BoM boating forecasts all at sea

 
  There may be a logical explanation for the apparent lack of reliability in the NSW Bureau of Meteorology boating forecasts. 
  The majority of Afloat readers whether they be in runabouts, yachts, cruisers, fishing vessels or even large coastal cargo vessels sail close inshore and certainly within the 100 fathom line usually in sight of land. 
  Some years ago I was informed by professional charter skippers that they rely on internet weather sources such as buoyweather.com and seabreeze.com.au for their living because they find it more accurate than the Bureau. 
  I have also verified this observation and find the information with wind and waves predicted on a 6-hrly basis up to 7 days in advance, to be much more ‘user friendly’. It is paradoxical that forecasters located say in North America can look at their computer and make better predictions than their counterparts in NSW who have access to the same computer information with the added advantage of local knowledge. 
  I believe the explanation may be that the NSW forecasts include 60 miles to seaward where the weather can be very different to that close inshore, whereas the Internet forecasts are usually closer to shore. 
  It would be interesting to have the Bureau comment on this and discuss the possibility of issuing “close inshore forecasts” formulated in a more user friendly manner. In the meantime I would encourage your readers to try the Internet sources for themselves and see how they compare with the Bureau. 

Bob Wright, 
  Castlecrag. 

BoM on the money 

Buraccuracy 

  The seemingly unresearched letter ‘Weather we do or we don’t’ by Chris Bebb of Brooklyn (Afloat Apr’08) is unfair to the people at the Bureau of Meteorology, and further could get someone killed, so cannot be left unchallenged. 
  In recent storms off southern Queensland, at least five pleasure craft owners ignored the Bureau; three required rescue and two were sunk. 
  In 25 years as a professional seaman I’ve found the information provided by the Bureau very accurate and I don’t know any professional who would discount it. 
  The Bureau consistently gets it right, Chris Bebb’s argument shows the same logic that says smoking is harmless because a few addicts don’t develop complications. 
  The only ‘bashing’ of the Bureau over the 1998 Sydney Hobart forecast came from armchair experts. The official inquiry found the Bureau issued five warnings before the storm hit. The forecasts were for a 45-55 knot storm which was accurate. 
  Their findings indicated glaring deficiencies in some participants’ maritime safety knowledge, and that many “experienced” sailors were unable to use their safety equipment effectively were key factors in the deaths of six sailors and the loss of 12 boats. 
  Anyone going to sea should understand that a forecast gives a mean wind speed and that peak gusts will be considerably higher. You might be lucky and not get those peak gusts but on other occasions you will. A rookie sitting for a coxswain’s certificate is expected to know this but Hobart skippers apparently did not. 
  The Bureau bases forecasts on a worst case scenario given the available data. The facts show a good level of accuracy in weather reporting, there’s always the chance of local variations but the skipper who unnecessarily ignores a storm warning and kills any of his crew deserves a manslaughter charge. 

Trevor Smith, 
  by email. 

Super boats

 
  I refer to your editorial Offshore Powerboat charade on Sydney Harbour (Afloat Apr’08) and feel bound to respond. 
  I was not in Australia for the Sydney Superboat Grand Prix, nor am I a follower of that sport. However, my recollection is that jet skis were banned from the Harbour for loutish and nuisance behaviour generally (more than once I had to call the Water Police to complain about them speeding recklessly through the moored boats in Parsley Bay), not just for noise. 
  Further, your comments remind me of the opponents of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne, who begrudge the use of Albert Park for just one weekend a year for motor racing. 
  Or the nimbys who told us the Olympic beach volleyball stadium in 2000 was going to irreparably ruin Bondi Beach forever. 
  The Superboats apparently want one day (or maybe it’s just half a day) for their sport. I’m prepared to share, I’ll go and do something other than sailing for that one day a year. Maybe you should consider that too. 

John Hall, 
  Watsons Bay. 

