Robins Laker Gets Wet

[hairymick]

Well, after a sleepless night, this morning broke clear and sunny with the promise of being another scorcher. We arived at the put in at our local Lake lenthall at about the same time as the rest of the club members.

About 20 boats in all including some real flash jobs - Mirage 580s and even a 730, a couple of Arctic Raiders and Southern Raiders and a few real slick looking K1 Olympic class boats plus quite a few touring jobs of varying pedigrees.The local, Channel 7, television news crew were there doing an article on our little club.

and as I was unloading beside the water, the camera man walked right on past all these beautiful boats and started walking round ours going oooh aaah and doing this. :shock:

then the others started to notice something was afoot, and joined the party, 8) 8)

Our two little hand made boats well and truly stole the limelight and I have to admit to it being a real ego boost. No body was interested in the big dollar jobs, they all wanted to know all about ours and in particular Robins. iIt is much prettier than mine and doesn't yet sport any battle scars. :lol:

After launching, we all headed up stream against the wind and we were easily able to keep pace with the fleet at cruising pace.

We stopped at a nice grassy bank for morning tea and again all eyes were on our boats. Several took mine for a walk and all came back with a big grin. they loved it! 8)

We continued up stream.

To a causeway and some of us continued on to real skinny water.

A few pics of Mis Robin.

 

[sheena's dad]

Mick,

Beautiful boats, a beautiful woman. Dagnabit, Mick, you be one lucky man. (The smile on Robin's face in the pic in the Kayak forum tells us all we need to know about that boat of hers.)

Great job, my friend.

Steve

 

[oldyaker]

Your a lucky man Mick....Well done on all accounts!

 

[oldsparkey]

That's the trouble with wood boats , just something we ( as builders) have to live with , being outcasts , separated from the rest , made to park in the back corners of the parking lot , out casts , rejected , forced to paddle behind all the plastic boats.

No one likes a wood boat , they never create attention , forget the crowds of folks looking at them , it never happens. Yep , we (or our boats) are the red headed step child when with all those fancy , beautiful , expensive plastic boats are around. :lol: :lol: :lol: I DON'T THINK SO , NO SIR , I SURE DON'T.

A wood boat will draw a crowd faster then someone throwing dollar bills away , or just as fast.

Chuck.

 

[old_bushie]

Well I was waiting for this and boy don't that pair look good....oh yeah the paddlers in em too
Nice job on that one I reckon your good lady will cook you up some top food tonight as a thank you
Pete

 

[TheOtherHank]

Hey Hairy -

If they TV channel puts the segment online, please post a link to it. I know I'd like to see it.

Thanks,
- Hank

 

[hairymick]

G'day guys, Thanks again for all the very kind remarks.

As it turns out, the article was on the Chaneels 7 news last night. I missed it, I was at work but Robin saw it and she told me that our boats and hers in particular stole the the show. It seems both the cameraman and the reporter were wood boat enthusiasts. smart men obviously.

Apart from a couple of interviews with a couple of our successfull competitive paddlers and the trip leader, just about everything else was focused on Robin and her boat.

There was lots of good footage of her paddling it. What an ego boost for me!!

Hank, it was channel 7 Local or regional news. The 7 network here is a national one and we are a small regional area. We are lucky to have our own little regional news segment. As such they don't put everything the cover on line. Bloody shame. I will contact them today to see if I can buy a DVD of the article.

Witth all the recent monsoonal rain we have been getting, the lake is rapidly filling and we are now able to paddle previously unreachable areas.

These Lakers were made for this!!

Freshly covered cow paddock, heavy grass and about 5 inches of water. They slip through like snot on a door knob.

We had only ever been able to paddle this far before.

Now we can continue on several miles past here to really nice backwater country

 

[sheetsrep]

Great pictures Mick! I'm glad your boats were a hit.

 

[catfish]

hey mick nice looking boats & water looks like you geezers had a great paddle.

 

[jdupre']

Mick, those Lakers are looking good. Robin's boat looks right at home in that skinny water cow pasture. Those backcountry waters look very inviting.

Joey

 

[Kayak Jack]

Good on ya, mate! Aye god those boats are pretty. And, as Chucky sez, wooden boats attract attention. Period.