Antipodean Boats Connection

[RFNK]

As requested, photos of Avon in the yard in Newcastle







And some local fishing boats



And these little line boats - they're steel so I'd hate to own one, but I really love these little boats



Rick

[purri]

The timber hull shown looks a bit like the old mail/milk boats that plied the northern rivers.

[RFNK]

They call it a tug boat but it's not much like any tug boats I've seen. My guess is that it was used to haul timber, barges etc. It's in great condition for its age - supposed to have been built over a hundred years ago. It's got a thumping great engine in it - I know it's a Cummins but that's a bout all I know. When I say it's big, I mean it looks big. I don't know what its capacity is.

The old milk boats had shallow draft like this boat. This one weighs over 20 tonnes. Not a lot of hull to support 20 tonnes .....

Rick

[PeterSibley]

That and Nic White at Conrad Blocks .

Nice mowing job on the hillside! Who did that for you?

Hurrica in 2011:



I believe to base is the work of Sibbo:

[brucemoffatt]

[IMG]pirate-001 by brucemoffatt, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Phil Y]

I thought you were building something a bit smaller than that!!

[Phil Y]

Perth trip coming up again, I think this time I'll drive over with a trailer and tow it home. Havent seen the East facing side of the white posts yet.


Greg are you home (in WA) Friday night? I think I'l set off from here tomorrow, get to Perth Thursday afternoon, pick up the car, have a relaxing day in Perth on Friday, then head back home Saturday.

[brucemoffatt]

I thought you were building something a bit smaller than that!!

I'm a rebel.

[Larks]

Perth trip coming up again, I think this time I'll drive over with a trailer and tow it home. Havent seen the East facing side of the white posts yet.


Greg are you home (in WA) Friday night? I think I'l set off from here tomorrow, get to Perth Thursday afternoon, pick up the car, have a relaxing day in Perth on Friday, then head back home Saturday.

I am Phil, do you need a garage and somewhere to camp for the night?

[WX]

Well folks I love my Redwing and I love junk rigs.
Hoping to have so good shots of redwing under sail soon.
Full sail and drawing beautifully, no big wrinkles.

Wee Barkie at Fingal.


Sunday morning with Wee Barkie rafted up and Island bound at anchor in the background, she's a Hood 23.

The dinghy fleet coming though, we raised anchor and followed as soon as they past.


And we're off.

[WX]

One of the doldrum moments.

Redwing sailed very well and a few times we hit 6 knots minimum, heeled well over and two hands on the tiller. exhilarating stuff!
She handled to windward, Simon reckoned we had an apparent wind angle of 30 degrees and who am I to argue.

[WX]

In that last photo, notice the birds standing on the sand bank just to port?

[Phil Y]

I am Phil, do you need a garage and somewhere to camp for the night?

yes please

[PeterSibley]

Noted , JIM will be happy .

[WX]

There was a beautiful little lug rigged double ender that sailed very well. At first I thought it was a JR but Simon pointed out the lack of battens. It really was an excellent two days. On the Saturday I cast off from the wharf with only 200 mm of water under the keel and sailed up to Fingal with the gps showing a max of 4 knots against a 2 knot current, the average speed was 2.6 knots though. I dropped the sail and motored in to the mooring and picked it up 2nd go...not to tardy for my first one. The other first for me was arriving up at Tumbulgum in the dark and dropping anchor.

[Duncan Gibbs]

I had a weekend of work and running around commitments and would have really like to have gone for a good long sail.

Did everyone finish under sail?

[WX]

I had a weekend of work and running around commitments and would have really like to have gone for a good long sail.

Did everyone finish under sail?

Yes they did Duncan. Some of them like Wee Barkie went into the Fingal boat harbour. I thought about it because i had Simon Hill on board and Tom was giving him alift back to his car at Tumby but with an ebb tide I wanted to get back to my berth while I still had water under the keel. As it was I reckon I only had inches under her as we docked. Got squared away and retired to Ivory for a couple of well earned beers while we waited for Tom.

[johnno]

Looks and sounds like a superb weekend Gary! Spurs me on to get my boat finished.

