2014 – it’s been a busy start

2014 started with us doing slightly reduced hours at the warehouse to have a bit of time out of the office. As a small family business it can be hard to get a break. At the same time Phil and the DeckHardware Van have spent almost every day at the Sabot Nationals as a Silver sponsor and doing some regatta support. This went so well and was appreciated so much that he has been asked to come back to Drummoyne and spend some more time there for the 13 and 16 foot Skiff Nationals. I’m glad to see the idea we had of regatta support is being appreciated so much when we are involved with events.

The 16′ Skiffs will see good friends and DeckHardware Ambassadors in action along with many other boats who use our product. This week we return to normal hours but having said that we really haven’t been working any less as yesterday Robyn and I were working on laptops in front of the Cricket! Time to start working on a new price list as the dollar changes and suppliers come out with new year pricing. There’s always so much to do.

It’s been fun to spend a few extra hours around the house as for Christmas we got two kittens! We can’t have a dog as we are on a main road with no fence and unfortunately over the last two years we had lost our previous cats to old age and cancer. We are pretty excited to welcome Gus and Max to our home. The best part of Christmas was bringing them home from the Animal Welfare League.

20140105-100026.jpg

20140105-100048.jpg

YNSW Youth Championships

On the long weekend I volunteered at the NSW Youth Sailing Championships.  Our start team was Dad, Dave, Rhys and I.  With almost we think 60 starts due to the number of recalls I was simply exhausted at the end of it and did not want to do any more maths for a while.

I can’t say enough about the team we worked with on Course Area B.  Our Finish Team, our Mark Layers and our on shore contact Donna.  Donna gave us the chance to breathe knowing we had someone on shore should one of the girls we were supporting need us.  Emma Harris, Georgia Llewellyn and Jaime Swavley had a full support team out on the start boat but not on shore.  So thank you Donna!!!

Because of who we had on the start boat it was great to have someone on shore to call when young Emma Harris had to go in to fix her bung.  At least I had someone to call and make sure she was ok and to let her know she was going to make the next race in time.  I also had good friend and on water judge Ian Humphries make sure she made it in safely whilst we were in postponement.

It was a big step for Emma jumping into a Laser Radial.  To see her mixing it with the fleet on the last day was AWESOME!

It was great to watch the J and G team in the 420 Wings.  The girls are growing into the boat and continue to boost not only confidence but skill as well.  Having seen them out training it was great to be able to watch them compete in the 420 fleet.

What a fantastic three days with some fantastic people.  I hope the competitors and their parents and coaches appreciate the hard effort we put in to ensure all the racing happened.  It was not the easiest of weather conditions and at times was very frustrating as we waited for the breeze to work with us not against.

To Dave our Driver!  You are awesome!  Thanks for being a part of a great weekend and providing the wildlife sanctuary to keep us entertained during the postponements.

I could write so many pages on the event there are just so many stories.  So check out the photos I managed to take in between being super busy on the water.

check out www.facebook.com/deckhardware for a few photos I took during the event.