The Boatshed At Woronora

Hosting Second-hand Canoe and Kayak Sales

Although we are hitting the winter period and people are generally thinking about curling up for an extra hour in bed rather than leaping out to go paddling, the astute buyers are already thinking about next spring and are looking to pick up winter bargains.

If you are thinking about selling a canoe or kayak, but can’t face the endless weekends of arranging to meet prospective purchasers at the water, or staying home and then finding they don’t turn up, why not investigate our second hand canoe and kayak market option? We will look after your boat throughout the winter for you, in our undercover storage facility, and enable prospective purchasers to compare your boat to similar others.

Buyers – why chase all over Sydney looking at individual boats, after ringing to make sure each one is still available, when you can come down to the Boatshed (35 mins south of Sydney airport) and check out a whole range of boats? We can arrange on-water demonstrations and warm you up with a cup of freshly-brewed coffee or hot chocolate afterwards.

If you need to travel from afar we can even offer accommodation and meals (evening meal by arrangement).

A Sad Period

The community is subdued following the tragic loss of a local teenager in a boating accident late on Saturday night. We have not been here long enough to really know him, but we cannot not recognise his passing, nor be unaware of the sense of grief evident by the dozens of teenagers in Prince Edward Park, just “being there”. All of us at The Boatshed offer our condolences to his family and friends.

Barge Charge

Time and Tide wait for no man

Many of the houses up-river from us do not have road access, and rely on the river for everything. This is also true for new houses, some of which require some sizeable machinery for excavation and lifting. Forbes Creek is a useful place to load such equipment, as well as materials, as it has road-side access. However, it also suffers from shallow water for a goodly part of the tide and there is a sandbank at the junction of Forbes Creek and the Woronora River.

A few days ago, a barge was coming in to pick up an excavator but misjudged the tide/sandbank and got stuck. It was a long wait for high water so they all decided to come back later. Unfortunately they got that wrong too, and the barge lifted itself and floated down the creek towards the Boatshed jetty and the Prince Edward Park road bridge. By this time it was quite dark and although I saw the lights moving I assumed it was being managed until some guys fishing knocked on the door to say it was adrift.
Not being short of a canoe or two, and with my wife slowing it down as it brushed against our jetty, it was easy enough to get a couple of ropes on it and with the help of a 4×4 in the car park we made it secure against the far bank just as the owners turned up.

It would be nice to say we got a couple of beers out of it for our trouble, but good karma was probably a better profit. Plenty of people help out with my boats when hirers have trouble, or call me to say the people look stuck or are abusing the boats (yes, some do that!), so what comes around goes around.

It’s nice living on the river here at Woronora.

What a difference a day makes

Monday was the ANZAC Day public holiday; the Boatshed was reasonably busy, the cafe was full, the sun was shining and kids were swimming in the river and creek – ok, they were wading ‘cos the tide was low

Tuesday morning and brrrr! People walking dogs had coats and scarves on, the mist was broiling 0ff the water and I went looking for clothes not seen since we moved in. It was a dreary day. The cloud barely lifted and although I had to shuck the new-found sweater fairly quickly there was a definite temptation to don it again late afternoon.

It reminded me of the opposite scenario when I was working in Montreal for a while. After several months of sub-zero temperatures and snow-packed pavements, the winter disappeared almost overnight and the female population expecially  emerged like a butterfly from the crysallis, with dazzling colour and bare skin as though they couldn’t wait to soak up every bit of sunshine. Faced with the same temerature at the end of summer, no doubt they would be reaching just as quickly for the hats and scarves since the temperature range is so wide up there.

However, here we are blessed with a relatively small temperature range and for a large part of the day the paddling conditions are almost perfect. Not cold, not too hot, no hoons in tinnies or on wakeboards, just ease back in your seat and watch nature go by.

The Boatshed At Woronora is still open 7 days a week, 8:30 to 6 for canoe, kayak  and motor boat hire. Why not enjoy a hot coffee on the balcony afterwards or better still, take one with you early in the morning and watch the river wake up with the sun.

Where the bloody hell are you? (with apologies to Tourism Australia)

What a fantastic week it has been weather-wise. Ideal paddling conditions, warm and dry  with small tides and no wind; almost perfect conditions but they must be perfect for something else as well because the bit of river I informally monitor has been almost empty compared with previous weeks.

I know the school term has started (my wife and a daughter are teachers so we tend to notice) and the Easter holiday period is almost over but with another long weekend coming up I would have expected a few more people, both hirers and owner-kayakers, to be making the most of the opportunity. Most schools who used the Boatshed last term have elected not to canoe this term; I realise students have to choose a sport for the entire term and most will be thinking it will be a tad cooler in 10 week’s time, but, boy, what are they missing in the meantime?

A wet boat in any weather

I used to sail a laser dinghy in the UK, with the frostbite series kicking off on Boxing Day. To come to Australia and discover that people still have a hibernation instinct in Winter was unexpected, to say the least. We arrived in September 1986 and rented on the Woronora for a while, and I can still recall the surprised voices of the neighbours saying “who’s swimming in the river at this time of year? Oh, it’s those mad Poms!”

So all you Northern hemisphere people either here or planning to be here between now and next September, basking in the relative warmth of an Australian “cold season”, come on down to The Boatshed At Woronora and “Make Spray while the Sun Shines”.