More of the same, sort of

It was back out on the water at Middle Harbour Yacht Club with the State titles for both the 420s and the Cadets on the same track. This time I did something a little different with the courses.

Both classes like a triangle with the windward and return, so rather than put the Start boat in the middle of the course for the windward returns [as is the norm], I kept the bottom gate above the start line with the wing/gybe outside on the extension of the start line. The last mark was to leeward of the start finish line. This gave the boats some short laps with a couple of ‘hoon’ reaches with a work to the finish. The thing is the sailors enjoyed it too, nothing better than keeping the customers happy. They had almost a couple of sprints to start off with before stretching their legs. I was also able to keep track of all of them easily.

Crossover at the bottom

Clear Start

Where else would you be?

Next up was the Sydney Sailboat Expo held at the ICMS grounds at Manly’s North Head. Spectacular location, the home of the Great Gatsby in the most recent movie. Built in the 1880s and standing proud on the hillside, all the visitors commented on the historical building. The Expo showed of a range of businesses in the marine industry including of course DeckHardware. As part of this we also sponsored the Liros rope splicing with two of the best showing the skills required. Cameron and Ben for the second year had people viewing and learning the art of rope work. I was told after closing that one of our Rio2016 Olympians spent quite some time there without being recognised. Good stuff.

Kids big and small

Early morning looking over Manly

The weather also behaved for the two days, with glorious sunshine and nice seabreezes on both days treating the over 50 exhibitors kindly.

With that, that’s about it for the 2015/6 Sydney sailing season, there’s only a couple of weeks to go and then the Winter series starts in early May. I’ll be back on the road seeing DeckHardware customers again showing some of our range.