After a very windy and wet Easter, I finally managed to get a few boats out for a play on Lake Cootharaba with my daughters. From left to right, the boats are: Sabot (3905), Sabre (1920 but with a spare sail on — 991)), Sabre (1638 — not rigged) and Minnow (1022). Both Sabres are wooden boats and always get attention when they are on the beach.
Playing with sailing dinghies at Aqua Marine
I got our MG14 (sail number 313) sailing dinghy “Cutting Edge” out for a play today on Lake Cootharaba. A couple of capsizes, but great fun.
MG14 Cutting Edge
MG14 Cutting Edge
MG14 sailing dinghy Cutting Edge
I purchased this wooden Sabre (1638) sailing dinghy in Toowoomba and brought in back to our house in Brisbane. I needed to store it out of the weather for a few weeks before taking it up to our shack at Boreen Point. No, I did not store it in the dining room!
The dining room was a temporary resting place — my daughters helped me pick up the Sabre hull and carry it on its side through the front door. We rested in the dining room before picking up the boat again and carrying it over the kitchen bench and out the back door onto the back deck where it would be protected from the weather. That is the great thing about Sabres — with a minimum hull weight of only 41 kg, they are very easy to pick up and move around!
Sabre 1636 sailing dinghy in our dining room
I purchased this wooden Sabre (1920) from a guy in Northern New South Wales who built it. The boat is well constructed, but very light and a pleasure to sail. The wooden boat always attracts an admiring crowd at the beach when I am rigging, launching and retrieving it.
Sabre 1920 sailing dinghy
I went up to Lake Cootharaba to do some maintenance work around Aqua Marine. The magic winter weather enticed me to pull some of the boats out on the front lawn to do some work on them too. Unfortunately, there was not enough wind to go sailing though.
Playing with boats by Lake Cootharaba at Boreen Point
Both my daughters have been participating in the Learn to Sail program at the Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club on Sunday mornings. Practice makes perfect, so I try to take my girls sailing when the weather is suitable.
Today was a perfect day for teaching my daughters to sail on Lake Cootharaba. Just little cats whispers of wind across the lake. There was enough wind to sail; but not enough wind to scare them. This was the middle of winter, so both girls are wearing wet suits.
We launched our Sabot and Minnow at the little beach about 70 metres from the front of Aqua Marine.
Learning to sail on Lake Cootharaba
Lake Cootharaba provides some of the best flat water sailing conditions in the world. Many guests of Aqua Marine stay at Boreen Point to attend sailing regattas held by Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club.
At the time of the photo, our own sailing fleet consisted of a Minnow, Sabot, MG14 and 125 sailing dinghy. The 125 required work to get it back on the water and a few days after this photo was taken, I gave the 125 to a local resident who was going to repair the boat and get it sailing again.
Our sailing fleet
Please note that these boats are not available for use of guests staying at Aqua Marine.