Goolwa Aquatic Club - 15th of April 2012

[rayza1]

Hi Guys, back home safe and sound after Goolwa. Relatively uneventful trip with exception of having to tighten virtualy every nut and bolt on the boat after the road trip and forgeting the steering wheel nut which fell off on the Saturday shake down run, after much laughter we got that one sorted only to have the bloody throttle cable break on the form up lap in front of the huge crowd on Sunday and as far as i know being the only boat to be "rescued" (towed in) by the bored rescue boat crew. SOOOOO EMBARASSING !! Apart from blowing a trailer tyre at 110k on the way home last night and the associated change of underware that followed the trip was fantastic. Many thanks to anyone who had anything to do with Goolwa it was a brilliant weekend with awesome boats and wonderful company We will be back! Ray and Carol

[DaveD]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who made the trip to Goolwa, it really made it a great weekend. I've had many comments from people involved and the public as well.
Ray, there was one person who came away from the weekend with some very serious damage to his hull after hitting an object at speed. That was Bruce in "Crackerbox", with much help from many people we managed to get it off the bottom at the bank and back on the trailer. Once the extent of the damage was seen, he was very lucky to make it back to the bank without sinking. Bruce now has the job of repairing the boat he only recently completed building?!
Here is a link to some great photos.
Dave
http://adamfisherphotography.com/galler ... Ni5qcGc%3D

[Thommo]

It was great to meet you guys who come from interstate,
I didn't get to meet you all, but thanks to everyone coming over to support this event.

Unfortunate to hear of Bruces damage, I didn't know that it had happened.
He wont be the only one with some repairs to do though it seems.
I was surprised to see just how hard some of you guys pushed your vintage boats.
It really made for some spectacular action. Plenty of OOO's & ARRR's from the huge crowd.
Renegade & Cherdith thrilled with some high flying and had many cameras aimed on them just waiting for their next flight.
It was just awesome to watch what these boats from the fifties & sixties are capable of.

Ray, you weren't alone in having to be towed back unfortunatly
In the last skiff heat in Linda-K, I first had a ram tube from one webber, drop onto my leg, which I caught 'one hand one bounce'
It didn't affect the motor, so I just held it and kept my foot planted
Only to see the the venturi also drop out into the bottom of the hull
It then started to spray fuel back onto me, at which point I had to lift and cruise off the coarse out of harms way
Then came the emdarassing part
The only positive was I had a box seat to watch Renagede & Rebound duke it out around the bouys
in a sensational display of vintage skiff racing.

Here's some pics from saturday's Goolwa Aquafest


















This model was in the buick


















This is a shot of the river side of the club saturday night during the members dinner.
Us boaties all went to the Goolwa hotel for a meal.

[Thommo]

some random pics from sunday's Goolwa Aquafest












The skiffs assembling behind the start boat Nanilon, heading for the start line. heat 1













Cheers
Jeff

[Greg]

Back now from Goolwa.

I've parked the boat in the shed, had some dinner and am in the process of demolishing a 2009 Rosemount Shiraz all by myself (Darren, it is very good),while reflecting on what can only be described as fantastic weekend. Well organised in every respect, it was a pleasure to be a part of. As a participant, I was made very welcome and was very well looked after.

The GAC created something special over this weekend. I can see this becoming a regular event.

Recognition should be given to CAWPBA member Dave Drewer for his contribution in organising the event. Thanks Dave for a great effort.

Greg

PS Did I mention the weather? It was perfect!

[Darren]

Yes I concur with all comments made. My family and I had a wonderful 4 day break.
The crowd numbers and boat numbers should send a sharp wake up call to those involved
In organizing some of the other "serious" race meetings. Families want to be entertained!
the things bobbing around in the water provide the entertainment regardless of what type the are, or how much they cost.
Goolwa was well organized, family and spectator friendly, all involved in making it that way should take a bow. (Dave Drewer special mention as one of us)
As for the nominations for funniest item for the W/E.
Mine has to go to Dave P who carries a spare radiator in their car.....really
Maybe someone else has one?

Darren (Ron Wood aaagh)

[bootlegger]

Darren all I can say is I would still be on the hay plain if I didnt have it. I guess im a good boy scout.
God I hope I make it home.

[hookster]

Ok, this is how I came to be at the Goolwa event, in dot point form for simplicity:
-I purchase a car on Ebay in Adelaide, sight unseen, described as having "minor hail damage, mainly on the roof and bonnet" I thought "That can't be too bad can it?"
-Saturday morning I climb aboard a Virgin bound for Sydney, then another Virgin carts me on to Adelaide. All going very smoothly at this stage.
-I dismount second Virgin in Adelaide at the airport and strap myself into a taxi which was piloted by - you wouldn't believe it - A Turk. And no he wasn't a virgin, and seemed quite happy to duck, dive, dodge, and weave through heavy traffic with about a 2 meter following distance from the car in front. Did I mention my destination? Virginia. Turk says to me with big flashy smile, "I not been to Virginia for a year, this is good day for me"
-Arrive at dusty semi-rural shed and lay my eyes on the slightly hail damaged car, and another male of middle eastern descent standing nearby. I make a quick assessment of the situation, and conclude that there is a high probability of things going pear shaped in a big way, so I say to The Turk, "F&#k, you better wait here mate, keep the f%$#kn meter running" (knowing that he would anyway)..his day is getting better and better, while mine is slipping rapidly in the opposite direction.
-As far as I was concerned the deal was off, and would have been had I not spent the day getting there. A terse conversation then ensued between myself and Mister Middle East. (I noticed that The Turk had taken the opportunity to turn his taxi around, edge it closer to the exit, and he'd wound his windows up) Ooops I'm running out of room, see part II below....

[hookster]

Part II:
-Things then seemed to level out a bit between myself and Mr M/E...maybe one or two degrees away from a physical confrontation, which I was bound to come out on the bottom of. Mr M/E had by that stage called for back-up, which arrived in a HSV R8, black of course, and no doubt another of his hail damaged experiments. His back-up was obviously a brother or cousin...they all tend to look the same, and I also felt that The Turk was likely to side with his kin. I recalled that people from those parts of the world like to barter, and the upshot was that a deal was done, with the original price of the car discounted.
-So I pay for the car, pay The Turk (He would have had a family feast on me that night...did I also mention that he came to Australia as a young Turk about 20 years ago, then flew back and married his next door neighbour's daughter, who he then brought back out to Australia? I wanted to ask him if that was an arranged affair, but thought better of it)
-So I drive off down to Goolwa, yearning for some familiar faces and friendship, only to arrive there and have my new car instantly nicknamed THE GOLF BALL. Thanks a lot Alan

Seriously now, what I saw and experienced at Goolwa was absolutely fantastic. I will be back with family next time, and will probably tow a boat over there too. If Dave P can do what he did, anyone can Well done Dave D, and thanks also to Darren for letting me sit in Scrubcat and rev it to 3000 so Alan could check the timing.

Finally, the Rolling Stones were in town that night, and Ronnie Wood found his way to an after party at our place:

ronnie wood.JPG

[hookster]

I hope this photo will open, the one above didn't seem to want to:

ronnie wood.JPG (72.32 KiB) Viewed 6410 times