The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

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DESIGNERS Mark Chew DESIGNERS Mark Chew

Utzon Updates

Jørn Utzon’s own house is currently for sale in a Danish forest. The house designed by the architect behind the Sydney Opera House, has come to market in Hellebæk, Denmark, where it stands in a clearing surrounded by forest. Built in 1951 as Utzon’s own home and workplace, it is now protected as a work of Danish modernism.

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Sal Balharrie Sal Balharrie

MATILDA RADIO // Surviving The Straits of Bonifacio

So, on leaving Porto Cervo, on our way to Bonifacio, we pulled out the headsail. Rather a big sea state. Next thing, we’re sailing over the sail. The entire thing is under the boat. Only two of us on board. Listen to the full story EPISODE 16 // WE SURVIVED THE STRAITS OF BONIFACIO.

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DESIGNERS, RACING Mark Chew DESIGNERS, RACING Mark Chew

The Right Stuff

Many of those returning from the conflict of 1939-1945 were soon pursuing new activities where they could find some small element of the excitement (and dangers) of wartime service. So began modern – and for many years extraordinarily dangerous – motor racing, as did the idea to race small yachts for long distances, two-handed and later solo

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REGATTAS, RACING Mark Chew REGATTAS, RACING Mark Chew

Racing From Home

We all knew that the design would excel to windward, but the downwind in gusts of 30 was going to test our experience. Should we leave the kite in the bag? When the foredeck crew decided to bring the kite on deck “just in case”, we knew we were going to fly it.

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DINGHIES Mark Chew DINGHIES Mark Chew

From The Garage to the Water: BYRA's Youth Timber Boat Building Programme

The result is a genuine come-one-come-all setup: it's explicitly built as an entry point for kids who've never sailed before, and — refreshingly — there's no programme fee at all. That's no small thing for a hobby that can otherwise feel like a rich-kid sport. It's only running for the first time this year, but the club's already planning to make it a regular fixture, especially since interest has been strong from the get-go.

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RACING, WRITING Mark Chew RACING, WRITING Mark Chew

Solent Sojourn

Well, Mr Know-it-all, here you are on a very skinny foredeck belonging to 'Athena', a gorgeous racing 8-Metre yacht, owned by a Peer of the Realm, Lord Jonathan of Cork, who has assumed from your Australian accent that you are the very bee's-knee's of foredeck hands, (despite being the oldest person on the boat), and miracles of calm efficiency are expected ! Oh, and did I mention I am nursing a shoulder cuff injury from a previous attempt at biting off more than I could chew.

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BOOK REVIEWS Mark Chew BOOK REVIEWS Mark Chew

Shanker

Thomas is a "seascraper," or "shanker," earning a meagre living by using a horse-drawn cart to trawl for shrimp on the beach, which he then sells to a local distributer for a meagre return. He is only twenty years old, but endures the physically demanding work to support himself and his mother, continuing the craft he learned from his grandfather. Although he respects this hard, repetitive life, Thomas’s secret passion is for making folk music — a dream he hides from the his mother for fear of being ridiculed.

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WRITING Mark Chew WRITING Mark Chew

TRIFFID II- Part Two

By the time I’m 10 years old, I can keep a 2 hour watch, trim sail as needed, track our knotmeter (a glass tube I dangle over the stern on my belly, watching the little red ball bubble up–until I can just stay right side up and guess it pretty accurately based on a number of things i can’t even enumerate) and my printing is disciplined enough to keep decent log entries if anything changes

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ADVENTURE Mark Chew ADVENTURE Mark Chew

The Margaret Pearl Adventure- Part 2, Painting and Preparing

This reel covers some of the preparation of Margaret Pearl for the trip. As we were on board recording the footage that follows, I moved a sail bag on the deck which bumped a bucket which knocked over the tripod on which my mobile phone was mounted which fell onto the rail of Margaret Pearl and ejected my mobile phone from its Mount into about 4 m of water in the berth at St Kilda. The whole scene was very reminiscent of the game of mousetrap

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Blow Your Stack!

But all this is no excuse for the STAR CLIPPER to pump clouds of toxic black exhaust fumes into the sky above the bay for hours on end. They steamed into the anchorage around 0700 with a particularliy nasty belch of fumes and then settled down to emit the steady stream you see in the picture, until we left around mid day. (and who thought it was a good idea to rum the exhaust pipe up the mast!)

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