Myora New Year 2011

 Rainbow Myora

 Zena and Zeus our "Z"-( I require a tug) code cushions purchased on a trip to the National Maritime Museum in Sydney last September.

 Sunset Myora

 Sunset Myora

 Our Christmas Lights!

 Morning at Myora

Myora Anchorage

After a very wet few weeks (Monsoonal) over Christmas we waited patiently for the weather to improve before finally setting sail for Myora (Western coast of North Stradbroke Is) on Wednesday Dec 29 2010. The day was grey with winds gusting to 36 knots from the South and at one stage I noticed we were travelling at 10.7 knots through the water. Yee Ha! We stayed at Myora for 5 days returning via a short stop at Green Is on Monday 3 January 2011. At Myora we caught up with friends Rod and Sue and family on their Lavranos 56 Etosha and Chris and Sue on their Adams 31 Noahs Ark. Lion Rampant had festive lights this year and looked very pretty after sunset. A new experience for us was a fresh water swim at Myora Springs. Delightful. We only returned to Manly because we ran out of fresh food and clothes!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Happy New Year!!

Brisbane has been all rain, rain, rain for ages now. We have not let this stop us from going out on the boat though. We were out a couple of weekends ago and had a range of weather from sunny at Horseshoe to storms with thunde and lightning which drove us down to Caniapa for the night and than an overcast Sunday at horseshoe where we met up with Craig and Luci fron Pabati. Last weekend we went out in company with Skimmer and aluminium Sayer yacht. A very pretty yacht with a superb open plan fitout down below. We were impressed and surprised when we discovered it was aluminium.
After boxing day we are hoping that the weather improves so that we can take off in the boat for a week. Doesn't look promising so far.

Blakesleys Cruise

At last the weather was good for a weekend cruise. Winds were from the ESE so we sailed to Blakesleys setting off early Saturday morning arriving at around 9:15AM. Blakesleys is a small sandy beach between Dunich and Canaipa on the Western shore of North Stradbroke Island. The WMYC cruising group arrived at lunch time and we joined them for a chat on the beach with sundowners later on Rob and Annette's boat 'White Star'.

The picture above is all that is left of a wrecked yacht on a sandbank adjacent to Blakesleys. The picture below shows what it looked like back in May 2010.

Back in the water tomorrow!

Lion Rampant will return to the water tomorrow. We felt quite lost not being able to use her this last weekend.

Lion Rampant Repairs!

Lion Rampant being launched with the new paint job last December.

Lion Rampant will be slipped next Tuesday for new antifoul. Should be back in the water by the following weekend.

Combined Clubs Race August

 Sally and Martin
(Note Martin is on the helm here! How did that happen? I will have to buy a new tube of araldite!)

 Martin

 Jacq

Kate and Jacq "Love those bandannas!"

We had a great race last Sunday. The crew were Martin, Sally, Jacq, Kate and Chris who took the photos. The wind started at around 15 knots from the NE and built to about 20 to 25 knots direction varied. By the end of the race the wind was swinging westerly. We began the race without knowing what the day's course was and were unsure until we were quite close to Mud Island. The course turned out to be start to Locker light to Hope Banks around Mud Island back out to Hope Banks to the Locker Light and the finish. We had a very good start and kept going on one long tack out past hope Banks the first leg before tacking out to Mud and this seemed to be a good move. We popped the kite at the NW of Mud and held it out to Hope Banks where we had our first ever broach in Lion Rampant. This occured becuase of a number of things going slightly askew at the same time. We were about to drop the kite and were trying to hoist the genoa but it got caught on a knob on the cartridge (which it has never done before) and the cartridge came off the forestay. We had two crew to leeward ready to pull the kite in under the boom so there was not enough weight in the rail. Once the boat went into the broach I could do nothing with the helm and I had no option other than to dump the kite sheet until the trouble on the foredeck was sorted. It all worked out in the end but we did lose a bit of time. But hey it was fun and an adventure and that is what it is all about!!

Presidents Cup Short Handed Series 2010

No pictures taken during the race but doesn't the duco look beautiful?? A bit of an 'All about me day'.

 

Berthing after the finish!

Waiting for the start

Harnessed!

