Sailing with a Black Snake!

A couple of weeks ago we all headed out to Rumbo, the Holbert brothers Mumm 30, to set up and rig the boat for the Saturday afternoon race with Port Stephens Yacht Club. We had a bit of a surprise waiting for us onboard. A Black Snake had decided to curl up inside one of the sheet bags! Michael Lee had been pulling ropes out of the bag just before i went to stick my hand in there and noticed something moving...

We locked up all the hatches with the kids safely down below decks and out of the way before discussing what next?!?! Clarke Holbert gamely used a big stick to tip the snake out of the bag and it slithered off down the cockpit and dived into the water and swam off. I was surprised it wasn't pissed off at us. Needless to say we'll be checking those sheet bags every time we sail. What the hell would we have done if the thing had appeared out of the bag while we were sailing? How did it get in there in the first place? Rumbo is on a mooring! When Gibbo checked in with the race starter he called 6 POB and a black snake, so we were covered just in case!

To Venture Further...

Anyone who was at my retirement party 3 years ago would have heard me boldly declare that I was, one day, going to sail around Cape Horn. I have always had visions, dreams, call them what you will of sailing around the World. So, when an opportunity comes knocking you just have to grab it and hang on, that's always been my philosophy. While I was at the Sydney Boat Show earlier this year I met Tony Mowbray and was so impressed with his sailing expedition company I left my name on a contact list. Tony runs the trips out of Ushuaia, the World's southernmost city on the tip of Argentina in Tierra del Fuego - the Land of Fire. Two weeks ago I had a call from Tony's company offering me a half price ride to the Antarctic Peninsula via Cape Horn. So of course I contacted my US Navy mate Spanky and the rest is soon to be history. We sail out of Ushuaia on 13 Jan 2009 for a 24 day trip which will be one of those rare events some unfortunate people never have the good fortune, opportunity, desire or motivation to ever experience in their comfortable lives. I am in no doubt that this may be the toughest, most challenging thing I have ever done, but that's the sort of stuff that makes us get out of bed in the morning and sets us apart from the other animals...

We'll be sailing across Drake Passage, probably the most notorious stretch of water on the planet. Things that make you go HMMMMMM! Just looking at the geography you know that the winds, waves and currents are something special! You can get a live weather feed showing wind and wave heights on Passageweather.com, just click on the maps until you get to the southern tip of South America. The link is on the right - and yes, the wave heights are in METRES not feet!



Tony Mowbray's website is worth a look, he's sailed around the World single-handed and now spends his winters doing the promotional speach circuit and his Austral summers running trips around Cape Horn, down to the Antarctic Peninsula and to Islas Malvinas, the Falkland Islands. Follow the link at right to his website -

Expeditions are conducted in his 60 foot schooner "COMMITMENT" here shown at anchor somewhere on the Antarctic Peninsula:

This is a bit of a personal challenge for me in more ways than one. Having wrestled with CFS for the past 8 years it has been the dream of once again being in the outdoors and being adventurous that has kept me going through the tough times. Time to give it a go and see how the dice roll out. The beauty of Tony's trips is that you can be as involved in running the boat as you like, so it suites my situation prefectly. He's quite happy to let you helm the boat or help out with navigation, whatever takes your interest. I can't wait to get some time up on the helm under the tutelage of a master mariner who's really been there and done it.

Queensland Regatta Circuit

AIRLIE BEACH RACE WEEK

Well, its about time I added a blog about the winter regatta circuit in Queensland! I travelled up to Airlie Beach with Michael Lee to race onboard Storm 2 in the Airlie Beach Race Week held 14 - 28 August. Storm is such a great boat to sail on! We were powering upwind doing 11-13 knots at 20-24 degrees apparent in less than 20 knots of breeze! That's impressive! The carbon Warwick 66 is a flyer and very deceptive, a wolf in sheeps clothing! I think we gave a few of the IRC boy racers a bit of a shock especially in the long upwind haul of the passage race. I certainly learned a lot throughout the week. Its great to race with guys like Glenno and Brad who have a number of Sydney Hobarts between them. They know their stuff.

"The Brains Trust" L to R: Bob, Cocky, Don and Glenno

Cocky and Don set up the GPS for the day's course:


98 feet of carbon mast, impressive!

Don on the wheel upwind:


We had a crew of 12 at Airlie. A mixed bag of individuals with varying levels of knowledge and experience which is one of the great things about yacht racing. You're all on a level playing field on the water!

Cocky, World's hardest working mainsheet trimmer!


What the...! Almost got my feet wet!