Send offshore superboats back to the ocean

 
  I have no doubt that Afloat’s Editor, Robin Copeland, expressed views strongly held by the vast majority of Sydney people when he attacked the NSW Government for allowing the so-called Superboat Grand Prix to be held on Sydney Harbour. 
  Government ministers and NSW Maritime in particular, need to understand how utterly irresponsible it is to run a potentially dangerous event like this in enclosed inshore waters. 
  The “superboats” are exceptionally fast and very powerful vessels specifically designed and built for flat-out speed on the open ocean. Surely common sense and good seamanship suggest that any future event of this kind must be held offshore where those who wish to watch the “spectacle” can do so from the elevated safety and comfort of the North and South Head reserves. 

Bruce Stannard, 
  Shell Cove. 

Smoke and mirrors at Homebush Bay

 
  I read with great interest Gregory Blaxell’s article Homebush Bay – a triumph of remediation? (Afloat Apr’08). 
  I agree on all the history, yet would not be announcing such horrific degradation in such a capital scale. Smoke and mirrors is the best I can describe the planning of this region. Not really concerned with the real environmental issues as long as it was economically sound for big business or developers. 
  What has really changed? 
  Frank Sartor was so concerned about the ugly side of development that, when he was Mayor of Sydney, he wrote “Unwanted Legacies”. Look around you now, is the visual development on the shores of Parramatta River or Sydney Harbour much different than the toxic issues of the past or have we only both issues living beside each other today? Have we duplicated those same problems in Botany Bay with desalination plants, ports and runways, toxic groundwater plumes and years of ignorant degradation? 
  Thirty million dollars and umpteen government strategies on Botany Bay over the past decade and the problems only become greater. Whether it’s Sydney Harbour, Botany Bay or any one of the NSW coastal waterways, each are not responding well to the human impact and greed to make the Economy greater than the Environment. 

Gary Blaschke, OAM, 
  Environmental Advocate. 

Killer weed a growing problem

 
  You editorial Killer algae among the world’s worst invasive alien species (Afloat Mar’08) highlighted an increasing dilemma. 
  Caulerpa taxifolia is a problem in Sydney’s waterways and the Underwater Research Group of NSW (a private notfor- profit dive club) is currently undertaking research into the extent of the spread of this weed in Sydney Harbour. You can see the results on our website <www.urgdiveclub.org.au>. 
  We are reasonably sure the strain we have here is not the virulent (aquarium) type that has decimated some areas in the Mediterranean, but, like the cane toads, a Queensland strain which is gradually moving south. I have not seen the infestations in either Careel Bay or Lake Conjola so can make no comment about them. 
  What the URG has discovered is that there seems to be more Caulerpa taxifolia present now than there was in 2004, when we first undertook a project in the North Harbour Aquatic reserve to determine if it was present in that particular part of the harbour. We find it in areas where boats anchor to picnic, sheltering from prevailing southerlies, or nor’easters; below the Quarantine Station inside North Head; between Forty Baskets and Reef Beach; Chowder Bay (Clifton Gardens) and up towards the Spit between Parriwi Point and Chinaman’s Beach. 
  We know (from experiencing it ourselves) that strands of Caulerpa taxifolia will cling to an anchor chain with the potential to be ‘deposited’ in a completely new area next time the anchor is used. 
  Do keep an eye out for it because it is not a native species in Sydney Harbour. The URG with help from Dave Roe at NPA will continue to investigate exactly where Caulerpa taxifolia has spread; as to eradicating it effectively, there seems to be a wide variety of views as to whether there IS a way to treat it. 
  Like the cane toad, it might be a matter of limiting the spread rather than eliminating it altogether. 

Colin Piper, 
  Lane Cove. 

