Finale Drifter

Full Moon had a decent start. For perspective, Shogun (ahead and two boats toward the bottom) was over the line early.

The SW wind was very light for the final Duck Dodge and it proceeded to get even lighter. After a decent start, Full Moon crew Randy “Steel Trap” Olsen, Michael “Tanglefoot” Medina, Marcelle “Deck Ornament” Van Houten, Daniel “Week 19” Mengedoht, and skipper John “No Damage” Mengedoht made it very slowly south for a large pinwheel rounding of the AGC buoy but only went about halfway into the second leg before dropping the spinnaker and firing up the iron sail. The running lights were on by then and it was time for the traditional final race “Martini Night” cocktails.

Full Moon is on the left, not long after rounding the AGC buoy.

Despite the lack of wind, it was a very pleasant evening on the lake, our naturally well-insulated skipper not even bothering with a jacket until well after dark.

The Equalizer only helps if it has wind...

It has been an excellent summer with Full Moon appearing in three different starts depending on circumstances and doing well in all three. In third start, Full Moon managed three gold ducks and one silver. In fourth start (no spinnaker), Full Moon received one gold duck and one bronze. Bumped to second start for two weeks by the Race Committee, Full Moon still managed a fifth and a sixth place, though well off the pace of the fastest boats. Not counting two skipped races and the abandoned finale, Full Moon had a median and average finish of fourth place! Much more importantly, we had a lot of fun out there.

Randy surveys his martini glass holder, vintage 1997.

Next up, maybe, is the Rum Run – depending on weather and how many of the crew are up for it.

The city looks fabulous from Lake Union. Yes, some boats were still racing well into the night.

Fair Weather Sailor

The skipper elected to skip the Team Spirit Duck Dodge due to forecast rain and light wind. We'll be back for the finale.

Slow Death at the Aurora Buoy

The wind was fairly strong and out of the south/southwest for the start of the Decades Night Duck Dodge. With starboard tack near the pin end (Westlake shore) strongly favored, Full Moon crew Michael “Jackson” Medina, Daniel “60s” Mengedoht, Robert “Pilsner” Leykam, Lucienne “Deck Ornament” Grace, and skipper John “Wet T-Shirt” Mengedoht ran the line on port tack, ducked a few boats, and tacked to cross the line in roughly tenth place. Calling tacks on the shifts proved challenging, and, with a fair amount of traffic, Full Moon ended up with a couple of extra tacks before rounding the AGC buoy, though Full Moon still got past a few boats on this leg.

Once around, Full Moon headed east for a short distance before gybing and hoisting the Equalizer. This enabled passing a few more boats, including some from second start, though it was difficult to get by some others. A conservative drop allowed the less risk-averse to close a bit from behind but getting the nylon monster down was a bigger priority.

The next leg should have been an easy and fast reach and so it was for a while. However, the Aurora buoy had been placed as far north as possible (not sure why) and in a relatively windless hole. Full Moon had taken a northly course (shortest distance between two points…) and this proved disastrous as the wind was worst closest to shore (or ships). While not exactly moving fast, other boats coming from further out were able to get by.

The final leg was a straight shot on a close reach, some boats staying closer to Westlake while Full Moon and some others decided the Committee Boat was closer – and maybe in better wind. In the end, Full Moon finished about eighth, not bad all things considered. Unfortunately, some rain interrupted the post-race cruising, though it was dark by then anyway!

Beat The Heat!

 

Daniel supports the WGA and SGA strikes.

With temperatures in the low 90s, it was great to get out on the lake for the Mardi Gras Duck Dodge. Full Moon crew Daniel “Long Drink” Mengedoht, Logan “Cranberry” Pulsifer, and skipper John “Clean Air” Mengedoht went in fourth start (no spinnaker), crossing the line very near the front of the fleet and then rolling the J24 Beagle with only a Harbor 20 slightly ahead to windward.

Full Moon rolls past Beagle (yellow/orange J24) at the start.

Once past the Freeway buoy, Full Moon did a few tacks to escape the wind shadow of other boats. Two more tacks brought Full Moon to the Aurora buoy, having passed several third start boats, including our old ex-rival Ignitor.

The Mengedoht Men at work, heading for the Aurora buoy.

Full Moon maintained good speed on the broad reach south until Ignitor caught up under spinnaker, creating a wind shadow. A quick dive to windward brought Full Moon behind Ignitor but in relatively clean air. At the AGC buoy, Ignitor took a slightly wide turn while dropping their spinnaker, leaving ample space for Full Moon to zip inside and ahead.

Result!

It was then a straight shot in nice breeze to the finish. In the end, Full Moon scored the Gold Duck, having led the fleet for the bulk of the race.

Bronze Me!