Brad trimming the big assym:

The foredeck crew, Gudge hiding behind the mast, Blue, Ben and Glenno:

The hot washup, so how'd we go boys and did someone remember to turn the ice machine on?!?!?

The results? We did well, first on handicap in our Division (Cruising with spinnakers), after a tense final race around the bouys we won by a bare half point. We also managed to take out the regatta Line Honours Trophy for having the biggest winning margin in any Division. A job well done! There was much rejoicing and more than a few sore heads the next day!!!

MAGNETIC ISLAND RACE WEEK

We had a slightly different crew for MIRW. The famous 'Vasco' joined us from the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Jack Wells also joined Storm all the way from Tassie. Mike, Gudge, Blue and Cocky had prior commitments so unfortunately couldn't be there with us. We were at times a little short handed, but the races weren't too long nor the conditions too tough so we managed to cope OK.
The motley crew: Front: Vasco, Middle Row L to R: Bob, Argentinian backpacker girl, Don; Back Row L to R: me, Pete, Glenno, Ben, Jack


There certainly wasn't the festive regatta atmosphere that you get at Airlie, but it's only early days yet for this regatta, I'm sure the organisers will keep building on what is a strong foundation. How did we go? 4th in our Division on handicap (if you include 2 cats ahead of us - why would you attempt to rate catamarans in the same division as monos?!?!?!) Such is life. It was all good fun and I enjoyed doing a few different jobs onboard this time around.




Relaxing in The Tinny after a hard day on the water, funny, there was a 3 million dollar yacht a few feet away...!


Big boat racing and crew work is certainly different to dinghies and sportsboats - the skills and knowledge required are the same though - but its just as enjoyable. You read a lot of blowhard rubbish by people, especially on Sailing Anarchy, regarding crewing on 'luxury' yachts. I'm more of the mind that if you're out on the water sailing it pretty much doesn't matter what you're sailing if you're out there having a good time.

Storm ready for departure and the trip home to Airlie:

Thanks to Don for the opportunity to sail on his beautiful boat and to all the guys and girls onboard for a great time on the water and off!

Unfortunately there is a sad note, I had word the day before the end of the regatta that a good RAAF mate of mine and Cocky's: Mark 'Fish' Edwards committed suicide early in the week after a long struggle with depression. So, look after yourselves, look out for your friends and family and send a donation to Beyond Blue (follow the link on the right) to help out people who are not as fortunate as ourselves.

Sailboards

I started my stint on boards in 1983 helping out Don Trudget the boat hire bloke at Grafton rescuing windsurfers from all over the river and doing some instructing for him at Yamba during 1984. I bought a second hand Dufour Wing board from Don and spent every spare moment on the river practicing. We used to ride our boards for school sport on Wednesdays and I set up a bit of a midweek race for all the windsurfers and boardriders on the river which was a lot of fun. The best result I ever had on teh Dufour was a 2nd at a Stormriders Regatta at Byron. The natural progression was to go faster so a group of us bought wave boards. I picked up a nice glass board from Mike Maguire in Byron Bay, slapped an old mast on it with a second hand sail and off we went. I used to leave the board at Andrew Landenberger's house on the river bank. Landy and I would go out in storms for some freakish, scary rides. There's nothing like roaring along in 20+ knots of breeze with lightening and thunder crashing all around. We had some adventurous days at the beach, broke a lot of gear and finally admitted I couldn't afford it.



So I switched to Division II boards in the lead up to the 1988 Olympics. My RAAF boss refused to give me some time off to train, I think the quote was - if you picked a normal sport like golf or rugby I might think about it...!!! Racing boards just isn't the same as boats though. My best result on the Div II was 18th in the Open Division at the National Titles on Lake Maquarie. Give me a skiff or a sportsboat any day!

One of the guys, Tony Marsh, is still pretty heavily into the sport - waveboarding at the competitive level. Here he is organising a wavesailing event on the Gold Coast:

Marshy also has his own coastal weather website catering for the sailing, boardriding and surfing community, the link to askhuey.com.au is on the right side of the page. The tricks and aerials the guys execute these days are incredible! Way beyond just hanging upside down which was about the limit of my skills way back when.




Olympic boards have come a long way as well, its good that the ISAF and Olympic Committee have at least kept some performance sailing in the competition!:

Delivery trips

BAVARIA MATCH 35

So far I've only completed two delivery trips off the east coast. The first trip was a couple of years ago on a Bavaria Match 35 from Pittwater NSW to Moolloolaba QLD a distance of around 400nm. An ex RAAF mate and keen yachty Grubby Grimes hooked me up with the very experienced delivery skipper Fraser Johnson. Very much a salty character. We had a fairly uneventful trip up the coast, apart from broaching just north of Port Macquarie in a 20kt southerly. The whales kept us alert and provided some entertainment on the way up the coast.






