Dream life of Riley

The Soren Larsen has had many starring roles, ROBIN BAILEY discovers when he steps aboard the brigantine.

Fifteen years ago Briton Andy Riley began living a dream. After a successful career in the oil industry he discovered the brigantine Soren Larsen and her owners Captain Tony Davies and wife Fleur.

Given the chance to sign on for the re-enactment of the First Fleet voyage to Australia, he was quick to accept.

"It was a wonderful opportunity to sail with eight other tall ships to lands many of us had only read about," Riley recalls.

Riley, who met his wife Tish aboard Soren Larsen on the First Fleet voyage to Sydney, now lives at Paremoremo with their three Auckland-born children.

"Little did we know then that we would become possibly the last people to emigrate to New Zealand by square rigger leaving the cold grey waters of Europe for the pristine South Pacific we now call home."

Riley, a former oilman, is contracted to Squaresail Pacific, the company that runs Soren Larsen. His job is to generate enough money to keep the ship operating. Keeping a vintage sailing ship in the water is a costly exercise and his role is crucial.

"I keep a global eye on maritime events such as the Volvo Ocean Race, the America's Cup, the proposed tall ships race from Tasmania to Wellington in 2004 to take advantage of any adventure voyage opportunities," Riley says.

"In 2000 we undertook a voyage called Global Odyssey that saw Soren Larsen visiting 26 countries in 18 months. Our course incorporated the Millennium Tallships event from Miami along the eastern seaboard of the United States to Canada, then on to Amsterdam. It was an amazing voyage that allowed us to use the ship to promote New Zealand as a destination and to make points about southern sailing and our America's Cup success."

Riley approached tourism agencies before the voyage began to try to get some official promotional material. No help was forthcoming and Soren Larsen delved into its own limited resources to take this country's message to the diverse ports of call.

Built in 1948-49 in Denmark by Soren Larsen and Sons, the ship is constructed entirely of oak. Carrying general cargo, timber and grain, she traded throughout the Baltic and Europe until 1972.

By 1978 she was rundown and was only saved from destruction by the Davies'. With a team of shipwrights, they began restoration. New masts and spars were made and the ship was rerigged as a 19th-century brigantine.

Much of the money needed for her early restoration was earned through the ship's starring role in the BBC series The Onedin Line. Since then many film and television roles have helped with running costs. These included The French Lieutenant's Woman, Count of Monte Cristo and Shackleton, which had the Soren Larsen among Arctic pack ice off Greenland.

From 1982 to 1985 the ship was chartered by the British Jubilee Sailing Trust for sailing training for the disabled.

The Soren Larsen first sailed into Southern Ocean waters on the Australian Bicentenary re-enactment voyage of the First Fleet, leading the tall ships on a 22,000km voyage to Australia via Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town. The Governor-General of the day, Dame Cath Tizard, visited the ship in Sydney and suggested she call in to the City of Sails. That visit, in 1988, began the Soren Larsen's continuing association with Auckland and New Zealand.

In 1991, during the Southern Ocean voyage back to Europe, the Soren Larsen became the first British tall ship to round Cape Horn since 1936. The next year she completed her first circumnavigation and after further restoration in Britain returned to the Pacific via the Caribbean, Panama and the Galapagos.

The ship then began an extensive cruising/charter schedule out of Auckland that earned her the Auckland Tourism Hauraki Gulf Development Award in 1996 and the agency's Tourism Adventure and Outdoor Activity award the next year.

Soren Larsen