Herding cats

Last Sunday was a Wooden Boat Association sailing day, held at Werribee South thanks to the wretched Grand Prix taking over Albert Park.

I have a profound dislike of busy ramps on weekends, so I got down early.  Chris S was there early too, and we both launched on the end and least favoured by stink boats ramp.  Chris tied Derry the Skerry off beside Ysolde, which gave me an interesting and quite revealing perspective on our relative boats.  Somehow in my head Skerry was bigger! She looks tiny, and Ysolde seems to have almost double the beam.  Gerard arrived to join Chris on Ysolde, and having hands free, he took some good photos along the way. 

Andrew C launched Mars while we were getting organized, and I met Chris K with Teal, and Peter and Kirsty with Pitthirrit in the rapidly filling carpark, and saw Jim and Penny arriving with Lugger. 

We managed to squeak out the narrowing gap between to pier and the sandbar, avoiding the Bourke Street level traffic of fishing boats heading in and out.   Off Werribee South always seems choppy, and after we had raised sail and headed out a bit, we saw Chris in Teal with a couple of guests bouncing through the chop.   The wind was all over the place, but it was nice sailing back and forth as Pitthirrit and Lugger came out, and a Hartley 21 appeared on the horizon approaching from the South east, which proved to be Roger.  We all got a chance to sail round and take photos of one another which seems to be the main activity when sailing in company. In just about every bit of video  I took, someone in the other boat had a phone or a camera up taking a photo back.

After some debate four of the sail boats headed along the coast in a Westerly direction, with the plan of anchoring off the coast somewhere along there for lunch, as some were keen to avoid the low tide mud up the river.  Being light and not too worried about scratches, I brought Derry in close to shore, as I wanted to try out my current Anchor Buddy arrangement.  I am still learning how this works.  The thing I have to learn is to drop the anchor closer in - I always get nervous and drop too far out, so that when I go to attach the rode to something on shore, the line is stretched to maximum and the function of the device is rendered essentially useless.  

The others anchored a bit off shore, and after my experiment more or less failed, I re anchored and we all had a rather bumpy lunch.

Chris, Gerard and I agreed we would head up the river to Island after lunch.  Heading back in, I met Kelvin with his lovely Nick Atkins square transom balanced lug dinghy.  Looks like about 12 feet long.  A gorgeous thing.  

We sailed round a bit while I admired his handiwork, but it started to feel like a game of frogger, with the stink boats heading up and down in the channel so I headed back in and up river.

Heading up river was lovely.  The steady South South Easterly made for a lovely run.  We met Teal, Roger's boat and Mars all heading back at a fair rate of knots, but then it was just us and the birds, a lovely peaceful Sunday afternoon run.  

When we got to the Island I beached on the mud, Chris dropped Ysolde's pick, and we enjoyed a much more peaceful second lunch. 

Perhaps because there has not been much rain lately, the water was remarkably clear, so, despite the low tide, I embarked upon a circumnavigation of the Island.  It must have been quite busy behind the island there, as there are the remains of various jetties and the ruins of the old boat house.  I managed to dodge all the obstacles of  rusting iron and shards of wood, and with a little bit of dragging over the shallowest rocky part, I was back in the main river.

The wind of course was still on the nose.  Time to pay the piper, so I set to with the oars.  One of Derry's many virtues is that it is a pretty good little row boat, and without huge effort I rowed most of the way back up the river.  Chris and Gerard tried a few tacks but they were literally going backwards, so I could see them chasing me under Torqeedo power.

At the last bend before the long strait into Werribee South I came across Rob with his Storer Kombi sailing canoe on the lee shore in the shallows.  The lovely white balanced lug sail showed signs of having a close encounter with the Werribee mud, but he managed to push off and get sailing again.  That boat really scoots along. 

I figured if he could sail, I could, so I raised sail and enjoyed a splendid beat back to the dock. Nothing like a good stint of rowing to make you appreciate the sheer joy of harnessing wind power! 

The ramp was a whole lot quieter, and retrieval and pack up no hassle, plus some nice cake from Penny for the hungry sailors.  