NORDHAVEN 47

The second trip was completed last year on a Nordhaven 47 luxury motor yacht, based on a trawler design with the emphasis on long range cruising and expeditions.



Well, to say driving stink boats is boring is the understatement of the Century! Did I say driving? Pressing buttons on the GPS & auto pilot is more accurate.



It was nice and comfortable, a flat sea and plenty of whales and other sea life for company, but boring! That is until we arrived at the Southport bar entrance and the hydraulic steering burst a line and we were all of a sudden heading for rocks with a largish sea breaking on the bar. I broke out the emergency tiller and hand steered the boat in to the Southport Yacht club, with instructions relayed from the owner/skipper via his wife seated on the companionway stairs! All good fun. I don't think I'll bother with stink boat deliveries again though...

20kts in an Elliot 7!

I was crewing for Matt Bonser on his Elliot 7 'Nervous' during the howling westerlies last winter series at Port Stephens. Here are some shots from a memorable day:





Fast and furious! We had a powerboat wake behind us. Elliots are a bit of a handfull and a very wet boat in heavy air! Matt is a steady hand on the tiller, one of the best sailors I've ever crewed for. Not a single mistake or boat handling error all day - in 35kts of breeze, huge chop, in a sportsboat - VERY IMPRESSIVE!

OPINION: The slow death of a great sport...?

Here's an opinion to get the minds working: Sailing as a sport for the general public has been dying out in this wide brown land of ours over the last few years. While in the northern hemisphere the sport goes from strength to strength (cold, wet England being the prize example). I have a few theories (that mostly apply to dinghy classes):

1. The prohibitive cost of new exotic materials, high tech gear and the push by the elite (wealthy) few to have lighter and faster design changes brought into older classes. Look at the price of a Sabot these days! $11 - 14,000 for a kids training boat!!! Don't get me wrong here, I like speed just as much as the next man. My argument is that not all classes should be going down the path of exotics. Or maybe classes should have 2 divisions, classic and carbon (I'm not sure we have the numbers to make that sustainable though).

2. The lengthening of winter sport seasons (Rugby League is a good example) which impinges on the start and end of the sailing season. For some reason the general public don't see sailing as a team sport...!

3. The death of backyard boatbuilding and simpler classes of boat and class rules.

4. Lazy parents that are quite happy to use the Gameboy, Xbox, computer, DVD, etc as a babysitter instead of raising, mentoring and challenging their children with healthy outdoor (and cerebral) activities.

5. In Australia I would argue that the Olympic training policy of Yachting Australia has effectively disenfranchised a whole lot of kids. The few dollars available are spent on one or two kids in each region at the expense of the remainder. The non-sponsored kids get disenchanted and leave the sport. Sail training programs have fallen apart as emphasis is placed upon coaching the few. I say we should be building a broader foundation by spending that money on sail training & racing programs for every kid.

6. The sporting media in this country chooses to cover football (the 4 codes of football, cricket and football...). The start of the Sydney Hobart is a major event every year in Australia with millions of spectators and Worldwide media coverage. Its the only time you hear about sailing in the mainstream media in this country. I think its probably the elitist reputation. There's also a misconception that its boring. With today's technology why don't they use boatcams to cover the major titles, etc?

7. The birth of the instant gratification culture - the World is becoming populated with people who probably can't be bothered to take the time to rig a boat, learn to sail, work for pocket money to buy an old boat then spend a winter doing it up ready for the summer sailing season. And I'm not just talking about the kids here, the parents are just as bad.

8. The time factor. Sailing pretty much takes up almost a whole day, prepping the boat, rigging, briefing, sailing, unrig, wash and clean the boat, go home. People (parents) generally just aren't prepared to make that sort of committment these days. So, what does that teach their children? Only do stuff that takes lkess than an hour of your time, never commit to anything that takes some effort and work. My feeling is that the more effort or work required the bigger the reward. So the net result is we have a generation of kids who are unfulfilled and searching for something they will probably never find because they aren't being equipped with the skills to take on life itself.

OK, I'm now off the soapbox. We live in one of the best countries on the planet for sailing, yet it's a dying sport here. We need to revitalize the sport for the average punter. Thoughts anyone?

Early sailing years and beyond...

I grew up in Grafton, Northern NSW. The greatest asset the town has is the mighty Clarence River, the largest eastern flowing river in Australia. My father Malcolm Eggins had started sailing when he was about 18 years old in a Vaucluse Senior (VS). He then started building his own boats and boats for his brothers and other club members. The river was a good training ground with light to moderate, gusty, shifting wind conditions.

