Richard King and Serafin Colmenares Jr. look back at the remarkable Pacific voyage of Florentino Das in his 24ft home-built boat
Escaping the recent horrors of World War II, thousands of veterans and civilians in the 1950s sought respite and freedom out at sea in small boats. They include a stream of now famous single-handers such as Edward Allcard, Ann Davison, and Sir Francis Chichester. Over in the Pacific Ocean, a solo voyage by a DIY fishermancarpenter-mechanic was no less extraordinary, yet it is now barely remembered in sailing histories. This man’s reasons were less about post-war escape and more about returning home and earning pride for his family and community.
Born in 1918, Florentino Resulta Das grew up on the island of Samar in the Philippines, the son of a man who ran a 60ft ferry. Florentino grew up learning from his father, helping him build boats, and marvelling at his ability to predict landfalls based on the wind and stars.
At 16, Das stowed away on an English freighter to Hawaiʻi. In the middle of the Great Depression, he found work where he could, including as a boxer. He married Gloria Lorita Espartino; together they raised eight children. Das worked as a fishing boat captain, carpenter, ceramicist, and at the Pearl Harbour shipyard. He repaired boats and cars.
Resolve
After some 20 years in Hawaiʻi, Das decided to return home. He couldn’t afford a passage by ship or plane, so resolved to take a small boat with the hopes of, once home, establishing a fishing or ferry business to fund plane tickets for his family.
With the help of his children over three years in his backyard, Das built Lady Timarau using a Navy surplus hull. He replaced structural parts with spare timbers, added a mast and a centreboard, and scavenged parts of other vessels to construct a 24ft wooden boat with four watertight compartments. It had a self-draining cockpit and was built so he could dog himself into the cabin in any
weather. Das set up the sloop with two 25hp outboard engines. His project generated some sponsorship from the Timarau Club of Honolulu.
Das departed from Kewalo Basin in Honolulu on 14 May, 1955. Only a couple of hours out of the harbour, his main boom broke. He replaced this with an oar. As Das caught up on sleep, he realised he’d forgotten some key parts for his outboards, a mirror, ‘sunburn oil’, a sea anchor, a regular anchor, nets for fishing, and spare batteries for his radio. Then in early rough weather, he was, as he wrote, “shaken like a dice in a cup.”
Yet soon Das began to settle in. He had a sextant, a compass, two wrist watches, and he knew the stars well. He had a mainsail with a short gaff, a staysail, and a spinnaker of parachute material. He used a small stove to make coffee and to
