blonde schoolteacher from New Zea!and, joined us.

She featured in an exciting- interlude when she fell overboard while sleeping on deck just after leaving Ascension Island. Sharks had been seen lurking the previous day, but luckily when Mary took her dive there were none around. Patrick was over the side like a flash and, after a bit of nonsense Sandefjord put back and picked them up - none the worse, except for a mass of bluebottle stings on Mary's arms and legs.

Just out of the Galapagos Islands for the Marquesas, Mary left us to join the American schooner Dante Deo. There were all the elements of sparkling romance in Mary's departure from us, for her boyfriend, Jack Hargraves, who sailed on the round-the-world ketch Tuarangi from Invercargill to the West. Indies, was then skipper of the big schooner and Mary's transfer was carried out at sea. She left Sandefjord via the bowsprit and stepped on to the schooner's transom. where Jack was waiting to receive her. 

One of the aims of the world cruise is to produce a feature film in color for commercial distribution, not only in South Africa but abroad.

Sandefjord's claim to fame comes largely from her pitchpoling in a North Atlantic gale in 1935, when she was being sailed by her then owner Erling ("The Cruise of the Teddy") Tambs to take part in the Newport to Bergen race. The ketch is high in the elite company of yachts that have gone end-over-end and survived, and this is eloquent proof of her tremendous strength.

Shortly after her completion, she joined the Royal Norwegian Lifeboat Institutíon's fleet and earned a proud record in the extreme conditions of the North Sea.

The Institution, in a letter to Patrick Cullen a few years ago, said Sandefjord may have saved as many as 125 lives in her distinguished but brief lifeboat career.

In the course of the present cruise, Archer admirers have met Sandefjord in almost every port and marveled at her  foot-square oak frames, stout beams and three-inch oak hull.

TAMBS RECKLESS?

The pitchpoling, as recounted in the British magazine Yachting Monthly of September 1935, tells of an account by Tambs himself in an American publication and goes on: "Sandefjord, was running under a double-reefed mainsail only before a gale which was rising to hurricane strength, while the storm staysail, which had been torn, was being repaired. A very steep sea lifted her stern while her bows dived deeply and the speed at which she must have been travelling turned her stern completely over so that she was bottom-up. She must have righted herself as the cable, which had fallen on to the deck beams, poured itself into the starboard fo'c'sle bunk. Her mizzen was wrenched out aft during its passage through the water, all the main rigging was badly strained, the mainsail burst, and one helmsman was lost."

A spell of good weather enabled Tambs and his men to complete some repairs and so limp into Newport. 

The writer of the article said the pitchpoling was quite an unusual accident to happen to what is regarded all over the world as a fine sea-keeping type.

He goes on: "In this case, it would appear, in fact, from the story that the vessel had been run too long and was going far too fast. In addition, the two men at the tiller had already complained that they were unable to hold her.

Before the Cullens bought her in Durban about three years ago and set out on their year-long £5000 refit, there were grisly rumors that the ghost of the lost helmsman, Kaare Tvetter, still walked Sandefjord's broad decks. All I can say is that, after more than 15,000 miles of cruising through the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific, he has not yet presented his visiting card.

The big ketch - length 47 feet, beam 16 feet and draft 8ft. 6in. - has consistently surprised us with her pace. One would expect her to be pretty comfortable in a sea and that she certainly is, though she does tend to roll a bit in the heavy swells. But one gets used to that very soon. It is her speed through the water, especially with the wind over the quarter, that has caused many a doubtful look. But it's all there in the log.

She was regarded as a "big plodder' in Durban, but three days out from there and running before variable winds of up to force 7, she had a noon-to-noon run of 172 miles. This figure has been bettered twice since then, the first time just out of Cape Town for St. Helena, and more recently on a memorable broad reach from the delightful island of Curacao in the West Indies to the Panama Canal, with our best run to date of 174 miles.

But we slowed up badly in the landfall just north of Danger Point and, with the help of the Australian coastal current, we seemed well set to be near Sydney in four or five days,

Next day found us running before the wind and making a good 10 knots at times with the current. Just after 10 p.m., when all but the watch had gone to sleep, the wind increased to gale force. In our anxiety to make ground we kept up our mizzen, which in other circumstances might have been taken down. The new watch had just come on and we were romping along with the mizzen and reefed staysail when, suddenly, Sandefjord gybed violently. So vicious was the crash that the 32ft. mizzen mast began to turn on itself at the foot and, supported by its four stout shrouds, to swing crazily about as Sandefjord lay hove-to in the high breaking seas.

Without the help of a torch, we managed to get the mizzen lashed down for the night and proceed under reefed staysail only. Next morning, as we lay hove-to in a fierce westerly gale, we tackled the shattered mizzen. 

Some of the heaviest seas we had ever experienced crashed on our decks that day. What would these seas have done to a ship of less sturdy constructions?

Thirty years ago she must have looked as she did now when Tambs pitchpoled her. Mizzenless, gaunt and getting nowhere, she was a sad sight.  It seemed as if all the elements were combining in a titanic effort to stop us from getting to Sydney. We knew now we were going to have to fight for every last inch until we dropped anchor in Sydney Harbor

True enough, on June 3, we were sailing close-hauled on the port tack for the Heads, a mere six miles away, when a strong southerly blew up and swept us away north. With the radio warning of "a bitter weekend for Sydney, we tacked off the Heads through that night as the lights of the city winked warm and tantalising.

At dawn on June 4 we finally entered the Heads to a warm welcome from yachts in the harbor and an angel with a big brown beard and a cheerful smile towed us to the Cruising Yacht Club at Rushcutter Bay.

After repairs in Sydney, Sandefjord left to spend about a month on the Great Barrier Reef and then make course across the Indian Ocean for home, to complete her circumnavigation in well under two years.

MODERN BOATING - August 1966