Sailing in the harbour is simply beautiful.
I’ve been sailing for the past year, in Malaysia just as a pass time. But since I was visiting Sydney one of the skippers hooked me up with their friend back in Sydney for a sailing trip, which turned out to be a pretty good thing.
Glen, a professional sailor was kind enough to invite me to sail with him on Sunday at the Blue’s Point Yacht club with his usual crew on a beautiful 35 footer. It is such a beautiful boat, sleeps about 2-3 people and it had the works. It was just wonderful to be out on a beautiful Sunday morning (maybe not too fun as I was still a little tired from the night before). Glen lives not far from the Blues Point Yacht Club and I have to admit, the place he lives in is beautiful. Really beautiful, better than Pyrmont!
Glen, a professional sailor was kind enough to invite me to sail with him on Sunday at the Blue’s Point Yacht club with his usual crew on a beautiful 35 footer. It is such a beautiful boat, sleeps about 2-3 people and it had the works. It was just wonderful to be out on a beautiful Sunday morning (maybe not too fun as I was still a little tired from the night before). Glen lives not far from the Blues Point Yacht Club and I have to admit, the place he lives in is beautiful. Really beautiful, better than Pyrmont!
The usual suspects.
So off we went out on the water and got to the race marker just past the Harbour Bridge. The winds were really strong and in less than 15 minutes of getting to the start point the race was called off. According to harbour racing rules if the wind speeds are more that 30 knots for 5 consecutive minutes, no race shall commence. Hence we ended doing a leisure cruise and settling nicely somewhere where I manage to snooze for a bit and had a few drinks before heading back to the Blue’s Pub.
It’s nice to just lie on a boat and watch everything go by on a beautiful blue sky day. We cruised past the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, past Luna Park and a few more other remote beaches on our way in and out. Ahh...the life!
It’s nice to just lie on a boat and watch everything go by on a beautiful blue sky day. We cruised past the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, past Luna Park and a few more other remote beaches on our way in and out. Ahh...the life!
More beautiful waters, the pictures don't justify. You really have to be out there to understand what I'm on about.
A few days later I get a call Glen announcing that he’s managed to get the two of us on Skiffs. I have no idea what it was but I said yes to it anyway. Boy… that was one hell of a yes I was slowly starting to regret when I got to the Sydney Flying Squadron. See, I’ve been out to dinner the night before flowed by a semi late night out. I was offered to go to a water park the next day but I turned it down for this race. I soon realised I should have said yes to that water park offer instead.
Now these 18 foot skiffs are commonly known as the Historical 18 as it was popularly sailed between 1900 - 1950 (the replicas sailed today are from that time frame). It's a lot of work as the team need to assemble the mast, sails and make sure that the boat is prepped correctly and neatly before the race. A normal yacht takes less than an hour to set up but these skiffs can take up to 3-4 hours. Little did I know that one has to have a wetsuit while sailing on these as the boat does capsize and it's very normal too during races (freak out mode was slowly creeping in at this point).
Now these 18 foot skiffs are commonly known as the Historical 18 as it was popularly sailed between 1900 - 1950 (the replicas sailed today are from that time frame). It's a lot of work as the team need to assemble the mast, sails and make sure that the boat is prepped correctly and neatly before the race. A normal yacht takes less than an hour to set up but these skiffs can take up to 3-4 hours. Little did I know that one has to have a wetsuit while sailing on these as the boat does capsize and it's very normal too during races (freak out mode was slowly creeping in at this point).
Preparing the skiffs.
When I found that out, we literally has 20 minutes before we got the boat in the water. Off I went on a mad dash asking and looking around for a wetsuit and I was in luck, there was one in my size... Well almost my size. It was a tad bit tight as I felt suffocated for almost 2 hours one boat. Not sure if it was the suit or the adrenaline. Now we manually pushed the boat into the water before getting in and sailing out. No we didn't 'power' out with an engine as there is no room for one and the weight is too much for the skiff, plus there is no way of securing one on the skiffs.
I was on duty to make sure the water is always pumped out and that the sheets were always up and down at the right moment as even a 2 second delay could cost us to capsize. As I've experienced, everything is manually done and operated. You have to be quite strong to work these boats because of that too. Also your weight placement on the boat is very crucial as it determines if we go over or not. Half the time I was either pushed or pull to the 'right' spot on the boat. At one point we took in a lot of water and I swear I thought we were going to go over but we didn't. Phewww! And so the water bailing session commenced with two crew bailing water out like there is no tomorrow. Saw another boat go over half way through the race.
When we got back, I think I was just super glad I was back on solid ground and I don't think I would do the skiffs again until I master sailing yachts first. Need to get one things right first before attempting the other. It was really fun but scary as the same time but I love the fact that they are really fast.
I was on duty to make sure the water is always pumped out and that the sheets were always up and down at the right moment as even a 2 second delay could cost us to capsize. As I've experienced, everything is manually done and operated. You have to be quite strong to work these boats because of that too. Also your weight placement on the boat is very crucial as it determines if we go over or not. Half the time I was either pushed or pull to the 'right' spot on the boat. At one point we took in a lot of water and I swear I thought we were going to go over but we didn't. Phewww! And so the water bailing session commenced with two crew bailing water out like there is no tomorrow. Saw another boat go over half way through the race.
When we got back, I think I was just super glad I was back on solid ground and I don't think I would do the skiffs again until I master sailing yachts first. Need to get one things right first before attempting the other. It was really fun but scary as the same time but I love the fact that they are really fast.
Its not as easy as it looks!
Sailing in the Sydney harbour is just amazing! If you haven't done it, you should. It's beautiful in spring plus the weather is perfect for sailing. To Glen... Thank you! I had a wonderful sailing experience DownUnder.
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