1st boat return of a sydney 36 GAUNTLET

On the 18/08/10 I set off on my first boat return with the skipper, Peter Milliken, crew... Clayton (the co-owner or Gauntlet), Nick (crew) and Me.

It started off by me planning my trip up to yepoon, which ended up being a greyhound bus. I then got a lift to the local airport to meet Peter and the rest of the crew. we then caught a maxi taxi to the marina to fuel up and get ready for the journey to Brisbane. The trip down to Brisbane ended up being really slow and not much sailing more motoring, because we were heading straight into the wind. Instead of motoring the only other option was to keep tacking but that would have been even longer than going straight into the wind. we then had to pull into Mooloolabar for fuel and some food. It ended up taking another 8-10 hours of 5knots straight into the wind until we hit Morton Bay. We motored into the marina just after 12:00 midnight, packed up the boat, caught a taxi to Peters house for the night then i would catch the train from roma street back to bundy.

interesting stuff this is(world's fastest solo voyage around the world solo on a trimaran)

http://www.solarnavigator.net/francis_joyon.htm this is a fantasic story on his voyage.

about the long weekend sailing experiment

During the long weekend we went to a camping spot in Eurimbula national park near Agnes water. Here is where the first run of the boat is being held! On Saturday about 4:03pm we started to rig the boat and take it out the river and into the beach where we would be staying. It took about 30-40 minutes to rig the boat and get it on the water. Once i had got out onto the water I had a bit of a muck around and then all of a sudden the main sheet came zipping out of the pullies. I went back into shore to re-tie the main sheet and them zipped out the river and across the beach to the camp site because it was getting dark. On Monday I have to take the boat out and back into the river, but i had a bit of a dilemma getting past the building waves and back into the river so I went back into shore and let the sail down and walked it to the river where the boat ramp was. So...during the exciting weekend noting major broke, just a little water in the hulls and some finishing touches to do ready for racing.

Boat is done and on the water for the long weekend!!

On Saturday and Sunday, the 5th and 6th, Dad and I were stretching our selves to get the boat on the water and ready to go for the long weekend (Queens Birthday). those two days we were fitting the trampoline, finishing water proofing, get rigging (ropes, pullies etc.) together, scraping out the centre board cases so that they would go all the way down and fix the rudders. during the week Mum, Dad and I where seaching around the internet and the local stores to find pullies for the down haul and boom vang. because midtown mariners didn't have the pullies we needed we had to get them sent in via post for the weekend. It ended up happening that we found a really helpful guy that sent the pullies that I needed that day. We received the pullies that he sent us for an amazing price the next day which was AWSOME.

Tramp is on!! (FINALLY)

On Saturday and Sunday Dad and I worked on the boat boat. On these 2 days we completed putting the trampoine on and laced up, finished some water proofing and started work on completing the rigging.

Bundaberg inter-city Rum Regatta

On Saturday and Sunday the third and final inter-city rum regatta was held.

On saturday there was one race because it was a very light day, although there was supposed to be two. In the first race I placed last but first because the other boats in my class were too quick so me and the other paper tiger raced against each other. On Sunday the wind was better but not near perfect. Today was supposeed to be 3 races. the first race was held at 9:15 and the races would be continuous. the first race was a bit slow but near the end the wind picked up dramatically with some 25 knots gusts rolling through. the second race i placed second lats but first. Finally the third race was to be held out the front with the wind steady. coming back in the wind had died and the tide running against us, so it would be slow coming in.

Bargara Bash

On Sunday the 23rd of May the annual Bargara Bash was held. This race was race was a long one although the forcast was 15-20 knots it was only about 10 to 12 knots which make it fairly slow a pokey race easpecially becasue most of the course was downwind. Now to me. Most of the race was I was leading easpecially upwind. Once i had passed the bouy at Bargara it was a downwind run back to the club, in which Jarrod the other paper tiger sailor beat me on.

On Sunday my sailing coach Mark Sweeny came over to have a look at the progress of the restoration. While he was here he gave Dad and I some usful advise on pullie systems for the downhaul, boom vang, baby stays and halyard. He also showed us some tips on making a cleet for the main sheet, making the traveller and traveller car run smoother and wheather we should replace the stays for the mast.

Thursday the 13th of May Dad and I sanded back the deck of the boat for the water proofing resin. We also received the trampoline back stitched up and ready for assembaly onto the boat. Now it is time to finish the resin, lace the trampoline and get rigging together, there for the boat is ready for tesing and in the water under some strain which will be in the next week or so.

During the week Dad and i tightened the mast wires so it wouldnt pop out of the mast step. We also changed the different wire fittings around so that it would it better.

Mast is up

Saturday the first of May Dad and I finished the first stages of putting the new beams on so that we could stand the mast up and change the rigging, the wire lengths, sail settings, halyard pullies etc..

Monday the third we started to unstitch, cut and mark out an old trampoline that we are recycling. This week we hope to take the pieces of trampoline to the upholsterer to be made up into the final product - a stretchable trampoline with eyelets, bolt ropes and hems . In doing this there was some careful maths required to reduce wastage.

first stages of paper tiger catamaran restoration

The first stages of the paper tiger restoration is of course buy the boat. To buy the boat we had too bid on it which was an agonising prosecss. After five long minutes we had won it for $300. The next day we had organised to pick it up from its home in Gympie. on Sunday the 28th of march we arrived at Paul's house about 2:30pm. Once we were there we gathered all the gear that was with it, put it in the trailers sail box, lifted the boat onto the trailer tied the mast and the boat down and set off for home. When we got home we unloaded the Paper Tiger onto the grass and took all the gear out of the sail box ontothe ground. After wer had taken the trailer back to the people we borrowed it from we started to scrap and sand the boat back so we could water proof it, but we had struck a problem there was a two rotton pieces of wood under the deck. So we had to remove the deck and replace the wood for structural saftey. once the new pieces of wood were in we fibreglassed them in and placed the deck back onto the hulls. After the deck was on we could putty and glass up the join. Finally the deck was on so we could start putting the water proofing mixture onto the rest of the deck(s). when the putty mixture was dry we started to sand it back and putting the new for me but second hand galvanised beams onto the boat (in near perfect condition). But... we struck a problem the bolts weren't long enough to go through a strengthing beam through the deck and up the beams.( this is a s far as we have gotten so far with the boat)