EERIE MUSIC NZ has a legacy of deadly disasters. The whole party seemed to fall at once. Praying to God, cos I wanted to survive. Scary. Bloody scary. Disasters that shaped this country. Where I'm standing is where my grandfather got involved in the battle with the Turks. Two yachts were lost forever. The worst motoring accident in NZ history. Seven well-known NZers retrace our darkest days, bringing history alive... YELLS: Help! ...through the eyes of descendants. It stayed with me. Probably always will. It was something that we will never ever forget. All of us. Copyright Able 2015 TENSE MUSIC On January 23 1951, 20 yachts set sail from Wellington. Their destination ` Lyttelton, taking part in a race to celebrate Canterbury's centennial. The official forecast predicted moderate conditions, but what the sailors did not know was that a brutal southerly was approaching fast. A violent storm hit the coast, and the men found themselves in mountainous seas, fighting for their lives. Only one yacht finished the race. Six men were rescued in a feat of extraordinary heroism, and one of NZ's largest maritime searches was launched. But after weeks of scouring endless oceans, two yachts were lost forever and 10 men presumed drowned. I've been fortunate to sail with some of the most outstanding offshore crews from NZ, in the Southern Ocean, in the great ocean races of the world, and I know first-hand how one small slip could be fatal. So I want to understand how this tragedy happened. Who were these men? What boats were they sailing? Why did so many brothers, fathers and sons lose their lives and so many more come close? 10 men died in this race, and it remains... NZ's worst yachting disaster. PROJECTOR RATTLES LIGHT, SUNNY MUSIC In 1951, NZ yachting was attempting to get back on the water after World War II. Men were busy building new boats and resurrecting old ones that had been languishing in sheds. Canterbury was in the midst of their centennial celebrations, and the January race from Wellington to Lyttelton was a highlight in the calendar. FLOWING GUITAR MUSIC The race was set to begin at Clyde Quay Wharf, and the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club became a hive of activity. Oh, it was the first significant national race around this part of the country, I think. A large proportion of the Wellington fleet took part. Being summertime, people thought, 'Well, this will be a bit of a breeze. 'We'll zip down there in a day and a half and home again.' At 22, Bruce Askew, one of the youngest skippers, had just finished designing and building his own boat. Karu was only launched a few months before the race, and Bruce gathered a crew of mates to get ready for the big adventure. I think our preparation basically accounted for putting the dinghy on deck and enough food to last a week if you had to, sort of thing. (LAUGHS) And that was about it. I think we probably had flares. Life jackets were generally kapok, the old things. Some boats had ex-army ZC1 radios, but they were looked upon in many cases as being nuisance. Took up space, you know. Without a radio, most of the fleet had no way of communicating with anyone back on land. And as Bruce headed to the pre-race meeting, two days before the start, warning bells started to ring. The thing that sticks in my mind was walking to the meeting, and some of the old fellows sitting in their sheds says, 'Oh, there's a storm coming down the East Coast.' And of course, you go to a briefing being a kid 20 years younger than everybody else, you're not very well-placed for an argument, you know? The bulk of them were pre-war yachtsmen. I think there was probably even a bit of an age bias, you know? 'We've been to war. We've run round at war, etc. Warships. And, uh,... what have you done?' (LAUGHS) On the morning of January 23, Bruce and his crew busied themselves with final preparations. The official forecast was for favourable conditions. And just before 10am, the yachts lined up to start the race. This is` This is us at the start. Oh, wonderful! And notice the lifelines. That's your version of a lifeline. Yeah. What do you think Maritime Safety and OSH would say about those lifelines today? Well, they'd say it's better than nothing. But what no one had done that morning was listen to the shipping forecast that gave a storm warning with gale-force winds. DRAMATIC MUSIC With no knowledge of the impending storm, the race began. It was heavy overcast, light wind, a lot more eastern than we normally get in Wellington. We don't have many easterlies in Wellington, and invariably they are the start of a... something that ends up a strong southerly. The fleet sailed in mild weather out past Wellington Heads, but conditions then soon began to deteriorate. The swell started to build once we got clear of the land, and we started to feel like young lads out of our depth a little bit. But as they reached open sea, Karu began to take on water. We were getting a bit of water down below through leaky windows. We didn't actually take in water in a dangerous amount. It was just annoying leaks that were gonna make things uncomfortable. Being wet for the next two or three days doesn't appeal to anyone. Bruce made a fateful decision. We had a bit of discussion ` maybe a minute. 