Let’s face it; the request came in out of left field. The club had picked up the deal to do a Worlds regatta and we were doing it on the Swan River. Only trouble was, there were a lot of Windsurfers and one of their needs was storage for 250 boards and the associated masts, booms and sails.
The Bosuns club was contacted and someone clever came up with the idea of a rack that held 18 boards at a time. It had to be pretty sturdy and would have to have pegged rails strung between them to hang the sails from.
A huge pile of timber arrived and using a design plan from Bob Harrap, we began to assemble the first of the frames on a trial. The build looked promising, so we dragged the set of frames outside and began to assemble them.
Then we realised our folly: we needed 14 racks at least.
On the second week, we checked to see how the frames had faired over the weekend and realised that the young centre boarders had found a new jungle gym. More bracing required. Undeterred, we launched into a major cutting and assembly process with everyone working to build, build and build.
Six weeks later, they were waiting for the eventual alignment to the desires of the event organisers. We had tested them with the boards as the organisers were busily unpacking the newly arrived boards, sails and masts. As soon as we had the frames in place, they were filled with equipment. The critical part was; would they be accepted by the windsurfers?
The answer was a resounding Yes.
Of course, our next task was to pull them to bits again and turn them into bar tables for the club. Never let it be said that we missed a chance with the spare timber.
Rick Steuart for the Bosuns club.
