Published by the Open Canoe Sailing Group

Battered But Unbowed At Bala (RoyB)

And so the weekend progressed. In spite of the inclement conditions, we had some good sailing, driven by the excitement of the season's first outing on the water. Except for GrahamH, who had left his canoe on the grass about 30 ft from the water. Come Sat morning, no canoe! It was later spotted, beached a fair

Map (originally published in The Gossip in March 2006).

distance down the lake where the wind had blown it. SteveR and WalterG towed it back to base. The decking had sustained some damage.

About 17 canoes wet their bottoms over the weekend. At one point I counted 12 resting on the beach, of which only one had no outrigger. A trend has been established, but you will see that monohulls took leading positions in the race. However, had there been no outriggers, far fewer members would have ventured out in the occasionally wild conditions. The meet was given extra spice by the launching of 5 new boats, so we stood chatting on the beach in the biting northerlies longer than one might have expected. By late Saturday morning white horses were galloping down the lake, but a bay protected by the alluvial flat on which we camped offered a relatively calm area for putting new projects to the test.

Pride of place went to Penny and PeterO's single outrigger paddling/sailing canoe, a scaled down version of a traditional New Zealand craft, which they had noticed on a trip down under. It's a quite beautiful boat, a credit to the builders, Solway Dory. Personally, I thought it looked particularly fine shooting across the lake with its red sail driving well. I'm sure it must have given some members ideas about future plans.

Both the editor and TerryB introduced their new home-built double outrigger canoes to the water; the former a 14.5 ft Solway Dory design, the latter a 16 ft Selway Fisher specially adapted for Terry. [Only the central hull of TerryB's trimaran was designed by Selway Fisher. Terry is responsible for everything else on the craft. - Ed.] Heavily reefed, the two behaved very well. It's the first

Two new home-built trimarans; left, RoyB's Solway Dory and right, TerryB's Selway Fisher design. Both are heavily reefed, although the water in the lee of the campsite looks fairly flat.

time I have sailed such a craft and I was impressed by the way it simply accelerated in the gusts, without my having to counter heel or pull on any ropes.

I noticed DaveP pouring buckets of water into an outrigger with a leeboard attached at a crazy angle. It turned out that he was trying out a sort of Bruce (is that the name?) foil. It seemed to work when filled, but later the empty outrigger caught a crab when tacking and deposited

The rescue of DaveP. The experimental outrigger is raised in the air, detached from the main hull, which can be seen on its side.

Dave in the water. The OCSG rescue squad swung into action. No ill effects. Perhaps he'll fill us in on the experiment at a later date.

Finally GavinM, not a member but a very competent sailor, judging by his performance in the Sunday race, took delivery of a monohull from Solway Dory. He waited until the late afternoon before going on the lake, when the wind gradually weakened and then died away. The early afternoon was taken up by a hail/snow storm, complete with clap of thunder, which eventually gave

way to a fine opportunity for sailing as the sun came out. The white mountains to the west looked splendid as the sun sank behind them, throwing a path of gold across the water.

And on Sunday we managed a good race. It began in light airs

Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh, what a beautiful day, I've got that si-inking feeling, a hoolie is coming our way. The fleet at the start of the race.

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