Full Moon was short on experienced crew for the Pirate Night Duck Dodge so we elected to forgo the spinnaker and race in fourth start. Crew Daniel “Everything Everywhere” Mengedoht, Emily “Halyards” Yen, Yuyu “Aaaahh!” Chiang, and skipper John “Close Quarters” Mengedoht had a decent port tack start and only had to duck one starboard tack boat after crossing the line. With a nice NW breeze, Full Moon had good speed northbound and nailed the rounding of the Freeway buoy.

Full Moon motors past the Committee Boat before the start.

After romping westward, Full Moon was put into a tight squeeze between a windward boat and a boat that tacked at the last second right before the Aurora buoy but emerged unscathed and in first place. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long as relative giant Solara came past early on the broad reach south. Then Runaway (Norlin 34) began to challenge from a path a bit closer to the Westlake shore. Full Moon hung in there for most of the leg but Runaway pulled ahead before rounding the AGC buoy.

The final leg was a straight shot to the finish line where Full Moon got the horn for third place!

Missing Target

Full Moon crew Randy, Daniel, Anne, and skipper John had a decent starboard tack start for the Pink Boat Duck Dodge until fouled by Moonshine to windward who inexplicably refused to turn closer to the wind. (The windward boat is the “give way” vessel, even in the Duck Dodge…) After suffering in the wind shadow of the bigger boat and falling back, Full Moon was able to tack behind Moonshine and find some clear air near the eastern shore before tacking back out toward the middle of the lake. Search as we and other boats might, the Freeway buoy was missing in action, so it was either never dropped or was snagged and dragged by another boat.

Full Moon chases the eventual winner SYC5 (J22).

With nothing else to do, Full Moon headed for the Aurora buoy. With the Equalizer’s “turbo” spinnaker pole preset for the longer starboard gybe, the NNE wind meant spending some time with just the main and jib downwind before gybing southward and hoisting the spinnaker. Full Moon was then able to pick off a few boats, including a Harbor 20 on port gybe, which was forced to turn to avoid Full Moon coming along on starboard.

Kari J (San Juan 28) had the inside line to the AGC buoy and a conservative spinnaker drop allowed the T-bird Makima to catch up. The rounding went well until the jib sheet was fouled on the genoa lead block, with no drive from the jib. This allowed Makima and then the Harbor 20 to get past. In the end, Full Moon was sixth, still a very respectable result out of 28 boats.

Moving Target

For the first time in 17 years (!), Full Moon was over the starting line early, approaching the Committee Boat on starboard tack and then tacking to cross the line when there was no option to fall off. Crew Randy “Tack Now” Olson, Daniel “Hollywood Reporter” Mengedoht, Michael “Crikey” Ward, and skipper John “Early Bird” Mengedoht quickly whipped back around the Committee Boat and managed to properly cross the starting line in about 20th place.

Full Moon crosses the starting line early. Drat!

With decent north wind, Full Moon ended up heading for the middle of the lake as the gravel barge came past Gasworks a bit earlier than normal. After dodging a drifting power boat, Full Moon then tacked on the layline to the Freeway buoy. Not long afterwards, it was observed that a second-start boat had managed to snag the Freeway buoy on their rudder and were dragging it westward while attempting to dislodge it with a boat hook. This effectively shortened the course for Full Moon and many others as we chased after the moving buoy!

Full Moon is on the right, chasing the J30 with the orange, yellow and blue striped spinnaker.

The Aurora buoy was set a bit further south than usual and Full Moon easily laid the mark without further tacks. Unfortunately, the “turbo” spinnaker pole was preset to starboard, and the wind angle called for a jibe after rounding. Full Moon proceeded with the jib toward the middle of the lake before jibing and hoisting the Equalizer, though we should have waited just a bit longer before jibing for a better wind angle.

All the same, the Equalizer provided good power and Full Moon passed several boats before a clean drop and rounding of the AGC buoy, just behind a J30. Only one more tack was needed to cross the finish line where it turned out Full Moon was in fourth place, with the J30 third. Given the start and the fact that a J30 should easily outpace little Full Moon, we’ll call that a win!

The sun broke free of the clouds after the race.

Tropical Gold

Robert keeps a firm grip on the jib sheet.

While port tack at the Committee Boat would have been ideal for the start of the Tropical Night Duck Dodge, Full Moon crew Daniel “Three Cups” Mengedoht, Chad “Funyuns” Harnish, Robert “Auto-Correct” Leykam, Lucienne “Good Luck Charm” Grace, and skipper John “Blue Streak” Mengedoht opted for a much less risky starboard tack approach. With the J30 Slingshot and another boat just to windward, things got a bit hairy encountering port tack boats which were all supposed to yield. Slingshot gave Full Moon a bump as they turned to tack (no visible damage, thankfully!) and Full Moon then tacked as well, the result being Full Moon in fourth place heading north.

