After patching up the old boat, he'd drifted from Spain to the Canary Islands, thinking the climate there might be more congenial for working outdoors in winter.  In the Canary Islands, he realised it was easier to sail on to the West Indies than beat back against the prevailing winds to Europe. ‘After that,’ he said, ‘it just made sense to keep going.’

Once, 42 days out of Sydney, while beating painfully to windward off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, en route to Nelson, he somewhat outrageously wrote that he was starting to like ocean sailing.  He’d sailed more than 70,000 miles at that point.

The finished yacht was exquisitely built, with fine dovetail joints and a beautiful interior, with the varnished red-cedar planks offset by white-painted frames and stringers, and lofty, varnished spruce masts. Less than 20 months after John laid the keel, he hoisted sail and set a course south, bound for Hawaii.

In an age where technology and €20m can send a solo sailor around the world in 40 days, a fleet of courageous mini sailors is about to show it can be done for less that €50,000 over many days! Sixteen men and two women from 11 countries will navigate 28,000 miles solo around the world in identical, cramped, plywood mini yachts, pushing the limits of what many believe to be possible.

If you don’t know something of Bill Nance, you should. Between 1962 and 1965 aged 25, Bill Nance completed a southern circumnavigation via Cape Horn in his Laurent Giles CARDINAL VERTUE. He was the first Australian to complete this journey singlehanded. In recognition, the Americans awarded him the Joshua Slocum medal, the International Award for Sailing Achievements. Australia hardly noticed, except for the die-hard yachting fraternity and the odd newspaper article.

Every generation produces exceptional sailors and adventurers, though with the advent of satellite communications and navigation systems, it is arguable that we will never again know people with the independence and resilience of the Smeetons.

He is the true sea-wanderer, in these hurried days, when the professional seaman sees little but ports…. and the wandering globetrotter has his soft way sped until the whole earth is fast developing-for him-into nothing but a nerve-racking kaleidoscope of which, his voyage made, he remembers little. No, give me a wandering such as Dwight Long’s and a little ship, stout as the IDLE HOUR

“This was our first Christmas at sea.  My wife surprised me with a large tin of tobacco, and I surprised her with a package of her favourite cigarettes. She had certainly bought both, and I had been aware of their existence all along, but that did not lessen our surprise or render the presents less appreciated.”

The Oosterschelde was built in 1917 and made a living tramping around the world with general cargo: coal from Cardiff, oranges from Morocco and Baltic timber. She’s survived hitting a second world war mine, abandonment and many storms.

“As the latest custodian of Māori Lass, I’ve often tried to visualise the people who’ve sailed her before us, the far-flung corners of the world she’s been to and the rough weather she’s survived. Rounding the buoys in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel during twilight racing with the Kettering Yacht Club just doesn’t seem a suitable enough challenge for her.”

It's not often that you come across a seventy year old, 30ft yacht that’s been around the world. The story of MAORI LASS has some great history but it also has some large blank chapters waiting to be filled by a yachting sleuth with the time and inclination to fill in the gaps.