Thread: 2013 Lake Macquarie Classic Boat Fest (Toronto, NSW Australia)

Hi Bruce and AlexN,

I'm confirming apart from acts of God ... I will be there.

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Hi Bruce and AlexN,

I'm confirming apart from acts of God ... I will be there.

MIK

Fantastic, and Alex also PMd that he's a good chance to be there with his repaired Duck.

It seems strange that my Laser qualifies under the rules but the GIS and PDR don't.

It is great that they were flexible with the Goat. Might have been because of that cracking photo you sent the organisers!

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

It is great that they were flexible with the Goat. Might have been because of that cracking photo you sent the organisers!

MIK

And that pic would be this one. MS at the helm of Hakuna Matata in early 2011, Grahamstown Lake, NSW.

DSCF0476.JPG

Well ... I said barring acts of God.

Broken foot.



If it is stable enough I will talk to Alex about a lift up if I can get to a nearby station.

I'll have to spend most of the time sitting.

Updates on Friday.

MIK

Oh crap. If you can make it, I'll pick you up from Toronto station.

You'll have to sail the Goat sitting down then, instead of your customary standing position!

How the heck did you manage to break your foot?


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Originally Posted by woodeneye

Oh crap. If you can make it, I'll pick you up from Toronto station.

You'll have to sail the Goat sitting down then, instead of your customary standing position!

How the heck did you manage to break your foot?


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Might work ... I'll talk to Alex too.

Main thing is how mobile I am. I won't be able to sail I don't think. But would be good to attend if I can.

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Well ... I said barring acts of God.

Broken foot.



MIK

It's slightly hard to tell, but did they cut your leg off and replace it with a laptop? That would certainly make walking hard, but I suppose we'd see you on the forums more often!

We'll try to get him onto the Goat on the proviso he doesn't take the crutches. Can't have weapons aboard to use on the crew!

(Paul Elvstrom once took a paddle to his crew when he refused to shimmy up the mast to fix a spreader!)

Hakuna Matata is registered and all set to go.

Sadly Mik couldn't make it as he was laid up with his broken foot. However Alex made the trip and we saw some pretty cool boats. There was even an historical 16' skiff, complete with wooden spars and cotton sails. Alex might post a pic of it sailing shortly.

As usual the Hakuna Matata attracted a crowd. Even the hysterical skiffies had to admit she was a pretty cool boat.

The breeze was very light in the morning so it was after lunch before we could throw her into the water. Literally had to throw her off the concrete water side. Later in the afternoon, we managed another sail in a variable 10 kts, so I was disappointed not to be able to show Alex the performance she is capable of. Still, we had a nice sail, reaching into the shore through the moored boats for the spectators and shooting back out again. We could not quite match the pace of the historical 16' skiff. It just had too much horsepower with that enormous rig!

LMCBF1.jpgLMCBF2.jpg

Sounds Great.

Wish I was there. Thanks hugely for the phone call and run down of what and who was there!

Would have been interesting to see what happened with more wind. Two blokes and 105sq ft Goat vs 4 with 240sq ft Skifffff!

MIK

It would have become interesting in 15-20 kts as they would still be a "displacement" boat, I think. Hopefully Alex will post some pics soon.

I forgot to mention that there was a David Payne Classic 2 Foot Skiff in Cedar. Awesome looking thing with sails made of Cuben Fibre. There is a bit of a revival happening with these, and not hard to see why, although the rigs are becoming fancy.

Model Skiffs

Here's the two Skiff snaps - sorry I didn't take more - or better. It occurred to me yesterday as I was cleaning the camera and looking a a silver-and-red button that the thing has a video function that I never remember because I never use it: too busy taking stills with it tha I've got into the habit of thinking of it as a "normal" (as in 35 mm film) camera. Same photo captions as in my 'Duck thread:

1. 16-foot Sydney Harbour Skiff

With one jib and a medium-sized main. It outran the Goat quite easily in the light and fitful air... A beautlifully-made boat, constructed in 1975 - which makes it quite a young Sydney Harbour Skiff





2. Another view of the 16-foot skiff. The sails were made of cotton fabric, and all spars including the mast of spar-grade oregon. I missed the best side view of it as it slipped very quickly out of range! it is being maintained and renovated by the Pyrmont Heritage Boating Club Inc., of Pyrmont, Sydney


Follow this link to my Flickr account per usual legalese...


Having made the acerbic previous remark, these snaps do in fact look much better at larger sizes, via the Flickr set. Apologies for the shameful plug in someone else's thread!

Mr Snappy says "Hi", and (to me) "Why didn't you take me to Toronto, you ratbag! I would at least have got a bath!"

@MIK - I liked your Sailfish photo series on Flickr. That particular one was in much better nick than the poor thing at Toronto this year - even if the latter had had its full kit the hull was not in a wettable condition. Or, rather, it was only too wettable, from a point of view of the bare patches of plywood, joints, etc. They had a great time with the 16-foor Skiff, though :).

Cheers,
Alex.