Our chances were sunk, but at least our sails were full & we kept our anchor dry.
ᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕᵔᵕ
^Wavy lines...

Many moons ago.. I was a member of the 1st Kalkadoon Scout troop. Sixer of "Brown" Six in the Barkley B pack actually. *rubs lapel, reflects on it & thinks maybe it doesn't sound that good after all.*

Anyhoo - some of our many activities involved fundraising for various groups and charities. We achieved this usually by taking part in various community events and either hassiling onlookers for money or being sponsered.
One of these activites we decided to take part in was The Henley-On-Todd Regatta.
Now as many of you may expect the H-O-T-R is a boat race. With a difference.
The boats generally have no bottom, they're usually beer-fueled & foot-powered and aside from the copious libations the nearest major drop of liquid is some thousands of kilometres away! The Todd River has to be a completely dry riverbed in order for the race to be run successfully. EDIT: It has apparently been cancelled once recently because the Todd River had some flowing water and they shut the race down due to Flooding.

Thus we made our boat. She was a sprighlty skiff, wide of beam, deep of keel and with a sturdy rudder. Ahh the "HMAS Barkley", 'twas a good ship to be sure.
We built a light dowel and balsa ovalish frame with a beam down the centre and 2 across which we attached shoulder harnesses to. We painted and stuck banners around the frame - I honestly can't remember who we were "sailing" for, I think it was something to do with Rotary.

After the several hours bus journey to Alice Springs with the boat listing precariously on the seats at the back of the bus the whole way we arrived and began to unpack.
And then disaster struck! As the vessel was breaching the safe harbour of the bus doors it struck a head-rest shaped reef and tore a hole in her port side from bow to stern. (The banner got caught and ripped!) Calamity!
Fortunately the race organisers found us some space-age lashing twine (duct tape) and we were able to ensure that the Barkley was once again "sea-worthy".

On the day of the race we were trounced by another group from a nearby Christian Youth Group. We peeked under their boat and I'm sure that they were using a winged keel which we felt was an unfair advantage, but the Barkley suffered irreparable damage due to the white-caps and pounding ocean (6 kids running down a sandy, dry river bottom). Tbh - I have a feeling we were the only group of sober participants all day, by a long-shot.

A good time was had by all, we raised some money for a charity and the Barkley was burnt to the tideline (chucked on the bonfire) due to the crew mutinying (no-one cba getting the thing back on the bus for the long journey home).
Beat that ya bunch 'o land-lubbers!

EDIT: For all the Scouts out there *gets out the pedo bashing stick* - I went onto Sea Scouts when we moved nearer to the coast (1st Pelican Point). I gave up after I became a Venturer. Apparently Scouts get to go sailing on the weekend and Venturers get to repair the rigging and boats.
Mind you several Jamborees (Including a Queen's Jamboree) & enough patches to cover a blanket, a nice brass "Be Prepared" belt buckle - I'm a happy camper.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Sat 3 Nov 2012, 4:35, Reply)