RESOURCES
Pre to post-internet, it's pretty funny to see what we've collected in print! Regional magazines have come and gone so thankfully we still had copy lying around!
Early Days
It all began simply sailing off the beach at Changi Sailing Club!
In the 80's we were with Hobie Fleet #492 Singapore. in the (0's we moved to the Nacra platform. Our daily exploits were captured in oil by Boon Wang an artist/sailor at Changi SC. Great days!
With the Nacra 5.0 we extended our 'cruising range' we managed Desaru many times and then this little jaunt to RAWA Island.
With the small cat, we could always get onto a beach somewhere!
Throughout the 90's, we grew the Nacra Squaron. With the Squadron, we sailed into Batam, Bintan and even to Lobam Island, Riau Archipelago, Indonesia. That was long before it was fashionable or 'safe'!
We'd done enough 100mile trips on our Nacra 5.0 and so it was time for a real challenge.
Singapore-Phuket-Singapore by Nacra 5.0 Sport Cat! Trust in the boat and trust in our abilities. Got us there and back. Read
If you're into the sport cat scene, here's a link to our archive of articles and tuning guides... Go Cat GO
UNFOLDING New Adventures
Once we got our first Corsair Dash 750 in 2010, it really helped us to go further!
Links to available PDFs can be found in the descriptions.
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We'd done enough miles on sport cats so we are really attached to the ability to get the rudders up and get to the beach. The Corsair allows us to do just that! For most of the 17,000 islands that lie around us here, they are reef-fringed and that keeps deep draft boats away!
We've been junk holing around Bintan Island and found some really nice spots!
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Most of the time we generate mud maps from our recce' trips and then follow that up with a small fleet, just like the colonial powers did back in the day!
The common entry/exit point for Indonesia is Nongsa, Batam but Bintan has CIQP right at the Ferry Marina. This is an effecient place to clear in/out. We've done it numerous times.
The recce notes from our Bintan/White Sands Island trip. This little island has become one of our favourites for it's simple beauty and proximity to Singapore. Not thatfar away but a world of difference.
We do a recce' then we generally plan an event to take a fleet along. In this case it was an Easter Weekend retreat that got thwarted by the modern 'dark ages'. In fact, we were lucky to retrieve the Dash as 3 days after returning to Singapore the international borders shut!
We like White Sands so much, we've been back a few times just to enjoy the peace and quiet. It's a small island but the beach is really lovely. Best is, we book the whole island and have it to ourselves.
The Great Neptune Regatta this year, was more full of 'adventure' than all previous ones! This is more rally than regatta and is really a sojourn through the time while sailing island to island!
Towards the end of the Dark Age, the best Escape we could come up with was a weekender at Ghost Island on Singapore's Southern coastline. All was great, till you find the 20 'security' cameras on the west end of the beach. Downer for sure!
But sometimes, we just like to express our creative side...
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Nha Trang to Singapore by Seawind 1260. A great trip that started with beautiful conditions in Vietnam waters but the minute we crossed into Malaysian water, the wind switched off and it was 400 miles of motoring. Absolutely no wonder why Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 called it "The land below the wind". True
It's not all work you know...
Our work means long hours on the deck in the sun, rain and dark.
But that only makes life more real! Here's some video evidence...
Just after we recieved our first Corsair Dash, we thought it would be a good idea to give it a shakedown - Tioman.
Following the shakedown, our Dash did a lot of racing at Changi SC, Singapore. 17.6 knots then and we can do a lot more now.
One of the first recce trips down into Bintan and then around to White Sands Island.
One take!
We enjoy this video the most. Shot in the Northeast Monsoon off Changi Singapore. This was during the Singapore Trimaran Championship. The Weta got a good head start and then Ding Hao crushed it.
Wetas aren't entirely slow in a good breeze but we've really tweaked Ding Hao up. Then again we've had ten years to do that.
Sometimes, we just have to appreciate the environment that surrounds us... In this case, a year's worth of images from the moorings at Changi Sailing Club, Singapore. Particularly nice are the storms during the Transition period between the Monsoons.
