Where it started-- Part 2

More pics from my first 18... 1992-93 summer
The dinosaur as it was known... above pic using reef in No.3 rig in super fresh classic Sydney Harbour N/E... some experts mite say we look like "high trapping" but with the old flip flop wings this is how you had to do it... otherwise the wings would flip up under your legs and your head would end up on the side of the hull, happened a few times and was super painfull

Nice pic of leaving Double Bay beach... and me and big Cam sailing off before Tony could climb on... notice twin hydraulics on foredeck for adjusting main stays and D2s, made for perfect rig tuning to suit conditions, but when they leaked lovely red hydraulic oil down thru the back deck and mixed with the wet stuff... well slip slide tacks where what we called it

Noticeable also are the super long boom and huge rudder outrigger... everything on these older skiffs was huge and heavy, but she was a nice fast ride, and we could still carry her to the water!!!!... also notice the tiny "wings" near the water line at bow, apparently someone very cleaver added these over the years to try to stop nose dives... wasnt too affective so we cut them off, and we think improved speed overall cause they where not dragging thru the water all the time... they may have even helped nosedive better!!!!!!!!!

When we took over the dinosaur she was nearly 10 years old and looking very tired... with the hydros giving massive rig tensions the hull was very soft under rig load and had a full concave deck all the way to the bow... so we decided to rebuild before summer racing started... off with the foredeck and all main bulkheads where found to be broken under mast step, this hull was one of the early carbon prepreg and nomex mega bucks 1980s boats and with its age most of the fittings where attached using alloy plates, but those alloy plates near carbon for 10 years meant they where now just white dust...we repaired and fitted new bulkheads and new "flat" foredeck to give the hull some structural strenght again... fordeck was so big it looked like a runway... then we added new paint and some big diagonal stripes across full deck... the mast now sat up on top of foredeck instead of low down near centreboard, giving the hull much more strenght under rig loads, and mast had to be cut down to suit... the big rig was nearly 100mm diameter and all rigs had alloy "Goldspar" tips

After a massive pre season rebuid we where ready to race... and with me and Tony being in our first year on a big old skiff, we where both happy to have big Cam to show us the ropes as he had sailed the WestCoast for the 2 previous seasons... made for a great maiden season at the League

This one shows super big rig... massive rig height over 1 meter higher than todays No1, and very quick in the lite stuff for a big old heavy boat... and with no self tacker, the giant overlapping jib really helped

Great old boat and plenty of fun... and big thanks to Cam Ivers for asking me to come aboard the West Coast Cooler

Comments all welcome... if anyones reading this!!!!!!!!