Good news for those who are a bit nervous of crashing and loosing their gear.

I thought the old 'Rescue' tinnie motor was completely stuffed and after pricing new replacement motors I was debating with myself whether I really wanted to shell out $3000 for a replacement. In the end I took it to the mechanic for the bad news. I received a call the next day saying he had found a few easily fixed problems and it was going fine, and the bill was under $100!

Eureka!
So now (unless something else breaks - which is quite
possible probable) we may have a boat available for the possibility of retrieving stuff during speed fortnight. BYO bailing bucket! (Notice the deliberately uncommitted wording

)
Disclaimer: It should be mentioned that in seriously windy conditions, the kind where you have a real chance to make a name for yourself, conditions may make it too dangerous to operate the boat. In these conditions it is basically, 'save yourself'! The decision to sail or not is yours. We can always look for you gear (or you) later on the other side of the inlet.