Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
On each occasion I share material on ‘Stormvogel’, the response is off the charts, which is why I am very happy to share the report of her maiden voyage as written by her owner and skipper Kees Bruynzeel.
‘Stormvogel’, in spite of inevitable teething troubles, achieved a passage from the Cape to Dartmouth unequalled by any yacht, in spite of stops at St. Helena, Ascension and the Azores.
These are a few of his opening paragraphs: “All in South Africa showed so much interest in the progress of ‘Stormvogel’, that I feel you will like to know how we are getting on: simply fine!
“There was no wind after we left Cape Town so we did a lot of motoring and it gave Jennifer and the crew a chance to get organised below. Food for 14 people and a baby for three months, household linen, bedding and all the personal gear – it takes a lot of time and organising talent to get order. But, thanks to a few calm days we succeeded.
“It was only after six days and 900 miles that we picked up the SE tradewinds, and even then it was only light. We improved a twin staysail rig by booming out the ghoster and the two reaching staysails on our two spinnaker booms – the cruising man’s dream.”
READ MORE HERE: 1961 07-08 – SA Yachting – maiden voyage – OCR
