Frostbite racing results for 12/5/2010 (after the yellow ducks?)

YELLOW DUCKS?    The following enthusiastic note describes how nine of the  Frozen Few, in SunFish, chased bright yellow ducks around the race course at Edgewood this week - - thank you for your report Catherine!

Four oversized Rubber Duckies stared down the Frozen Fleet in Race 3, and sent skippers spinning their SunFish in all directions, including upside down.

An addendum to the Sailing Instructions was posted, as required, one hour before the first whistle with special rules for the day crafted by dastardly and ingenious Stuart, the Race Committee. Before skippers were allowed to round the windward mark, they had to capture a duck. Before leaving the three boat length zone around the mark, the duck had to be released back into the wild. 

Since there were fewer ducks than boats, The Frozen Few quickly realized that they had to devise impromptu boat handling strategies while observing the rules and still sailing fast! Precision and careful balance was required when approaching and leaning out to pick up a slippery duck in a twitchy SunFish. Leaning to leeward was considered a calculated risk for capsize.

Slithering over the top of the hull during a duck dueling capsize, Rob executed a nice "step-over recovery" landing on the daggerboard. He dove back into the cockpit without getting wet as the sailboat righted itself, and he still scooped up the rascally duck on the way back up!

Weather conditions were chilly in the upper 30s with winds from the Northwest.  Five Races were completed (T, O, W2 under special rules, T, W). David W. took the day's win, followed by Fauss. Tie breaker rules also favored Doug edging out Catherine.  Catherine "protested" Jeff for politely suggesting skippers murder the Race Committee upon arrival back at the club. The idea was quickly scrapped, since skippers were having so much fun chasing ducks.

And from my perspective . . . 

Yes! Sunday was exciting!  Lots of cool stuff happened.

 During one of T races, I had just rounded the leeward mark, and was making for the Gybe mark. Fauss passed me, but took a moment to let me know how I could sail faster by lifting the board a little, which I forgot! I made adjustments, and did nearly catch up by the time we reached the next mark! 

I also crossed the starting line, on port tack, right in the middle of the line, on time, with nobody in the way! I mostly did it, because I looked around and saw that I could! There was a  wind shift at thirty seconds that sent some early folks heading toward the pin end to avoid being too soon. I was sort of in that group. Everyone else was running a little late and bunched up at the other end! I just tacked and took off through the middle! I think that was the start for the last race, where I came in 4th.

Gene also capsized during the duck race, was assisted by the safety boat, and did not finish. He did continue on to sail the other races, and was in good spirits!

Doug got a third! He was sailing really well all day too! There was really good energy among all the sailors!

The duck race strategies might be worth a mention, since the leaders were feeling pressured to fetch the ducks first, and some of the upstarts from the back of the pack aimed for the mark, looking to be there waiting for the ducks to arrive by boat!

We're looking forward to next Sunday (when, by the way, Bill S will be Race Committee Skipper, and chef - - having missed his chance last week).

Thank you Race Committee !

C