Gratuitous showing off....

People that catch fish to eat as a vocation = no problem

Originally posted by G.R.F. People that catch fish to eat as a vocation = no problem People that catch fish as a sport  pastime = morons

If memory serves, Chris wrote:
Right.....

Second in the "grottiest boat" competition at the Tasar nats.... ours was actually judged the grottiest, but the prize went to a boat that deservedly won a drifter using the only dacron jib in the fleet.
 
Still unable to work out how to run a Laser outhaul correctly.
 
Been lucky enough to sail Lasers, all types of board, Tasars, Tornadoes, skiffs, offshore shorthanded tri, Int Canoe, Historical 18, FD, 505, various Moths from mouldie scow to foiler (don't tell DL), multiple Fastnet class winner/RORC Yacht of the Year Sunstone, IRC maxis Nicorette and Shockwave/Alfa Romeo, IOR boats, old 73' Spencer maxi Buccaneer, an Alden schooner, Farr 52, Open 60, Volvo 60, Taipan 4.9, and to crawl through the ORMA 60 tris after the Singlehanded Transatlantic race.
 
Spent about 3 years on the largest possible personal handicap as a kid (i.e. was the slowest sailor in the fleet) and still never won a personal handicap race, because they couldn't make the handicap big enough .
 
Sank the first Bethwaite B18 18 Foot Skiff on a test sail the first time I sailed an 18.
 
Stuck the prod of the awesome "Entrad" 18 Foot Skiff (the pre-restriction 42' high rig Nomex carbon machine pictured flat out in Frank B's book IIRC) into the seawall the second time I sailed an 18.
 
Had my first boat (scow Moth) burned by my mum 'cause I didn't know how to stop it leaking (these days it would be a 10 minute job, but no one had told me about epoxy).
 
Sailed with John Bertrand (just a tiny bit) and Skip L from Australia II and Grant Simmer from Oz 2 and Alinghi.
 
Won a Laser Radial title against Tom Slingsby and an Etchells fleet title against Jamie Spithill, and was training partner for windsurfing legend Bjorn Dunkerbeck.....they were all between 14 and 18 at the time so my motto is beat them early and then run!
 
Managed to break a Hobie 16 in half. Sank my son's Flying Ant. Done lots of really bodgy repairs, to a very wide variety of craft.
 
Won what used to be the biggest cat race in Australia on a 16' cat (now sadly only a club race) and only then found out that the old trophy was the memorial trophy for my father, who had been killed sailing a 16' cat on the same bay. About 6 of the names on his trophy are Olympic medallists.
 
Been top 10 nationally in every class I've owned since I was a kid*, including the most popular windsurfer, the most popular (I think) singlehander, the most popular crewed dinghy, the second most popular keelboat.
 
Almost killed myself windsurfing on two occasions.
 
Made the 3 man national team for a world raceboard/slalom titles at Garda at the very height of the windsurfing boom. The organisers said that, calculated by entries that tried to qualify for their nation, it was the biggest sailing event ever although I have no way of confirming it. But I do know that we had free booze at some bars, sponsored Audi Quattros, even autograph hunters if you were standing next to a famous sailor!
 
Did 5 Hobarts and drove one boat onto a sunfish and tore off the rudder, destroyed two mainsails, cracked two forward rib frames, and won one little trophy plus the fleet raffle for 100 cases of beer!
 
Ran bow on the 12 Metre Weatherly in the New York YC Annual Regatta's 12 Metre class, with three other America's Cup winners and one of the NYYC challengers for '87 on the line. One of my all-time favourite experiences.
 
Won three open nationals and four Masters nationals against ex-Olympians plus a bunch of state titles across various classes from offshore yachts to boards.
 
Run four national titles, created a junior sub-class that sprouted three Youth Worlds competitors, and been made a Life Member of the class.
 
Completely unable to organise trolley wheels that have air in them and do not fall off.
 
Can splice rigging that lasts 20 years (which it really shouldn't be asked to do), or lasts 2 hours when it really should last 2 years.
 
Have had the world's scruffiest and lowest-budget offshore racing boat (a 1968 Spencer 28 footer fitted with a spade rudder someone left lying in a shed, an outboard bracket made of ply, part of a clothes rack and some rollerblade wheels, a broken and re-sleeved Etchells mast that formerly used second-hand spreaders from a quarter tonner, recycled timber for trim, mainsheet blocks from a Formula 16 cat, Etchells mains and kites, Mumm 30 #3 as a #1 and an 18 Foot Skiff #1 as a #4. The old #1 was recently retired after a mere 23 years service.  We call her a 12 Metre - not 'cause she is, but because she has lovely lines and doesn't look too bad from 12 metres away - at night in a fog.
 
* not counting the classes which had no nationals
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For my part, I have little to brag about apart from finishing top of my class in Small Craft Technology some time last century. I won a book token for that.
I had one of the first ISO's ever (bought on first morning of the Dinghy Show launch), the only NS14 in Britain, bought the first Icon and crewed my dads cats as a kid. Not many 10 year olds can say they sail something faster tha a 49er! I came second to Ed Wright in a Topper race once, the pinnacle of my sailing career.

Edited by Peaky - 28 Aug 12 at 7:55pm

Photographic memory

Originally posted by Dougal Peaky - how did you resurrect that?