Port Lincoln
in South Australia has always been the centre
of Tuna fishing in Australia.
Originally Tunarama was a small festival for the Blessing of the Fishing Fleet,
it has grown over 53 years to a big tourist event with a few quirky and unusual events that have survived the years.
One of these is the
Boat Build and Race.
They give you two much
to thin sheets of plywood, two lengths of way to flimsy baton, some wire,
screws, nails, two tubes of glue, a saw, a drill and hammer. Then they give you
and your one helper just two hours to make your own boat. The boat gets to sit
in the sun for a few hours for the glue to nearly dry and then you race…
The result is of course
hilarious.
This year there was a
team from France, a team from the Netherlands, an all girl team, two
father and son teams, a father and daughter team and the usual assortment of
misfits and weirdo's.
Let the madness begin….
The father and son team in the background, dad using the son as a weight to hold down their ply wood.
One of several Boy/Girlfriend teams. I fully expected a few arguments but sadly they remained well composed.
The word EWE means a female sheep, this boat EWES was built by the only all female team. As you can see they ran out of time and the boat floated but would not carry passengers so they swam it out and back. They didnt win but won the hearts of the huge crowd.
Had there been any waves at all most of these craft would not have made the trip but as you can see this year the weather was great and the water flat calm
Only one boat turned over (sad face)
Over the coming weeks we will visit the Tuna Toss, Tug of War and the Slippery Pole events. (Im still sore from the laughing...)