Next Meeting, U18 disco fundraiser, Boat Launching

 Hey yorlye, just a couple of pics to update you all on the progress of the canoe.  The inside has been varnished and waiting for this to cure before top coating the outside of the hull.  Jason has laminated timbers from Silky oak, camphor laurel and pine to make the paddles for the canoe.  He's holding the steering paddle, which is slightly different shape and timbers from the other paddles.
Brian Adams has received the name back  from Tahiti.  For those of you who aren't aware, we were going to name the boat Sylvia, but wanted Sylvia's tahitian name.  She doesn't have a tahitian name so we suggested they put forward a name and Brian sent me through this e-mail:  The name that came back from Tahiti is TEFAUROA  have been told it was the Tahitian name for Point Venus this is where the Bounty  sailed from.

As mentioned to you before Sylvia does not have a Tahitian name hence their suggested name "Tefauroa"

"

Whilst in Tahiti with Helen on a holiday we spent some time with Sylvia's family. " Moana" Sylvia's son was into the Va'a at the time collected me and I went to watch him train with his crew . Then we  picked up his  brother Lesley who is Sylvia's eldest son, who is very famous in Tahiti for his records achieved in Va'a single canoing. I believe that still up to this day his record still has not been broken.    Lesley trained 6 hrs a day  7 days a week prior to his record race  achievment.  Included in this training was running up & down mountains. From a lunch session with Moana, Lesley & myself  we were discussing  the Va'a & it's traditions & for whatever reason Lesley decided to give me the plans for a 6 man va'a.   This is how the plans came to Norfolk Island which were hand drawn by Lesley, the instructions were in French & Nicki Beadman kindly translated it back into English for me.  Leslie also offered to come to Norfolk to help pass on his knowledge & to help train if ever needed.

We are currently getting the name for the boat transferred onto decal to be attached to the boat before it is launched.  On that note, we are looking at launching the boat in about 2 weeks.  We will be making it a bit of a fundraiser for the club also.  So we will have a meeting this Saturday 4pm at Emily Bay to discuss the launch and upcoming fundraisers, and also to do some more paddling training in the dunga canoe at the beach, just so you can build an appreciation for what's to come in the real outrigger!

Our U18 disco was a great success.  Thankyou to all who turned up to help, and to all the parents out there who supported this event.  We raised around $1200 for the club, but not sure of the exact amount as we still have the account for the drinks to settle.  The combined income from entry fee, snacks and drinks and glow products made it a great fundraiser for the club and the kids loved it!

Special thanks to Tania Sharp for all of her organising of lighting (thanks Andre Nobbs), music (thanks Miguel and Eddie), dj's (thanks Bob and Gaby).
Thanks to Slick for sausages and Hot Crust for the bread.  Thanks also to Louise and Lexi Tavener for their help with the shop and facepainting, (and for the loan of the bin!!) and to Sorrel Ciantar who also donated her time to the shop.  Special mention to Deb Johnson and Mick for all their help through the night.  Mick got a great tip for the fantastic nail painting he did.  Thanks also to the crew of guys that transported lounges and equipment.  We would also like to thank Norfolk Island Administration for waiving the hire fee for the supper room, to assist us with our fundraising.  Thanks also to Norfolk Island Police for security in the carpark ensuring it all ran smoothly. I'm sure there are lots of others to thank, check this weekends paper for Tania and Johns roundup.

seeya Saturday 4pm, ready to paddle!

Ready to Paint, Show Day Fundraiser update

Hey Yorlye, well this is the canoe ready for painting.  The next time you see it, it will be........not telling, you'll have to turn up to the show on Monday for a looksie!

