Mermaid's Tournament XLI/2007
THE STRANDED MERMAID July 6, 7, 8, 2007
This winter's powerful storms have swept our poor lady to higher ground, so the Shire of False Isle invites you to join us for the 1st ever Stranded Mermaid. There will competitions for archery, rapier, blue helm combat, heavy fighting, heraldry, A&S and bardic. Please note that this is a new camping site and not our previous site. There will be pre-registration available, and the deadline for pre-registration is June 22nd, 2007.
For up to date ferry schedules go to: http://www.bcferries.bc.ca
- Note about ferries: Please make sure to arrive an
hour or two before your sailing, as this is a very busy time of year. Check out possible discount rates on their website.
SITE FEES: Adults: $15.00 for the weekend or $10.00 per day. Youths (ages 6 - 17) $5.00 for the weekend or $5.00 per day. There is no charge for children under the age of 5. Family cap $40.00. Standard family rules apply. Make checks payable to "The Shire of False Isle". The NMS surcharge is applicable: $4.00 Canadian, $3.00 American.
SITE INFO: Craig Park, (no street address) Sunshine Coast Highway, Powell River, BC, V8A 4Z2. Site opens12:00 pm. on Friday and closes at 12:00 pm. on Sunday. Please note that all fires must be above ground & smoking is only in designated areas. There will be a food merchant on site. There is no potable water on site so please bring your own. Persons with RV's must contact the autocrat as there is limited space available. Merchants are welcome and will only be charged their site fee, but must contact the autocrat to reserve a space. Pets are welcome, but MUST be leashed at all times.
Post event
Event photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50925312@N00/sets/72157600724242518/
archery report:
Good evening folks,
Just got the first batch of packing away and cleaning up done and now taking a bit of time to review the weekends event. While the site was not seaside it certainly was spectacular: the lovely green lawns were surrounded by spectacular forests and trails, perfect weather, bountiful star gazing, the quiet musing of old friends, and the steady flow of Wobby Goose all added to the pleasure of the weeked.
The archery range was set up and ready to go when we got there Friday so the only thing to do was get ourselves ready for the next days play.
Up first on Saturday was the children's archery run by Ealeen. The children shot at ballons filled with coin, then had the pleasure of shooting the "misguided" French knight before moving on to the 2 foot bumble bee. It was a great bit of play and these future grandmasters enjoyed every moment. (I am hoping Tam posts her photos of the shoot especially of her two daughters, Heather and Rachel, the winners of the children's shoot.)
After a good lunch the archers arrived at the range to plates of fresh cut fruit and a huge shade tent. We began warming up with standard royal rounds. Top round of the day went to Ted with an 82, second Ealeen with 75, and myself with a 71.
We began to shoot the popinjay shoot but got completely distracted by the boffer, blue helm tournament so we all wandered over to watch. Upon returning to the 40 foot popinjay target, Geoffry of Mylar took this unscored tournament with 5 out of 6 hits as many archers and non-archers lined up again and again for their 3 arrows.
So now it was back to the real shooting: Bartholomeows knight helm shoot. This was a close win by Bartholomeow with Ted second and Ealeen third.
The proposed dart shoot was going to take several hours so we switched instead to a modifed royal round. Each archer (at each distance) drew a shooting partner. Each archer then shot 5 arrows and a "killer" arrow which was temporarily crested. Each of your opponents arrows in the "killer" arrow ring was removed from the target before scoring. This led to some wonderful bantering and seemed to be enjoyed by all.
At the end of this shoot Bartholomeus finshed first with a 71, Ealeen with a 68, and John with a 58.
Ealeen's three top three finishes were just enough to beat out Theodore's two top three finishes for her first Mermaid's Archery victory.
Great shooting everyone.
Although the travel was an extra 30 minutes than the usual Mermaids the greeting and friendship shared among all the guests easily made up for our loss of the "old" mermaid site.
In all there were 16 adult archers and 5 children's archers competing and it was great to have centre eric for the weekend. I look forward to the improvements and the greater challenges False Isle comes up for the archers ( and all competitors) next year.
Master John Macandrew