Sailing Cat Loses Rig
| Vessel Name: | Kudana |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Fontein Pajot Catamaran 35ft |
| Crew: | Bob and Dawn Heasman |
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Sailing Cat loses Rig
27 May 2010 | Somewhere between New Zealand and Tonga.
Kudana...
Somewhere between NZ and Tonga a Pan-Pan was heard. A catamaran crewed by two 75 year old adventurers and a young helper had lost its mast. Luckily nobody was hurt.
Back-up a few years ..... Bob and Dawn Heasman are a couple who started their lives in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe. They grew up and went to school, met there and in due course got married.
Every home they have lived in has been called 'Kudana' which is Shona, an African Language, for 'Two Together'. Since the introduction of a black government in Zimbabwe in 1980, Bob and Dawn had decided that they would give this new government a chance. Maybe it would be OK. By 1983 Bob started to get worried when he was refused his annual 'foreign currency allowance' that enabled him send his own money out to import metal tubing that he used to build the units for his fridges and freezers that he'd begun manufacturing. Bob tried to use the tubing that was produced locally but it split at the seams and also rusted inside, so making it useless for it's intended purpose. He began to despair as to how to carry on. One day an African man came off the street and asked to see him. This man had been allocated a foreign currency allowance, but he didn't even have a job. His offer to Bob was...give me half your business and I'll let you use my allocation. Bob was furious and sick at heart.
In 1984 they decided to leave Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa. They were only allowed to take their car, a caravan, and US$700. Bob and Dawn had sold most of their possessions, but their money had been frozen by the government. They were only allowed to leave with what was called a"holiday allocation". This was the normal routine in those days, the government didn't want any whites in the country but they didn't want the money to leave. Actually, it's the same now.
Within a year of leaving Zimbabwe, Bob was told that he was terminally ill with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma Cancer...he had three months to get his affairs in order. He was 49.
He lost his job, but the company organised a small pension for him, which was rather a wonderful thing for them to have done. He decided to become a 'guinea pig' and submit himself to experimental drugs to fight this cancer. Three months later he was still alive. Six months later he told them that he would rather die than go through another bout of Chemo. They gave him a final check-up to be able to write up the results and discovered that there was no trace of the cancer, except the scar tissue of course. Wow, what a revelation! He was euphoric.
His problems were not over...because of the cancer he couldn't get a job. Everyone thought he would get sick again. A friend came through and offered him work. He went from strength to strength eventually starting up his own business again.
In 2005 he finally retired. Things in South Africa were starting to look like a carbon copy of Zimbabwe and they were beginning to get worried about their future. The last thing they wanted was to lose everything they had worked so hard for because of political unrest and a badly managed government. It had had happened once before to them and they could see the writing on the wall this time. The president of South Africa was known to be a good friend of Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, and talks of 'Land reform' as it was done in Zimbabwe being done in South Africa were blatantly announced in news reels. They began to rack their brains as to what they could do.
One day Bob turned to Dawn and said,"Let's go sailing around the world".
Dawn had been his leaning post during tough times, she is a strong resilient character full of optimism and cheer. She had taken each day and conquered it, wondering if her sweetheart would live to see another sunrise. Dawn never gave up. She is a tiny lady, standing 5'0, but don't mess with her when it comes to family. She looked at him and said, "OK, what do I need to do."
In 2006 they sold everything, right down to the last teaspoon to be able to get the money together to buy a yacht. There were people who owed them money but when it got known that they were going sailing the consensus was..."oh you're rich, you don't need the money" and so those people still owe him to this day. As Bob and Dawn were leaving the country those people just ducked and dived and hid away.
There was a yacht in the Caribbean that looked just right, it was small for an ocean going Catamaran. It has a good pedigree. It had been standing on the hard for a long time, the owner wanted a quick sale. It was checked out by a friend and pronounced good...so they bought it. Between the time they had sold everything and the time the boat was purchased, about 2 months, their Rand, South African currency, had devalued to such an extent that they'd lost a significant amount of their savings. Timing was crucial but somehow they managed to scrape together enough to complete the purchase. After all they could no longer afford to reestablish their lives in SA even if they wanted to.
Soon they were flying to Trinidad, with a suitcase each, to take possession of their new home, a 35ft Fontaine Pajot, Tobago Catamaran now called..... Kudana.
They were so very excited. Dawn, a little apprehensive as she had never sailed before and they were now both 72 years old. She wondered if she was going to like it. Bob had sailed and raced an OK and a Fireball dinghy when he had been younger, so he felt more at home on Kudana. However he did find someone to be captain for the first three months, and this way he gained the needed knowledge and confidence in the boat.
They left the Caribbean, passing through the Panama Canal and then embarked on the long Pacific crossing, just the two of them. A brave, courageous couple of old timers, setting out to find a new life for themselves, again.
Bob and Dawn, now at the age of 75, arrived in New Zealand in 2009 and have applied for residency. It will take two years to process this application. Because they are only allowed to stay in NZ for 6 months out of a year, they have to travel away for the interrum period. They would much rather just be able to stay at anchor and wait out the time, but this is not NZ's policy. So in May 2010 they set off to Tonga, the idea being that they stay there on anchor until the hurricane season approached when they would sail back to NZ for 6 months.
