John Guzzwell And Trekka.
Perhaps not everyone has heard of John Guzzwell. Born 1930 in England but some-time living in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, he has only a passing acquaintance with Queenscliff in Australia; he entered and departed Port Phillip on the ketch Tzu Hang in November - December 1956.
In mid 1953, John, while working as a maintenance carpenter in Victoria for the Canadian Pacific Railway Ferry Service, decided to build himself a sailing boat. For fifty pounds sterling, the English yacht designer Laurent Giles planned a 20ft 6in yawl which John built mostly unaided and with hand tools in a rented shed behind a fish and chip shop. He launched his dream, Trekka, in August 1954, and in September 1955, he sailed for Hawaii. Over the next four years he completed a circumnavigation in Trekka, then the smallest vessel ever to do so, and finally returned to Canada in 1959. He wrote a book of his adventures, “Trekka Round The World” which he re-published in 1999.
Trekka completed two more circumnavigations with different owners. She is now held by the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. At present she is being re-furbished for the Museum by Tony Grove, a Canadian craftsman and boat builder.
