Off the water

Of late I’ve had a bit of time off the water, putting some time aside at home first up [scoring a few points in the garden]and also assisting at Middle Harbour Yacht Club.

We recently had a weekend of safety audits for all the competitors. This involved quite a few of us who have been accredited checking off the safety gear on the boats. There are a range of categories involved in sailing, from Cat7 which is around the harbour to Cat1 which is for those who will enter the Rolex Sydney Hobart on Boxing Day. I try to keep to the Cat7’s as this is where most of my sailing has been of late. There are two forms that we require completed, the owner/skipper checks off on these and then the auditor checks these off as being complete, if they are. Over the years, I’ve tried to have those who think they are ready for an audit to lay everything out, either in the cockpit of on a table below. It certainly makes things easier this way, tick, tick, etc and sign. There’s always a flat battery or something simple that some don’t pass, easy to rectify though.

The other side of this is that I get to step aboard boats that I normally wouldn’t, so it’s good to see how the boats are set up, both for the audit and for racing. The majority take the time to spend a few hours sorting out the boat for the coming season, good to see a little maintenance done.

I’ve also been involved in a couple of courses in the last few weeks. The first was a Club Judge course which I attended. It’s more of keeping my head in the rules, not competing as much as I used to, things change. The other course I presented, this was a State/National Race Officer course. It’s always good to impart some of the knowledge I’ve learnt over the last decade or so on the Start boat. We had a couple who were new to what goes on and a couple who were looking for accreditation following previous experience.

In the coming weeks, it’s back on the road, this time to South Australia. Melissa is driving the DeckHardware van down to Goolwa so she can do some umpiring. This is a first for her, those who have done the Hay Plain will know what I mean. Then we’ll swap and I’ll spend the next week seeing everyone there with some of the new products before heading back east. I’ve spent a little time making up rope whips with the new lines from LIROS, making these up on the front bench in the morning sun at this time of the year is nice and warm.

One thing I have to work on? Changing the CDs. Whilst it’s great to have the music I enjoy driving to, I haven’t changed  those in the van for a while. What to take this time….

Hay Plain looking back

Hay Plain looking forward