Puddle Duck Race 2 - Page 3

Ken arrived (he is furthest left in the photo), and setup his new lateen sail. The sunfish sail he used in the first race made him weather vane too much.

This is a new lateen sail he made from polytarp, it has a shorter foot so doesn't stick out aft of the boat that much.

With all of us setup, we headed out to the starting line to begin the race.

We were all together, Wayne and his M17 was in position, so we headed for the start line.

Hey, how come Wayne is heading back?

You can't see it very well, but there was a bit of chop, and the waves lifted his M17 up in the air and then dropped it, banging his rudder on the bottom. This cracked thru his transom, and he started taking on water, so it was time to head back to the ramp.

We sailed around a bit, and Ken started going upwind to round the mark before we were going to start the race.

Waves are so hard to capture in photos. This photo shows a hint at how rough it was, Ken obviously thought this wave was a little too high, so he is cutting a little off the top.

We were just about ready to start the race, and I looked back and couldn't see Chuck anymore, where did he go? There he is, upside down in the water.

Where was James? He was having trouble making it to windward with his sail, it didn't have any draft built into it, so he was blown to the end of the cove. You can see him at the left of this photo.

DOH! Capsize!

I furled my sail and rowed over to check on James and Chuck. James had dropped his sail and was rowing back.

The mast was buried in the mud, so Chuck un-stepped it, righted the boat, and collected everything together. Chuck had also broken his leeboard. I tossed a line to Chuck and towed him back to the beach.

Without a leeboard, he was out of the race.

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