- This topic has 14 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated May 31, 2023 at 8:02 pm by
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There was a fairly strong and consistent North-Easter blowing on the Derwent as I drove out this morning – quite warm too considering that we are only a couple of days shy of winter. I have been sailing long enough to know that wind is a fairly local phenomena but I was still a bit surprised to find that the wind at the vineyard was pretty much every direction but for North-East! And swirling and blustery as it can be when it gets up a bit at ‘The Duck’.
It was one of those days when a B-rig would have helped you keep control in the gusts but you knew that if others had the A-rig up they would beat you! With that thought everyone chose the A-rig and it ended up probably being the right choice too.
Our gadget man Ron Cullen arrived with some new wind-vanes that he produced on his 3D printer and generously gave them away to those that wanted them. I snuck a few glances at Ron’s during the racing and noted how well it was working and how easy it was to see even at a distance. I reckon that a wind-vane would be pretty useful especially at Puddleduck where the wind is often shifty. I think that Ron still has a few spares if you missed out on getting one. Thanks Ron!
Today you needed to keep your boat moving in the calmer patches and be a little lucky with the wind shifts! All the skippers down to 7th place managed to score a race win.
Winner overall today was Mat Grey sailing a borrowed hull. I am guessing that Mat has packed his own for the trip to the Australian Championships on the Sunshine Coast. All the best for the event Mat!
Bodge and Trout tied for second and third with Bodge getting the nod on count back due to more second places. Congratulations Mat, Bodge and Trout!
It is important that Puddleduck welcomes all skippers even if they do not have the right boat for the day. But I am thinking that it would be fairer to work the scoring separately if there is more that one DF65 sailing on the DF95 day. That is we create create a seperate division for the DF65’s. They would use the same start recording but their finish sheet would be recorded separately. Incidentally I did run the numbers through for seperate fleets using today’s data and found that it made absolutely no difference at all to the finishing order of the 95’s right down to Bodge beating Trout on count back!
John S
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Exellent write up again Shorty.
I have eight wind vanes left so I will take them along to the DF65 day next week.
After chatting with Trout, I think I will try to modify the sadle I designed to fit on the mast crane and make it “clip on”. I hear that Gerald has made something that clips to the mast so I might reach out to him for a few pointers if run into trouble.
Here is hat cam footage of Race 1. Take note of the boats that jumped the start. Only one did the right thing and returned to the start line. Good on you Fab for doing the right thing 👍
Oh, when viewing the videos, make sure you click on the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the video and select the highest quality. I am uploading in 2K so the video quality should be pretty good.
Sorry about the wind noise but I have tried to filter it out as much as I can but it was a very windy day.
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Another great write up Shorty, however you are selling yourself short (pardon the pun) as you were only 1 point off the podium with only 4 points separating difference 1st to 4th place 👍
thank you gadget for the videos and for your very generous gift of wind vanes, I am sure a few of us will give them a go on the 65s next week.
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Hey Gadget
love this footage as it briefly shows me retrieving my boat from the bank, running past everyone to re-launch it with about 40 sec left before race start. I ended up having a reasonable start, about 5th around the first mark, up the windward side passing all but one DF65 before second mark, then onto win the race. Why can’t all races be like that one 😂
nice second place for you too 👍
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Hi Gadget Ron,
Great videos! When racing, one needs to keep an eye on one’s own boat, what? But thanks to your vids, we can watch the whole fleet.
Can I please have one of those wind indicators too.
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Thanks Gadget.
LeMans start yes – from the car park 🙂Actually I do have an idea for starts…I’m not sure what it’s called, but it I’ve seen it somewhere. One boat sails in the start area on port tack, and everyone else takes turn ducking their stern, so in theory all are equal up the course. The purists won’t like it, but it reduces congestion at the start (especially when the pin end is largely favoured). For less confident starters it gives them a fighting chance, and it’s less likely that one boat gets an unbeatable break. I’m thinking this could be just for the first start of the day (the handicapping reduces congestion for subsequent starts).
For consideration anyway. (No offence taken if this idea isn’t wanted!)
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It’s called a ‘gate start’. But only really works well when the fleet is large, the first leg is directly to windward and a fairly long leg too. So would be hard to do at PD. I reckon that at PD the start boat (which is sometimes called ‘the rabbit’ or ‘pathfinder’ as I remember) may have overlayed the windward mark by the time that the fleet has ducked behind its stern. Interesting thought though!
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