See this on U-tube and turn up the sound - the neighbour's dog for ballast!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1G9FpnTIOI[/youtube]
The only time
Chloe the sailor's b i t c h (the forum will censor that word) complains is when I use her as a
'righting bag' when I hang her over my shoulder to right the boat!
I've had several dogs of varying weights/sizes for different types of weather. The older, bigger ones have shuffled off the planet now and I am down to Chloe who has to brave the heavy weather as well as the light. These dogs belonged to other people and I felt I was doing a good thing by rescuing them from a monotonous life in the backyard - please have a look around your locality and
DO IT FOR THE DOGS! Most people spend little time with their animals and dogs need company much more than humans.
Chloe is also good for the windsurfer and though she'd never been to the beach before the age of 4, she swims miles with me. My local yacht club refused to allow her as legitimate crew but she's the best crew I've ever had and knows just when to tack and then sits up there on the high corner with her claws in the side-beam cladding.
She gets on the trapeze with me when extra weight's required and two words make her run about -
CHICKEN (all flying creatures) and
DOLPHIN all swimming creatures and I discovered she can hear the dolphins long before they surface, particularly in the quiet weather.
Her English vocab is limited as her mother speaks French and she's had to adapt to an Irish accent in Australia - confusing for a mongrel!
She's fallen in a number of times when the tramp was horizontal and she slid down into the water, or when she got too excited when I shouted 'chickens' or 'dolphins' and went over the bow (and under the tramp and out the back) and she seems to be instinctively aware of sharks because these have been the only times I've seen her walk on water in her panic to get back aboard.
Last week she sailed solo for a while when I jumped off to help a friend right a Hobie18.
Nov 2009:
Well, It's already November, summer's on the way again and it's been an unusually cool start here in South Australia. I took Chloe out for the first sail of the season last weekend. Looks like I've lost a B I T C H (the forum will censor that word) and gained a pig! She's put on so much weight while I was away - really threw the Hobie16 dynamics out the window with the extra weight up front - I've lost a few kilos through some rough travel & scuba diving: I hiked overland and sea thru the islands of Bali, Java, Sumatra and the many archipelagos in the South China Sea to Borneo and up though the Philippines before taking my first flight - home.
Swam and snorkelled with a few dogs of different breeds and nationalities (and a goat named William in West Kalimantan) and I must say Chloe is a brave little dog and she never forgot her sailing skills in spite of being left in the neighbour's (her owner's) yard all that time.
See
http://www.johnahern.nethttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1G9FpnTIOI
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