Waterfowl and Racing

[Rick Sowell]

I have been wondering how the other districts handle waterfowl on the race course before or during a race. do you start a heat with boats herding the ducks off the course during the mill, or do you make sure the course is clear before any boats are launched? We have had to run close to ducks in the mill to push them off the racing line, and at the risk of maybe hitting one (instant DQ) or maybe having your boat die and losing the chance at a heat win and point loss. what do you think about this, is this the way other racers handle the problem?

 

[Ron Olson]

The CD should not allow any boats on the water until the waterfowl have moved well away from the course. Chasing them off with a retrieve boat usually does the trick.

A little story if you don't mind.

We had a D-2 race in Grand Rapids at Riverside Park and the pond is attached to the Grand River. For several heats we could see a small flock of ducks swimming in from the Grand and they were heading directly for the course. Gas hydro was up when they neared during mill time. One rigger driver went way wide on the course and ran right through the flock! It almost appeared to be deliberate and one small duck was badly injured. The host club brought it to shore then tried to hide it away in a box under a pick-up. Their not-too bright move was that they did it in front of a daughter of a former DNR officer. She made some calls and in the end, the club got a $1,000.00 fine. A lot of clubs can't afford to lose that kind of money so maybe it wil give a CD second thoughts about letting a heat go when there are ducks anywhere near the course.

Then club would hold up a heat if they saw any flotsam floating yet ran while the flock was dangerously close to the course.

 

[Andy Greene]

The recovery boat run off is the best choice, works on gators too by. :blink:

Where it gets interesting down here in Fl is when a Coot comes cruising out of the cat tails during a heat, or an Anhinga pops up from no where.

Not much you can do about that- cept wish him well

However our cd's do a pretty good job of letting the drivers know one is there.

Andy

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

The recovery boat run off is the best choice, works on gators too by. :blink:

Where it gets interesting down here in Fl is when a Coot comes cruising out of the cat tails during a heat, or an Anhinga pops up from no where.

Not much you can do about that- cept wish him well

However our cd's do a pretty good job of letting the drivers know one is there.

Andy

LOL Drew been there seen that! As a matter of fact I caught a pretty big fish with my 20 Mono at the IMPBA Internats in Bartow way back. I was running down the back stretch closing in on bouy 4 and WHAP a fish jumped right in front of me the boat penetrated and was pulled under until he fell off. When the boat was brought back in by the retrieve boat it still had blood and entrails on the point of my seaducer. LOL Another Internats win spoiled

 

[SayMikey]

We start the heat if the ducks are not in racing lanes.

more and more the ducks dont get moving so we get one once in a while

 

[BobGutsell]

Yeah you just have to drive slowly around them until they all flock off!

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

Yeah you just have to drive slowly around them until they all flock off!

LMAO! Are you hosting Saturday Night Live this week? They need a good standup guy lately

 

[Joe Warren]

Fire the TWIN Class Up !!!

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

Fire the TWIN Class Up !!!

If anything can scare them away it would be Joe and his Twin

Hey Joe whazzz up? Hope your doing well!

 

[Mike Cathey]

The recovery boat run off is the best choice, works on gators too by. :blink:

Where it gets interesting down here in Fl is when a Coot comes cruising out of the cat tails during a heat, or an Anhinga pops up from no where.

Not much you can do about that- cept wish him well

However our cd's do a pretty good job of letting the drivers know one is there.

Andy

I always wondered how you guys handle the alligator thing down there. I just got an email the other day with a series of photos showing some guy who went to get his golf ball out of a pond on the golf course in Florida and an alligator tore his freakin' arm off. Screw that. The **** thing could just have my model boat. Yikes!!! I wouldn't even get in a chase boat with alligators around unless it was like 25 feet long and I had bazookas and machine guns.

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

The recovery boat run off is the best choice, works on gators too by. :blink:

Where it gets interesting down here in Fl is when a Coot comes cruising out of the cat tails during a heat, or an Anhinga pops up from no where.

Not much you can do about that- cept wish him well

However our cd's do a pretty good job of letting the drivers know one is there.

Andy

I always wondered how you guys handle the alligator thing down there. I just got an email the other day with a series of photos showing some guy who went to get his golf ball out of a pond on the golf course in Florida and an alligator tore his freakin' arm off. Screw that. The **** thing could just have my model boat. Yikes!!! I wouldn't even get in a chase boat with alligators around unless it was like 25 feet long and I had bazookas and machine guns.

They wont hurt ya!

 

[robertpickard]

We have more problem with turtles down here taking out boats then problems with gators, gators sit and watch lol