On the 21st of May 2010 there was PAN PAN call put out by Kudana. Something had gone seriously wrong..............
From here on, the account is taken up by Bob himself.
(under construction....watch this space :-) )
Somewhere between NZ and Tonga a Pan-Pan was heard. A catamaran crewed by two 75 year old adventurers and a young helper had lost its mast. Luckily nobody was hurt.
Back-up a few years ..... Bob and Dawn Heasman are a couple who started their lives in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe. They grew up and went to school, met there and in due course got married.
Every home they have lived in has been called 'Kudana' which is Shona, an African Language, for 'Two Together'. Since the introduction of a black government in Zimbabwe in 1980, Bob and Dawn had decided that they would give this new government a chance. Maybe it would be OK. By 1983 Bob started to get worried when he was refused his annual 'foreign currency allowance' that enabled him send his own money out to import metal tubing that he used to build the units for his fridges and freezers that he'd begun manufacturing. Bob tried to use the tubing that was produced locally but it split at the seams and also rusted inside, so making it useless for it's intended purpose. He began to despair as to how to carry on. One day an African man came off the street and asked to see him. This man had been allocated a foreign currency allowance, but he didn't even have a job. His offer to Bob was...give me half your business and I'll let you use my allocation. Bob was furious and sick at heart.
In 1984 they decided to leave Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa. They were only allowed to take their car, a caravan, and US$700. Bob and Dawn had sold most of their possessions, but their money had been frozen by the government. They were only allowed to leave with what was called a"holiday allocation". This was the normal routine in those days, the government didn't want any whites in the country but they didn't want the money to leave. Actually, it's the same now.
Within a year of leaving Zimbabwe, Bob was told that he was terminally ill with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma Cancer...he had three months to get his affairs in order. He was 49.
He lost his job, but the company organised a small pension for him, which was rather a wonderful thing for them to have done. He decided to become a 'guinea pig' and submit himself to experimental drugs to fight this cancer. Three months later he was still alive. Six months later he told them that he would rather die than go through another bout of Chemo. They gave him a final check-up to be able to write up the results and discovered that there was no trace of the cancer, except the scar tissue of course. Wow, what a revelation! He was euphoric.
His problems were not over...because of the cancer he couldn't get a job. Everyone thought he would get sick again. A friend came through and offered him work. He went from strength to strength eventually starting up his own business again.
In 2005 he finally retired. Things in South Africa were starting to look like a carbon copy of Zimbabwe and they were beginning to get worried about their future. The last thing they wanted was to lose everything they had worked so hard for because of political unrest and a badly managed government. It had had happened once before to them and they could see the writing on the wall this time. The president of South Africa was known to be a good friend of Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, and talks of 'Land reform' as it was done in Zimbabwe being done in South Africa were blatantly announced in news reels. They began to rack their brains as to what they could do.
One day Bob turned to Dawn and said,"Let's go sailing around the world".
Dawn had been his leaning post during tough times, she is a strong resilient character full of optimism and cheer. She had taken each day and conquered it, wondering if her sweetheart would live to see another sunrise. Dawn never gave up. She is a tiny lady, standing 5'0, but don't mess with her when it comes to family. She looked at him and said, "OK, what do I need to do."
In 2006 they sold everything, right down to the last teaspoon to be able to get the money together to buy a yacht. There were people who owed them money but when it got known that they were going sailing the consensus was..."oh you're rich, you don't need the money" and so those people still owe him to this day. As Bob and Dawn were leaving the country those people just ducked and dived and hid away.
There was a yacht in the Caribbean that looked just right, it was small for an ocean going Catamaran. It has a good pedigree. It had been standing on the hard for a long time, the owner wanted a quick sale. It was checked out by a friend and pronounced good...so they bought it. Between the time they had sold everything and the time the boat was purchased, about 2 months, their Rand, South African currency, had devalued to such an extent that they'd lost a significant amount of their savings. Timing was crucial but somehow they managed to scrape together enough to complete the purchase. After all they could no longer afford to reestablish their lives in SA even if they wanted to.
Soon they were flying to Trinidad, with a suitcase each, to take possession of their new home, a 35ft Fontaine Pajot, Tobago Catamaran now called..... Kudana.
They were so very excited. Dawn, a little apprehensive as she had never sailed before and they were now both 72 years old. She wondered if she was going to like it. Bob had sailed and raced an OK and a Fireball dinghy when he had been younger, so he felt more at home on Kudana. However he did find someone to be captain for the first three months, and this way he gained the needed knowledge and confidence in the boat.
They left the Caribbean, passing through the Panama Canal and then embarked on the long Pacific crossing, just the two of them. A brave, courageous couple of old timers, setting out to find a new life for themselves, again.
Bob and Dawn, now at the age of 75, arrived in New Zealand in 2009 and have applied for residency. It will take two years to process this application. Because they are only allowed to stay in NZ for 6 months out of a year, they have to travel away for the interrum period. They would much rather just be able to stay at anchor and wait out the time, but this is not NZ's policy. So in May 2010 they set off to Tonga, the idea being that they stay there on anchor until the hurricane season approached when they would sail back to NZ for 6 months.
On the 21st of May 2010 there was PAN PAN call put out by Kudana. Something had gone seriously wrong..............
From here on, the account is taken up by Bob himself.
(under construction....watch this space :-) )
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