'What do you think, chaps?' 'We'll go the other way. We'll turn around.' With the weather rapidly deteriorating, Bruce and his crew arrived back in Wellington. By late evening, three other yachts had also returned to the safety of the harbour. The next day, a brutal storm hit wit frightening force, and the fleet was cast into disarray. 16 yachts and dozens of men found themselves battling fierce winds and mountainous swells. Bruce and his friends had dodged a very deadly bullet. Do you think you and other competitors felt you were lucky to be alive? I would say luck played a huge part in it, to put it that way. (LAUGHS) Some of your big decisions are accidental ones, aren't they? (CHUCKLES) On land, the storm hit with equal force. Families listened to news reports or scoured headlines, desperate for any word of the fleet and the men who were now at the mercy of the sea. Missing on the yacht Astral was Ashley Burton, whose girlfriend, Doreen, waited desperately for news. My mum was understandably stressed because there was not knowing ` nobody knew. They knew the boat was missing, and she just was beside herself, really, not knowing. The Astral had sailed from Evans Bay Yacht Club, and the one comfort Doreen had was that Ashley was with an experienced crew. Astral skipper Brian Miller was a renowned yachtsman, and Ashley himself had been building and sailing boats since he was a teenager. He had a very good friend, Jim Smith. They met Brian Miller over a keg of beer at the boat shed. At the end of the little session, then they were crew members of the Astral. Dad and Jim were two of the youngest, so I suppose any boat needs some young blood to, um` to do all the work the old guys at the back don't wanna do. (LAUGHS) As they started heading towards Lyttelton, the` the weather just kept on building. The winds kept on building, and the waves kept on building, and gusts of wind up to 80 knots. From` From what I can understand, waves up to 18m, which is about 60ft. The seas were so violent, Ashley and the crew of Astral dropped their sails to run under bare poles. But after days of battling the conditions, one gigantic wave would be their undoing. Dad was down below, and they could hear the wave coming. It was a-a huge roar. Jim Smith, he just yelled out. For God's sake, hold on! Then the wave struck them. SPLASH! Dad was on a bunk in the knock-down, and he broke some ribs and damaged his back. It didn't completely roll the boat. It just knocked it on its side, and when it came back up, the mast was gone. The crew of Astral now had to fight for their lives in the eye of a vicious storm. Taking on water, the men desperately bailed, determined to keep their boat afloat. Then on January 25, two days after the race began, a plane was heard overhead. They had been drifting for a couple of days, and the sound of the plane was a great thing for them, because they realised they'd been spotted. But no sooner had they been found, the plane was gone. Ashley and his crew were alone in the angry sea once again. TENSE MUSIC 20 miles off this barren Kaikoura coastline, an injured Ashley Burton was fighting for his life. The southerly that hit the fleet of the Centennial Yacht Race was vicious in its fury. With no means of communication, the crew of Astral were adrift and desperate for help. They were very fortunate to have, uh, three navy people` three very experienced people on board. And I think that Dad and Jim got a bit of strength from their sense of purpose. They just got on with the task of keeping the boat afloat and to hope for rescue to come. DRAMATIC MUSIC Unknown to Ashley and his crew, the plane that spotted them had kicked off an urgent rescue effort. George Brasell, a renowned fisherman and sailor, had been in the race but had pulled out and returned to Wellington. He flew home to Lyttelton, assembled a crew of volunteers and headed out in his trawler, Tawera, to search for the missing Astral. After more than 12 hours in a violent sea, Tawera's navigator, Archie Childs, saw a plane circling above Astral. The plane almost ran out of fuel waiting until the Tawera had a visual contact with them, and then when they did see it, they decided to take them in tow. Getting a line from one vessel to the other frightens me. In those huge seas, getting two boats together where the skippers haven't got control, they could have easily collided. Absolutely. Dad still