Tag: Australia

Summer dinghy sailing at Inverloch, Victoria

So far we’ve had a mercifully mild winter, but lots of us are no doubt looking forward to summer and the water.

https://www.magisto.com/video/K1kbYlxSHywqThJiCzE

But down at the wooden dinghy regatta at Inverloch in Australia, they’ve been having broad sunshine, blue seas and fine dinghy sailing. And following their annual regatta local Jeff Cole tells me they’re already working on the next one.

Jeff’s particularly proud of the progress the revived Sailfish class has been making, by the way. From the gallery pictures on the Sailfish class website, I’d say they were doing very well indeed.

Square sails drove small boats before the spinnaker

Before the spinnaker, even small boats sometimes had square sails. Not to mention every duster and teacloth in the house… See examples on the Openboat.au rigs and sails page, with no doubt many more to come. My thanks to designer, boatbuilder and sailmaker Michael Storer for the tip. See his boat plans website and Facebook page.

http://www.openboat.com.au/index.html

 

Australia’s 18-ft skiffs and 14 Footers

A little Australian moment, with links from Michael Storer’s always interesting Storer Boat Plans Facebook page.

First (above), a stunning, award-winning piece of 1970 film about Sydney Harbour’s 18ft skiffs. They have a great history – Joshua Slocum mentions seeing them at Sydney in his solo round the world account Sailing Alone Around the World.

And then there’s this article about  the history of Australia’s 14 Footers, a very different development from the Uffa Fox influenced International 14s that developed in the UK.