September 22, 1970

OARSMAN TO TRY ONCE MORE

Looking fit and well after abandoning his bid to row solo across the Indian Ocean, 43-year-old Mr Andres Svedlund said yesterday that he had scuppered the trip after his "unsinkable" boat turned turtle in a storm. But he added that he planned to try again.
The lone oarsman was speaking at Green Island, 130 miles north of Perth, where his planned 5000-mile voyage ended after six days at sea.
Mr Svedlund, Swedish-born but now naturalised in New Zealand, said that three days out from the cost his boat overturned. He stayed in the leaking cockpit hoping the 21-foot dory would right itself, but it stayed upside down and he had to clamber out into the sea, loosing food and clothing.