Daniel likes to perch at the mast and keep an eye on the fleet.

A couple of Thunderbirds slowly gained and then Full Moon had to duck a starboard tack boat, pushing us east of the layline. The good news is that there ended up being a bit of pile-up at the Freeway buoy which Full Moon avoided by overstanding slightly before tacking to go around. Full Moon then had almost a straight shot to the Aurora buoy, a pair of (very) quick tacks being necessary just before rounding. Boats that took a more southerly route did not do as well and Full Moon passed a few of them.

On approach to the Aurora buoy.

The Equalizer was soon launched for the long reaching leg south and Full Moon had excellent speed, passing more boats, including several from second start. Full Moon opted for a slightly early spinnaker drop but still managed to be overlapped and inside a J22 at the AGC buoy to round ahead.

The Equalizer in living color.

Full Moon then pulled further ahead of the J22 while on the reach to the “floating island” dispensing cups of beer. Full Moon then hardened up for a straight shot upwind to the finish line. The J22 opted to sail a slightly lower but faster course. Ultimately, they were too far east to actually cross the finish line (without tacking) and had to return to cross properly. Full Moon, meanwhile, got the horn for first place!

Another Gold Duck!

A note about rules: Slingshot was requesting “mark room” from Full Moon prior to the start in hopes of staying below the starting line. This is not appropriate under either the racing rules (not applicable in the Duck Dodge) or under the basic “rules of the road.” Slingshot was the windward boat fully overlapped on the same tack and obligated to keep clear of Full Moon. Full Moon, in turn, was entitled to push Slingshot over the line early but not to cause a collision should Slingshot fail to yield, which is how it played out. In a serious race, Full Moon would have protested Slingshot for not keeping clear and Slingshot would have had to take a penalty. In the Duck Dodge, there are no protests and the biggest thing of all is to avoid a collision, which is what we did. If there had been any damage to Full Moon from Slingshot's turn, Slingshot would be at fault.

Catchup

The wind just before the start of the Toga Night Duck Dodge was nearly nonexistent but started to fill out of the NNW just as things got going. Full Moon crew Randy “Russians” Olsen, Robert “Nazis” Leykam, Rob “Take-Down” Lane, Daniel “Pole Control” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Move-It” Mengedoht set up for a port tack start near the Committee Boat but were early and had to turn down the line and then duck behind several boats on starboard tack. This was not a recipe for success as Full Moon crossed the line in about 11^th place. Once moving the right direction, though, Full Moon found good wind and speed and was able to pass several boats on the way to the Freeway buoy.

Rob takes a selfie with Randy, Daniel and Robert.

After rounding the Freeway buoy, Full Moon continued north nearly to the Gasworks shore, riding a lift and still in good breeze. The next tack then also provided a lift and Full Moon rounded the Aurora buoy in sixth or seventh place (it is hard to tell when J22s are in a variety of starts).

Cap'n John slides over for a photo. Randy is focused elsewhere.

The Equalizer was soon hoisted, and Full Moon worked past a few more boats into fourth place while gaining significantly on the top three boats, though not fast enough to catch up. The final leg was a straight shot to the finish line but made more interesting as a J22 passed the Committee Boat on the wrong side and had to come back to finish, though they still managed third place ahead of Full Moon in fourth.

Full Moon in fourth with the blue, black and white spinnaker.

Wiring the New Stern Light

 Full Moon got a new LED stern light to replace the original equipment Perko deck mount. Unfortunately, connecting the wiring involves a trip to the tight quarters in the stern and Cap'n John is too fat and inflexible to pull this off these days. Daniel "Cabin Man" Mengedoht to the rescue! Thanks, buddy!

Daniel mans the heat gun for the heat-shrink tubing. This is the least difficult area - it's much worse further aft...

Crawling back out of the hole...

I been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time*

Full Moon crew Michael “Mooner” Medina, Marcelle “New Refrigerator” Van Houten, Anne “Appropriately Dressed” Gustavson, Daniel “Mr. Clean” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Low Pole” Mengedoht set up well for the Red White and Blue Duck Dodge, on starboard tack in clear air near the middle of the line. This paid off for much of the first leg southbound to the AGC buoy until the very light wind started filling in a bit stronger near the Westlake shore, allowing multiple boats to get past.

Full Moon looking good at the start (bottom center).

The Equalizer was hoisted for the long leg north and allowed Full Moon to pass quite a few boats in extremely light breeze. A late drop kept Full Moon going to the last but there were a lot of boats rounding the Freeway buoy at the same general time, most of them larger, and Full Moon suffered in disturbed air for a while.

