| Tell
Tales
27th
January 2007
Saturday saw the expected 20 – 25 knot sou-west
breeze and a keen bunch sailors taking shelter around
the club house at 12:20 hoping for the nod from the
officers of the day to set a suitable course for an
exhillarating afternoon of summer sailing. The brilliant
enthusiasm of the fleet was rewarded by duty officers
Andrew Smith and Peter Geekie who promptly went about
setting a course after a quick briefing.
Two races were offered to the fleet of 3 boats. A
short race at 1:30 and typical one and a half hour
+ race at 2pm. The punters were really only interested
in the 2pm race which is just as well as there was
a mountain of harbour ferry jobs to be done, each
yacht receiving at least two services before the race!
In amongst the on goings around the harbour, Geeks
bumped the ignition switch in the rescue boat causing
the engine to stop. After a few efforts to restart,
Andrew was quick to put the anchor out to prevent
to boat from drifting. Ten minutes later, Andrew calmly
demonstrated how to replace the kill switch safety
plug and we were back on the job – harbour service
ferry job that is.
Interlude had run aground just clear of their mooring
and needed to be pulled off the bank – another
quick word from Andrew saved the rescue boat running
over the line hanging off John’s mooring. Boheme
had everyone and everything aboard and looked fairly
right to go except the keys for the boat which were
still in Garry’s ute in the car park. Everyone
wants to be “tool of the week” today!
Finally at 1:40 the rescue boat headed out to set
the course. 2 o’clock start – yeah right!
Being the first boat out the Yngling crew of mermaids
and mermans settled into the conditions and were well
on the way to winning the joy division prize of having
the most fun sailing. They were catching waves and
handling the boat very well. Just as the last buoy
was being placed at the wing mark, the rescue crew
noticed the top of the Yngling’s mainsail was
consistently flapping. Either their cutaway leach
was working perfectly to depower the top of their
main or it was torn. As the boat headed to the harbour
it was apparent that the latter was the case and they
would not be able to sail in the race due to the risk
of further damage to the sail occurring.
So the abandonment flag was hoisted and Gary and
friends took to the seas with wide grins and the Interluders
returned to the beach for a beer and a lovely pile
of hot chips with their mermaid and merman friends.
The Winners: The Yngling Crew and Andrew Smith
Tool of the Week: Take your pick!
Thanks to Russell Smith for delivery and maintenance
of the Rescue Boat.
Thanks to Sandra Skene for being an awesome treasurer.
Thanks to Chris Marriner for looking after the facilities
and being so fantastically positive
Sailing Club Members Note:
The dinghies used as the learn to sail boats over
the previous years are available for sale. If you
are interested in grabbling one to have fun with your
kids then see John Marriner.
Life is good. Come Sailing!
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