I had forgotten just how nice the Werribee River can be.  I think it is back on my list of places to visit and explore. 

Into the murk

 

I had planned an overnighter in company with Chris down the Bellarine peninsula. Best weather window Tuesday Wednesday. Anne had a specialist appointment which is usually punctual and over in half an hour  so the plan was I would launch at Portarlington and meet Chris there. But the appointment was late, Anne had to get X-rays, come back for another consultation later in the day. I had to cancel. 

I felt this was a bit poor so to try and find some redemption I got up early and headed out to meet Chris returning to Werribee South. It was grey and foggy but eventually I spotted his sail and we met up, only for the wind to die away.  We rowed for a while, then Chris offered me a tow with his Torqeedo. 

It was good to get out. I really enjoyed the first bit, solo, in the gloom, with flocks of seabirds circling round, and a bit of wind. 

Scamp plans turned up today. If this one gets built it will be #645  ... seems like a nice number to me. 

Shelter

 

Talk is ongoing for a couple of nights away down to Portarlington and Swan Bay next week. I saw a really nifty boat tent on a Scamp down in Hobart which I have drawn on for this set up. Frame is a hoop of fibreglass tent poles. Two bent bits of aluminium tube fit into the rowlock fitting, which means the curve on the poles is a bit less severe. T joints connect a longitudinal.

Of fibreglass poles,tightened by a loop of cord. It makes a robust structure connected onto the dodger,which already provides a bit of shelter. Nice thick canvas tarp fits over that. A bit funky but I've seen worse. And I think I can enhance it a bit with some fiddling. 

If I can get some energy I would like to test before next week.

With the mast up I can open out that rear section which makes it feel a lot more spacious.

Easy

We took Derry the Skerry to Walkerville a few weeks back. I just rowed. It is such an easy boat to handle, and such good fun.

 

Jess's feet visible off the starboard beam.  

You never know ... or maybe, I never learn

 Rob, who I met at the Wooden Boat Festival down in Hobart, suggested a sail from Altona Sunday. He has built a very beautifully finished Storer Kombi canoe, and wanted an inaugural sail. The Bom was predicting a 32 degree day with Northerlies. I know these are seldom good sailing days - the Bom often underestimates Northerlies here. But the revised forecast was showing 10-12 knots, and against my inner warning voice, I didn't try to put him off.

Rob was late getting down, and rigging a boat for the first time always takes a while. It was nearly 12, and getting hot, by the time we got on the water, and the wind was gusting and building. Rob wisely decided that a first sail with a strong off shore wind was not a great idea. I had the Skerry in and sail up, so I went for a sail up and down staying reasonably close in. Good practice for heavy weather sailing. Rob came out again for paddle for a while. It wasn't that pleasant, and when I saw him heading back to the beach I dropped started to head in as well under oars. I was almost to the beach when I spotted two heads in the water a hundred metres or so south of the safe harbour wall. Two paddle boarders, a dad and his son, maybe 11, were slowly swimming back towards shore. I let the boat blow back out and asked if they needed help. The father said they would keep swimming but asked if I could stay close by till they were safe, just in case. This proved to be a challenge as the wind was,by now gusting at round 30 knots.

The nose kept blowing off and we would do a big loop downwind to get back on course. I managed to keep a boat length away from them and offered encouraging commentary till they got back to shore. 

I am not sure how much help I could have been. I was actually worried I was going to wind up being blown off shore in those winds.

On reflection, and should a similar situation arise, a better way to have handled this would have been to get directly upwind, drop anchor and let rode out till I was near them. I was too busy rowing to hold station to be able to do much else. With an anchor out I could have got a throw rope ready, taken down the mast to reduce windage, and generally have had more options. Oh well, live and learn.

I was a bit dehydrated and heat struck afterwards I think, and I am stuffed today.

On the bright side, Living Boat Trust have put a nice link to my Tawe Nunnugah video.  https://livingboattrust.org.au/2023/03/03/missed-the-2023-tawe-nunnugah/

And I have finished my written account over the raid and sent it off. If Small Boats don't want it I hope some other platform might take some version, or I can blog it!