The Main Halyard

Magnetic Island race week: WE SAIL SEPT 4

Quarters — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:18:36 +0000

Race race @ Magnetic Island

It’s going to be good… but it’s going to leave Onesie, Chels and Longbow bobbing around in Victoria.
Half the crew will be heading to the gravity shores of Magnetic Island at the start of spring to sail Seaduction, Longbow’s older sister.

It’s a prime race on the sailing calendar without the swish and swash the visiting Longbow crew are used to. Hopper and Lucky will need there knots aboard the well experienced and manned crew of Seaduction. She’s in transit for the exciting race meet.

There’s no blame to be laid on the two as they jet up for a competitive series of races. It can only be said that the others are missing out.

One has to wonder about the excitement levels they’ll experience around the island as the Grand Skipper dictates the tacking – down hill, up hill, north by north west, 7 o’clock, ‘that way, now!’, and so on.

To read about what’s coming get your cursor on the link below.
Magnetic Island Race Week

Wild weather over yonder

Quarters — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:51:52 +0000

On behalf of the crew, and any future guests of Longbow, we’d like to thank Brian (Grand Skipper) for the magnificent choice in marinas.
Not only because it’s conducive our Melbourne location or for his delicate consideration to choosing a marina with appropriate amenities along the way (McDonald’s and the bottle shop) but because of the shelter it provides the boat.

The wild winds had nothing on Longbow when the recent storm hit the coast of Victoria.

ABC News – Wild weather hits Melbourne overnight

Additionally, full credit to the marina’s architect and Brighton Yacht Club for selecting him/her.

Chilly weather and other committments have hampered Sunday sailing dutie however we will outlast the cold winter breezes and provail soon enough.

Vid Vid

Quarters — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:39:42 +0000

Williamstown, physics and idiot

Quarters — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:13:03 +0000

With the weather getting a little cooler it’s not enough to rely on peeking at each other’s midrif and getting drunk. We’ve got to expand our on-and-off boat stimulation as movement is restricted by the weather. As I learnt on Sunday – it’s all physics. Not knowing that would be so idiot. And we we’re now in Williamstown.

Confused? I was too after missing last week’s outing where Onsie went for a dip. Suddenly the conversation revolves around physics, and idiot.

Soon though I realised that “physics” is the answer for everything – “How come the motor is making that sound?” “It’s physics” – oooohhhh I thought as the confusion of it being bleedingly obvious that of course it was physics and that it was way too simplistic an answer.

The “idiot” phrase is better. A couple of weeks ago someone (on land, tsk tsk) said something around him that didn’t really make sense. Without hesitation he scoffed, “Ha! That is so idiot!” Need I say more.

Williamstown

We made it passed the Royal Vic Yacht Club bar and onto the Williamstown foreshore. Very pretty. I’d include a photo but the camera ran out and flickr doesn’t have one. Wikipedia does an OK job though.

Romaticise it.

Quarters — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:50:47 +0000

You can romanticise nearly anything. Even when your first love of your life farts in bed.

Each time Longbow is taken out there’s another wave of sighs and dreamy silences. Particularly if the night before has been tiring and we’ve had a second whiskey at Williamstown after crossing the bay. If the weather’s good tomorrow I’ll again be thinking about leaving it all behind and marrying the sea.

I’ve gathered some photos from around the place that capture some of the romantic nature of our Sunday past time.

Australia 2 wins America's Cup 1983 - courtesty The Age

Sturrrrrdy Clothing

Quarters — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:31:07 +0000

As we’re not yet the full depths of winter and with global warming on our side particular sailing clothing has so far been unnecessary. Yet it’s something that, should we ever make it out of the (glorious and still challenging) Port Phillip bay, we will need to consider.

Lucky sideways in sailing costume.

I did imagine it would be rather expensive given the market and how much people who can afford to sail might be willing to spend on a garment that will a) be an extension of their land fashion sense, b) be protective in possibly brutal weather, c) match the dollar amount needed to buy a boat in the first place and, d) prop up the manufacturer (I can’t imagine these garments are renewed each season).

We’ve had our own ideas for getting sailing “look” and come up with practical solutions that leave the aesthetic a distant second. Why get too fussed about your look when we’re nearly always boozed and the yacht club has an indoor area. Oh it would be extremely inappropriate to wear sea clothes in the yacht club. By George if we’re not careful they could discover our membership has “lapsed”…

For us at the moment this is impractical. Screenshots taken from cityboating.com.au

At a cool $1099 we could outfit the crew and take a keg. Or buy one of these.

What would be managable is one of these. Drab but most likely practicable. Plus it’s camouflage in the water if we ever need to stealth our way up to another boat and steal their keel… Never know… It’s $169 with product code fit for a king! 1037N

Keel stealin' jacket.

To deal with the drab/camouflage look when not completing daring keel steals it could be a good idea to accessorise. This is the only suggestion I have so far.

The modern sailing crew necessity – the pencil scarf.

It'll be sharp.

The only gay on the boat

rileystraw — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:40:28 +0000

This week on the sea Team Longbow faced it’s greatest challenge: the task of choosing it’s gayest member. With his whippet-like cunning and penchant for stovepipe jeans and fruity scarves, Chelsea was the obvious first choice for gayest on board.

Hopper steering the boat with his ass.

But careful deliberation and copious beer consumption soon proved that noone was exempt from consideration. As the only team member to admit to having had sex with a man, Lucky was clearly quite gay. A shocking display of steering with no hands meant Hopper was by no means as straight as he seemed, and my own heterosexuality came into question when it was revealed (by Lucky) that I enjoy wearing my mother’s underwear.

So no one was innocent, but was anyone as gay as Chelsea? The sun set, the dolphins came out to play, the beer diminished and still the debate raged. We made it back to shore having raised more questions than we answered, but at least we got to see Hopper spew.

Fish and fog

longbowlucky — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:33:07 +0000

Courtesy of David Boyle (flickr)

Yes, what a wonderful mystical day of sailing it was. As if the wonderment of impending doom wasn’t enough, we also had the foresight to purchase $35.oo of fishing gear knowing that we would be recompensed by our superior skills and experience.

The novelty of fishing, however, waned shortly after dropping the first line. The highlight being; a healthy debate between Chopper and Onesy on whether the biggest fish in the bay was on the other end or simply snagged on Neptune’s prize winning sea weed patch.
We fed the remainder of the bait (minus two prawns) to fatten the fishes, so next time we double our winnings.
Fish and chips anyone…..

The race we’re not in.

Quarters — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:12:56 +0000

How were we going to get there? “Oh, we’ll just jump in and sail down”. Not happening according to Hopper’s dad and owner of the boat. There’s too many sand bars (see picture) and at the moment we don’t even own sailing charts.

Our scrambled plan - thanks to maps.google.com

I suppose it would make us slightly less competitive having few skills, little experience, no charts and a chance of making it there and back no more than a soggy cat. We’ll prove ourselves better than a soggy cat soon enough though.

The reason we were so keen to do it this sunday was a race. Brighton Yacht Club is heading down Saturday and racing back sunday. Apparently the weather’s up the spout too.

Sunday 31st May – FOGG

leepattinson — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:24:19 +0000

The 3 most important of our crew members went out on Longbow last Sunday. It was unbelievably foggy, we couldn’t see 20 meteres in front of us. We thought it would be best to hug the coastline so we could keep our bearings. However this nearly backfired when we nearly ran aground.