[The following is from an email exchange with a gentleman named Simon Pearce, who had seen these posts and wrote to our Sailing Secretary address. These excerpts are copied here with his permission. ~ Shemaya]

Hi,
I found a reference to the junk rigged Folkboat "Misty", sailed by Peter Evans.
The writer wondered what happened to Peter Evans - and the boat.

After crossing the Atlantic (I met Peter in the Windward Islands 1980/81, where I cruised with Geoff Pack and Lou Lou for a while in our respective catamarans), he sailed on ...
We were all very impressed that he coped - mostly - with no engine, just a very long single oar. He did get towed a lot.

And then it's a sad tale. Peter was sailing with two girls, approx 1981 I believe, when he was dismasted in the Atlantic - I don't know where.
Eventually a freighter found them, and came alongside with scrambling nets. The girls climbed onto the freighter, and Peter did too. Then, unbelievably, he went back to get his passport.
He didn't make it.

I have no idea what happened to the boat.

(I now also have a Folkboat, sloop rig, in Sydney).

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Yes, Peter Evans was a lovely chap. He did keep his very small vessel tidy - it was surprisingly roomy below, not having an engine, but definitely small! It had a little circular hatch one could pop ones head up into to look around or through. I was sailing in the Atlantic 1980/81, along with other vessels including Geof Pack's Foreigner (a Wharram, not junk rigged). My boat was a 30' Iroquois cat, Bermudan rigged. I now live in Sydney Australia where I have a Bermudan rigged Folkboat, by coincidence. They really don't have enough headroom for a cruising vessel. I don't know how Peter stood it, but he certainly did until his loss at sea.
I have no further details, no source for the info, nor even a photograph, I'm afraid. Here's the photo linked to, with its curious deck. More headroom, maybe. And another here. [These references were to the same photos in the first post on this thread.]

~ Simon Pearce

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Wow …she is a beauty!

I have an old cutting from Yachting Monthy, when Geoff Pack was writing a cruising column in the late 1980s (He later became the editor).  He wrote an item about Peter and Misty, which I am copying below.  I cannot copy the photo unfortunately, which shows a bare-chested Peter aboard Misty, reaching out of some West Indian anchorage.  I understand they did a double Atlantic circuit, though I have no knowledge of any further cruises they may have undertaken.

"Perhaps one of the calmest and most contented yachtsmen we met was Englishman Peter Evans.  Peter was not only the ultimate Spartan; unusually, he enjoyed it too.  A great aficionado of Hasler and Richey, he'd had a replica of Jester built, the only variation being a flush turtle deck with two circular hatches, one amidships, the other over his full-width aft double berth.  Called Misty, she cost 5000 pounds, and another few hundred pounds bought a plastic sextant, a roll of charts and lockers full of basic provisions.  He cruised on 600 pounds per year, had neither an engine nor electrics (other than a torch) and, for example, wrote a diary instead of carrying an expensive camera and film.  With her junk rig, and representing utter simplicity, Misty was always clean and immaculately maintained.

"Like Jester, Misty had a short stump tiller protruding through the transom connected by wires to a vertical tiller under the midships hatch for hand-steering.  With the Hasler vanegear operating a trim tab on the rudder, Peter could push the stub tiller with his feet whilst in bed.  Now one could make a good argument for the capabilities of an expensive modern-day ocean cruiser, but from few can you keep watch and, if necessary, gybe the boat back on course without getting out of your sleeping bag."  Geoff Pack

PS: It is interesting, Chris, that I cannot see the aft circular hatch,as mentioned above, in your photo of Misty.  In my photo it is clearly visible, on the starboard side, just forward of the break in the deck aft, alongside the fairlead for the sheet.  Perhaps Peter got sick of having a wet bunk!  Looking at the sailing photo, though, there does appear to be some white object aft, perhaps a pram hood, though it is indistinct.