When a dam hits less than one per cent capacity, the fish in it die and the pelicans that flew in to eat the fish leave, and inland sailors realise it could be time to either cancel their coming regatta or find another venue for it.
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That was exactly what happened to the annual Keepit Kool Regatta due to be held on the June long weekend this year, as drought emptied the dam, and left the Lake Keepit Sailing Club high and dry. Commodore Ian Pine said there was virtually no water at all in Keepit Dam.
We traditionally hold one heat at Malpas in early-December and another heat in Keepit in March each year.
- Commodore Ian Pine
"We've moved the regatta to Copeton Dam for this year. It's a major move, but we had basically two options really; we could have forgotten about it for this year, or we were invited to a club on Lake Macquarie to hold it there," he said.
"Everybody said they could go to Lake Macquarie any time and it was the uniqueness of Keepit Dam that they wanted to retain. The people at Copeton were very receptive of us going there and made it as easy as they could.
"We're getting good entries, so I think it will be the right thing to do."
Ian said since the water disappeared at Keepit a lot of his members had been sailing with the New England Sailing Club at Armidale's Malpas Dam, regardless of the three hour drive each way.
"We have a series between New England Sailing Club and Lake Keepit Sailing Club that has been going on for donkey's years and we sail for the Thunderbolt Trophy," Ian said.
"We traditionally hold one heat at Malpas in early-December and another heat in Keepit in March each year. This year we had to hold both heats at Malpas because we had no water.
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"On the weekend of the second heat in March at Keepit, we also sail for the trophy called the Keepit Cup, which has a history going back 45 to 50 years and it is a trophy for any sailor who turns up. It doesn't matter where they come from."
Ian said sailing on Keepit went back to 1960, the year the dam was built. He said engineers building the dam were sailors, and thought it was sad that there was more water impounded before the dam was completed than was in it now.
New England Sailing Club Commodore Andrew Sawyer said sailing on Malpas Dam had finished its sailing season about a week ago with the colder weather set to begin and with Malpas Dam sitting on about 51 per cent capacity.
"We start again in the first week of September with a sailing meet, and then the week after that we will commence again. It is still quite cold so we put on the wet suits and brave the cold to get back out there sailing," he said.
"We compete with Keepit every year. We're trying to get a laser zone regatta involving the coastal clubs as well happening, so that should be really great too," Andrew said.
"We'd like to create a travelling series of lasers where we just go to each other's clubs and support each other, and try to grow the clubs. Especially the guys at maybe Carcoar Dam, or somewhere a little further inland. They're sort of waterways that are something like Lake Keepit."
Andrew said he knew of members from the Grafton Sailing Club who were keen to participate in such a competition.
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