Duck Cup Story:
The 2012 Duck Cup was an adventure as always. This race has evolved into a 2 day distance race with both days starting and ending at Nor'Banks Sailing which makes for easy logistics. This is a fun and challenging distance race which everyone should try and do once. This year Charles and I were determined to get the Cup back from Todd so we could stop hearing him yap about it. The first days race to the Corolla Lighthouse was a quick jaunt through the Narrows (a narrow channel in the middle of an Audubon Sanctuary with lots of shallow water and grass) up to Whalehead Bay. The narrows are interesting as all the grass islands and warm water makes for some interesting winds. We were able to reach to the narrows and then fly the kite through the narrows in 10 knots of breeze and flat water. Flat water was the theme of Whalehead Bay since this was where the wind died on the fleet. At one point, we looked behind us and saw boats on multiple different tacks. We were getting crushed on corrected time at the lighthouse, but caught the Southerly breeze home and took line honors and 2nd place corrected. One thing that makes this leg interesting is that you can choose to shoot through some of the islands and cut distance off of the course with significant risk of shallow water, old duck blinds, weeds and big snakes. Duck Cup veterans Bill and Megan Shelton took the rhumb line less travelled through the islands and ended up correcting into 1st after Saturday. It had been a long day and Lori's famous beergaritas flowed into the early evening but fortunately not too late into the evening.
We woke up Sunday to a Westerly breeze around 12-15 for the race to the bridge. The RC set an upwind mark across the Sound and we tacked upwind to the mark before turning to reach to the bridge. Reaching was going well until I heard a strange noise and next thing I know I am in the water with a broken trap line. All Charles heard as I dropped under him and he passed over me was a brief "See Ya".
We quickly recovered and the wind gods smiled on us and the wind lightened up and turned Southerly allowing us to cruise home with the kite and take line honors again.
Charles and I ended up correcting into 1st and taking back the Duck Cup on our Tornado. Bill and Megan wound up in 2nd and Lloyd Graves (on a borrowed Getaway
came in 3rd.
The fleet was comprised of my staff, locals (including the return of Scooter) and visitors with everything from Getaways, H-16's, H-18's, A-Cats, F-16 and Tornado's. Next year we will run 3 classes:
Duck Cup for Low Portsmouth, Duckling Cup for High Portsmouth and the Rubber Ducky (thanks Dan Berger for this idea) for rotomolded (Getaways, Waves and Windriders have all competed in this event in the past).
Put this on your calendar for next year and come experience a challenging, laid back, old school distance race on the OBX. You at least have to come for the beergaritas!!
Jon Britt
OBXCC, Nor'Banks Sailing
