1974 Citroen upstages Little Dragon



1974 Citroen DS 23 Safari

Lewis and Teresa Bail

Little Dragon was seriously upstaged by Martin's new pride and joy - his dream Citroen. Some members of the BRSC positively drooled over it (a boat is a "she". Is a classic car a "he" or "she"?). I realised it was pretty special when I was driven to the Harwood Hilton in great comfort for dinner. All eyes were on us as we pulled up. I said "yeah", rather bored, when Martin raved on about the hydraulics but when I saw the front and back rise when the engine started I realised it was quite some car.

Lewis, Martin and Theresa were meant to be spending the weekend at Harwood to sail on Little Dragon and despite the best efforts of the Citroen to divert attention we did get afloat on both Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday Martin and Lewis joined me as crew on the last club championship races for the season. It blew SE around 15 knots so we had our work cut out. Yamba recorded 15 knots gusting 22 knots at 2.30 pm. Our first start was shocking. We were still on shore at the 5 min signal but never mind we caught up (taking a few short cuts on the way). Yes I did own up to the course "variation" when I signed off.

To atone for the debacle of the first start I achieved one of my best ever starts on the second race. I followed Chris Cook who approached the line on port. It was scary seeing the rest of the fleet hurtling towards us on starboard. However he went about onto starboard in the nick of time and I followed suit. I reckon I may have been one of the leaders for a hundred metres or so.

The last race of the season coincided with the Commodore's closing season picnic. So we all enjoyed a complimentary sausage sizzle and a very welcome feast when we got back from racing. My thanks to Commodore Hariet and all the committee who work so hard from August to the end of March to make the BRSC such a wonderful club.

Well over 2 metres length for Martin and Teresa to sleep in the Citroen so Lewis gets the tent



After Martin and Teresa's first night sleeping in the Citroen and Lewis enjoying having the tent all to himself they woke up ready for more sailing. As the forecast was as much or more wind than the day before Lewis, Teresa and I decided to set sail soon after breakfast while there was still a gentle breeze. It was the first time Teresa has been aboard and she seemed to enjoy herself and Lewis enjoyed being promoted to first mate in recognition of the steep learning curve he went through the day before while we were racing.

Then it was back to the shore, a second brew of strong coffee and a change of crew. This time Martin and Lewis came out with me and the wind was getting stronger all the time. It seemed prudent to reef. I had briefed Lewis before racing the day before how to use the whisker pole to goosewing the jib. We never got the chance while racing but Lewis insisted that we gave it a go despite the gusty conditions. Lewis and Martin  revelled in the strong breeze and just wanted to see how much they could make the boat heel while they were at the helm. They worked out that I made sure that I kept hold of the main sheet at all time. I described its function to these car buffs as enabling me to depower Little Dragon instantly like taking the foot off the accelerator.

Tin Canoe non-event 2012 cancelled

Savaad checks Tin Dragon is seaworthy or at least yardworthy

Savaad fixed the leak from last year's "non-event" at Iluka and we both spent a few days sprucing up Little Dragon ready for 2012 "non-event". Sadly my co-owner and co-skipper was unable to make it on the day so had to settle for a test sail in my back yard.

Well what do we do now?

Perhaps the rigging needs tweaking

Tin Dragon is ready (well almost)

This year the crew can hike out when we are on starboard

By Saturday morning there were eight tin canoes busily erecting outriggers, tweaking rigging and checking out the opposition to see if there were any good ideas to pinch.

There was almost no wind on Saturday so test sails were very tame - no real preparation for the conditions on Sunday. 

Will this tiller extension will work better?

8 tin canoes did final preparations on Saturday

More tin canoes looking ready to sail

Pam took Tin Dragon out for a spin in very light airs on Saturday

I took Tin Dragon out for a spin in light airs on Saturday morning. All went well. The photo shows just how much I need the weight of a crew forward. I also found the tiller extension a problem. When I came ashore John suggested how to modify it and I liked his way of joining the tiller and the extension with a section cut from a bike inner tube.

The sea trial went well but need the weight of a crew forward

Sunday racing cancelled but Rob Crosbie can't resist giving it a go

Unfortunately the forecast turned out to be correct. A strong southerly coming in on  Saturday night and blowing hard all Sunday and rain and wind on Monday. By 10.30 there was a strong wind (at least 24 knots). A decision was made to cancel the 10th anniversary "non-event". Observations at Yamba show that it was blowing around 27 knots most of the day and gusting up to 31 knots.

