What Makes a Dry Boat?

[Masquerade]

Boracay,
Saturday was one of the really messy days. The lecture I received from my wife as I dropped the wet stuff in the laundry and headed off to the shower echoed your words… and how I should have known better. The strange part about the day was that there was little wind going out, some heavy showers but I could hide under the hard top and screens but not far off shore the swell and chop picked up and the rebound made for an uncomfortable time that I thought would improve the further I got off shore. As soon as I got back inside the heads the wind almost vanished and I only had to contend with a few showers and about 100mm depth of water in the dinghy.

I used to have a Pacific 27. I called it my boat with trainer wheels as it was my first sailing boat. In the main I regarded it as a dry boat in most conditions. A good mate of mine who sailed on it regularly with me has subsequently bought one for himself. It has neither dodger or bimini and when I asked him whether he was going out on Saturday his response was something like ‘you must be joking’ but with a bit more of the vernacular added in. He sent me a text message at about 1:00pm asking whether I was having ‘fun’. He was dry in the pub!

Having said that my old Pacific 27 was reasonably dry I did have a really wet voyage back from Port Stevens. Set out just after mid night in a nice easterly with about a 1.5m swell. Just south of Newcastle the forecast light southerly change arrived and then over the next few hours built to about 20-25 knots and a 2-3 metre swell. I was off Pittwater in one tack from Port Stevens but the trip had taken about 15 hours and I was wet but decided that I would head back to Sydney. 10 hours later and early in the morning I arrived back in Leichhardt Bay. I was wet. The boat and everything in it was wet. Neither the boat or myself had been under a lot of stress but I understand what a wet boat meant. It took a week of sunshine to dry all the cushions and other bits and pieces.

But like Saturday… I would not have missed it.
Colin