"Jurra" Gets Faster

One winter I proceeded to put a better finish on the hull of the Heron, profile the centre-board and rudder, plus shape the mast and gaff. In the two half seasons we sailed competitively after that, I don't think we lost a race.

Whyalla News, Page 19, Friday 22 November 1974. "Rigging their Heron for Sunday's race program are 18-year-old Dave Beaty, at left, and Lloyd Borrett, also 18. The boat is named Jurra."

Indeed, the report in the Whyalla News that accompanied the photo above, "In the Heron section, Lloyd Borrett, sailing "Jurra", had an easy four-minutes win over "Nell", sailed by Grant Beaty. Borrett gave a good display of heavy weather sailing and did not come into any strife."

Sure the work I'd done on "Jurra" helped, but I don't think it was the main factor. Most of the other Herons we sailed against had all of the U-beaut gadgets and adjustable "this and thats" possible. "Jurra" didn't. When I got the chance to sail some of those Herons, I found them to be much faster than "Jurra".

Not having those gadgets meant we had to make a decision on the beach as to what the conditions were going to be, and set the boat up accordingly. Once out sailing we couldn't really adjust much. Thus all we could do was concentrate on racing the boat.

To this day I still think most of those wins were simply the result of the other skippers being distracted from racing as they wondered if their settings were correct. You'd see them often making adjustments whilst missing an important wind shift. Being able to focus and concentrate on "saling the boat" is vital.