The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

ADVENTURE, FLOTSAM Mark Chew ADVENTURE, FLOTSAM Mark Chew

Ropes, Boots and Adventure.

In the second-hand bookshops I sometimes frequent, I’ve noticed that the “Maritime” section is often very close to the “Mountaineering” books. It’s not an alphabetical thing. I think it’s just that the bookshop owners believe that the two disciplines have a lot in common, (too much fresh air, an element of danger, isolation, fear etc) and so a potential shopper who is interested in one, might well be interested in the other.

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BOOK REVIEWS, ADVENTURE, DESIGNERS Mark Chew BOOK REVIEWS, ADVENTURE, DESIGNERS Mark Chew

“People of The Sea” James Wharram’s Autobiography

The Wharram Catamaran has always held a fascination not because its a thing of beauty but because they reek of the promise of adventure. And not a modern day adventure clutching a GPS and Sat Phone, but a 1960’s hippy adventure with free love, tropical islands bare tanned skin, and the rejection of boundaries imposed by a disapproving society.

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ADVENTURE, FILM Charlie Salter ADVENTURE, FILM Charlie Salter

ZACA & the FISH Templeton Crocker & Toshio Asaeda

While researching the elusive Errol Flynn and his yachts, see Hobart to Hollywood SWS 3rd June, we discovered Templeton Crocker, the original owner of Flynn’s schooner the ZACA. From 1929 during a global Depression, Crocker spent his huge railroad fortune building and fitting the yacht and embarking on scientific expeditions in the Pacific.

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BOOK REVIEWS, ADVENTURE Mark Chew BOOK REVIEWS, ADVENTURE Mark Chew

A WEEK OF VOYAGES

What makes it different to the previous six books in this column is that it’s an adventure brought on by necessity rather than free choice.  It’s a story that is playing out in some form or another every day of the year in 2021, whether it be in the Mediterranean, the Indian ocean or the Caribbean. Normal people, whose mere existence is under threat, take to a small boat, to escape to a new life. 

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FOR SALE, ADVENTURE Mark Chew FOR SALE, ADVENTURE Mark Chew

PLEASURE PER DOLLAR

Don’t Get Me Wrong. I love a big, glamorous, highly varnished yacht as much as the next person. However the reality is, most of us are attracted to this corner of the maritime world not because we aspire to have cocktails on the aft deck at Les Voiles de St Tropez, but because somewhere deep down, we have a respect for history, traditional craftsmanship and a quest for adventure.

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ADVENTURE, WOMEN ON WATER Sal Balharrie ADVENTURE, WOMEN ON WATER Sal Balharrie

You and the Sea

We memorize the rising and setting points of stars and use those to orient ourselves in our physical space so that we can navigate from place to place. I used to think that we would go to things. But that island out there was always there and all you’re doing in your place is you’re making it come to you.

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