Baby Dragon and then Tin Canoe Regatta at Iluka

At last glorious weather, warm sunshine and a light breeze. I headed down to Harwood to check out Baby Dragon. I hadn't sailed her this  year. She was still in good order and John Hayes helped me to rig. Even the neglected outboard started easily.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy the sail. There was so much weather helm that my still weak left wrist couldn't easily hold the tiller. So after a short sail I came back to shore. John said that my problem was that I hadn't got my rudder properly down, but my wrist hurt too much to continue.

So I packed up and headed down to the 2018 Tin Canoe Regatta at Iluka. I had expected Ian Gaillard, the new owner of Tin Dragon to have her on the water but he had a touch of 'flue. Azzo was the only one to have a new tin canoe, the others were veteran canoes sailed by veteran sailors.

The event is changing and Rob Crosby had made new trophies to be awarded to the sailing dinghies that were keen to join in the non-event. There had to be some thought to the non-rules for new mixed classes. One non-rule that emerged was "tin canoes" have right of way at all times!

Val Hodgson's absolutely stunning new sailing dinghy

BRSC Demolition Derby Regatta

In my last post I said that there was wind and rain leading up to the regatta. Well it continued on the Saturday of the regatta. The wind was gusting at strong wind warning all day and one gust up to 29 knots. Most boats headed off and (I am pleased to report) returned from various adventures down river pretty much unscathed. All the trailer sailors and yachts were fully reefed. Corsairs, Herons and Impulses had larger fleets than ever before and included several very junior crew (appeared to be about 4 years old). Little Dragon was all rigged up (reefed) and ready to go but Nicky and I made a joint decision to stay on put on shore.

Our very limited resources kept the sailors well fed.

John Woods made the trophies from materials scavenged from the demolished BRSC.

The wind had dropped by Sunday

Never too young to crew

The largest turnout ever, 78 registered to race. No complaints about weather or our limited facilities. Great vibe.

Helen's training week a disaster

My good friend Helen Tom came all the way from Bendigo to spend a few days with me training for the Bay to Bay in May. She is fit (see the cycling photo) but felt she needed to brush up her sailing skills before tackling the Great Sandy Strait. The day she arrived it started to rain and blow and it kept it up all the week. Such a shame.

We practised radio skills from inside the cabin and went through the racing rules, but the wind rarely dropped below 24 knots and mostly much more.

We finally, with the support of John Woods, got 2 hours afloat at Harwood but never put up the main, jib only was plenty. The outboard gave up as well, John's diagnosis was water in the fuel. I was so fed up I didn't even remember to take my usual crew photo!