First full week back to ‘normal’

June 4, 2012 2 Comments

After the few weeks leading up to Sanctuary Cove 2012 and the associated planning, setting up and returning to Sydney, today see’s the first week of a near normal week. After spending yesterday setting up the stands again in the warehouse as a prelude to th Sydney International Boat Show where DeckHardware will have a larger and improved stand on Sydney 2011.

Sanctuary Cove was an improvement on last years show with many if not most of the visitors to our stand knowing what they were looking for. As in every year, Man Ship Marine’s range of hatches and ports was the most requested product, it was surprising to see a larger number than usual of owner builders requesting information. They ranged from those who had plans, one fellow was on to his second hull in his catamaran build to a fellow from Victoria who had just turned over his Van DeStadt to start on the interior and deck. Now with an increasing range of products, DeckHardware can supply product information across a range of enquiries, from the Forespar Marelon plumbing products to the TBS non skid for their decks.

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Saturday was the first day back on the Middle Harbour startboat in some time. This was race 5 of the Winter series and I had missed the last race of the summer pointscore whilst Melissa and I attended a YANSW course. The photo shows Division 2 with 10 seconds to go, not showing is the one boat who was OCS, in Winter I try to lay a line that makes the fleet start down the line, but they still start on the boat and give away too many boatlengths. And the rain in the distance over South Head? Yes, we got wet!

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June 4, 2012 1 Comment

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It’s been a big couple of weeks and I haven’t been anywhere.

May 8, 2012 Leave a comment

With the Sanctuary Cove Boatshow coming up in a couple of weeks time, I haven’t had a chance to get out on the road. Many of my friends and some of our DeckHardware customers know that I spend quite a bit of time on the road visiting the various chandleries, boatbuilders and riggers around Australia, however there’s been plenty to do with the show season upon us.

Last week I had the chance to go out to test a few of the PeterGs boat cleaning products on an old Laser. The boat had been in storage for some time before being picked up by a couple of friends and occasional DeckHardware helpers James Gough and Liz Gazzard. Goughy and I had a range of the PeterGs to trial cleaning up the boat.

We tried the Marine Wash, an Alcoline product on one side and on the other the KleenAHull and Acidic product to compare the outcome. Whilst we didn’t expect too much from the Marine Wash on the bottom, we had excellent results from the KleenAHull as shown by the photo. You can see the difference from the square we masked off. With a final cleanup of the Port side, Goughy and Liz have a new looking boat, bar the tape mark down the centre line!

Over the weekend, rather than being out on the startboat no the seasons over, I’ve been building new stands for the boatshows. Man Ship Marine and Houdini both have new products and therefore new stands for this year. We’ve also re-arranged many of the other stands to show off differing lines from each manufacturer, Forespar for example have their new range of Tef45 products for anti corrosion use. For those in Australia, you’ll just have to come along and have a look, we’ll be at both Sanctuary Cove and the Sydney boatshows. Everyone else will have to keep an eye on the DeckHardware Facebook page where Melissa will be keeping you updated.

 

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Another big week

April 23, 2012 Leave a comment

Thursday saw another drive down to the South Coast of NSW with the Boating Industry Association members to several boatbuilders in Nowra and Woollamia.

I took the opportunity to see our customers down there in a different light, in a group setting as well as a short individual chat. Unfortunately the industry is in a bit of a down turn and there’s not too much happenning in terms of new builds.

Each boatbuilder has plenty of repair work to keep them going, but they do like to build from scratch and they take a lot of pride in their work.

The last visit on the day was to view the proposed site of the Shoalhaven Marina. This will be a huge complex when finished. There will be a marina, slipway, travel lift and full service facilities. Whilst it has been in planning for several decades, it’s now getting closer to being built and will be a huge bonus to the area both in job numbers and to the local area as there are currently limited facilities in the area.

 

Over the weekend Melissa and I sat for the Yachting Association Powerboat Course, this replaces the old TL3 certificate that I had previously recieved. For two days we had lectures/talks and an afternoon on water session practising boat handling, man overboard and mark laying and retrieval.

Whilst a full weekend, it was interesting to see other sailors points of view in boat handling and is a recommendation to others if they too have the opportunity.

 

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2012 Access World Sailing Championship at Middle Harbour

April 14, 2012 Leave a comment

Well that was a week. It’s been 12 months in the making for Commodore Julie Hodder and her team at Middle Harbour Yacht Club organising and then running the 2012 Access Sailing World Championships. With over 120 competitors and over 200 volunteers to help out both on and off the water it was a huge event for the club.

As MHYC Principal race Officer I was out on the water each day with the exception of Tuesday assisting International Race Official Mark Pryke in the on water running of the event. With 5 different divisions, it was quite an effort to run smoothly and yes I did make mistakes! One occasion forgetting to show the course board correctly resulting in the Answering Pennant [Postponement flag] being hoisted to rectify the situation.

For the sailors, I hope they enjoyed the experience, with winds up to 30 knots on Tuesday to the glass out Friday morning, there was the full range on Sydney’s Middle Harbour.

From a spectator point, it was great viewing with extremely close racing in all divisions. It may have not seemed close in the final results, but the leaders were pushed through out the entire event.

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2012 World Access Dinghy Championships

April 7, 2012 Leave a comment

ImageThis week sees me back at my home club Middle Harbour Yacht Club. After 3 weeks away interstate in 5 it’s nice to come back to familiar surroundings.