says now it was the most terrifying time of his life, being towed. At dusk, disaster struck. The towline chafed through and snapped. Too dangerous to try and tow again in the dark, a light was rigged on the battered yacht, and Tawera circled Astral all night. The next morning, the vicious storm was unrelenting. Brasell knew it was a matter of life or death for the crew of the stricken yacht. There was no other option but to abandon the Astral. My dad was the first off the boat, because of his injuries. They'd to throw the line, and then the crewmen would tie it around them and jump into the sea. And then as Tawera was rolling with the waves, the crew would just haul 'em aboard on a rope. This is a huge, heaving, whitecap, unforgiving sea. Did your father think, 'As I go in, I might be lucky to get out of here'? Um, I'm sure that everybody had the same thoughts. All of them. But, um, there's no option, no alternative really. They just had to do it. And, um, yeah, they did that six times. They were very very fortunate that everybody survived. The six crew of Astral were now safe. They abandoned the yacht, and Brasell and his crew battled the mountainous seas to return everyone to Wellington. My dad's a very` a very humble man, and he's not inclined to exaggeration, and he's still in awe of the seamanship displayed by the crew of the Tawera. To be able to just survive in those conditions, let alone rescue another boat is quite a thing. It just goes to show how fortunate Dad was to have those people on that boat making sure that, um, he's still around today. POIGNANT GUITAR MUSIC George Brasell and his crew have now all passed, but the mighty trawler he designed and built is still in use. George's son Charles is returning to the boat that played such a huge part in his father's life. Oh, look at this! Here's the Tawera! Oh, look at this! Here's the Tawera! Yeah, there it is. Oh, look at this! Here's the Tawera! Yeah, there it is. Well, there we are! (LAUGHS) Very part of the family history. When did you last see Tawera? Very part of the family history. When did you last see Tawera? Well, it was 1967 in Greymouth. The owner-skipper reckons that, um, she handles some of the big seas out off the West Coast better than a lot of these boats still today. Yes, well, 7000 copper bolts with bronze nuts on them holding it together. She's got the very best of materials in her. She's got the very best of materials in her. Yeah. The old man would be, uh, very pleased to see it being looked after and doing what it's meant` what it was built for. George Brasell lived his life on the water. Raised in Lyttelton, he was a champion sailor from a young age and had joined his father in business as a fisherman. Heavily influenced by his father, George designed and built his revolutionary trawler, Tawera, and launched it in 1946. Reliable and powerful, when help was needed in the 1951 race, Brasell knew Tawera was the boat for the job. There was absolutely no, uh` no doubt in his mind from, uh, when he left Wellington that this was the only boat that was going to` going to, uh, be capable of searching out in the storm. It was a feat of incredible endurance, just reaching the Astral, but Brasell may never have found them had it not been for Roy William Raharuhi, the RNZAF pilot circling overhead. The old man said that, uh, he'd spoken to the pilot later, and the pilot was really excited. He wanted to swoop down and take a picture. And... (LAUGHS) the old man was sure they'd be picking up a plane as well, really. Raharuhi was crucial to the rescue of Astral, only leaving once Astral was in tow. Brasell and his crew went on to complete one of the bravest rescues in NZ history. Do you think he was ever frightened he could pull it off? Did he`? Oh, I think so. Yeah. The seas were such that he'd never seen anything like it before, and, um, he said it was awe-inspiring at the top of the wave, flying off, and you're running backwards and not knowing whether you're going to stop. George Brasell and his crew were heroes, and when Tawera finally arrived home in Lyttelton, the whole town turned out to greet them. It was a welcome, um, like no other. All the trains had whistles, and every car honked its horn, and every ship in-in the port, uh, blew` blew its whistle. George always said, you know, it just brought a tear to his eye. He was overwhelmed with it, really, yes. George and his crew's bravery was recognised with medals from the Royal Humane Society, presented by Governor General Lord Freyberg Brasell was later awarded an MBE and spent a long, happy life on the ocean, but those few days in 1951 would have a lifelong impact. He's never publicly spoken about how harrowing it was, actually. You know, the decisions you make at the time are, um` those are the decisions that you're judged on later, aren't they? He