SABOTS

I started sailing at the Clarence River Sailing Club when I was 8 years old. My first experience was crewing in Sabots, I then went on to skipper 'South Ex' one of 4 club boats my family built under our house. Andrew Landenberger, Atlanta Olympic Silver Medalist (Tornado Cats), was my crew back in those days!!



THE VAUCLUSE JUNIOR

After way too many years in Sabots I moved on to Vaucluse Juniors (VJs) - one of the best training boats for teenagers on the planet! They are an 11 foot long, flat bottomed planing machine designed for 2 kids. The crew sit on wooden planks with their feet on the side of the boat. They are extremely challenging to sail well, they teach all you need to know about trim and balance. My first VJ was a 24 year old cedar ply boat that dad had built for my Uncle Kel. We rebuilt it and had a couple of good seasons on it learning the ropes. My sister Lynette crewed for me, which was a lot of fun. My second VJ was a second hand boat from Belmont 16ft Skiff Club, named Rob III. I renamed the boat Rapture (after one of my favourite Blondie songs).


Rapture competing in the annual Clarence River Bridge to Bridge Classic

It was a fantastically fast VJ. I had a couple of great little forward hands over the years. Andrew Blakey and Scotty Marsh were excellent light weight crews with great balance and skills. Unfortunately my fathers Title commitments meant I wasn't able to sail in State or National Titles, I think we would have acquitted ourselves extremely well.



SAILBOARDS

We used to sail for high school sport on Wednesday afternoons and afterward I'd organise sailboard races for the club members. That was back in the day when just about everyone who sailed boats also owned a windsurfer. We used to get regular fleets of up to 25 boards! Not bad for a small country town. I sailed a Dufour Wing which was a pretty fast board at the time. A group of us also took up wave sailing which was pretty radical and extreme in those days. We'd have been right at the cutting edge of a new type of sailing without really knowing it. I later bought a couple of Division 2 boards and raced them for a couple of seasons, although they never gave the same satisfaction as racing in boats.

RAAF SAILING TEAM

After some of the best sailing years of my life I then joined the RAAF and had to take an enforced break from the sailing for a short while. I managed to get myself on the RAAF sailing team in 1985, sailing Tasars in team racing events against Navy and Army. We usually held selection trials for a week on either Sydney Harbour, sailing out of RANSA in Rushcutters Bay, or from the Navy College on the shores of Jervius Bay. Both excellent sailing venues. I had 3 years of sailing with the Team, being Team Captain for 3 years (running selection trials and doing some coaching and Team Racing instruction & strategy sessions) and was Team Manager in 1987. We finally won the Interservice trophy from Navy in 1987 after an 11 year undefeated record by Navy. The 1987 RAAF Team had two NS14 sailors, a 16ft Skiff skipper and a very skillful 505 skipper, so we were able to sail a good series against some very talented Navy opposition (including one ex Tasar World Champ!). The teams were always fun people and great to be around.



16 FOOTERS & OTHERS

During this time I sailed on many different types of boat, including Flying Fifteens, J24s, a few assorted yachts all out of Lake Macquarie Yacht Club at Belmont near Newcastle. I was also invited to skipper a 16ft skiff sailing out of Stockton Sailing Club on the Hunter River. It was an extremely old boat and we were in the water more than we were on top of it, but it was a fun season.



NORTHY YEARS

I moved on to 'Northies' - Northbridge Seniors (NS14s) in 1990 when I had the opportunity to buy Dad's last NS he ever designed & built called 'Tornado'. She was a beautiful flying machine with a foam fibreglass sandwich hull painted metallic blue and white with Red Cedar ply decks and laminated timberwork everywhere. There followed 2 great years of competing (broken by the demands of RAAF service).


We won the Clarence River Sailing Club NS14 Championship and later went on to a 9th place at the NSW State Titles on Tuggerah Lake. There were over 100 boats in that title, those were the days! Andrew 'Shrimp' Forman was my crew on the northy, he kept me honest and we worked together well on the boat, hardly had to say a word, we just clicked as a crew. The B&W photo below was taken at a heat of the NSW Traveller's Trophy held on the river at Port Macquarie in a howling nor'easter. The next day was another heat on the Manning River at Taree over a marathon course around the islands. A pretty good weekend with conditions that suited us for 2 back to back wins. We were both extremly fit and the boat handled well and we always had stacks of boatspeed to burn in most conditions. Tornado was an absolute dream to sail.




