As part of our visit to the Gold Coast we have arranged to visit Sean’s 1230. Sean started his boat about 3 months ahead of us but is now nearly a year ahead of us. He has both his hulls finished and joined and the bridgedeck raised and glassed into place. The great thing about seeing Sean’s boat was to get a true idea of the size of the boat. It is deceptive when the hull is upside down. Walking onto Sean’s boat gave Jo and I a real idea of how big rooms are and how big the boat is going to be overall. Sean is doing a fantastic job and his boat looks great. And I can tell you, its huge! I don’t regret the decision to build this size boat, but it is going to take some getting used to the size of it once it is finished having never sailed any size boat let alone one as big as this! It is also nice to see a boat ahead of you in the process as you get a lot of tips and ideas on how things can be done and also the reassurance you get from seeing someone else that has done something the same way you did or ended with the same result. Having said that it is pretty hard not to end up with the same result with these kits as they are laid out for you so well and are pretty straight-forward to follow.

So a big thanks to Sean and Leasa for letting us see their boat. Well done on your progress, it shames me into working harder but I know that once I get back to it I will revert to my usual pace which I am happy with. We all get there in our own time I guess.

As it happened we had hired mopeds the day we went to Sean’s. We used the experience to find out what kind of bike we would buy to scoot around Gosford on. I have a car in Melbourne because I am there on business so often and we have a car at home but I didn’t think we would need a third car but I do occasionally need to go somewhere around Gosford when Jo needs to go somewhere else so a scooter or small bike would be a great idea. And those that have read the whole site will know that Jo has always wanted to ride a motorbike. We got our learners permits on the Friday before we left for the Gold Coast (we actually did the riding lesson a few weeks back) and we hired a Pagsta 100cc chopper and a 150cc TGB scooter. Well there is now no question. A full size 250cc roadbike would be too heavy for Jo and the Pagsta 100cc is way too small for me, so the 150cc scooter is the right compromise size for us both. The poor little pagsta really struggled to get up Tamborine Mountain. It barely made 40kmh and I spent most of the time in 2nd gear, and when going along the flat or down hill 70kmh was its top speed. All in all is was a great day. Really good fun.