Puddleduck Vineyard Racing DF65/RG65 23/4/24

[Bodge]

Puddleduck Sailing – RG/DF65s

23/4/2024

Fifteen skippers fronted today at “The Duck” to contest another day’s sailing for bragging rights. Breeze on the pond was forecast NW 2-6knts and we were greeted with mirror like conditions, 0.5knt at best.

Due to the lack of breeze, we decided upon sailing half the normal course with Gadget launching temporary buoy 3 into the pond with skill and precision 😊 Two laps S-1-2-3-A-X took 35 minutes to complete. Thankfully the breeze slowly came in and we completed 3 more races of the short course before enlarging the course to include buoys 4 and 5 (deleting buoy 3) for the remaining three races.

Unfortunately, there were many incidents of barging at marks causing skippers to be rafted up and on occasions missing the buoy rounding altogether. Please remember that sailing at “The Duck” is aimed to be a fun / enjoyable day and when you have right of way and taken out by skippers not giving adequate room at buoys, it becomes very frustrating. Whilst I understand that there were 15 boats on the water, it can become congested at times, but if you hit another boat, penalties should be completed, with myself completing three penalties today.

We have decided in the future that if numbers exceed 14 boats we will endeavour to split the fleet into two groups, extending sail time by 30 mins (12:30pm), with the last race being an invitation to all skippers starting on their handicap.

Back to the results …. In the combined fleet, it was Bluey with his RG65 taking ultimate bragging rights with 2 race wins, and 2 second places (total 16pts). Second place went to Jammy on 20 pts, and third place to Trout on 22 pts. In the DF only class it was Jammy first, Lisa (switch) second and Trout third, well done to all skippers 😊

A big thank you to Sheep who took on the role of starting, scoring finishes and calculating handicaps in the absence of Sue, Graeme & Bonnie who had family commitments to attend to.

Post sailing drinks / chat was also very enjoyable in the comfort of the Puddleduck deck.

Also, it would be amiss of me not to mention Gadget who very kindly brought along another one of his delightful slices, only crumbs left on the plates says it all, thank you Ron 😊

Bodge

Coming up …

Next week – DF95s (Tuesday 30/4/24)

Week after – RG/DF65s (Tuesday 7/5/24) – possible extended sail time by 30 mins if fleet numbers exceed 14 (split fleet)

 

[Gadget]

Great write up Bodge and very wise words indeed. We all want to have fun and enjoy ourselves at “The Duck” so people will need to pay a bit more attention and be more courteous which will benefit everyone.

I’ve managed to process all the hatcam videos from today except for race 1 as it took way to long.  That race could rival some of SBS’s documentarys on “slow TV”!

The following footage is from races 2, 3 and 4. Races 5, 6 and 7 will be posted after the final video has finished uploading.

Race 2:

 

Race 3:

 

Race 4:

[Gadget]

Hatcam video Race 5:

 

Race 6:

 

Race 7:

[Andy]

Thanks for the comments Ron……..

[Author]

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