Puddle Duck Race 3 - Page 4

I was hiking out on my boat, taking all sorts of risks of capsizing when Doug yelled to me "Ken is down !!!" My first thought was of concern because the water was a little cold, but Greg zoomed over in the rescue boat, so I went with my second though that I now had a chance at first place!! Later talking with Ken, he said that he was within easy reach of the finish line and was trying to think of what he was going to say to me. Then a gust of wind hit, the boat heeled way over, he dropped the main sheet and couldn't reach it. His hiking effort couldn't keep the boat up, so over he went.

From a distance, I saw that he was struggling with the boat, and then I saw that the hull was upright with the sail trimmed properly. I squinted the best I could, and sure enough Ken had righted his swamped boat, and was holding onto the stern as it drug him thru the water!! He told the rescue boat to get away from him so he could finish.

Finally Ken's strength gave out, and he agreed to be rescued. Wayne in the committee boat pulled up anchor and headed over to see if he could help, and also to get a couple of photos.

When we all returned to the dock later, Jerry said that when the committee boat moved, the race was over, and whoever was closest to the finish line won. I quickly discounted this since (A)- he doesn't have a boat yet, so his vote doesn't count, and (B)- there is no such rule. Then Chuck chimed in and said that the start-finish line was between Wayne and a fixed bouy, and since he moved, the starting line overlapped Ken. Then Ken came up and conceeded the loss, but asked to have my win as CONTESTED !!!

This and the next photo are proof that I had a clean win - you will notice in this photo that I am coming up fast on the left of the picture. In the background is the sewer treatment plant where the windward mark was placed. As you can clearly see, Ken's boat stayed to windward of the committee boat, and the start / finish line was on the opposite side. The next photo shows that the committee boat stayed down wind of Ken, while I crossed the new line, as well as crossing the original line. HA!!!

Heading back to the ramp for lunch.

I sailed over to give Doug a tow in, he doesn't have a kickup rudder, so can't sail across the shallows.

Everyone left the water and knowing the rules, David kept rounding the marks to complete the course, and doing so came in 2nd place even though he was the last one off the water! Great job for stiking to it David !!!

Originally we were going to spend the night out at the island, but the wind was too high for me to make the crossing in my pdracer with it's current open design. Wayne had spend the previous night there, he was tired and going home. Bill hadn't had a wink of sleep from the previous night because of the fisherman traffic at the ramp. And Chuck was riding with Bill, so we all decided just to have a tailgate messabout at the ramp and then head home after dark.

Greg finally gave in and declared he would build 2 boats, one for him and one for Christina - they would be identical and he is going to grout them together too. Jerry Scott also said he would start soon on his boat. He described a couple of very unique sail rigs that he might be trying, looking forward to seing them.

The races are really starting to evolve more into "Messabouts with a purpose". In the old days, there would be only one or two new boats at a messabout, but as you can see, many more boats are being built since they are so simple. If for some reason I didn't have a boat, I would still come to the events just to talk to the guys, it sure is fun exploring possiblities of what could be done with these boats with the real prospect of actually trying stuff out at the next race.

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