Unfortunately I had to sell Tornado when posted to the United States at the end of 1992 for 3 years flying with the US Navy. I sold the boat to Ian Ward, ex Moth World Champ. The family will one day buy it back to keep as a tribute to Dad's skills. It should really be in a maritime museum.

US NAVY

While in the US I raced 420s and Lasers on Wednesday afternoons on the Chesapeake Bay sailing from the Norfolk Navy Base. My USN mate Les 'Spanky' Spanheimer crewede for me when we could both manage to get away from the flight schedule. Chesapeake Bay has an amazing maritime heritage. The various maritime museums are a must see for the boating nut. The Eastern Shore has regular races for Skipjacks and Chesapeake Bay Log Canoes - a radical boat!!



INTO THE VOID...

I returned to Oz in Dec of 1995 to a posting in Canberra. I just wasn't keen to sail on Lake Burley Griffin and NS14s didn't hold much interest for me. I was caught up in a heavy work load and was then posted to RAAF Tindal in the Northern Territory. The closest sailing water to there is 3 hours drive north in Darwin. Once again workload kept me from the water. I also contracted encephalitis from a mosquito which damn near killed me and has left me with a post viral fatigue/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) illness. So I faced a few years of no sailing... Life is just not the same without sailing and being around boats.

PORT STEPHENS

I was posted to RAAF Williamtown in mid 2000 after completing Navy Staff College in Sydney. To get myself back into sailing to help with my health situation I joined the local Port Stephens Sailing & Aquatic Club (PSSAC) in 2004. I bought a Maricat for ease of sailing and to just enjoy being out on our beautiful waterway. It was the only cat in the club! The old thirst for competition motivated me to buy a Laser Radial from Michael Mills of Nelson Bay Laser Sales so I could race against the other guys in the club. It must have been a moment of complete madness! I raced for a couple of seasons on and off depending on the CFS. I enjoying being back into the competitive side of sailing again, even though these days I'm just not as physically able or mentally sharp as before the illness.


The Laser is a challenge to sail well, very physically demanding and unforgiving in a breeze. I guess that's why they make a good Olympic Class, you need to be in training and extremely fit to be competitive at the top level of the sport. I enjoyed the challenge of it and there are a great bunch of people at PSSAC. There is a link to the club website to the right. They run a couple of excellent regattas every year. Port Stephens is one of the best locations in the World for sailing! I'm just amazed that there aren't more people involved in the sport here - but thats another topic for another post...

RECENT REGATTAS

I've been busy this year with regattas. I raced in the Elliot 7 Australian Title held in conjunction with Gellong Race Week over the Australia Day long weekend. Thats January 26th for the non Aussies out there. I crewed for Justin Mitchell (sailmaker from Toronto on Lake Macquarie, NSW) on his dark blue flying machine 'Mitchell Sails'. We finished 2nd in the Titles, not a bad effort for a bunch of guys that had never sailed together previously. Justin is a good skipper, tactically very sound and we had boatspeed to burn in the lighter stuff. We were the only boat sailing 4 up so struggled a little in teh heavier breezes upwind. We finished with 6 2nds and a 3rd, behind Matt Owen on Walter Turnbull who's well oiled and practised crew sailed to 6 firsts and a 2nd - an awesome effort!


Matt Owen's ' Elliot 7 Walter Turnbull'

It was a great experience with over 300 yachts competing in the regatta. They were quite a sight when they all sailed up Corio Bay on day 2 on their way to the finish of the Bay Race. Needless to say it was difficult to buy a Bundy Rum at the club bar that night!







I had the privilege to crew on Don Algy's Warwick 66 Storm 2 for the Sydney Harbour Regatta held in March. What a beautiful boat! Its for sale if anyone's interested. My old RAAF buddy Cocky is a good mate of Don's and did all the groundwork to get me a seat on the boat. We had a fairly disappointing regatta. The steering broke 10 minutes into the first race on Saturday so we withdrew and headed back to the CYC for a few consolatory drinks. Such is yacht racing. Day two wasn't our day either with extremely light conditions which suited the smaller boats in PHS Division. The 4th race start had all competitors revved up and after 2 Generalk Recalls we managed to get away cleanly. Although the Race Committee disqualified us for some reason. I'm still unaware of teh ruling on that. So, overall we finished 22nd out of 23 boats I think. Still, it was a great experience, working the electric genoa winches, running around helping drop the genoa on spi hoists and retrieve the huge assym spinnaker at the end of downwind runs. It was great to catch up with Cocky again and especially to go sailing with him on teh harbour in such an awesome yacht. I've booked a seat for Airlie Beach Race Week in Sep. So watch this space for more news.


Cocky & I enjoying a few sherbets in the cockpit


Don at the wheel of Storm 2