News Around the World
AUSTRALIA Head in the clouds Just over 10 years ago we moved from the Northern Beaches suburb of Manly to Fitzroy Falls up the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Manly was a great place for watersports, surfing and sailing, and I raced my Finn out of Manly Yacht Club. I remember a solo training sail on a Monday afternoon, with the
harbour empty and a light nor’easter building in a clear sky. I beat out through the Heads, tacked the Finn over then surfed back into the harbour entrance, lining up with a couple of swells over a shallow bank near the inside of the Heads, then pumped the sheet once to lift my boat speed just a whisker above the breeze strength until the main was weightless and I could gybe with ease. I crossed the boat, remembering to lower my elbow beneath the
path of the boom, and, considering the next upwind, I had a think how the breeze was bending around North Head. Pondering all that, I glanced over the side of the boat and saw an enormous shark – way, way bigger than my dinghy, just underneath me, looking back up through the gin-clear water. I would like to think I muttered the line from Jaws and said, ‘I’m
going to need a bigger boat…’ but my immediate memory of that moment is a little fragmented. Avoiding any rash moves all training ceased for the day, and I
reached back to the club sitting very still, with the blood draining out of my face yet pounding in my ears, knowing full well the Leather- man in the pocket of my PFD simply wouldn’t cut it, if the fin had taken on the Finn. So moving up to the Highlands and racing on a reservoir saw a
significant contrast in the local wildlife, plus plenty of other chal- lenges. The boat felt different in fresh water – it didn’t track the same and, with just five square kilometres of water to compete on, each race now lasted barely an hour, while the surrounding valleys and trees made me work much harder at picking the breeze. Unsurprisingly the competition was fierce, with Lasers, another
20 SEAHORSE
Finn, Nacras and a growing number of A-Class cats. Eventually I acquired an A-Class – encouraged by Chris Nicholson and Glenn Ashby – and then another Finn, a beautiful timber example. Over time I had become friends with the great sailor and Olympian
Carl Ryves. I stayed at his house, and drove up to see him at his Lane Cove home at the weekends, drinking tea on the balcony, sharing tales and always laughing. So over the years I sat with Carl and listened to his life story – first as a boy, borrowing sheets of roofing tin from nearby building sites, where he and his friends would fashion simple canoes, jamming a stick in the middle and scooping up hot tar from the roads to seal the ends, then hiding them in the bushes because other kids would pinch them if they could find them. Then at weekends and in school holidays in a Huckleberry Finn
existence during Sydney’s golden summers, drifting downwind with bedsheets spread out on skinny arms or broomsticks, until these corrugated canoes capsized as the human ballast shifted – unable to keep still the way kids are, laughing as their primitive boats slowly settled then sank beneath them, to be retrieved the next day after swimming down the standard string line tied to a bit of wood to mark their location. It was over tea on the veranda while recounting these times that
Carl suggested I take ownership of his timber Finn, which was suspended by heavy ropes high up under his balcony. His home and sheds were full of boats, and bits of boats, beautiful single sculls, slender oars, masts, all timber, all varnished and all with their own story. He knew I raced a Finn, but the offer of one of his beautiful and
extremely personal items was such a surprise that I refused, and so Carl smiled and said OK. I also refused the second time he suggested this over a later
pot of tea, but on the third occasion I accepted… and he was delighted. Lowering it gently from its slings with a group of strong mates, I towed it to my home 200km away up in the Southern
BLUE ROBINSON
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120
