Puddle Duck Race 3 - Page 2
By Doug Day (retired) #1 "DUB"
David Sargent brought a very interesting sail and mast.
The sail is a cut down hobie sail with full battens that I think qualifies as a batwing.
The mast is a piece of PVC pipe with a slot cut into it, and has the larger entry slot at the bottom so he can thread the sail and hoist it up just like with a regular aluminum mast.
First time I have seen something like this, and is a very neat way to emmulate a regular aluminum mast !!
The only problem he seemed to have is the mast would bend so much in the wind that it seemed to spill all his power.
Possibly if a wooden core was added to the mast, it would solve the bending problem - or if he added wire stays to it.
With the ability to use rope luff sails, he could bring a number of sails and pick the best one for the race, and hoist or douse them very quickly.
The marks have been placed, and everyone is starting to wander out to the course.
James and Chuck are headed towards the windward mark for a test run.
Like an idiot, I placed the windward mark too close to the windward shore, and the winds were very light there.
Next time I'll make sure to leave plenty of room, and move the course further away from the obstructing trees.
Also my marks are chlorox bottles, and the area was littered with them holding fishing trot lines.
I put my marks next to a trot jug so that the racers just had to look for the 2 jugs close to each other.
Ken's boat is always looking good, and he was ready to smoke us in another race.
James on the left is sailing much better, and Doug on the right has his sail with a new configuration.
He re-rigged it with a horizontal sprit boom so that it is self vanging, and has a sprit pushing up the peak.
His sail was working very well in this configuration and later on during the race I was having a tough time trying to stay ahead of him with my leg-o-mutton sprit sail.
Earlier at the dock a young man came up to chat with us, he is the one sailing the snark.
I didn't catch his name, but he is very interested in building a pdracer and joining us in the races.
He sailed around with us before the race.
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