Basin fees help maintain facilities

 
  I am no intellectual nor am I good at writing letters which is why it has taken me over a month to respond to Michael Chapman’s letter ‘Unfair Impost on Boaters at Coasters Retreat’ (Afloat Feb’08). 
  I am simply a friend of The Basin and the NPWS staff that look after the place. 
  My family and I have been coming here for many years as campers, bushwalkers, day trippers on the ferry and as boaties. 
  We have never been charged more than once per day and we keep our ticket on us in case we need to show it but have never needed to. 
  We are also members of Gondwana – not so much as to gain entry to NSW National Parks but as a way of contributing to the preservation and upkeep of the precious lands and animals. 
  I am no ‘do-gooder’ just an ordinary person who cares! 
  It is my understanding that all monies collected at The Basin go directly back to maintaining the facilities at The Basin whereas the funds from Gondwana membership are absorbed by NPWS. 
  Michael Chapman’s focus on the toilet arrangements and his solar toilet solution – and by the way the sustainability of solar toilets servicing such a large volume of visitors is another argument altogether – that he neglects to consider the showers, BBQ, recycling and removal of tons of rubbish and the high cost of maintaining the housekeeping of all of the above. Not to mention managing the frequently challenging behaviour of the hundreds of visitors that come though the Park every day. 
  The Rangers and VSOs (Visitors Service Officers) have much to contend with to keep this unique and beautiful place a safe clean environment for all to enjoy. Why make their job harder? 
  Has Michael Chapman considered the cause and effect of every person who sets foot on this place. It is very rare for the evidence not to be left behind. He should consider having such a place to hold his raft ups a privilege; at $3 per person per day it is a bargain. 
  After all Michael, “one” is not talking about paying a fortune to land, walk in or arrive by ferry. 
  Let the NPWS get on with their job in peace. 

Michelle Rutterman, 
  Elanora Heights. 

A nice break after Easter … in a Halvorsen

 
  I agree with Gary Jackson (Letters Afloat Apr’08) that nobody goes down with the ship and dies, if they can help it. 
  If M24 midget-sub crewmembers Ban and Ashibe did voluntarily vacate their vessel off the northern beaches, it’s possible that their escape was made easier by a flaky decision our government made. 
  It’s no secret that there was mild to severe hysteria in Sydney at the start of 1942. An imminent invasion was feared; its inevitability all but accepted by some. 
  Nervous contingency planning for the handover to Japanese Forces was the strange job given to some of the best government-department lateral-thinkers and managers in the country at the time. 
  Barbed-wire was laid along beaches; evacuation plans were made; and train station names were removed to confuse an expected influx of foreign travellers. 
  No doubt to make it difficult for the invading forces to use our property for relaxation on beautiful Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury on their Occupational days-off, private boats regarded as Not-In-Active-Use were taken in hand by the Naval Control Board, immobilized and hidden at a remote picnic ground at the head of Berowra Creek, out of sight, just around the bend behind the steep cliffs at Crosslands. They called this flawed, but clever, plan Operation Little Boats. All through March, pleasure craft dutifully made their way to the marshalling area at Berowra Waters, either under their own power, or duly rounded-up from their moorings and towed; shackled. Owners recall a melancholy, foreboding sense of un-necessary submission. 
  It’s hard to believe, but by the end of March 1942, just weeks before the midget-sub attack on Sydney Harbour, 1,700 private pleasure craft had been rounded up, disabled, and towed to Crosslands; where they were hauled out of the water by an overworked team of two draught horses, and parked close together in rows where now there are peacetime barbeques and pleasantly grassed picnic areas and campsites. 
  Incredibly, a further 350 boats were rafted there, waiting to be pulled ashore … when, unplanned, it started to rain. 
  With the rain came trouble: a short distance upstream at Galston Gorge, debris building up behind the wooden bridge formed a dam. On the second night of non-stop heavy downpour the dam gave way and the floodwater, suddenly released, rushed down the narrow valley. 
  Of the 2,000-odd pleasure boats at Crosslands that weren’t capsized, sunk, smashed against rocks, holed by branches, hurled into the trees or crushed between other boats by the flood; quite a few were washed downstream. Some were never found; having been carried past the anti-submarine nets at the Brooklyn rail bridge, into Broken Bay and out to sea. Several sightings of unidentified, halfsubmerged, boats in Broken Bay and beyond are on the record. 
  It was just a few short weeks later that enemy submariners Ban and Ashibe blew-up the Kuttabul and ducked back out of Sydney Harbour, setting course northwards under a full moon for a Broken Bay rendezvous. All was not well: their damaged submarine was sinking. It was now just a matter of time before it would stand on its nose, or tail; and drop to the bottom. 
  As midget M24 was dying off Narrabeen or slightly further north, it’s very likely that both crew – in survival mode – would have gone outside, and were struggling to get a toe-hold on the narrow six foot diameter outer hull, increasingly awash and rolling; hanging-on to rudimentary rungs welded onto the shoulder-high conning-tower. 
  I don’t think those two would have been feeling very lucky at that moment, but to have made it that far; they clearly were lucky punks. 
  I like to think that, just when they needed it most; out of the night drifted a driver-less 26ft hire Halvorsen, a Crosslands veteran formerly of Bobbin Head. No lights, no distributorcap, likely no steering wheel; and maybe a few scratches along the topsides, but … afloat and still seaworthy. Not just seaworthy … dry and comfortable: the bunks still have their cushions; there are blankets in the drawers under the bunks; the toilet works; and there are plates and cutlery in the cupboards. 
  Such a find would have given Ban and Ashibe a welcome break; the breathing space they needed to make good their escape. 