[WX]

Noted , JIM will be happy .

You'll be able to explore a lot more of the river than I can...if only they had made the Tumby bridge a couple of metres higher...sigh.

[WX]

Looks and sounds like a superb weekend Gary! Spurs me on to get my boat finished.

Sunday gave me the best sailing I've had yet Johnno. Having another sailor on board was a bonus.

[Larks]

There was a beautiful little lug rigged double ender that sailed very well. At first I thought it was a JR but Simon pointed out the lack of battens. It really was an excellent two days. On the Saturday I cast off from the wharf with only 200 mm of water under the keel and sailed up to Fingal with the gps showing a max of 4 knots against a 2 knot current, the average speed was 2.6 knots though. I dropped the sail and motored in to the mooring and picked it up 2nd go...not to tardy for my first one. The other first for me was arriving up at Tumbulgum in the dark and dropping anchor.

I notice in all of those photos that they are taken of boats behind you - I take it from that there were none in front

[PeterSibley]

A pity I missed it but it was good at home with multiple daughters, young blokes, dogs and kids .

[Larks]

yes please

No problem, I'll introduce you to Murphy's for a great pub meal on Friday night. Do you still have my phone number???

[WX]

I notice in all of those photos that they are taken of boats behind you - I take it from that there were none in front

We were leading for a while but I think my first mistake was being too close to Stotts Island and my second was running aground at the northern end of Stotts for about 10 minutes which didn't help. Tom was actually yelling out to me that I was heading for thin water. There's a smaller island at the southern end of Stotts and you have to pass between the two but the wind was right on the nose. I think we all used our motors to get through there. Once clear of the Island I managed to pass two boats and I thought we stood a good chance of catching up. There's a couple of places on the river where the winds get very flukey and that slowed us right down. One minute we'd be on a starboard tack and the next minute it would be coming at us over the port side...just couldn't second guess it.

[Phil Y]

No problem, I'll introduce you to Murphy's for a great pub meal on Friday night. Do you still have my phone number???

Nope-can you PM it?

[RFNK]

Love the sailing shots Gary! Great to see some of Wee Barkie - haven't seen her sailing before. Looking good Tom! Now we need Tom's snaps of Redwing!

Rick

[RFNK]

The guy who's now doing up the Twister has to remove all the antifoul from the hull, the port side topsides paint, and, I think, paint from inside. He's planning to use a sandblaster with, I think, limestone sand. It's less aggressive than regular sand and more aggressive than soda blasting. Apparently the equipment hire and sand will cost $400 and he expects to get it done in a day! I'll be watching closely as I want to blast Pipsqueak's wet planks back to bare wood.

Anyone know anything about blasting with limestone sand?

Rick

[PeterSibley]

Rick, if you're close by photos of that process would be very interesting ... I admit to serious reservations! Every time I've seen wood sand blasted the softer material is removed first and the result is not pretty .

[RFNK]

That's what I've heard too. So yes, I'm very interested and I'll certainly be taking photos.

I REALLY don't want to end up cleaning Pipsqueak's bum with an angle grinder - again!

Rick

[WX]

Love the sailing shots Gary! Great to see some of Wee Barkie - haven't seen her sailing before. Looking good Tom! Now we need Tom's snaps of Redwing!

Rick

I'm looking forward to those as well Rick. The only ones I have were taken some time back before I had the sail set up properly.

[WX]

Peter are you still using the sewing machine?

[PeterSibley]

What sewing machine ?

[PeterSibley]

No.

[John B]

Perth trip coming up again, I think this time I'll drive over with a trailer and tow it home. Havent seen the East facing side of the white posts yet.


Greg are you home (in WA) Friday night? I think I'l set off from here tomorrow, get to Perth Thursday afternoon, pick up the car, have a relaxing day in Perth on Friday, then head back home Saturday.

That Phil, while the rest of us, er I mean me, is dreaming about it , he's doing it.

Looks like a fun day on the water Gary and Tom.

[WX]

No.

Ah, no worries I haven't even marked out the material yet.