had nightmares about the, um, trip. He'd wake up and` in the sea, you know? And, um, it bothered him, you know? Mm. They stayed with him right till the very end. The race would go on to haunt many of the men involved. But like so many of their generation, it was often suppressed. About four or five years ago, Dad was cleaning up a bit of stuff, and he was looking at a` at a piece of rope, and Mum said to him, 'What's that?' He said, 'Oh, it's nothing. It's just a bit of old rope.' Then it came out that that monkey's fist was made up of the original heaving line that they threw from the Tawera to the Astral, and it was made up into six monkey's fists by the, um` one of the crew members of Tawera and given to each crew as a memento. And Dad hadn't said anything about it for... 50-odd years. Realising what an impact the rescue must have had, Graeme got the rope mounted. He gave it to his father, who was overcome. It's almost like the rope had bottled the emotion in him for 50 years, so it was a very emotional moment for him. Obviously it came out, how much it meant. It brought back the memories. He probably contained a lot of his emotion about the` the event within himself, so kind of a symbolic thing of` of letting it come out. The rescue of the Astral off the Kaikoura cost was Herculean. The crew of Tawera put their lives on the line, and thanks to them, Ashley lived to tell his tale. But he was lucky. As the Astral crew reached safety, six yachts were still unaccounted for, and dozens of men were missing at sea. WIND WHOOSHES Four days after the start of the 1951 Centennial Yacht Race, the storm raged on. Six yachts were missing, and air force planes were out scouring the ocean. Ray Clark, one of the crew aboard the trawler Tawera, had received devastating news in the midst of the rescue. His brother Kevin was missing on the yacht Husky. In Lyttelton, also fearfully awaiting news of Kevin, was Dorothy, a young nurse and friend of the Clark family. They were frantic because there was no word of the Husky and their son Kevin. I think that Lyttelton generally was in` in shock. Dorothy was good friends with Kevin and his fiancee, Dot, meeting through the Lyttelton sailing scene. That's Kevin as I knew him. He was` He was a very clever boy with` with yachting, and he strove and got a long way with it. He was a very quiet person. Dot did all the talking. They were just a lovely couple. As the race approached, Kevin had become a late addition to the crew of Husky, which his fiancee, Dot, was not happy about. She didn't want him to go. She didn't want him to go, because he was always away yachting. And he said, uh, 'This is the last time. This is the last time I'll go away on a boat.' POIGNANT PIANO MUSIC With that promise, Kevin left Wellington with the other yachts on the morning of January 23rd. The storm struck, and within days Husky hit the headlines as one of the missing yachts. I know that there was devastation in the family, and they were very, very, very, very worried. Ray's father was a railway worker. They didn't have a lot of money, but they were absolutely wonderful as a family. They were a very loving family. The Clarks had five children and were very close. Ray and Kevin were particularly so. When Ray arrived in Wellington after rescuing the Astral, he heard wreckage from a yacht had been washed ashore. He set off on foot, looking for his brother. He was with police going around the coastline, searching. He must have been somewhere. The Clarks soon received the news they'd been dreading. The nameplate from the Husky had been found near Owhiro Bay. More of the boat's wreckage soon followed. Kevin was presumed drowned. When the news did come through, I went straight to the family. Hello? Dot was there too. That poor girl. It-It was a household of grief, really. And I was there to try and prop them up. And the parents? Devastated. The father was just in a daze. He was a man of very few words. (SIGHS) That was just a horrendous day. Mm. They were really lost ` lost people. Their Kevin. SOMBRE MUSIC Before the tragic events of the race, Dorothy did not know Kevin's brother Ray well. But amidst the darkness of those days, romance unexpectedly blossomed. It wasn't until then that his father said, 'You` You go for that girl.' And that's how it really started. Mm-hm. And it was the yacht race that did that. He was so caring and kind, and in no time, we were together. Oh well. Meant to be. Mm. Mm. And he` We were married for 62 years. (CLEARS THROAT) And he died four months ago. Mm. Mm. Dorothy and Ray's love was a beacon of light for a heartbroken family. They were grief` grief-stricken, really. All they wanted was his body, and they never found it. Four lovely men... all gone. Mm. That was just very painful for the family. It really was. It is something that we will never