Bernt Kohler KD280 (modified to 33ft, built)
China Moon was sold for a number of reasons, but I always missed her. While she was a fine vessel she was not particularly easy to build and a bit on a large size. Oryx was a Bernd Kohler 8.6m plywood bridge deck catamaran that I extensively modified. She was extended to 10m and re-rigged as bi-plane aero junk. I built Oryx in Cornwall and she took two years to build working full time. She proved herself to be a very good boat with spacious accommodation – but not as ultimately seaworthy as China Moon.
By: Pete, Roger and Linda Skipper: Pete We left Neiafu (Tonga) on the 7th November with an ESE wind force 4 to 5, perfect weather with the sun shining. The first days run of 157 miles. This good weather continued to Minerva Reef where we anchored for one day. We left Minerva reef on the […]
When I joined Oryx, I did not realise that she would be such a head turner. Everywhere we go, we have numerous visitors who want to know about the boat and its unusual aero junk rig. Even Polynesian TV accosted us, wanting to know more and filming us as we were anchoring on our arrival […]
In the middle of June we left Whangarei in New Zealand and after clearing out from Marsden Cove, we set sail in a fresh SW F6. Once clear of the channel we bore away past Bream Head for French Polynesia. I say ‘we’ as Linda Crew-Gee, a Croatian Londoner and fellow junk enthusiast, had joined […]
South Africa, Mauritius, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand I left Durban at the end of July, single-handed again and very much alone. I had rather lost my sense of direction and was not sure where to go. I couldn’t face continuing on to Madagascar and it seemed wrong to retreat back to the Atlantic. In […]
Awarded the Founder’s Cup by RCC Our 180 days in Brazil were up so we cleared out of Angra dos Reis for Uruguay, 1000 miles to the south-west. Before leaving Brazil we sailed over to Enseada de Sito Forte, on Ilha Grande, where a beach bar kindly runs a hose of spring water out to […]
Pete and Carly sailed away on Oryx from the UK in 2012. Carly diligently captured their voyaging in her blog (see the links) until her tragic disappearance at sea in 2015. Words are not enough to express Pete’s profound pain for the loss of his much loved and infinitely missed wife. By saying: “I wished […]
Oryx is a modified KD860, designed by Bernd Kohler. The main alterations I made to the design were to lengthen her from 8.6 metres to 10.0 metres and, of course, to change the rig to a junk. There were many other modifications, so that the completed boat is very different from the standard design. Oryx’s dimensions […]