For a while Rob gave a spectacular display

4 guys decided to give it a go anyway: Paul, Azzo, Rob and his brother Steve. They all demonstrated the skill to sail in these conditions and put on spectacular displays for the landlubbers. Some sails blew out but there was much less damage than I expected and the skippers all came ashore safe and sound. Luckily the southerly blew the canoes onto the soft muddy shore not the rock wall.

Then the tin canoe filled with water

Rob managed to sail his submerged canoe to shore

Rob's brother Steve also headed out but decided on just a jib

Steve got back to shore but needed to bail

Harwood to Iluka and back next day is becoming a favourite jaunt

Helen Tom and Valentine Sowenko

Helen, Val and I have been friends since the late 70s in Central Australia. Back then we spent our weekends camping in dry river beds - the antithesis of the Big River. Helen and Val flew up from Bendigo to experience a couple of days on Little Dragon.

The tides were favourable for my favourite overnight jaunt. We were able to sail downstream from Harwood to Iluka on an afternoon ebb tide and back again the following morning on the flood. I was so pleased that The Northern Rivers, which has had more than its share of wind and rain this year, was on its best behaviour for my interstate guests. Dry and light winds.

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Helen and I have sailed together before in the Whitsundays but it was all a new experience for Val who is more frequently to be found playing his classical guitar. However the conditions made it easy for me to hand over the helm to both Helen and then Val. I just said things like "pull it towards you a bit more" then "no, too much, now push it away a bit". All went well until we hit the large red navigation mark near Iluka - the only obstacle for hundreds of metres in any direction. I will draw a discreet veil over the exact sequence of events. Suffice it to say that this mark is new and unlike the old marks turns out to be made of plastic. So we just bounced off totally unharmed, the only dent being to our pride.

Off to Koala Cottage which is close to Sedgers Hotel. We rented it through Iluka Wombah Real Estate and happily recommend it to others.

Helen and I have signed up to crew on a friend's catamaran from Tonga to Fiji in October. So we put in some practice on rope work, tying bowlines and attaching lines to a cleat and suchlike. Not much similarity between a 19 metre ocean going catamaran and my Farr 5000 but these basic skills could come in handy.

Finally the pack up and long haul home

We made record breaking time on this Harwood to Iluka regatta

What strange weather. I arrived at Harwood on Friday to prepare Little Dragon for the race on Saturday from Harwood to Iluka and return. There was an unexpected NE wind which some claimed reached gale force. Around 100 sailors got soaked pitching their tents. The wind blew all night and the next morning more rain. Miserable.


Neil McKenzie crewed for me once in 2011 and asked to come again. This time his wife Lorraine came as well planning a quiet time catching up with her work on her computer. Unfortunately the computer went on the blink, but that is another story...

Come the start of the race at 1.30 pm the rain stopped, the wind swung round to E then SE and moderated to a fine (at least for Little Dragon) sailing breeze.
I was the skipper but Neil was keen to take the helm and did so for much of the time on both Saturday and Sunday. I certainly found that crewing is hard work and I was exhausted by the end of the second day.

We were able to sail much of the way downstream on a narrow reach and a broad reach on the return with the tide. I have to admit that our personal best time had more to do with the conditions than our skill. We came in 4th out of 4 in our division but there was only 3 mins between us and the winner on corrected time. We consoled ourselves that that wasn't too bad.

It rained again on Saturday night and all through Sunday morning. However, lo and behold, at around noon when the racing started the rain stopped and there was another fine sailing breeze. I suppose some of the spectators may have found it a bit tame - hardly any capsizes or breakages but we enjoyed ourselves.

On Sunday we tried hard to improve our start - but failed badly for the first race. So we tried even harder for the second race. This time we were so keen that we were over the line and had to do a penalty restart. Clearly we need to practice starting.

You can just see Little Dragon on starboard behind the large yacht heading toward a dinghy on port. There were 69 entrants in this regatta ranging from a windsurfer to the substantial yacht in the photo. One needs to keep really alert in such a mixed fleet.

At the prize giving Neil and I were amazed at being called up for 2nd place in our division. The race committee was very generous and I will treat it as an encouragement award.

All in all despite the strange weather it was a most enjoyable regatta.