Wth over 85 boats and over 100 competitors across multiple divisions, it has been quite an effort by our club Commodore Julie Hodder and a huge team of volunteers in organising this event.

As the club PRO, I’m stepping aside as Mark Pryke has been brought in to oversee the on water running of the event. It will be interesting working alongside him, as though we have known each other for many decades, this will be the first time I’ve been on the water with him, as against being on the water competing against him. Mark is known these days as an International Race Official, however, I spent many years sailing against him in the Adams10s.

The fleet this week includes the Access, Libertys and the Paralympic sailing class, the Skud18 as shown in the photo. In this case it’s Dan and Liesels boat which we sponsor through our support of the Australian Sailing Team. It’ll also be a good opportunity to get some on water footage too.

Hopefully I may get the chance to jump aboard on of the competing boats, just to get a feel of what they are like. I’ve never sailed a dinghy that can’t capsize, should be interesting.

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This time it’s Victoria

March 25, 2012 Leave a comment

It seeems like only yesterday that I was over in Western Australia checking out the boating scene including the continuing build of this catamaran south of Fremantle. In this case the supply and fitting of the Forespar Marelon plumbing

Two weeks ago I was up in Southern Queensland , now I’m down in Victoria and about to kick off the week down here. This will be the end of the long trips till after the Sanctuary Cove and Sydney Boat Shows as there’s plenty to do locally as well.

Who knows what I’ll find, either way it’ll be a busy one showing off all the new products.

It may be the end of the sailing  season down here and they all talk AFL, but I have plenty to show too. What I’ve found after Queensland, is that I’m spending far longer at each stop. Being able to show off more keeps us out there.

I’m looking forward to it. Each trip usually brings something new.

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Queensland this week

March 15, 2012 1 Comment

This week I’m up in Queensland seeing DeckHardware customers, old and new.

I have had the opportunity to stay with my Aunt and Uncle on the Gold Coast. Geoff is the owner of a Ross780 which he keeps in the canal at the rear of his house. At low tide as you can see the boat only just stays afloat. Normally it’s up on the floating pontoon, the ease of launching and retreiving surprised me.

Doing the rounds of the Gold Coast marine businesses is surprising. There’s those who seem to be doing OK, others who seem to be  lowering their stock levels. Then there are those businesses who have shut up shop all together. I saw one builder yesterday, who once he finishes his own boat in the next 12 months, will be looking to close down. I don’t know how those looking to start out in boat building will get a start, unlike I did back in the early 70s, with no builders left.

The fleet for the Wednesday late afternoon race was an assorted lot, like most clubs. There were an assorted fleet of trailer yachts, including Geoff in his Ross780, a large number of Etchells and even a couple of old IOR Quarter tonners.

The interesting thing here is that they sail the same course each week due to the confines of the Broadwater and the tide flows such that the smaller boats seemed to struggle against it.

Saturday I hope to drop by the World Laser Masters championships at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Brisbane and catchup with a few old foes.

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Western Australia last week

March 5, 2012 1 Comment

  I flew in to Perth Western Australia last Sunday morning and after a bit of getting organised, drove up to Geraldton some 5 hours north of Perth. Gero as it is known to the locals is home to a large cray fishing fleet, hence my trip up there to see those in the marine industry. Unfortunately there are now heavy restrictions on them via quotas and the fleet is reducing rapidly. Monday was spent seeing all the chandleries and retailers before driving back to Perth.

Tuesday saw a shorter drive north up to Yanchep and the Two Rocks Marina where Alan Bond started his Americas Cup campaign in the early 1970s before working my way south in the northern suburbs of Perth itself. All of the streets in the area are named after the various Americas Cup contenders.

Wednesday was spent in Fremantle and Perth city seeing all the chandleries and sailmakers that DeckHardware supplies. Each trip interstate I carry a range of both the new lines and some of the more popular existing lines to ‘jog’ their memories on some of our range. At 1800 the Cunard cruise liner Queen Mary2 left the port of Fremantle and I was one of several hundred to watch her leave. As you can see see, the QM2 is rather large, especially on the confined waters of the port, where the World Womens match racing was held last December.

Thursday was spent seeing those south in Bunbury, several hours drive south of Perth with Friday finishing off with those in Mandurah and Henderson.

In the course of the week and just over 2000kms on the road I saw some forty new and existing DeckHardware customers, next week will see me driving once more to Brisbane and the Gold Coast, usually on these trips and those south to Victoria [ coming up at the end of the month] I see around 100 customers in the week.

Hopefully the deluge that the East Coast of Australia in recent weeks will have receded somewhat and allow me to get through without any issues.

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Heading for Perth this weekend

February 21, 2012 Leave a comment

This Sunday I am off to Perth for a week of visiting Chandleries, Boat Builders, Sail makers, Riggers and Marinas.  For those who wish to see our new products who live over that way send me an email phil@deckhardware.com.au or give is a call in the office on 02 9905 9400.

I can’t wait to show off all the new brands in particular Sanol, TBS and Drainman!  I will be travelling between Bunbury and Yanchep seeing as many people as possible in that time.

I will also be catching up with friends whilst over there.  A big thanks to Paul Eldrid for putting up with me yet again.

The fun part is trying to pack the suitcase and fit in everything I want to bring over to show.  I have already sent a box of catalogues and discs ahead of me with the couriers.

 

See you all in Perth!

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