OPTY yacht

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a yacht in Gdynia by Leonid Teliga (1917-1970) in his backyard, Poland,
She was designed by Leon Tumilowicz and she was based on the Tunczyk class yachts but modified so that it would better fit the task of a long solitary cruise.
The building of the yacht started in January 1966 and she was completed in October that year under the name OPTY.
Tonnage 5 ton, dim. 9.85 x 2.75 x 1.56m. (draught).
Yawl rigged.

Teliga received some support from the Polish Yachting Association and other sources, but most of the funding he was paying himself.
The yacht was transported to Casablanca as deck cargo on board the freighter SLUPSK, and on 25 January 1967 he set sail from this port, making calls at the Canary Islands, Lesser Antilles before he arrived at the Panama Canal, where he got in problems with the Canal Authorities, it took eleven days before he was allowed to proceed through the canal.
After he passed the Panama Canal he visited the Galápagos Islands, Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Fiji.
He did not have a visa for Australia, so he visited not this country.
During the voyage the sailing boom crashed in his stomach, causing constant pain the rest of the voyage.
After his visit to Fiji, he sailed non-stop to Dakar a passage of 165 days.
05 April 1969 he crossed his outbound track from 1967 hereby finishing his circumnavigation, it took hem 2 years, 13 days, 21 hours and 15 minutes.

09 April 1969 due to rapidly developing cancer, he entered Casablanca, and from there he was flown back by a commercial plane to Poland.
Despite having an operation, he died in May 1970.

The OPTY was later sailed back to Poland, but I could not find anything on her after her arrival there.

In the 1970's, the yacht was used by the Maritime School in Gdynia. In 1979, she was handed over to the Polish Maritime Museum in Gdańsk. OPTY was exhibited in front of the Gdańsk Crane for 6 years before she was transported to a boathouse of the Academic Yacht Club in Górki Zachodnie in 1985. After a decade, the yacht was transferred to the Vistula River Museum where she stayed for nearly 20 years. In the meantime, in 2013 OPTY was opened for visitors in the yacht club “Gryf” in Gdynia for a period of five months. Today, OPTY is recovering her original shape in the workshop of Complex Jacht in Puck. The restored yacht will constitute an important part of a permanent exhibition of the Shipwreck Conservation Centre with Studio Warehouse in Tczew, which is currently under construction. She will be placed next to "Dal" - a different yacht whose owners were also devoted to their passion for conquering the sea and overcoming personal weaknesses

Poland 1969 60g sg1904, scott1658.
Poland 1974 2z70 sg2306, scott2040

Source: Log Book 9/160. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Teliga http://web.me.com/myronpm/Topics/html/wsegler.htm https://en.nmm.pl/news/opty-yacht-which ... -the-world

[Arturo]

Opty (Yacht)

Poland 1974, S.G.: 2306, Scott: 2040.