South of the border

I’m now south of the border in Melbourne. I’m here to help officiate at Sail Melbourne an ISAF World Cup event and the first after the London 2012 Olympics. The photo shows the van pretty full and this was without my gear!

After an early start and an 11hr drive [with stops], first stop was to Anchor marine a long time chandlery here in Melbourne to drop off more stock.  I then spent the afternoon at Sandringham Yacht Club, the host club for a lot of sailing events here in Victoria.

After unloading Krystal Weir’s Laser and her sailing gear, I caught up with Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin who recently visited DeckHardware and purchased some of the TBS Speedgrip non skid. We made a few changes to the setup and hopefully it will all suit their Viper Catamaran. I’ll be able to have a look after each days sail, on the spot reporting!

The club has a range of services including a chandlery run by Ian Marr -The Yacht Shop. I was able to assist Ian in answering a few questions on the DeckHardware range of products that he hadn’t seen, so that some of the 300 odd competitors who visit his shop will hopefully get the right answers and of course buy some DeckHardware. I also caught up with another chandlery owner, Gavin Reitman from OTB Marine who is sailing with his daughter in the Viper catamaran class and was able to remind him of the products available.

As I was about to leave, I saw our Olympic Gold medalist Mat Belcher and his new crew Will Ryan and coach Victor, good to see some familiar faces. In the coming months, I’ll also be involved in further regattas for the 470 class.

Final stop for the day, was to my hosts for the week, Leonie and Peter Coleman. As with a lot of the interstate trips that I do, we have to thank those who host me and in the New Year, Melissa when she goes to Tasmania. The support given is greatly appreciated by Robyn, Mel and I.

I’ll have photos tomorrow as most of those I saw today were working on boat preparation, hopefully also a trip out along the marina to have a look at what’s new.