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Once upon a time, there was a little club who paddled in a small village near the ocean. Whenever they went out, the little club wore badly-stained white Mako singlets, so everyone in the village called them Little White Mako Club.
One morning, Little White Mako Club asked their mummy Chicki if they could go to visit some friends in the big City as it had been awhile since they’d seen each other. “That’s a good idea,” Chicki said.
So they packed a nice basket of papers, sharpies, water bottles, bum mats and UpnGos for Little White Mako Club to take to the big smoke. When the basket was ready, the little club put on their white singlets and waved home goodbye.
“Remember, go straight to the City,” Chicki cautioned. “Don’t dawdle along the way and please don’t talk to strangers. The highways are dangerous.” “Don’t worry, Chicki,” said Little White Mako Club, “we’ll be careful and promise to all get there on time.”
And so Little White Mako Club arrived at Darling Harbour, on time surprisingly, and very excited to make new friends and to paddle on Cockle Bay for the Lunar Festival. And what a day it was……
The Recipe: There weren’t many ingredients to the delicious concoction of a Mako expedition:
- 3 sweeps
- 2 drummers
- 6 youngsters
- 30 oldsters
- 50 sharpies
- 1 keg of anticipation, mixed with nerves and folded with some excitement.
Force the ingredients into 5 crews (or 330 different seat configs) and watch the Mako magic happen.
The Magic
Senior A racing kicked off first, with Mako rampaging down the racecourse in 53 seconds both heats to go into the A Final and make Chicki extremely happy with meeting the Club goal of One Crew into an A Final. To take a 3rd place at Lunar Festival against the strongest clubs in NSW was beyond our wildest dreams.
Senior A Opens (more like Top Deck of half men, half women) took down the course to land 3rd place in both heats, and were disappointed the A Finals were called off. (however, club goal = check)
Premier Mixed took to the water next, sweetened with the freshness of the Prems and afternoon Seniors. What racing it was. Prems rampaged down the racecourse and only just missed the A Final by a whisker, however check out the stomping from Lane 1 in the Minor Final to take first, and rank 7th for Prem Mixed at Lunar. WOW.
Plucky Prem Women were up next, with only 18 paddlers and a strong headwind. Against all expectations they fought with heart and guts and spirit and made the A Final. What an amazing performance ladies, against strong, seasoned and very experienced competition.
Prem Opens decided to rampage through their heats to take a place in the A Final also. Unofficially we crossed the line second for silver, however a collision between two crews meant the final was raced again. We declined. There’s no way we could have topped that last race; it was a cracker, and every paddler knew we had performed our very best. So while not on record, we can safely say that our rag-tag band of prems/weary-seniors/brand new paddlers had made Mako history.
Taking a Dip
Race day has its challenges, and while a few were surprised to see Chicki dive off the pontoons to swim out to collect an errant sweep oar, Mako knew she secretly had to pee and was getting race ready as efficiently as she knew how. That’s commitment.
Janita Dash Dolly
While Mako were frantically jumping in and out of boats, spare a thought for Janita “Dash Dolly” Wilson. J drummed 4 crews which meant 12 races and was permanently stuck on the drum of Boat 5 for the day without toilet breaks or water. The officials had to bring an egg flip to gently scrape her off at the end of the day.
Ernie’s first last race
After the ball-tearing Premier Opens Major Final performance, Ernie was seen quietly shaking his head in wonder, with some emotion glistening his eyes. He remarked that in his nearly 20 years of paddling he’d never, ever been in the last race of the day (Premier Opens Major Final). Hats off Ernie, you go alright mate
Sharpie Madness
There was a frenzy of Sharpie Madness at the tent, resulting in many paddlers asking about Mako’s strange symbolic tattoos running down arms and legs. Unbeknownst to other clubs, sharpies are the key to our racing strategy, a cunning plan cooked up by Master Logistician ‘Gaverick’.
Rookies No More
To our new paddlers Chris, JacM, Annie, Brenda, Diana – you guys rock. To paddle your very first competitive regatta is always fantastic, to do so at Darling Harbour with the best of the best is a dream come true. Your resilience and discipline shone through, and you paddled like rock stars. Hats off guys.
The Thanks
- And finally the thanks:
- DBNSW thank you for a fabulous event.
- officials and volunteers, who ticked, checked, loaded, timed, called, officiated – thank you.
- Our very own Abi and Ivy who tirelessly loaded us on and off boats for 9 hours a HUGE thank you.
- To our competition and friends on water, we can only thank you for the honour and privilege of inviting us to paddle Lunar.
- And to Mako, who received feedback from DBNSW that we were the most respectful, friendly, organised and timely club at the event – thank you for keeping our respectful culture strong.
…and so the Little Club who Live Far Away tiredly packed up their medals in their picnic basket, waved goodbye to their friends and the City, and tucked themselves up into bed for a big sleep and lived happily ever after.
