a day in an 18 footer
since i live right across from the oldest sailing club in synney, i thought it would be a shame not to poke my head in an see what it's all about.
so in saturday i went down an offered my services as an able bodied crew. i was taken in by a crew of old sea dogs who had been sailing since the 70's. the class of boat we were sailing was the 18 foot skiff. this class of boat was designed to be sailed with only one restriction - it had to be 18 foot. what else you did to the boat was up to you. we were sailing immaculate polished and beautifully decked out skiffs based on the original 1910 design and can be seen here:
as you can see the sails are massive and obviously overpower the boat, as a result you have up to 9 crew to balance the boat. these boats have kept up with modern technology and the latest designs use fabrics straight out of the space program and come decked out with things like carbon fibre poles. here's what a modern 18 foot skiff looks like:
our days sailing wasn't without adventure. on the first day of spring we got caught out in the harbour in a southerly squall which reduced visibility to about 100m. lightning was discharging all around us.
just before the race we collided with another skiff at full speed. think of those jousting films, it was just like that, bowsprits splintering and ensuing mayhem. luckily we were on the starboard tack and had right of way - my fellow crew turned the air blue with their swearing.
all in all we finished off fourth.
so in saturday i went down an offered my services as an able bodied crew. i was taken in by a crew of old sea dogs who had been sailing since the 70's. the class of boat we were sailing was the 18 foot skiff. this class of boat was designed to be sailed with only one restriction - it had to be 18 foot. what else you did to the boat was up to you. we were sailing immaculate polished and beautifully decked out skiffs based on the original 1910 design and can be seen here:
as you can see the sails are massive and obviously overpower the boat, as a result you have up to 9 crew to balance the boat. these boats have kept up with modern technology and the latest designs use fabrics straight out of the space program and come decked out with things like carbon fibre poles. here's what a modern 18 foot skiff looks like:
our days sailing wasn't without adventure. on the first day of spring we got caught out in the harbour in a southerly squall which reduced visibility to about 100m. lightning was discharging all around us.
just before the race we collided with another skiff at full speed. think of those jousting films, it was just like that, bowsprits splintering and ensuing mayhem. luckily we were on the starboard tack and had right of way - my fellow crew turned the air blue with their swearing.
all in all we finished off fourth.
posted by noworries at 12:47 AM
1 Comments:
Looks like fun :)
Now all you need to do is attach a kite to the front of that thing and you can really get it moving :P
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