Getting started at the '05 Nationals

Back to the 2004-05 Results

We arrived at the caravan park on Saturday afternoon after surviving an encounter with a 'big' lobster at Kingston on the way. There were a few ‘cabin dwellers’ in but no other campers as yet. We set up and watched a spectacular sunset across the lake while we ate lobster bought from Kingston (a smaller one than the 'big' version) and scoffed a bottle of bubbly. It’s a tough life!

Sunday everyone else arrived at various times and all the boats were taken round to the school oval opposite the yacht club (which was 5 mins drive from the caravan park) for measuring and weighing. There was all the usual interest in new boats, old boats, light boats and heavy boats not to mention sails. It was a fairly hectic day particularly for those doing the work.

Monday the only race planned was the invitation race at about 2pm. We had a briefing and there was some discussion about the looming storm clouds complete with lightning that were rolling about. Most of it seemed to be missing us OK though and everyone fronted up out at the start line. There was a long delay while the race organiser organised and we were off about 3pm in good solid breeze.

About halfway through the race with a serious looking front coming across the lake the race was abandoned. We were on the way in when it hit. I’m only guessing but for a couple of minutes I reckon we had 30+ knots. Luckily the initial blast moderated slightly and most made it in unscathed. Those that did go over discovered first hand how shallow the lake was (2-3m on average) and how muddy the bottom was. If you were lucky you came up with the top metre of your rig covered in black mud. If you were unlucky you didn’t come up - until a rescue boat came over and dragged you to windward to get the mast out of the goo.

Monday night was the traditional camp flattening storm. Several tents bit the dust and most of us were up at about 2am securing tents and boats. Rob Lott decided that the boat needed his attention more than his flat tent and spent the rest of the night on his tramp deck under the stars.

Next day dawned cloudy, dull and slightly windier than it had been the night before so we spent the day looking at the lake covered in white caps as did the local pelicans. There was lots of fiddling going on particularly with the new boats.

Neil Joiner showed us how to sail a windsurfer and made it look so easy that Philip Warren-Smith and I became deluded and thought we might be able to. Give me a boat with stays to hold the mast up any day! Henry and Tim Shepperd proved that mere mortals could do it though and Henry spent most of the day on the water. I’m sure his arms were longer than they had been that morning racing.

On Wednesday we finally got to do some sailing.