Welsford's Sundowner

[Maximus]

There was a man who had a few articles in SCA about building and planning a RTW trip in Welsford's Sundowner. They stopped following him, made me wonder if something bad happened. Does anyone out there have any information on this guy or the boat?

John, do you have any more info?

Brent

[Maximus]

I guess his name is Charlie Whipple...

[rnboatworks]

The build was covered in a recurring series in small craft advisor. The voyage ended part way through the first offshore passage with the loss of the vessel and the safe rescue of the builder/sailor.

[JimD]

Here's Charlie's blog. He doesn't talk about boats much these days: http://tokyowest.typepad.com/ . And here's 'Resolution', Charlie's Sundowner in happier, though short lived times.

http://jshaw.serion.co.nz/uploads/Sailing/CharlieResolution.jpg

http://bp1.blogger.com/_zYVXpWl9Pa4/SGEXw6S3xUI/AAAAAAAACmM/a2EsB65DSSw/s320/resolutionundersail.jpg

The end:
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/reports/resolution/news.jpg (http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_windows_skin/1865606)

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/reports/resolution/news.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/reports/resolution/index.htm&usg=__WkWIJqJ3SHyaLC0H7i6cbtzUdGY=&h=289&w=300&sz=20&hl=en&start=22&itbs=1&tbnid=AlAi2UhbddYcBM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharlie%2Bwhipple%2Bresolution%26gbv% 3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20

[Maximus]

Sailed into an island? Hmmm, I guess I'll keep to myself. It's too bad, it actually looked like a sharp little boat.

[john welsford]

Losing the boat was a real blow to us all, Me ( designer) all the freinds that Charlie had made during his stay in New Zealand to build the boat, and most of all to Charlie himself. Immigration limitations on the time he had available to get the boat sorted plus personal and seasonal deadlines meant that the boat left with not enough sailing time on her. Between Charlie and myself we had quite a few miles on her, she sailed well and performed as expected even in some pretty awful conditions but some of the boats systems were not fully tested and it was a major fuel leak that saw him attempting to return to his home port of Tauranga when an error in navigation made under very difficult circumstances put him ashore on a rocky lee shore where recovery of the boat was not possible.

But, there are 11 more sets of plans out there now, several hulls well along in construction and it will not be long before there are other "Sundowners" roaming the oceans.

John Welsford

[seanz]

No disrespect.........Charlie Whipple should be on those Coast Guard safety ads on TV.
His experience is a text-book example of how EPIRBs (and helicopters) save lives.