Beautiful. We have waters in California that are surprisingly similar -- the delta region where the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers come together before emptying into San Francisco bay. Tremendous duck hunting, even rice paddies! Much warmer water, I expect, and with much less tidal action. Still... perfect place for a duck punt exactly like you all have.
This time of year the water is surprisingly warm. The sun heats up the mud and the tide then comes in. It's around 22C or 72F at the moment. Although when you are sailing the punt, it's best to keep out of the water...
I built a punt last year and I'm using a opti club mast. I would like to raise it about 3 inches for a little more headroom. Will this negatively affect the punt? Additionally, I read that, in response to different wind directions, one moves fore and aft in the boat. Can you give me a little primer on this
We have punts here with different mast heights and it doesn't seem to affect the performance at all. My mates mast in this video (DP2) is easily 3 inches higher than mine and we seem evenly matched when racing. When going up wind i found that the punt performs better when moving aft. This may be because the stern goes deeper in the water, so the punt doesnt go sideways as much. A lot of the sailors use back rests, in the aft most Thole Pin holes, which is about as far back as you want to go. Downwind, as I'm one of the heavier sailors, I try to trim the punt so that its as flat as I can get it, whicn means moving to the middle. You can also sail the punt without an oar, moving back will cause it to bear away and forward it will head up.
@@lurch1e thank you so much for your response. I love your videos. My only experience has been in sunfish sailboats and sailing the punt well has been tricky. I'm experimenting with weight distribution and degree of heal, every time I sail. Any advice on sailing with two people (my wife)?
