Another row undertaken recently within Port Lincoln’s magnificent harbour was from the little, western coastal settlement of Tulka in Proper Bay, along the shores of the Lincoln National Park to Horse Rock and from there, under sail this time, downwind to the Lincoln Cove Marina. It’s a distance of about ten nautical miles and this time roughly six miles of it (from Horse Rock to Home) sailing with the spritsail rig.

This jaunt was undertaken in company with another local Whitehall belonging to a friend. We trailered our skiffs to Tulka – situated ten kilometers west of Lincoln’s City centre. The wind was south westerly which meant the row along the National Park was under a lee shore and so calm and pleasant. Horse rock sits just off the limestoney coast and a shallow sandy spit reaches out to almost provide a land bridge at low water. Rowing in company was a chance to chat, compare notes about whitehalls and snap a few images – a peaceful way to pass an hour!

This was also only the second try out of the sailing rig and it proved to be a big success. The rig consists of a carbon tube (windsurfer) mast that steps snugly into a socket in the forward seat, a quadrilateral shaped Spritsail, the head of which is held aloft by a diagonal ‘sprit’ spa (light alloy tube) and that’s it – no rudder, no board! I chose to keep the rig extremely simple to avoid clutter in what is primarily a rowing skiff. It folds up and sits snugly inside the skiff and parallel to the slide seat when not used and it can be stepped and set in a matter of minutes. Sailing without a rudder and board is of course not for serious sailors who want to sail into the eye of the wind and between buoys but it’s not pointless either. The deep skeg aft gives the Whitehall good directional stability and gives enough grip to sail at about 50 degrees to the wind – so to wind’ard you can go and reaching and running of course is sweet. Steering without a rudder is a treat! – not as responsive as with one but amply do-able by simply moving ones position within the skiff! Going to wind’ard you sit forward of the foot spreader; running, you sit on the aft seat – it’s that simple! The sailing rig turns the Whitehall into a great touring skiff as much longer passages can be contemplated with the assistance of fair breezes.

To complete this tale, the homeward stretch from Horse rock was mostly dead down wind and a final short kick to wind’ard on rounding Billy Lights Point to the Lincoln Cove Marina. Another delightful mornings jaunt was capped off with a hot chocolate from the local Cafe!