Captain Robert (Bob) Arpendoon. 
  Georges Heights. 

Poor planning and equipment led to midget-sub failure

 
  It’s true that nobody can know for certain the precise detail of what happened to the crew of M24, ‘the third midget sub’ (Letters Afloat Apr’08). 
  There is a very slight chance that Ban-san and Ashibesan escaped and made it to shore, however; I don’t think so. In reality I think they were trapped inside their unreliable, experimental vessel, and drowned or suffocated. 
  Regrettably for them, some bugs were not yet ironedout. The A Class machines were hard to steer; hard to keep on an even keel; hard to keep underwater and also on the surface, and hard to stop from pitching sharply up or down without warning. Fore-and-aft trim was purely a matter of guesswork, or luck; and where the crew had stowed their lunch boxes. 
  In trials, they often broke-down and stranded the crew. And the strong battery fumes were sometimes dangerous to breathe, of course. 
  It was wartime; they were not made for pleasure. Midget M24 may have simply failed without warning and sunk, not due to suicide but due simply to inattention and error. 

Ass. Prof. Kojihiro Matsuda, 
  Orange. 

Wave Motion

 
  Following on from the article on waves (Afloat Apr’08). 
  Anyone truly interested in the propagation of swell, should take a ride on a train to St Leonards railway station. Above the station in the concourse, you will find a very large shallow pool/water feature. 
  When the wind is in the south, waves form as wind wave ‘seas’ at the southern end of the pool, and gradually become organised forming into ‘swell’ at the northern end. 
  I have myself filmed this pool as a tool for teaching. Happy viewing to those that take up the offer. 

Ross McLean, 
  Coastwise Navigation, Sailing and Power Boating School. 
  (formerly of) Connecticut, U.S.A. 

Sea behaviour 

  I read Malcolm Riley’s article on Swell Heights (Afloat Apr’08) with extreme interest, as I spend considerable time at sea, particularly on the east coast of Australia. 
  It did strike me that, in the example you showed, the wind and swell were from the same direction. I, and I imagine many other readers, would appreciate your input when this is not the case. 
  For example, today’s forecast for Sydney Waters is Wind: W/SW 5/10 knots tending S/SW during the afternoon and reaching 18/23 knots. Sea: Rising to 1.5 to 2 metres. Swell: E/SE 1.5 to 2 metres. 
  In this instance the wind is quartering the swell. Obviously the sea behaves differently depending on the differential angle of wind/swell. 
  I would be interested in your comments. 

Ian Hoey, 
  Frenchs Forest. 