ever forget. All of us. We're talking 60-odd years ago. Mm. Mm. But it's seared there in your heart forever? Yes. And when I see the photograph of Ray with the medal, I reflect. Despite the award and accolades for bravery, Ray almost never spoke about the events of 1951. And for the rest of the family, there would always be questions. I wondered myself ` didn't say anything, but wondered ` where they might be. Will they still be there? Will their bones be there? If only. If only we knew. Four men were lost on the Husky ` Skipper Arthur Clements, Kelvin Hopkinson, Harvey Mason and Kevin Clark. It's hard to contemplate how traumatic it must have been for the families not to have a body, not to have a chance to say goodbye. CURIOUS MUSIC A week after the race began, all of the missing yachts had been accounted for except one ` the Argo, with six men on board. But unlike most of the fleet, the Argo had a radio, and there was still hope they could be contacted. Auckland's maritime radio station at Musick Point would play a key role in the nationwide search for the missing yacht. So how did Argo's radio spark one of NZ's biggest maritime searches? Yeah, so this is` ...the famous ZC1. For a yacht or taking to sea, they were a very cumbersome and heavy piece of equipment. Take a lot of power to operate them, a lot of battery power. Argo was one of the few boats capable of communicating with shore, but operating a radio at sea had its problems. You could possibly, under ideal conditions, send a signal right round the world. But in stormy conditions, where you've got boats heaving and pitching, and the aerial antenna is swinging about so much, it mightn't travel so far at all. That's the problem. But for Argo, there was a glimmer of hope. Authorities learned that if Argo switched their ZC1 from voice to Morse code, then the signal would travel further. There was still hope of reaching them. 10 days after the race began, a message was broadcast to Argo. A comprehensive watch for three nights commencing 8pm today, Friday, will be observed in an endeavour to receive any signals you may be able to transmit. Maritime radios stations and amateur radio hams across NZ were enlisted to monitor the airwaves. You are asked to transmit four five second dashes, followed by a dash of approximately half a minute's duration. Listeners from up and down the country tuned in, hoping for any sign from Argo and her six crew. At that particular time, I was down on Campbell Island. Any spare time we had there, we would, uh, keep a listening watch on the, uh, distress frequencies that the boat would most likely use. Officials were inundated with responses claiming they'd heard signals from Argo. Could the yacht and her crew still be out there? TENSE MUSIC 10 days after the start of the 1951 Centennial Yacht Race, the crew of Argo were still missing. Radio listeners across the country claimed to have heard signals from the yacht, and authorities now believed it was somewhere off the East Cape. At dawn on February 3rd, air force planes took off to search for the six men. Marion Baker's brother Alan was on the Argo. She was only 6 when he went missing. My eldest brother, Ian, was associated with the radio, so he spent all his time listening for the Argo call. They swear they heard that call. They were sure they heard it. And they'd reported it, but it couldn't be tracked. Night after night, listeners claimed to have heard signals, and day after day, the planes searched. But all the Baker family could do was wait and hope. One day, a piece of information would come through that` perhaps that they'd heard the Argo call. The next day, the planes that they thought had seen something hadn't seen something. And so, basically, for Mum and Dad it was like living on a see-saw. Alan was only 18, a 6ft marine electrician who loved everything about the sea, and for Marion, a very special brother. I came 10 years after my three brothers, and if I cried during the night or anything, my Mum never knew. And when she went to the cot in the morning, there I was in bed with Alan. He was a real gentle giant. I fell in love with him. ALL: # Should auld acquaintance be forgot...? # We had a lot of music evenings when Mum played the piano; Dad played the harmonica. They were loving; they were caring. It was a happy home. Alan and his brother Don were inseparable, and after crewing yachts together for years, both had places on the Argo for the centennial race. But Don was called up to the army and was bitterly disappointed not to be going with his brother. The day of the race arrived with a sense of foreboding for the boys' father. I know my dad wasn't all that happy about them going. And on the day, he actually asked Alan what would happen if there was a storm, and Alan jokingly said, 'I'll throw out the sea anchor.' Dad was very unsettled