The Showday fundraiser is going to be bigger than Ben Hur lots of prizes contributed so far. These include: 4kg fish, Gardening voucher, Bone Carving, Norfolk Online Annual Subscriptions, Gas Centre Vouchers, Brolly and Beach Towel from Westpac, 4hr Pamper Package, Produce (veg and fruit)boxes, 2hr Massage vouchers, Piano Lessons, Sunglasses, 

 Red Lacquered Bowl, First ride in the canoe (will be a big drawcard as lots of interested parties!)  Wendy had another great idea, "Guess the Weight of the Canoe", and we will also be having a fun activity waterbombing paddlers where people buy waterbombs to throw.  Also a couple of hat designs are ready for production and we will be selling these on Monday also and taking orders for more.  Hats will retail for around $22.50, but not a definite price yet.  Please register your interest for preferred hat colour and embroidery print colour.

We are still investigating insurance, and have a few good quotes.  We will be making a decision so that we can be insured for next Fridays (Oct 15th) U18's disco, venue to be decided in the next couple of days.  Remember if you have a fundraising idea that you would like to make your project, with lots of help from the rest of the club, bring it on!

Thanks to everyone who have pledged prizes and offerred their time to staff the fundraisers.  Much appreciated.  Remember the goal.....the first boat!  Then.....another boat!

 

 These are the 4 designs to choose from.  The pointed design could probably be printed on the side of the cap, whereas the bigger design would be on the front.  The 3pointed designs are by George Barff and the rounded one is by John Christian.

Progress of the outrigger building

 It started as large lengths of 8 x2 as you can see the dark timber in the right of the picture.  Sawn into strips  and smoothed and shaped to form a tongue and groove that slots into each other similar to a hot tub construction.

Before building the actual outrigger could start, the framing up to support and shape the canoe has happened.  This same framework can be used to build the next one as well.

 This is it so far from the stern end in the shed out at Lou's farm.  It's awesome.  It's tahitian shape tapers in at the stern as you can see from this picture.

The timbers are glued together with resin and tacked on and then more resin is applied to the thin lines between each strip.

Sorry, guys, I'm not a boat builder so theirs no correct lingo!

Its pretty precise work.  Jason and Lou laying the last of the strips on today.  The foreman overseeing that they're doing the job properly!  So don't forget the start of the learning about the paddling and its traditions happens this afternoon at Christians Cave.  I think that the hull will be completely covered with timber as I type this.

The bow end.  You can see the tiny tacking nails holding the pine strips to the support structure.  It's amazing and its all happened so quick.  We'll be paddling in no time.  We aren't going ahead with the hangi fundraiser for the moment because of insurance and venue issues, but are gearing up for show day now for some serious fundraising.  We're going to be doing a chocolate wheel, so any donations of prizes for this will be greatly accepted.  Will progress this further next week.  Have a good week yorlye.



Raffle prize winners and our most recent meeting

Hey yorlye, well another really productive meeting last Friday night.  We drew the raffle, our first fundraiser.  Prize winners were 1st drawn, Matt Bigg who chose John's Seahorse bone carving.  2nd drawn was Martin Snell who chose the Bumboras photocanvas, 3rd drawn was Ada Nebauer who won the driftwood chair, 4th drawn was Deb Johnson who won the turtle painting, 5th drawn was Jarred Evans who won the twisted loop bone carving and finally, Peter Knapton won the norfolk language gift pack.  Congratulations to all our winners and thankyou to everyone who supported us.

A huge thankyou and congratulations to all club members, for their fantastic ticket selling efforts.  We raised around $1400 from the raffle and now have over $4000 in the bank.  Thankyou also to those people who paid membership fees and made contributions to the building of the canoe.  The next fundraiser is a hangi/umu/  food cooked in the ground and entertainment night on October 1st, venue yet to be decided.   We had some great fundraising ideas presented at the meeting which had a good turnout from members and the club is moving from strength to strength.

The next important notice is the Wa'a paddling technique which George is going to commence coaching this Friday night at Christians Cave in the Pitcairn Settlers Village commencing at 5.30pm.



We've also got permission to fundraise on show day and are looking at having something fun (waterbombing paddlers in the boat) and also a chocolate wheel.  For the chocolate wheel we will need a variety of prizes, so if you have anything that you can donate, please keep in mind.  This day will be a great opportunity for the club to raise money because of the volume of people that attend.  That's it for now.  Keep checking back for more updates and pics of the progress of the building of the canoe.