  This one is a real can of worms. I do not think that the table is just for systems from the same direction although the opposing wind and swells will change the wave set. 
  There are many factors involved. Larger swells will decay as a result of wind slower than smaller swells. 
  In any area of sea there are a large number of possible combinations of currents winds, fetches, swell and the time and distance that all of them have been effecting each other. Also all of these elements are changing in strength all the time. 
  For instance a NE swell could travel more or less unaffected by wind until it moves past the bottom of Tasmania where it may meet large wind waves coming from the west. The initial meeting should make very large “unmanageable” waves over a relatively small area. The same waves meeting in the middle of the Pacific would be a more gradual process with the NE swell decaying more gradually over a larger area reducing the overall size of the waves. 
  Generally two waves meeting should not be any greater than 1.4 times the average of the two. 
  To get into this you are looking at pages of equations with many variables. 
  When you observe the sea surface you will, in general, notice a complicated pattern of crests and troughs, with waves of different shapes moving in different directions. 
  There is considerable interaction between individual waves – faster moving waves overtake slower waves and they often combine to either reinforce or cancel each other. On occasion, when two or more crests interact, an abnormally high wave can develop these are the maximum waves mentioned in the table. 
  I do not know if this has been of any help. It is really one for the too hard basket. 

Malcolm Riley, 
  Hobart. 

Union Flag on an 18-footer

 
  The photo accompanying John Hancox’s letter made me curious (Afloat, Mar’08). 
  I asked a few of the old salts around the 18-footers at Double Bay what was the significance of the Union flag on the sail of Australia IV. 
  The best answer was that it was on the original Australia (presumably before our current flag was unveiled in 1953). 
  Further advice was that there is a timber 18-footer still around on the North Shore called Britannia which has an Australian flag on its sail. 
  Is there a simple explanation to this or was it just sailor’s games? 

Joe Dwyer, 
  Rose Bay. 

Super Surfin’

 
  No wonder the tanker on page 61 of Afloat Mar’08 appears to be surfing. 
  As I run my calculator over the figures given in the article, swell waves travelling 13,000 kilometres in six days would indicate these swell waves were travelling at 90 kph. 
  That’s 48 knots. Amazing! 

Geoff Walsh, 
  Warriewood. 

Act of God?

 
  Is there someone out there in the marina legal world who can give me a definite and correct answer, not an assumption, regarding the following incident. 
  Who should pay for repairs to a vessel which is securely tied up in its pen at a new marina (6-7 years old), when the finger next door with two yachts securely tied up to it, breaks away from the main walkway during a storm, and collides with our vessel, causing damage. 
  No ropes on any of the vessels broke; it was only the marina finger. 

‘Baffled mariner’, 
  N&A supplied. 

Katwinchar

 
  In response to Bill Barry-Cotter’s enquiry (Afloat Mar’08) regarding Kat Wincher. 
  As a boy keen on sailing in Hobart in the early 1950s I remember a yacht Katwinchar arriving from England (via Panama I think), having been sailed out by (three?) members of the Mossop family, who were emigrating to Australia. The owner/skipper I remember as Eddie Mossop. The yacht completed the final leg to Hobart by joining the 1951 Sydney-Hobart race. 
  The yacht was double-masted, and probably a ketch, but perhaps a yawl. She had a canoe stern and I thought her quite low in the water for such a voyage. Her length must have been about 10m (30-35ft, in those days). She was wooden, painted white, with a varnished coach-house in the style of the day. 
  I recall seeing a photo of marine growth on her (starboard?) topsides, said to be a result of heeling for so long in steady trade winds. There may have been an article on her voyage in a Seacraft magazine of that time. She was moored off Battery Point in Hobart near Jock Muir’s slip. I remember seeing her dinghy on davits on one of the jetties there: wooden, clinker-built(?), painted white, and with neat name plates on the transom reading “Katwinchar Cowes”. 

Ted Lilley, 
  Canberra. 