about them going, but Alan just said, 'No, we're going. We're sailing.' Within 24 hours, the brutal southerly hit and Alan's father's fears confirmed. As the days passed and the search for the Argo widened, the authorities installed a phone for Alan's parents. For Mum and Dad, I think it must have been horrific. Me,... Hello. ...I was younger, and I had Alan living on a tropical island and all sorts of things as a 7-year-old would do. But I never thought he wouldn't come home, because Mum and Dad didn't. After weeks of searching, it was decided none of the radio signals could be verified, and the official search was called off. But Marion's parents refused to abandon hope and sold treasured possessions, including their piano, to help fund private searches. Dad just couldn't give up. He had to find him. Mm. They couldn't give up, because they had nothing to give up. Um, Alan still had to be there somewhere. But... somehow, I think, as the days went on and the weeks went on, the hope also disappeared with it. Dad, if he couldn't cope with things, he walked over the Karori Hills, and he went for many a walk in those days. I remember asking my mum why he was going and he wasn't taking me, and she said, 'No, he's` he's gotta go on his own. He's gotta go and walk and think.' Mum had to cope in her own way, and I really don't know how my mum coped. Somewhere inside, it was` it was hurting badly. Something was different in the house. There wasn't the laughter; there wasn't the music. And for me, that's what I noticed most. I think I walked quietly for Mum and Dad somehow. For Don, Alan's brother and best friend, the loss was profound. He almost never spoke of his brother again. When Don died over 50 years later, the family became aware of how much Alan's loss had affected him. I came across this poem, which showed to me a totally different side to Don that I could ever think existed, and it's called A Brother's Prayer. READS: 'Oh, for a glimpse of your smiling eyes, a look at you just as you were. 'Some say you are dead and show great surprise when I say you're alive on this earth. 'Your father's begun to grow grey. Your mother has changed a bit too. We wait for you day after day, 'And we pray we'll once more have you. 'So please, God, if he be alive,... (VOICE BREAKS) let him soon to his haven arrive.' For the Baker family, the loss of Alan had a profound impact on all of their lives. Although they never had a body, they included a memorial to Alan and the Argo on his father's headstone. It gives me somewhere to go, and I can say, 'Alan's there; Don's there. They're together. They're sailing somewhere together now.' In the months after the race, there was national outrage that 10 lives had been lost, and a marine inquiry was launched. It had emerged that Argo collided with another yacht at the start of the race, damaging their bobstay. Witnesses saw the Argo's crew making repairs to this part of the rigging at the bow of the boat. Now, any sailor will tell you that a bobstay is absolutely vital in the rig of a yacht, and with a storm coming, it was a serious recipe for disaster. The race organisers, Banks Peninsula Cruising Club, were given a grilling over many aspects of the race, but it was their lack of awareness of the storm warning on the shipping forecast that was given the most attention. Commodore Arthur Lambert was put under intense scrutiny. READS: 'The official broadcasts are really only for the land. Do you know that?' 'No.' 'You did not ask for the broadcasts for coastal shipping?' And the reply from Arthur Lambert ` 'No.' Most skippers questioned in the inquiry stated they would not have started the race if they had heard the shipping forecast. One of those skippers was Dr Bob Elliott on the yacht Wakarere. His son-in-law David Lackey believes the men were completely unprepared for what hit them. The fellows who came back from the war didn't have a lot of money to spend on their boats, and I know that maintenance was a bit of an issue. The boats had been laid up during the war. The sails were cotton sails, so the sails would have been, perhaps, a little bit suspect. There was room for an accident to happen if the right circumstances should come together. When the storm hit the fleet, it must have come as a complete surprise. And looking at the forecast, it's sobering to see the crucial information they never received. This one here is, in essence, for landlubbers. (READS) Strong winds, south-easterly in the Straits area. Meanwhile, here, the shipping forecast. Headline ` (READS) 'Storm Warning. 