Having The Time Of Our Lives, Again

by Greg Tait
This is what we do during the summer on Tuesday nights in downtown Seattle, WA. Mark Kunz and I have been doing it for the last 27 years together, and we will be doing it again for 17 weeks on Lake Union.

What it is, is the Duck Dodge, deemed in 2008 by Sailing World as ‘The Ultimate Beer Can Race’. We still think it is… here are the rules:

Rule 1: Starboard Tack has Right of Way
Rule 2: Rules of the road apply
Rule 3: No hitting one-another (with or without boats)
Rule 4: Take all marks to PORT unless noted on Race Course
Rule 5: No hitting one-another
Rule 6: Bribing the committee is against the rules (while anybody is looking)
Rule 7: No hitting one-another
Rule 8: There is no rule number 8
Rule 9: No hitting one-another
Rule 10: Follow all the rules
Rule 11: No hitting one-another
Rule 12: Never make a duck change its course (dodge the duck)

During our Duck Dodge history we have gone through four boats. The Whip was our first boat, and we spent a lot of time in the water on that boat. Not sure of the sail area but in a large puff we were over. The Whip proved to be good training as we made the switch to 5O5s and have yet to go over in our three subsequent boats: Cinc-O-sink, Quandary, and our current boat – Ichi Butt.

Two years ago Mark Kunz and I were getting our butts kicked by our arch nemesis Pete Serafin, whom at the time owned Ichi Butt. We were racing Quandary that we obtained from our arch nemesis – Pete Serafin – for the very low price of the dock/moorage fees that he acquired the boat for. His call to me was, heard you were looking for a boat. I have just the one for you. Thus Quandary came into Mark Kunz and my possession.

She needed some work, but minor to get her race ready, which Pete Serafin helped us with. More accurately, we got her Duck Dodge ready. Beer can racing ain’t the Worlds. She sailed well for a year or so but then Pete Serafin’s wife Lauri wanted her back yard and driveway back. Too much boat stuff, she said.

Thus Mark Kunz and I became partners in purchasing the Ichi Butt… might I remind you the boat that had kicked our proverbial butts the previous two years. If you can’t beat them, then buy them.

Thus begins our 2017 racing series with the Ichi Butt, doing what we have done for 27 years later, which is having the time of our lives, sailing on a lake in a Downtown Metropolis, on a beautiful evening in Seattle.