Solo Circumnavigators 1965 – 2011

3 Responses to Solo Circumnavigators 1965 – 2011

1. Rob Wyers says:

   November 9, 2018 at 10:28 am

   Is there any information about Johann Trauner Lei Lei Lassen Circumnavigation 1966 1968?
2. peter says:

   November 10, 2018 at 6:49 am

   Unfortunately no.

   regards
   Peter
3. Graham Cox says:

   October 8, 2019 at 5:10 am

   I met Johann aboard Lei Lei Lassen in Durban, South Africa, in the southern summer of 1968/9, when I was a teenage schoolboy. Lei Lei Lassen was a fibreglass folkboat, with a Spitfire aeroplane type of glass bubble on the deck and a homemade windvane with trim tab on the outboard rudder. Johann was a short, well-padded guy (I thought he was old but he was probably younger than I am now), with a reddish, sunburned complexion and shaggy ginger hair. He had a ginger cat called El Tigre that was unpopular with some other world voyagers rafted alongside Lei Lei Lassen at Durban’s International Jetty, as he liked to sharpen his claws on sail covers. Johann was a quiet, modest man. The day he left he just quietly hoisted his sails, cast off (he had no engine) and ghosted away from the wharf, unlike most sailors who would leave with horns blowing and cheers from fellow voyagers. Most of the other voyagers did not even notice he was leaving. He told me he was sailing around the world on a tight budget, to prove you did not need a lot of money to do it. His total funds for his circumnavigation amounted to $1500 Canadian. I’ve been squarely in that small boat, impecunious voyaging camp ever since. They are the only voyagers who really spark my interest. PS: Having just sold my 5 tonne, junk-rigged Tom Thumb 24, which has a trim tab self steering gear, I have bought a 7.6m, fibreglass 2.5 tonne yacht, also junk rigged, with a short counter stern, and am dreaming about acquiring one of your Pacific Light self-steering gears in the next few months. Having followed the adventures of Roger Taylor on his two Mingmings, (and written a Junk Rig Association Hall of Fame article about him), I am very impressed with the gear. Plus the approval of Tom Cunliffe. What greater endorsement is there than that?!!