Puddle Duck Racer Sailboat Class - Newsletter 4
The World Championship Race is just a month away !! If you are thinking about it, there is still time to build a duck and attend the race. Consider contacting other local duckers and doing some practice racing before attending, that way you can work out the bugs to perform your best on race day.
There are many factors involved in making your duck go fast, here are my best suggestions for some areas to work on: make your puddle duck go fast. I also have some typical problems on the Control Problems When Sailing In Light & Heavy Winds page that you might want to review.
If you are new to buoy racing, on the sailboat games page I have a section that covers some of the basics of conventional buoy racing It really isn't as hard as it looks, especially when you consider that duckers are very friendly racers. On the same page are basic right of way rules, both a pamphlet and a video you can watch. As to safety, remember that no matter what the rules are, make sure nobody gets hurt. A nice thing about having boats as small as ours, if you are about to collide with another ducker, it is easy to reach over and fend them off so nobody gets hurt.
On the sailing books page I have a section just for books about sailboat racing. I've got direct links to amazon so you can purchase the books used at significant discount from the cover price. Some of the the books are only a couple of bucks (including shipping) and being a sailboat book-aholic myself, I find them hard to pass up. I installed a widget on those pages so you can get the current prices of all the books from my page.
And finally, keep in mind that in the world of sailboat racing, we are the pinnacle of eccentric racers. Be creative with your paint brushes, not only the hull, but the sail too. There are many themes you can go with and costumes aren't just for Halloween. Maybe the trophy you bring for the pile will reflect the same theme also. Because our boats are rather slow, racers tend to be a lot closer to each other, and this opens up opportunity for all kinds of goofyness. Marshmallows make great (reusable) projectiles. You can take along duck calls (like hunters use) to quack at each other, and big squirt guns are always fun.
Don't be fooled though, just because we do goofy stuff, doesn't mean we aren't serious about winning the race -- we race just as hard and serious as the big guys, the difference being we have an incredibly fun time doing it.
New Articles:
Lake Arthur Event - August 2011 - Pennsylvania USA
By: John Bridges
Pennsylvania, USA
Event Date: 2011-08-06
Organizer: John Bridges
Duckers Attended: 1
Six Puddle Ducks at Yellow Creek Lake
By: Ken Sherwood
Pennsylvania, USA
Event Date: 2011-07-03
Organizer: John Bridges
Duckers Attended: 2
Design of PDRacer #572 - Looking for an Ultralight
By: Bryan Young #572 "not picked yet" (2es 1eo 1ea 1ad 2ar)
Kansas, USA
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