Feel sorry for the little girl. That cat doesn't look nearly seaworthy enough to take that journey.

Sounds like he's been on a few sinking ships with his daughter

There is a bloke named Rory McDougall who has sailed the same little cat (Wharram Tiki 21) from Australia to England and from England to the USA and back.
Fairly seaworthy little boat from what I have read. Not something I'd be keen for though.

I don't care if he was an Olympic class sailor, this was utter stupidity to risk a 6yr old on that boat on a trip like this for 27 days.
I am usually pro the sailor and I believe in adventure and challenges, but this?? I hope he gets arrested for endangering a child.

Planeray he left from the west coast. Kawhai is a west coast town just near auckland. The west coast of nz and especially auckland is pretty gnarly. Always big surf and onshore most of the time. He basically left ak and headed west

News reports confirm that they slept in one hull and used the other for storage. He was heading North until the rudder broke, then they turned around to head back, but "the wind blew us to here".

frant said..
Get off your high horse with the child endangerment folks. Read between the lines. The poor man is in a custody dispute over his daughter. As I read it he is an Australian, the daughter most likely is also, therefore they are now home and to some small degree out of the reach of the NZ family courts. I wish him all the best in the ongoing battle. You folk on the other hand would apparently freely give up on your kids and let welfare officers decide what adventure is acceptable in their life.

Out of the frying pan into the fire. Family law is pretty tough on men, and that is why you commonly hear of desperate, foolhardy attempts to keep their children.
That is as far as I think we should go on the subject, and now we should stick to the sailing.

Despite its size, it looks like the craft was seaworthy enough, and the skipper had the necessary skills to do the trip. A young daughter, but nevertheless a child born on a boat, with probably more sea miles experience than a lot of us here.

Compare with the many stories you hear of unskilled parents setting off with their kids in unseaworthy boats.

frant said..
Get off your high horse with the child endangerment folks. Read between the lines. The poor man is in a custody dispute over his daughter. As I read it he is an Australian, the daughter most likely is also, therefore they are now home and to some small degree out of the reach of the NZ family courts. I wish him all the best in the ongoing battle. You folk on the other hand would apparently freely give up on your kids and let welfare officers decide what adventure is acceptable in their life.

High horse?? I respect your opinion Frant, but how is this fair to the mother??
He tried removing a 6yr old from her mother.
Grow some balls and settle custody properly, regardless of the bias toward the mother in the courts, that's the law. I have had family and friends go through this, and I know it isn't fair a lot of the times. However, we don't know the full story, so it is probably best to leave it there, but what he did was wrong on many levels.
We'll have to respectfully disagree on this one.

The young girl will have a great story to tell when she is older. She seemed in high spirits when surrounded by reporters yesterday.
Im not buying into any of the judjments, as all the facts are not yet known to me.

i find it hard to believe that people think small boats unsafe generally speaking i feel much safer in a small boat as the loads are much lower and less gadgets to go wrong
plenty of large vessels haven't been able to make the crossing across the ditch through poor seamanship and poorly maintained vessels i wouldn't have enjoyed being cold and wet for a couple of weeks but they seem to have enjoyed it
KUDOS to them tell all the people who are scared of the water to leave them alone let the parents sort out the custody keep the courts out of it

boty said..
i find it hard to believe that people think small boats unsafe generally speaking i feel much safer in a small boat as the loads are much lower and less gadgets to go wrong

I agree with this, to be honest if I reflect I felt much safer in my old J24 or Compass 28 than my current boat. In a small boat my feeling is you have a better chance of jury rigging to get by or being able to get on top of a problem should it arise. Also there is always a feeling of comfort knowing if something does go wrong it wont bankrupt me where as the bigger the boat the bigger the repair bill. When I was 18 I used to enjoy going out with mates for an absolute hammering in the Sydney heads in the J24, we would wait for the absolute worst weather possible think manly ferry closed or water smashing over the foredeck, was great fun sitting cross legged on the walls inside as the boat sat pretty much knocked down half the time and smashing through the huge swells, i'm surprised it held up considering it was basically a mooring minder anyway we were young fit dinghy sailors who were maybe stupidly not afraid of the water, funny how when you grow up dinghy sailing you feel invincible (well back then we did).

I think the bloke is a fruitcake !

Bruski068 said..

frant said..
Get off your high horse with the child endangerment folks. Read between the lines. The poor man is in a custody dispute over his daughter. As I read it he is an Australian, the daughter most likely is also, therefore they are now home and to some small degree out of the reach of the NZ family courts. I wish him all the best in the ongoing battle. You folk on the other hand would apparently freely give up on your kids and let welfare officers decide what adventure is acceptable in their life.

Agree 110%, as the boat got to Australia, then I'd say that proves the seaworthiness of the boat, the man and daughter had a lot of previous sailing experience, and from what I understand neither of them was ever in any real danger from the crossing so, I'd give him a pat on the back and a well done, and wish them well.

But by the same token, a converted 18 Foot Skiff sailed to America, a Finn crossed much of the Pacific, folding kayaks and windsurfers have crossed the Atlantic, and kiteboards and Lasers have crossed Bass Strait, therefore almost everything is "seaworthy". Also complete beginners have done significant oceanic sailing, and therefore any beginner in any craft must be called "seaworthy".

If just completing a passage proves seaworthiness, then there is not really any boat in the world that isn't seaworthy, so the word is useless and we should stop using it. Or perhaps instead we could just say that the fact that a boat makes a crossing doesn't prove that it's seaworthy - it may just have been lucky.

It's a funny contrast that plenty of people squawked when the 1979 Fastnet had a loss rate of less than 2% or less, and claimed that it was proof that the boats were not seaworthy.

frant said..
Get off your high horse with the child endangerment folks. Read between the lines. The poor man is in a custody dispute over his daughter. As I read it he is an Australian, the daughter most likely is also, therefore they are now home and to some small degree out of the reach of the NZ family courts. I wish him all the best in the ongoing battle. You folk on the other hand would apparently freely give up on your kids and let welfare officers decide what adventure is acceptable in their life.

Watched and read this saga and have read the comments.

Guess some of you have never been in the situation where you have to fight for your kids and hopefully you never do.

been there, done that and in the end you do what you have to do, not all of it smart at the time but when backed into a corner some of us will fight for our kids ... Well done to him, it is what he believed he had to do and I hope now he can sort it all out here.


Interesting tho' is how many of you would condone parents taking little kids to sea in yachts with not a blink or concern ..... some parents should not be allowed out of the bay with kids on boats but nada is said about them being irresponsible, bizarre.

Now i will shut up and go back to just reading comments.

I don't think is about a sea worthy craft ? It's more about what if ?

Family Law, at least it is improving for the father's .

Regards Bear