Puddleduck Vineyard Racing 21/03/2023

[Shorty]

It was a beautiful sunny day at the Vineyard with a 0 – 3 knot North-Westerly on the dam. While the wind was light and there were some calm patches, the wind mostly prevailed and we were never really left totally drifting. The water level was higher today which meant virtually no weed problems for the 12 skippers who turned up.

It was interesting to see quite a large number of spectators today. Some with quite a good sailing knowledge too as I overheard their conversations – at least ‘arm-chair experts’ anyway.

It was a good day to be sailing and I think that pretty well everyone had an enjoyable sail with most skippers reaching the podium.

With the larger number of starters today we used the 15 – 10 – 5 second handicap penalties. But ‘ouch!’ those 15 second penalties hurt particularly if you cop a couple early in the day.

It was tight at the top of the scoreboard with second, third and forth places all tied up on 24 points and separated only on count-back.

Lisa Blackwood just beat Trout to the podium for third spot. Lisa’s boat had real speed under the conditions. She overtook me a couple of times, sailing through on my lee side!

Second place was taken by Peter Morrow. And really well done too as Pete has been out of sailing for over 18 months. He let us all know that he has not forgotten anything with a hands-down win in the first race and followed it with a second in the next race. Great to see you back on the course again Pete!

Today’s winner was Jammy Jones. Jammy set the tone with three podium finishes straight up – which would normally handicap you out of the placings for the rest of the day, but he showed his class by consistently catching the field and winning races. When the wind lightened Jammy changed to a lighter A-rig. One which he had not used before. It looked strangely like chopped fibreglass mat but it was very light-weight and obviously very fast for the conditions.

Congratulations to the place-getters. And Congratulations and ‘happy birthday’ to Bodge. A good way to celebrate the day!

Great conversation and coffee afterwards as usual.

Shorty

[Bodge]

Thanks Shorty 👍😂 it was another enjoyable morning.

[Pete]

Very enjoyable sail in trying conditions. Some of the mark roundings were very interesting.

[Trout]

Great day at the “Duck”, Pete M you have lost nothing – welcome back.

 

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