Timber Boat Awards

 
  I read with great interest the article re John Gettens’s nomination for rebuilding the 25ft Wharf Inspector’s launch built for Maritime Services Board (MSB) 1947 (Afloat, Feb’08). 
  I was employed as a shipwright by the MSB after the war and one of my first jobs, along with the late Charlie Swinfield and George Montgomery, was to build that 25ft launch at Goat Island. It was named Gooyong I. The name being aboriginal for “a camp”. She was fitted with a 2-cylinder 10/12hp Simplex engine (petrol). 
  In the same issue, Peter Chinn, History Officer for Australian Customs Services asks about the final years of the Supply/Bramble. She was rebuilt as replica of Supply at Goat Island for the 1938 150th celebrations. She was broken up and burnt in 1960s. 

Jack Hubbard, 
  (Retired Foreman Shipwright, M.S.B. Goat Island) 
  Tweed Heads. 

Kamikaze yachts

 
  Could someone explain to me why lots of skippers of maxi yachts and 18-footers racing on the Harbour around the Rose Bay, Shark Island area find it necessary to sail within metres of boats anchored quietly fishing. And I mean within 1-2 metres! 
  On numerous occasions I have been anchored near Shark Island while maxi yachts and 18-footer fleets have screamed past at 15-20 knots, so close that I am in fear of a collision. 
  They invariably foul my fishing lines with their keels as they shoot past and are so close that their masts are vertically overhead as they heel over threatening to hit radio aerials and fishing rods in overhead rocket launchers. It is a miracle that one hasn’t yet fouled my anchor rope having potentially fatal consequences. 
  Do they get extra points back at the clubhouse for seeing who can sail the closest to anchored boats, or is it that they don’t want to turn the steering wheel lest they spill the stubbie seemingly permanently glued to their hand? I have even had skippers abuse me for anchoring in their path even though I have been there for hours before they have arrived! 
  I thought the waterways rules stated that: “You must keep 30 metres from any person or anything in the water when you are travelling at 10 knots or more.” 
  Surely an adjustment of one degree of their course when they would clearly have (or should have, as lots have beer goggles on) seen me hundreds of metres away would not affect their racing position. 
  It is very disconcerting when (in the case of a maxi) a vessel of 10-20 tonnes is bearing down on you at 15-20 knots not knowing if it is going to hit you or not, and as you are anchored you cannot quickly move out of its path. 
  Please guys have some consideration for your fellow water users! 

Keith Kneebone, 
  Warriewood. 

Diamond in the rough

 
  Ian Grant in his column Latitude 28 (Afloat Apr’08) mentions the yacht Saltash II as being the undisputed Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race champion. 
  Saltash II, a Yachting World Keelboat which later became a Diamond Class was built for a close friend of mine and highly experienced yachtie, Harold Vaughan. 
  I first met Harold at Clareville Beach on Pittwater when we all sailed VJs and Vee Esses and helped found the Avalon Sailing Club. Unfortunately Harold passed away some years ago. His brother Les is the father of John Vaughan the vexillologist who advertises his Northbridge flag sales business in your magazine. 
  When John Vaughan was a baby, Les borrowed my VJ, Radar, and won the Father’s Day race at the Club. 
  Harold, in later years, when we were ocean racing, nominated me for membership of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Harold was a very good hand and raced on many ocean racing yachts one of which was Mercedes III. 
  Harold raced Saltash II in its class with great success. I recall one year, when the Diamond Championships were being held in Port Phillip Bay, Harold decided to modify and equip his boat for offshore sailing. He sailed it with two crew to the races. I think he won the series and then sailed back to Pittwater. 
  Wherever Saltash II sailed she won races and is still doing that! Harold was an expert and wrote an excellent book on the tricks of sailing in the tricky winds of Pittwater and the Hawkesbury River. He would be thrilled to know that his beloved Saltash II is still behaving just as he trained it. 

John Kinsella, 
  Lindfield. 

