SF Bay Area Puddle Duckers, the first outing at Shadow Cliff East Bay Regional park. March 11, 2005. After looking at the pics, scroll down for more info.
The weather was great, after the ocean fog burned off, and we had a really fun day. Shadow Cliffs Park is situated between Pleasanton and Livermore (East of of San Fransisco). The lake itself is a "reclaimed" gravel pit, and so we were sailing below grade. It was fun to look up and see bicycles pedal by 30 above you.
For the first time out, the boats all performed very well. We had no leaks, and no major problems (well, a broken tiller and a broken mast) that couldn't be fixed so we could carry on. We all came away with a list of things to fix for next time.
Mike Matthews (#20) awarded some distinctions:
Best looking rig (and probably fastest boat) goes to...
Scott Stanley, Hull #21
Scott's beautiful gaff rig was the cleanest setup of the
bunch and appeared to be the fastest. Nice job!
Best job of assembly goes to...
Michael Allison, Hull #23
Mike's duck seemed the most solid and had some nice
touches like easy opening hatches in the airboxes
(and yet still airtight) that were actually varnished!
He also has a very nice standing lug rig.
Duck Fart award (first boat to break) goes to...
Michael Matthews, Hull #20
Broke the tiller about a half hour into the sail.
Back to the drawing board...
Duck Bill award (outstanding achievement) goes to...
Phil Rollet, Hull #22
In my mind Phil wins this award for several reasons:
1. Phil has never sailed before.
2. He assembled his boat quickly with simple parts.
3. He took off in an untested boat without a single
bit of sailing instruction (did I mention he's
never sailed before).
4. About an hour, maybe an hour and a half, into the
sail Phil's mast broke. Did that stop him?
Nope. He jury rigged a shorter mast and kept
sailing. Not only did he keep sailing he went
back to the dock, picked up his son, and took
him our for a while. He continued to sail as
long as the rest of us.
All this and Phil has never sailed before!
Way to go Phil! In my book, you win the day.
