Oats comes home second with a wet spinnaker

IT WAS appropriate, but not pleasingly so, that a wine glass foiled the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge party for the much-heralded champion 100-footer Wild Oats XI. For Wild Oats XI owner Bob Oatley funds the cost of running the boat from his winery proceeds. But yesterday the wine glass was half empty when the huge spinnaker wound itself tightly in its middle, forming a wine glass shape, forcing the boat to relinquish its hard-fought small lead in the prestigious 14-nautical mile sprint lead-up race to the Sydney to Hobart classic. An edge hit the drink as the problem was fixed.

Don't Get Reeled In Dead, Fishermen Urged

THERE is an awful swirl in the pit of Tony Wood's stomach, as violent as the grey sea below him, when the Westpac Rescue Helicopter winches a body out of the water.

Pasha Bulker By Night

Sunday July 1: The Pasha Bulker twists the night away as tugs and winches attached to sea anchors haul its bow around to point towards the sea. 6.20pm - 7.20pm

Tough Life For The Bullocky

MANY years ago a bullocky, Walter Lumby, of Sweetman's Creek, used his team of 14 bullocks to move three five-ton winches from the railway to the pit head of Millfield Colliery. Walter used a sledge to transport the winches and when he arrived at the mine to off-load the first winch on to a trol

Sail And Hearty

Sydney suits swap the corporate grind for winches and sheets on the harbour at twilight. One evening Steven Nagle left his office, caught the train across the Harbour Bridge and strolled down to Lavender Bay where his girlfriend was waiting with a bag of sailing gear. Thirty minutes later, with

Down & Dirty

DON'T ask a dedicated four-wheel driver about vehicle style. No, your average four-wheel-drivin' bloke or blokette does not give much credence to shut lines, angles and aerodynamics. They will tell you about front and rear overhangs, ramp angles, mounting points for winches and bull bars and t

Fischer Working On Boat

Syd Fischer, who heads the Challenge Australia syndicate, said yesterday his boat was nearing completion. Fischer said the keel still had to be built, some winches were in transit from the US and the mast was still under construction. "The only major thing left to do is to bond the hu

Preserving Poppet Head Is Precarious Work

They're calling it "the last Bicentennial project", and it's moving on, literally by inches. With an elaborate system of steel cables and winches, the old timber poppet head at the Oakey Park mine near Lithgow is slowly being righted. But it's heart-stopping work. For years