Preparation before the start

Yesterday was the first of a three day series for short handed and solo sailors hosted on Moreton Bay by Wynnum Manly Yacht Club. Since last year's Presidents Cup I have felt a desire to try saling our boat alone just to prove to myself that I can do it. Also a valuable skill level for me to have should Martin ever go overboard and I have to take over. The forecast for yesterday was for 18 to 20 knots SSE so Lion Rampant was prudently set up with two reefs in the main (handkerchief size)! and the number three genoa. I kept out of the way of the big guns for the start and was soon near the back with my two reefs. They had to go! So I dropped one out and didn't notice that a knot had become jammed under a halyard on the front of the mast preventing me from hoisting the main further up. It looked bad with wrinkles so I decided I had nothing to lose by dropping out the second reef as it was only about 8 knots anyway and I felt it was unlikely to come in a whole lot stronger that afternoon. I dropped the second reef out and after a great deal of time trying to get the fat splodgy reefing lines to run by reaching out over the water to yank on them at the boom I had success. I discovered the trapped knot on the mast when I went forward to deal with the reef lines. With the main now all the way up speed was a little better but we were now so far behind that it was a miracle that we managed to catch and pass anybody. Second folly of the day was that I had elected to sail the series with 'no spinnaker'. I am hoping I can some how rectify this for the next race as I was the only boat with no spinnaker and it was frustrating. But I feel a great sense of achievement for having sailed the boat alone from Manly around Peel Island and back. It was a magnificent day. Can't wait for the next race! Martin sailed with Lindsay Granger in the short handed (maximin two people) on Lindsay's boat "Transition" a Young Galaxy 8.5 and they did very well finishing 2nd line honors!

Jessica Watson Welcome Home

Day 3 - The next day we sailed Lion Rampant back down the coast to Manly in 20 to 25 knot SW winds. This trip took 12 hours as we were beating into it most of the way. The crew for this trip was Sally, Martin and Jacqui Valk. It was freezing cold even with mutiple layers under wet weather gear so I will be buying some thermals before next weekend!! Jacqui seems to love extremely windy sailing and had me laughing till I cried at one stage.

Ella's Pink Lady outside Mooloolaba Yacht Club

Indigenous welcome!

Lady Margaret

Ella's Pink Lady coming into the Marina

Ella's Pink Lady surrounded by the welcoming flotilla!

Jacqui Valk

Trevor Hill on his boat Apriori in which he recently completed the Solo Trans Tasman Race placing first monohull. With Trevor are Jen Wilks and Chris Spurgeon.

Martin showing his pink bits! All crews and welcoming crowds made a huge effort to wear something pink to welcome Jessica.

Jessica's secret rig?

Police escort! I have only ever been offered one of these twice when pulled over for misdemeanours!!

Kate Greenwood

Jessica and Ella's Pink Lady sailing up the coast from Caloundra.

Day 2 - On the Sunday Jessica was due to arrive in her yacht Ella's Pink Lady at around 12:30 so we set off at around 9am to sail down the coast towards Caloundra to meet her. The wind was SW at around 20 to 30 knots. We joined a large flotilla of around 50 boats to sail with Jessica up the coast. She was also accompanied by police boats and helicopters. Large groups of people lined the shore to see her sail past. It was a stunning spectacle to see all the boats zipping around Jessica's yacht. Our crew for this day was Sally and Martin plus Kate Greenwood, Lady Margaret and Jacqui Valk.

Lady Margaret, Chris Spurgeon and Kate Greenwood.

Glasshouse Mountains between Bribie and Caloundra!

Kate's extraordinary Duck salad and necessary accompaniments!
Photo Chris Spurgeon

Sally, Lady Margaret and Martin.
Photo Chris Spurgeon

Early morning departure from the marina at Manly for the sail up to Mooloolaba on the first day. Photo Chris Spurgeon

Lion Rampant and her crew have just had a wonderful weekend. Friday evening we stayed on the boat in the marina so that we could set off at first light to sail up from Bisbane to Mooloolaba. We had NW to SW winds of 10 to 20 knots which made it a fabulous spinnaker ride for a lot of the way up the coast. The trip took us 9 hours. Our crew for the trip up to Mooloolaba were Sally, Martin, Margaret (Lady Margaret), Kate Greenwood and Chris Spurgeon.

Lion Rampant's Story

The Lion Rampant Crest on our stern!


Lion Rampant at Peel Island


Lion Rampant the day she was launched with the new paint job!

Funatic before the repaint and rename "LION RAMPANT"

Lady Skippers Race 2009

INTRODUCTION

Lion Rampant is a Young 88 yacht designed by New Zealander Jim Young and built in 1983. Her first owner named her Funatic but after owning her for three years we have just changed her name to Lion Rampant. My husband Martin is Scottish by birth and used to sail a laser he called Lion Rampant. The Lion Rampant is the Royal Standard of Scotland (a Scottish battle flag).

Martin and I race and cruise Lion Rampant around Moreton Bay in Queensland Australia.

THE DAY WE BOUGHT FUNATIC!!

Martin and I had considered many boat designs before we purchased the Young 88 "Funatic". Apart from Young 88's we also looked for a Ross 930 but could not find one. Our goal was to find a reasonably fast but comfortable cruiser/racer! At the time we were looking there were two Young 88's for sale in Brisbane. We looked at a boat called "War Canoe" first but it was not the boat for us so we went to look at the second boat. For both of us it was love at first sight! We sat and talked with the owners for a couple of hours. It was weeks later (agonising) that we finally made an offer. The day we motored the boat to our berth I felt as if we were stealing the boat. It was just so hard to believe that it was finally ours!

Since that day we have done much cruising and racing in our boat.