It’s all on, the season has started.

September 14, 2014 Leave a comment

Last Saturday was the Annual Sailpast at Middle Harbour Yacht Club, a tradition that stems back some decades. As the Principal race officer, it was again the opportunity to lead the club fleet in the start boat past the marina to take the salute from the ‘Flags’. The there was a club house start for the opening race of the 2014/15 sailing season. However I had other things to do later that day, packing my bags for a work trip to Western Australia.

As in past trips, I’ve been able to stay with good friends interstate, first up it was Colin and Katie Spence and their young son Connor. Colin over the years has been a purchaser of the Liros rope and whilst he’s no longer doing the amount of rig work, he’s still quite active sailing his Moth. Colin is looking forward to the upcoming Worlds to be held in Sorrento and his Moth is constantly being up graded. It was wonderful to catch up with them again, although Connor at three years of age referred to me as being one of his Dads ‘boyfriends’. That caused a few laughs, one that we’ll probably remind him as he grows older.

Later in the week in Perth, I again had the occasion to stay with Paul Eldrid of One Sails Perth. Paul is the co-owner [with Scott Disley] of the General Lee, a rather quick offshore racer in WA. This season however he’s running a new 47’er that’s currently in transit to Sydney for this years Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. The Indian team have made the decision to sail out of Sydney for the qualifying races, so I’ll see a bit more of Paul and Scott in the lead up to Boxing Day. Looking forward to it.

As is the case, I had a fair bit on and quite a few to see and show some of the new DeckHardware  products. Again I had a bit of driving and whilst I didn’t get to either Albany or Geraldton, I still covered quite a bit south, north and around Perth and Fremantle, just under 1000kms. With a list of chandleries,  sailmakers and other users of the DeckHardware range some may think it repetitive, however with 18 suppliers and over 10,000 items, there’s always something that someone hasn’t seen and wants to look at. In this case it was the recent JDC product Windoo, an addition to the mobile phone for checking wind speed and other information.

Needless to say, showing this meant I had to go to a few of the clubs WA, something that’s pretty easy to do when one likes looking at boats. Finding the Farr727 on the slips brought back memories from the mid 1970’s, seeing the C&C99 ‘In the Red’ which had just been sold from MHYC to WA was also a surprise. Of course watching the build progress of many boats is always interesting. With the range we carry, there’s always something to suggest to the builder, Marelon plumbing by Forespar and Non Skid by TBS France being just a few. The Australian Women’s match racing was on at Royal Perth Yacht Club whilst I was there, always good to see the looks on some sailors faces when they see me in odd places. In this case is was eventual winner Katie Spithill Pellew and her brother/coach Tom. Also sailing was DeckHardware Ambassador and NSW 420 skipper Lauren Gallaway getting more time and experience on the water, good to see.

As in the past, there’s always something coming up. In this case I’m off to Queensland shortly followed by Victoria. Just a few more ‘clicks’ on the odometer.

 

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Bit on at this time of year.

November 12, 2012 Leave a comment

At this time of year there’s always a bit on. Saturday before last was round two of the State Kiteboarding championships that I’ve been running, this coming Saturday will see round three at Botany Bay. As of last week ISAF have decided against an earlier decision to instate the Kites for Rio 2016 instead of Sailboards. They have now reversed this decision and the Kites are out. It will be interesting to see how many continue racing in the long term.

The next day saw a little trip up to the Central Coast for the BIA Try Sailing day. I visited Gosford Sailing Club, Budgewoi Sailing Club, South Lake Macquarie Sailing club at Sunshine and Mannering Park Sailing Club. It was good to see the volunteers helping out and assisting those who would like to take up the sport of Sailing – well done. At Sunshine they had over 60 turn up, only a couple had pre registered so well done to all there. The photo shows an 11m One design taking those out at Gosford.

Thursday was another one of my little drives down to the South Coast of NSW. I stopped and saw customers at Lake Illawarra, Nowra, Wollamia, Ulladulla and Batemans Bay. A long day on the road and 625 kms driven.

The photo shows an IOR Robber 1/4 tonner at Wollamia. This yard is full of owner builder/repairers, where they can pull their boats and take their time updating.

Back in the 70s, my late father had the plans to build one and engaged Ken Beashel to price it up. Unfortunately it never went ahead. They were a quick boat in their day in Europe, although none of the Australian built boats had any success that I know of.

Saturday saw me back at MHYC for the first time in several weeks running the club races. With 20knots at the start there was plenty of action on the water.

Yesterday was a rare day away from the water. We have several friends who are due to have babies in the coming weeks, so there was a bit of a get together and a catchup. Very enjoyable day cathing up with old friends.

Next Saturday sees me back at Botany Bay for round three of the Kiteboards and Sunday a trip up to the lake for the first day of racing in the Australian Multihull Championships. This is a look/see, as I’m not involved in the race management.

The following weekend is the MHYC Short Ocean Racing Championships, Saturday is a race up to Lion Island at Broken Bay. Sunday sees two short races offshore. Depending on the forecast, I’ll either send them North to the Manly Circle or south to Bondi.

Following that, I’m off to Melbourne where I’ll be involved in running Sail Melbourne. This is the first time I’ll be involved in Sail Melbourne, but an interesting look at how others run their events none the less. With the amount of yacht race management I do, it’ll be interesting doing dinghies.

Suddenly Christmas is upon us and it’s time for the Rolex Sydney Hobart start, where I’m the RO for the Southern line. This will be the sixth year and it never gets any easier. Each time I go to anchor in the designated spot there’s a hole making holding fast difficult, some how we do it. Last year we had a couple of OCS starters which meant no going out to watch them turn south. Hopefully this year they’ll all behave.
Thats’ the weekends booked till the New Year, like I said a bit on. January?  Off to Tasmania with the DeckHardware van on the ferry. Mels going down with it for a couple of weeks, I’ll bring it back.

Yep, bit on.

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Queensland this week

March 15, 2012 Leave a 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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