mike Saunders

Hi would anybody know what had happened to the yacht 'Walkabout' that Mike Saunders sailed from the east coast of Africa to the UK in the 70's?
I crewed on a delivery with him as a skipper in 1980, or 81, and met his family just before departing. It would be great to catch up with them after all these years.
Thanks
C.C.

I never met Mike although we were both Rhodesians. I did however know the man who bought the boat from Mike in Mozambique and what happened to the yacht thereafter. Tom Nevin took over ownership of Walkabout and wth a small crew set off North towards Suez. I hosted a very interesting lunch with Tom and introduced him to (legend of the cruising world) Eric Hiscock when he and Susan came to visit the country. Tom told a long and sad tale of the journey North. They met a heavy storm that drove the boat aground on the Somali coast and all crew were fortunate to make it safely ashore. When finally the storm abated they returned to find the yacht completely stripped by (they think) roaming Bedouin so they were forced to abandon the quest and return home. Eric wrote up the story in "Welcome Aboard". Even I got a mention as I was at the time building my own yacht in Rhodesia - one we eventually launched in Durban, rounded the Cape of God Hope and then went North up the Atlantic to Gibraltar. After 18 months there we crossed thr Atlantic again this time to the West Indies. We lived afloat and were trade-wind gypsies for some six years before finally selling Yacht Crathes to a South African couple and returning to settle in SA. If anyone knows of Crathes' adventures after 1976 we'd love to hear!

That’s odd.I worked in emsworth Shipyard in the early seventies and I thought one of the shipyard craftsmen had bought Walkabout from MikeSaunders who moved on to a converted Ishiguro boat in Emsworth then they moved into a farmhouse sometime after 1974\5…..He died…..his son has written stuff on the forum a few years back

Two great anecdotes in #1 & #2. Thank you for sharing.

Walkabout is, I believe, still in Emsworth. She was definitely there 2 years ago. I last saw her in Emsworth Yacht Harbour.

Claim to fame (?) my father played clarinet with Mike when the Saunders lived in Emsworth!

Wansworth said:

.I worked in Emsworth Shipyard in the early seventies and I thought one of the shipyard craftsmen had bought Walkabout from Mike Saunders

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That is correct - The lad who bought Walkabout in the early 70's was Clive Ellis, and he was a shipwright at Emsworth Shipyard then.

Walkabout is still based in the Solent -
Ship WALKABOUT OF PERTH (Pleasure Craft) Registered in United Kingdom - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 0, MMSI 235024493, Call sign MHEZ2

I first met Clive and his partner Jeannie here in Barbados in 1979 after their first Atlantic crossing with Walkabout (I think that Clive and Walkabout have done at least 4 transatlantics together) , and caught up with Clive and Walkabout again here in Barbados in 2008 when he sailed (singlehanded this time) out to the Caribbean again - I posted a couple of photos of Walkabout at anchor in Carlisle Bay here on the Marinetraffic page above.
He sailed her back to England the following year, and sold her a year or two later, after owning her for almost 40 years.

Here are a few photos I took of Walkabout in 2008, along with a copy of a lines plan for her sistership Svaap, which was owned by the legendary American sailor William Albert Robinson, who sailed Svaap around the world in 1928. He wrote a book called 'Deep Water and Shoal', and the lines plan came from this book. I had a copy of the book, but it seems to have gone off on it's own walkabout somewhere, as I cannot find it now.....
https://www.amazon.com/Water-Shoal-William-Albert-Robinson/dp/1443734837/ref=sr_1_3

Here is a brief bio about W A Robinson on Wiki -
William Robinson (sailor) - Wikipedia

Walkabout and Svaap have another sistership called Mirelle (except that Mirelle has a counter stern, and is a gaff cutter) whose previous owner used to post on here as Mirelle.

Just been reading about Robinson on the WBF. Mostly about his other yacht, but had no idea that Mirelle and Walkabout were sisterships.

The Saunders went on to build an Alan Buchanan designer ferró cement yacht and wrote articles in PBO about fitting it out

Wansworth said:

That’s odd.I worked in emsworth Shipyard in the early seventies and I thought one of the shipyard craftsmen had bought Walkabout from MikeSaunders who moved on to a converted Ishiguro boat in Emsworth then they moved into a farmhouse sometime after 1974\5…..He died…..his son has written stuff on the forum a few years back

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That is very odd I agree! I have a copy of the original book on my lap as I write and have no idea how the boat came to be in Mozambique again after the Saunder's voyage described in the book. - dedicated to wooden boats. Interested to see in other posts here that Mike went on to build a ferro boat because we are then interlopers on this site! I built Crathes in my back garden in Salisbury (now Harare) in ferro and she did us proud over the six years and 30 000 odd nautical miles we sailed. I am now 84 with rapidly failing eyesight but count the years afloat as the best years of my life!

Malcolm Crathes said:

That is very odd I agree! I have a copy of the original book on my lap as I write and have no idea how the boat came to be in Mozambique again after the Saunder's voyage described in the book. - dedicated to wooden boats. Interested to see in other posts here that Mike went on to build a ferro boat because we are then interlopers on this site! I built Crathes in my back garden in Salisbury (now Harare) in ferro and she did us proud over the six years and 30 000 odd nautical miles we sailed. I am now 84 with rapidly failing eyesight but count the years afloat as the best years of my life!

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A mystery!……quite a life,building a ferro boat in a land locked country that has been in turmoil

For comparison with Walkabout, here are a few photos of Mirelle which her previous owner kindly sent to me some years ago.

Wansworth said:

A mystery!……quite a life,building a ferro boat in a land locked country that has been in turmoil

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The great escape! And because we were so far from chandlers (for obvious reasons there were none in Rhodesia) we made/cast our own port-lights, cleats, anchors, and extruded aluminium masts! But we saved scarce foreign exchange to enable purchase of bronze screws throughout (only the hull was ferro) We didn't make was sails, sextant & nav sundries and life raft... bought those just before departing Durban.

Malcolm Crathes said:

The great escape! And because we were so far from chandlers (for obvious reasons there were none in Rhodesia) we made/cast our own port-lights, cleats, anchors, and extruded aluminium masts! But we saved scarce foreign exchange to enable purchase of bronze screws throughout (only the hull was ferro) We didn't make was sails, sextant & nav sundries and life raft... bought those just before departing Durban.

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True practical boatowners….what happened to your yacht?

We sold Crathes to a young South African couple but haven't heard anything further as to where she is now. Although registered in Port of London and as members of the RYA we haven't been able to track her down. It is partially that search that bought us to this forum via our convo regarding Walkabout. We last saw Crathes at anchor as we rowed ashore in Sint Maarten and then caught a flight back to Africa. Rhodesia disappeared under the disaster that is modern day Zimbabwe and we settle in to now watch closely which way SA will go with elections in less than two weeks.

Malcolm Crathes said:

We sold Crathes to a young South African couple but haven't heard anything further as to where she is now. Although registered in Port of London and as members of the RYA we haven't been able to track her down. It is partially that search that bought us to this forum via our convo regarding Walkabout. We last saw Crathes at anchor as we rowed ashore in Sint Maarten and then caught a flight back to Africa. Rhodesia disappeared under the disaster that is modern day Zimbabwe and we settle in to now watch closely which way SA will go with elections in less than two weeks.

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Yes Africans still a continentwrackedbyproblems ….good luck with your search