frightening moment in her solo row when a massive 5m-plus marlin slammed into her boat, several times. “I didn’t think that was fun,” Liz says dryly. “I didn’t enjoy that moment at all.” Luckily she managed to avoid the fate of one of her competitors whose hull was punctured by a marlin’s sharp bill. Adventures are something that Liz has had plenty of in her 45 years, as most of these have been spent in and on the water. In fact she credits her sailing career to an early exposure to Hobie Cat (small sailing catamaran) sailing in Port Moresby’s Fairfax Harbour when she and her family lived on a wooden Norman Wright design boat called Tusi Tala (Samoan for ‘storyteller’) in the marina of the Royal Papua Yacht Club. Sadly in recent times Tusi Tala fell into such disrepair that earlier this year was scuttled in Gemo Passage at the harbour entrance and has since been stripped for parts. An early mentor for Liz in 1990s PNG was Warwick Bowen, an Air Niugini pilot who also lived on the marina. “My life was on the water. It was all I knew, and then one of the men who I sailed with – Warwick – thought I was the right weight to sail a Hobie so he taught
Liz and the PNG Hobie sailing team
Liz (left) and Joanne Accott from PNG competing in the Hobie Cat 16 Women’s World Titles in Dubai in 1996
Below, from left: Liz aged 11 in 1990 in her Ela Beach Primary (now Ela Murray) School uniform; fishing off the RPYC marina when the family lived on Tusi Tala in the 90s; and with her big sister Tamzin at a Hobie sailing presentation
me everything he knew about sailing and racing,” Liz said. At 16, Liz crewed for Warwick at the 1995 Pacific Games in Tahiti, with the pair winning the bronze medal in the Hobie 16 class. Another major mentor for Liz was prominent local Hobie sailor and
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