Thank you to the NSW boating community

 
  Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol Sydney Division recently attended both the Rose Hill Boat Show and the Classic and Wooden Boat Show at the National Maritime Museum. We would like to thank the boating community for the support they demonstrated, in the form of a long list of names from people interested in joining the Coastal Patrol, or in the education courses we offer to the public. 
  We also received a lot of personal donations, including quite a few $20 and $50 in our blue buckets. It was also touching to see how many people gave us all their lose change as the left the show. We don’t know who these people are and so we cannot thank them in the most appropriate way. If you are one these people, please accept our grateful appreciation for your generosity, as it is expensive to run a volunteer marine rescue organisation in the 21st century. 

John Young, 
  RVCP Sydney Division, 
  Mosman. 

Aussie boatbuilders

 
  I can understand The Kelly Gang’s exuberance in the launching of their FT10 (Afloat Apr’08) and wish them the best for the future. 
  However, when Neil Hamilton starts to denigrate local boatbuilders regarding delivery I take exception – the Tiger was delivered so early because someone else bailed out. I would also like him to clarify some of the grey areas regarding pricing and delivery. 
  Firstly, what about the cost of upgrades and additions necessary to bring the yacht up to the standard required and the cost of yard fees, cranes, unloading and extra personnel costs to help assemble the meccano set? 
  With regard to quality, why are there still a few rigging problems after 66 yachts have been delivered? Why is the mast in need of painting after the owner has to assemble it? 
  Regarding performance – look no further than the Audi Regatta and compare the FT10 performance with the Adams Ten Metre, and that design is 32 years old. Three not enough rail meat in 14 knots? Now that’s tender! 
  Finally, I’ll tell you why you can’t get “that with a local manufacturer”. 
  Our employees cost a lot more than three dollars per hour and they don’t live six to a room in the building premise’s accommodation area. Our employees are insured, paid super, take paid holidays and do not live like peasants. Our keels don’t need to be “blue-printed”, nor tillers and rudders upgraded. We don’t expect our clients to paint their own rig, nor assemble their own boat and pretend it’s not costing them. Our sails and sheets are quality from the start and if something does go wrong we are here in Australia to fix it. 
  So please, compare apples with apples the next time you have a passing shot at local boatbuilders. 

Dave Dillon, 
  Dillon Boat Works, 
  Taree, NSW 

R.S.V.P. 

Protest

 
  I have an old Nicholson/Stannard Line Launch, Protest. 
  I am interested in finding out some historical information on the boat, and ideally, some photographs taken during her working life. She was built at Balmain in 1922 for the Sydney and Suburbs Timber Merchants Association (SASTMA) before being acquired by Nicholson and later Stannard Bros. 

Dr. Michael Petrozzi. 
  email: mpetrozz@consultingearth.com.au 
  PO Box 1024, Rozelle NSW 2039. 

MV Billy Bong

 
  I am a Year 12 student and sitting my Higher School Certificate in 2008. I hope to graduate this year and plan to study Naval Architecture at the University of NSW. 
  One of my chosen subjects is Design & Technology and my Year 12 major project for my HSC is the re-design of an old timber boat, the MV Billy Bong which is currently located in the yard at Cooks River Motor Boat Club. The project consists of the preparation of drawings in electronic format showing the redesigned elements, the preparation of a “samples and display” board, the construction of a model and an investigation into the history of the vessel. It is the history component of my submission that I am asking for your help. 
  I have already carried out extensive investigation into the history of the vessel but with no luck to date. I have contacted the Timber Boat Association of NSW, the National Maritime Museum, NSW Maritime and visited and searched in numerous specialty book shops and spoken with a large number of people at various boat clubs and fishing clubs and timber boat builders in the Sutherland and St George areas, all to no avail. 
  As most of my attempts to date have borne little information on the boat I would now ask for your assistance in the hope that a previous owner or someone that has any knowledge of the boat may assist me in my endeavours to piece together the history of this craft. 
  Hoping Afloat can help me as I have just about exhausted all other avenues in researching this vessel. 

Elliot Thompson, 
  email: elliot@idx.com.au 
  tel: 0419 659 947 (Neil Thompson, Dad), 
  Bundeena. 

Catalina owners 

  thehammondfamily@bigpond.com