Wooden Boat Festival, Part Two

So, I was invited to sail on Sunday, and despite my lack of gear or terminology, off I went. The morning sail was the Lobster Pot challenge: boats race to find the pots, pull them up and collect a wooden token inside; first one back is the winner. We... ahem... experienced some difficulty involving our rudder and the limpet-like twisty turny lobster line. Anyhoo, it's all about the taking part!

So, having come last (twice) we made it back to the pier in time for the Carbery Timber boat race. People had been working on these boats all day Saturday: each team gets a bunch of wood and some double-sided stickey tape, and has a day to design and build a seaworthy craft. During the Build, some looked like kennels, others like coffins, one was straight out of Star Wars. By Sunday morning they were painted and christened: for names, I had joint favourites: 'The Sneaky Badger' and 'This Way Up' (which, it transpired, was sadly misnamed). And with a great audience lining the pier and the square and all the docked boats, the little makey-uppey boats launched out to sea.

Some... well some experienced difficulty in staying afloat; there's clearly a knack between balance and momentum, and design I guess. Slowly, the first one sank, to thunderous applause & roars. Other boats zoomed off, and the sturdy crafts ended up ramming and battling each other until each boat went under. Outstanding entertainment, and a brilliant effort by all.



And then, with a little break to taste fare of the seafoodey kind, off we went to race again. As we set off, we... ahem... experienced some proximity-related difficulty with another boat (I believe the term is t-boning). Anyhoo, it's all about the taking part. So having come not quite last, we finished off with the Parade of Sail, where we strutted our collective stuff. And oh my goodness, there was much stuff to strut:



I kept resisting the temptation to go all Grace Kelly and declare 'Oh, she was yar!!'

Back on land, there were sunshiney pints and prizes galore, fabulous hats, cajun music, pizzas, much slagging, newly-arrived visitors and more pints and a great session in the Algiers.



Colombo-like, we had just onnnnnne more drink when we got home, and finally, the Festival was ended.

An outstanding weekend :-)