'East ` strong to gale winds gusting to 50 knots expected within 100 miles of the centre.' So... A is not talking to B! Absolutely. If I was a skipper, I would want to see this one, and I would be very aggrieved if I didn't see it. The race committee should have made enquiries as to whether there were relevant shipping forecasts available. That's the crux of the whole, uh, event ` the forecast. The scant rules and prescriptions of safety and so on were part and parcel of sailing in the 1950s. The weather forecast, on the other hand, was something that was` was science. It was available. Uh, and it was denied them. PENSIVE MUSIC The marine inquiry concluded that due to Argo's damaged bobstay and the storm that followed, it was likely she had foundered in the first couple of days. A life buoy and cushions from the Argo washed up at Palliser Bay, but this is the only trace of Argo ever found. Based on the wreckage from the Husky found near Wellington, it was likely she too had run into trouble within the first couple of days. All 10 men presumed drowned. But with no real answers, how would the families of the lost men heal their pain? The 1951 Centennial Yacht Race left 10 men dead ` 10 families grieving with no bodies, no real answers. But there were also heroes amid the tragedy. Just one yacht finished the race ` Tawhiri ` in just under three days. The crew returned to their home town of Nelson to a hero's welcome. What an achievement, what a feat of endurance to not only survive the storm but to win the race. Noel Brown and his crew were remarkable, but knowing 10 men had also died meant their victory was bittersweet. GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC For the families who lost loved ones, the pain never went away. Ray Clark, part of the heroic crew of Tawera, lost his brother Kevin in the tragedy, and the Clark family are visiting Wellington's south coast for the first time. 85-year-old Dorothy has travelled from Christchurch, while Ray and Kevin's brother Paul has journeyed from Timaru. They've come to see where the Husky's wreckage was found. It's the, uh, end of a journey, as far as I'm concerned, really. My brother Kevin, he'd just had his 21st the year before, uh, the Centennial Ocean Yacht Race, and, um, I never ever had a chance to say goodbye to him. Ray came here and walked these exposed, desolate cliffs looking for his brother. Yes. It tells you how rocked he was. Mm. Exactly. Yes, he was. Yes. Where were they? What had happened? Terrible questions to have to answer when you're just a young man. Yes. For Paul and his twin brother, Peter, only 12 at the time, the loss was devastating. 'He's gone. He's gone,' I thought to myself at one stage. 'I've lost a brother.' It's just mind-blowing. I couldn't` couldn't describe it in any other` Just sheer despair, really. And his fiancee had only just been engaged to be married earlier in 1950. She was` Yeah. Mm, heartbroken, wasn't she? Mm, heartbroken, wasn't she? One of the, uh` Yeah, she was. She was absolutely terribly heartbroken. Kevin was the love of her life. It's amazing, you know, the little things I've thought of many many times since, you know? What happened to Kevin's watch? He loved his watch. Where is he? What`? What happened to his remains? No body was ever found. No nothing. I have many haunting memories of that, uh` that yacht race. Um, many wonderful memories and ma` many terrible memories. One of the good things that will stay with me for my whole life is the Tawera... coming back into sight around the Lyttelton Heads, and everything that could make a noise... (VOICE BREAKS) in Lyttelton did so. It was amazing. It really was an amazing sight. Ships' horns, cars, people on balconies shouting and cheering. It was amazing. Yes, the sadness at knowing that I had lost a brother, but the tremendous pride I felt for my other brother who had been part of the rescue of the Astral's crew. What do you think Ray would make of it knowing that you and his younger brother Paul was here with you? > He would just be elated. And I hope he's looking down on us. He'd approve? Mm-hm. He would. Ray passed away in 2014, and now Paul, Dorothy and her daughter Helen are returning some of his ashes to the sea to be with his brother Kevin. (SOBS) Well done, dear. Well done, Dorothy. They're both together now. Yes, they are. The 1951 Centennial Yacht Race ` 10 men lost at sea, presumed drowned, their bodies never found. And for the relatives and those affected by this race, the memories are still very raw. The heartache of losing your father, your son, your brother or your husband and not knowing what happened to them. These days, ocean racing is considerably safer, with advanced technology and many more rules. But could a similar tragedy happen again? It is possible. The ocean is still a wild and unpredictable place and will always demand respect. But by remembering the men who lost their lives, we also remember the lessons learnt from this terrible page in NZ's history. Captions by Philip McKibbin. Edited by Glenna Casalme. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015