DDMBC Paddler Day 2007

[Walter Snowdon]

Well, tommorow is the big day! It has stopped raining and brightened up a little so all we need now is a bit of sun andplenty of visitors and models!

The last week has been pretty hectic sorting out road signs parking signs, catering etc so i hope it was worthwhile . Mike Mayhew at WAVERLEY MODELS has very kindly donated a 1/48th scale PS WAVERLEY hull and plan as a raffle prize- a very kind unsolicited gesture which came as a very pleasant suprise.
 Prize for best model judged on the water is a very limited framed print entitled THE THREE WAVERLEYS painted by the late scottish artist John Nicholson limited to 100 prints to be sold only on the waverley so it has Never been commercialy available other than on the ship! So , wish us luck on this unique experiment. ( I wonder if you can sell excess pork pies and mushy peas on ebay). Regards, walter.

      ps 7.30 am and the sun has just come out!!!!

[Roderick Smith]

Fortune favours the bold.
Despite the gloomy weather beforehand, it was heartwarming to read that the organisers were rewarded on the day: the weather, and the level of participation.

What are some of the lessons learned during the 2007 event, to be applied to the 2008 one?

I went through the whole photo album this morning, using the slide show facility: very convenient.  Many of the boats were familiar friends from many postings; others were new (eg the ingenious steam pedalo), and most were captioned to help a remotely-located nonvisitor understand what was happening.

In particular, one which I don't recall seeing before was a white two-deck sternwheeler.  The name hinted at USA practice, but the decoration was plainer than most.  Was it an upper Nile original?  Please post the story/history of this one.

I also liked seeing a tug tugging: not just a pretty face.
An event often held at traction-engine rallies is a tug of war.
Perhaps two tugs pulling against each other in 2008?  [But betting on the outcome, even to raise funds for PS Waverley, would be illegal?].
IIRC we have never held a tug of war at full size river rallies (in Australia), only ever races.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor