Okoume Fest Play Day

The beach at Matapeake park was a great place to launch the boats.

May 14, 2011
Okoume Fest play day.  We spent the night at the Super 8 in Annapolis and drove across the Bay Bridge to get Matapeake Park a little after 9AM.  The morning was gray and misty but we were able to take out several boats.  Of course I particularly wanted to see the dory, take some pictures to help me finish mine, and try it out.  MaryAnn and I found a set of oars each, and then helped drain the water out of the boat.  When I asked why there was a drain, I was told one time when they took it to a show, they were caught in a storm and it had so much water in it that they were not able to get it off the trailer. They had to drill a hole to empty it and then put in a drain plug.  We got quite a bit of the water out of the hole and then just tipped in on its side to get the rest. We had nice fun learning to coordinate our rowing, but when there were not many other boats around we were able to move right along.  MaryAnn didn't like looking backward, and finally stopped rowing, turned around and just helped us navigate.

MaryAnn and Donna on the water.

After the dory we tried out some  of the kayaks.  The Wood Duck was most similar to our own kayaks and felt the most stable.  MaryAnn wasn't up for the tandem wherry but we helped Pete and Donna try it and followed them in kayaks.  I was disappointed that CLC didn't have a sliding seat for the single Annapolis Wherry.  I wanted to see how the sliding seat worked.  Pete and Donna said it was a lot of work to stay balanced and not run into each other with the oars.  Pete thought the dory would be easier to row with the sliding seat.  I hope he's right.

Pete and Donna work out on the Wherry.

After we spent some time on the water, I asked if they could rig the dory for sailing.  Some pieces were missing and it took them awhile to find replacements.  I took pictures as they put it together to help me get ready to do my own.  Unfortunately, the mist turned into a steady rain as they were doing this, and we were not able to get the dory back into the water.   We left to find crab cakes for lunch, but the weather never really improved.  However, I was happy to see the sail rig in person and can't wait to get mine finished.

CLC crew rig the mast on the dory.