Saving Old Seagulls

Hi Guys,
We attended the Nationals at Port Macquarie NSW last Saturday. The event was held over 3 days but we could only be there on the Saturday. About half of the boats did not turn up as the weather leading up to the event was less than ordinary with heavy rain and thunderstorms but on Saturday although a bit overcast was just perfect for playing. there was an organised long trip starting at Telegraph Point and steaming down the Hastings River to the caravan park at Edgewater and was planned to be a 2.5 hour trip. About 4 hours later they started to turn up. Unfortunately the trip was against the tide and a few "cease to proceed" happened as Seagulls don't break down. So once all the boats were safely back and the stories began and it was a great feeling of achievement by all who did the trip. Here are some pics of the boats.

More pics

Last lot

Great pics Cobba, thanks for sharing.

Janine Anne is a beautiful thing. I'm talking about the boat of course, so hope not to offend by that comment.

Regards,
Spiro

Thanks for posting Cobbadog nice variety of boats.

John

AusAnzani wrote:Great pics Cobba, thanks for sharing. Janine Anne is a beautiful thing. I'm talking about the boat of course, so hope not to offend by that comment. Regards,Spiro

Is that a Couta boat? Circa 1870 -1930. Love it.

Well, as cobba has posted, the 2017 Nationals have been run and 'won'.

And there were no 'losers' - despite two of the boats requiring towing in the final stages due to their Seagulls impersonating steam engines!

Janine Anne is indeed a beatiful boat, hand-built by owner Kevin Isles, and won the Hal Harpur traditional Boat Build Award from the WBA (NSW) a few years back.

The long white boat with the shark mouth artwork is the organiser's new Seagull boat - a 20ft ply/epoxy thing built by a Brisbane-ite, with scantlings designed for running aground on coral - ie: heavy, with 10mm hull sides and bottom, and 20mm transom. Went OK apart from dropping the fuel cap overboard.....

Also attending were Graham and Karen in the 13' Fairlite Gull, complete with aftermarket bowsprit and jib/genoa; Andrew in the black-painted Savage Gull 'tinnie'; Keith in the small green wooden boat 'Sassafras'; John(1) and John(2) from 'The Clarence' in John(2)'s home-built ply sailboat, which unsurprisingly sailed faster on the last km or two than it had in the upper reaches under 40 Series power alone; Don from Brisbane in the borrowed Porta-Bote, smokin' along due to having experimented with 'a bit' of engine oil in the 'mix'; plus the 6' DevilCat tender that cobba was unable to use as his motor 'failed to proceed'.

The 'Seagull Trivia Quiz' was hotly contested - well, by most teams (you know who you are) - and was won by Graham and Karen who collected a very nice canvas duffle bag which may or may not have had a Seagull logo embroidered on it. Ahem.

More pics coming once they are collated.

Hi hugs,
I'm sorry but I'm not qualified to answer your question about the build or maybe the style of build of the boat. Maybe Buzzook can answer your question and pull me out of the deep stuff.

I thought Couta's had keels, well sort of, I had a ride in one in Melbourne 20 years ago.

True. They were sailing fishing boats and with the advent of the combustion motor they faded out of existence. I don't know if the smaller ones had centreboards and a skeg keel.....

Local Couta rebuilt as inboard.

It did have provision for a centre board actually a couple of them did.

Yeah, not sure what the design is, but it's way too small to be a couta boat, and is much too slender.

The builder, Kevin, is a bit internet phobic, but I'l see what I can get from him.