Lifelong learning

 Seems like you never stop learning.  Hopefully all these lessons, one would hope to see signs of improvement.  For the WBA sailing day up the Maribrynong, events unfolded such that I was taking the Pirogue.  I dug out my old curtain rod mast and polytarp sail, and got down to the local beach to do some testing. I tried steering with the single paddle, which was a dud, and with the double paddle which sort of worked though I did tend to go round in circles. It was a fun experiment though, and a very pleasant hour or so's sailing. And I had a good conversation with Leonne, a lady who goes swimming there most nice afternoons.

On reflection I figured I probably needed a rudder, so next day I cobbled together a norwegian tiller arrangement onto a rudder that another of my beach acquaintances had found and passed onto me. 

Sunday morning we were all packed and waiting for Chris who was christening his new double decker trailer.  

I was a bit anxious about parking and whether the local Essendon Canoers would be hostile to invaders.  Goes to show, we probably worry about the wrong things, as parking was no problem and the locals were very friendly. 

Jack was there already with his Acorn with remarkably low boom clearance, and Hamish turned up with his lovely Skerrie.  It was very chilled, and the Sunday morning weather was lovely, light zephyrs to ghost us along down stream to meet the fleet coming up.

I think we made a significant contribution to the entertainment and good humour on the river bank - we got lots of waves, people took lots of photos of us, little children called out to us and got very excited as we sailed majestically by.

What could possibly go wrong?  A few miles down the river, near Footscray rowing club, we met the first of the fleet coming up river.  I got my gopro out, and was fiddling with it, and not watching what was happening on the water or holding onto the mainsheet that well, when a substantial blast of  wind came barrelling down the river. 

Note that the BOM was predicting that the winds would be decreasing.  Oh well, no excuses.  When the blast hit, the mainsheet - a crappy, thin bit of Bunnings cord which I had rigged without any mechanical advantage whatsoever - slipped through my fingers.  The sail swung forward.  Instant roll to leeward. Splash.

I managed to capture the whole event on the gopro and the WBA members in the boats coming up gleefully filmed it all too.  I got to the river bank, with a bit of gentle nudging from Chris in Stringybark - that tugboat captain experience is very useful sometimes -  bailed out, got sorted and headed off again.  As the wind chart above shows, the breeze was really kicking up by this time, and we had to slog back into wind gusting up to over 20 knots.  At some points I was paddling as hard as I could and still going backwards, which was a bit dispiriting.  At least it kept me warm.

We got back to the club pontoon, I retrieved dry clothes, used up my 10 minutes maximum use time in the local exceloo getting dry and changed.  We decided that we would forgo the slog up to the WBA meeting spot about a mile upriver, straight into the headwind which was still blasting away, and had a pleasant lunch in the sun instead, chatting to Jack and his crew member, and then  to Hamish who came back down river to join us.   

At least I had everything in drybags that were sealed and tied on - for once I didn't loose anything or drown anything.    My winter swimming had prepared me for the cold water, and some instinct told me not to take my better cameras. No harm done except to my ego.    It actually was a good little adventure.  And I learned a few more things - particularly, I need to invest in better mainsheet rigging for the sailing canoe ... and take and use the outriggers next time I take that boat out!

Speaking of boats, I have started another build, this time a John Welsford "Scraps"  a 6 foot long pram type dinghy. It actually does look a little bit SCAMP like - an Anjevi minime.  Of course a 12 foot boat needs a 6 foot tender. 

My hope is that it is stable enough for me to get Oz from Scamp to Scraps to shore for his at least twice daily shore leave requirements.  If not, I think the Welsford brand is sufficient that I will be able to at least get my money back.  I am using as many scraps as I can to build the boat, but I suspect this project will wind up with a net increase in the amount of bits of ply and off cut lying around.   Hey ho, I am enjoying the process of the build enormously, it is really good fun.  I think I will add a mast step, rudder gudgeons and a lee board, so it can sail as well.  

The Scraps is built upside down on a strong back.  I have never built a boat that way before, so it is a learning experience!  Lifelong learning in action!