- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated March 3, 2019 at 9:53 am by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Today at Puddleduck Vineyard Pond, something magical happened.
For months now with the warmer weather and larger flocks of ducks and geese making Puddleduck pond their home, weed has been steadily increasing.
Our sailing area had begun to shrink and more and more boats were getting caught in the stuff during our weekly races.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, in two weeks time the second round of races comprising the Tasmanian Summer Series Championship for RG65 and DF65 are to be hosted here. https://dftasmania.com/
Things were beginning to look grim and despite efforts to clear it with chains and ropes, we hardly made a dent at all in the foul stuff.
We needed a new plan and just like magic Google and some great teamwork came to the rescue. Uncle G had discovered something that might just do the business.
Nicknamed ‘The Terminator’, Ron used the idea and put it into a new design, cut the parts required and passed it to Mike who welded it together.
The Terminator is a piece of 100mm diameter tubular steel 1200mm long with an axle through the centre. On each end of the axle is welded end pieces to attach ropes or chain to. Spikes made of short pieces of Re-bar were then welded along the length of the tube at varying intervals.
It looked like a weapon from a Mad Max movie but it worked a treat!!
Rowing it out into position on the stern of the dinghy the team held the attached ropes until the drop area was reached. The Terminator was launched from the dinghy were it sank ready to roll along the bottom on its way back to shore. Two teams then slowly retrieved the lines rolling the weed up in its spikes as it went.
A few pics & a quick video from today’s efforts.
More pics (including construction of “The Terminator” available here
-
No video or pics from today but a hardy (or is that foolhardy) crew of Don, Gerald, Kermit, Mike, Pete & Tony gave the Terminator another workout at Puddleduck this morning and managed to remove another large amount of weed from the pond. This time we concentrated on the marshalling area between the jetty and the Deck, Hells Corner and the area above and behind the fountain.
A fair amount of floating weed was also removed with garden rakes, both from the shore and by Gerald & Tony in the rowboat.
Thanks again to all involved, I’m sure all competitors in the State championships next weekend will appreciate the effort.
-
Great work everyone, thank you for great your efforts once again.
Tomorrow will be hot pondside so if you feel that might be too much, please don’t feel obliged.
I will be there to have a sail and chat with Darren re: filling up the pond. I hope to use the “Control Area” up on the viewing platform where it’s cooler to sail from. Hope you can join me for this ‘one off’ Saturday morning @ the Duck but completely understand if the conditions dictate otherwise.
Cheers!
-
More weed clearing today with Gerald (Uncle G) using his RC Camera Boat to tow a floating rake to remove surface weed, that was left behind by the “Terminator”.
It was a slow progress but worked well.
I know it was rather warm but still not the ideal spot for a swim eh Gerald!!
More pics available here
-
First off, big Kudos to Gerald for coming up with the idea and building it. Was a little sceptical at first but seeing it in action I was sold on the concept. After putting the Terminator through the bottom (and pulling weed up from there), what weed doesn’t get wound on to the barrel floats free, ready to be collected by the ‘G Weeder’. Perfect!
Secondly the pics and vids look great of the ‘G Weeder’ in action (and Uncle G too of course 😉)
And finally, well done team, great work. You have made a big dent in ensuring that the Championships get the best possible conditions to sail in. Thank you.
Last word. There is still a patch or two we haven’t been able to get yet just on the other side of the fountain. Plan is to arrive a tad earlier (9am ?) on Tuesday and get the Terminator in close there and see if we can get rid of it. Ropes, bodies and rakes (and the G Weeder), all will be welcome for this one last push.
We can then lay a course similar to the one we’ll use next weekend and see how we go from there.
Cheers!
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.