Saving Old Seagulls

Last friday I threw a couple of gulls on the back of the wagon and drove the 360kms from my place to the home of Simply Seagulls on the banks of the Waitara river.
Jan and Graham Keegan host a series of races on the saturday and a bbq get together every year . A few others joined me in their motor homes as I pitched canvas for the night and the stories started to flow as the rum went down . I retired early but the locals weren't going to let me off easy and periodical let off fireworks to make sure I wasn't going to be too refreshed in the morning .
A brisk northerly and light rain meet the 30 boats as proceedings got underway , which improved to driving rain around start of the first race propper . Run in two classes , two up and singles it was to be 3 laps from the town bridge to the main road bridge a distance of about 1km . I was so far back at the finish, but closing fast after some minor drama mid race and rather disappointed to find the race was shortened to two laps . As to who came where I can't tell you but most of those a head of me weren't real boats so I was pretty pleased .
We retired to the Simply Seagulls workshop were Jan's daughters had turned on a BBQ lunch for all those present , and everyone made an attempt to dry out ( at least in Auckland in only rains for five minutes ) . With a pending Southerly change forecast due at an increased velocity in the interest of safety further racing was abandoned .
Needless to say cans where cracked and the gull riders do what they do.
Thanks to the Keegans a very enjoyable outing . Cheers

As I have been forwarded results I'm now able to post
Results.

Race 1 Sprint

1st John Leith, New Plymouth
2nd Gary & Ben Fitzgibbon, New Plymouth
3rd Al Ward, Hamilton
4th Ted Heath & John Heslop, Auckland

Race 2. 4.5 h.p.

1st Gavin Fabish, Waitara
2nd Mark McMurty, Far North
3rd Graham Keegan, Waitara
4th Paul Gilchrist, Snells Beach

2 up

1st Les & Crew, Whangamata
2nd Jim McAuslin Auckland & Sam Holmes New Plymouth
3rd Gary & Ben Fitzgibbon
4th Haden & Gordon, Waitara

2.5 h.p.

1st Wayne Birdling, Waitara
2nd John Leith, New Plymouth
3rd Steve & Connor Nicholls, New Plymouth.

If you where bloody lucky you got a party cap .
Jan had made some awsome caps out of the cans Graham has been "collecting".
Good sorts .
This is going straight to the pool room .
(all my Tassie mates will under stand this is high praise , all you pommes are in the dark as per normal )

Tell me, Chilli Dog, are you spelling 'Poms' the right way?

I can hear Graham now "your running short of hat components, OK dear, I'll empty some more cans for you".

A man's work is never done!

Tui is a green beer as it's very close to urine, before you drink it!

Charlie , you can spell "poms" any way I like WGAF ?
Tui at least is served at an appropriate temperature . not like your swill which is as warm as piss !

I thought it was "POHM, property of his Majesty".

Printed on the convicts packing cases.

H-A

P.S. Chilli D at least we are not the only one to get a bit of rain.

I never saw those cases they where all shipped some where else !!!

Follow Up 2012

It started out not too bad, then the weather turned atrocious!!

The 2nd race was called off after 2of3 laps as it was raining so hard!! Most people were thoroughly wet and cold, so the rest of the racing was called off. Also, there was a bit of debris coming down the river. Of course, it came out fine after almost everybody had pulled their boats out of the water and got themselves into dry gear!!

Even so, it was a good social occasion with some 30 boats plus 3 support vessels. We had a great barbecue, etc., and everybody was happy.

Interesting Boats

Photos of Chaos at the Start & River Scenes

Various Competitors