Full Moon is catching up a bit. (Black, blue and white spinnaker.)

On approach to the Aurora buoy, wind built a bit from behind and a large surge of boats were able to zip inside Full Moon to round the buoy ahead. The final leg upwind saw some give and take but no effective passing and Full Moon was relegated to somewhere around tenth place, though it was difficult to tell with a mix of similar boats from both second and third starts. So it goes sometimes in extremely light winds – you need to be in the right place at the right time! 

Lyrics from Right Place, Wrong Time by Dr. John

Close But No Cigar

The Pride Night Duck Dodge began with a light southwest wind and Full Moon crew Randy “Cheap Streaming” Olsen, Chad “Elysian” Harnish, Daniel “Union Man” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Senior Moment” Mengedoht were able to run down the starting line on port tack and then tack just before the starting horn. This was overall good strategy and, while it didn’t allow full speed to cross the line, Full Moon ended up in the lead or close to it. Full Moon stayed on starboard tack toward the middle of the lake before a relatively late tack toward the AGC buoy.

Full Moon (bottom left) after the start.

The wind had clocked around to the southeast to start the long leg northward. Full Moon broad reached under the genoa for a little while, then gybed and launched the Equalizer. Meanwhile, a white Thunderbird and the Ultimate 20 Mr. Nibbles (from second start) had gone much further east before gybing and were battling each other. They were slowly converging with Full Moon as we all approached the Freeway buoy. Fortunately, the Equalizer performed the usual magic and Full Moon was able to pull ahead to round the buoy in first place!

Full Moon leads around the Freeway buoy.

The next leg was a tight reach at first and Full Moon continued under spinnaker, though the extra sail area wasn’t super-efficient at that angle (we should have lowered the pole even more). The wind then began to shift forward and the Equalizer had to come down, a bit later than it should have. During the drop, Mr. Nibbles, the white T-bird, the San Juan 24 Great Escape and a Far East 18 were able to slip ahead to round the Aurora buoy ahead.

The sun poked through the clouds after the race.

The final leg was upwind but with highly variable wind strength and the game was on to find and stay in the best wind. The white Thunderbird had fallen behind, then threatened for a while but couldn’t get past Full Moon’s wind shadow and eventually tacked toward the Westlake shore. The Far East 18 made significant gains while appearing to have a straight shot to the finish line while Full Moon and Great Escape had headed more toward the middle of the lake and were clearly going to have to tack twice to cross the line. Meanwhile, the white T-bird had found some nice breeze closer to shore. In the end, the Far East 18 took first, Great Escape was second, the white T-bird (which is apparently named Makima) was third and Full Moon fourth, though very close behind. While not the desired result for Full Moon, this was great fun with tactics and strategy and the other boats truly earned their ducks.

Fun With The J-Boats

The wind was highly unusual for the Commodore’s Ball Duck Dodge, coming out of the southeast at the start. Full Moon crew Michael “Birthday Suit” Medina, Chad “Girly Bag” Harnish, Rob “Rookie” Lane, Daniel “No Pack” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Hard To Pass” Mengedoht had a mediocre start with all boats on port tack. Finding clear air was a challenge and it got worse as the wind faded approaching the AGC buoy, Full Moon dropping to ninth or tenth place.

There were a lot of boats out this week! (These were all behind us...)

The long leg north to the Freeway buoy saw the wind come and go with massive shifts and big lulls. A spinnaker would have been useful toward the north end of the lake and some boats did fly them, but the wind was unpredictable enough that Full Moon elected not to pop up the Equalizer, especially since it appeared it would be better used on the next leg. Meanwhile, Full Moon was hanging in there with the second start fleet, trading places with giant Lio Kai, two J22s, and the J24 Ragin Cajun.

Full Moon battles a J22 on the final leg.

Approaching the Freeway buoy, it was clear that the wind had shifted to the northwest and a spinnaker would not work. After rounding, Full Moon still hung in there, not close enough to the lead boats but trading places with others. For the final leg, the wind faded yet again and then filled sporadically from the west to southwest, some 270 degrees from during the start. Full Moon worked toward the middle of the lake where the wind seemed a little more consistent and proceeded to gain on and eventually pass Lio Kai, the three J-boats and a few others. At the finish, Full Moon managed what we believe was sixth place, not at all bad given the competition and the conditions.

The sun did peek through later on.

Full Boat

Full Moon at the start (just to the right of the U.S. flag).

Full Moon was bumped up to second start for the Duck Dodge after doing a little too well in third start the past three weeks. Crew Randy “Artefact” Olsen, Daniel “Bonk” Mengedoht, Robert “Ugly Building” Leykam, Lucienne “Jazz” Grace, Logan “Connections” Pulsifer, Hannah “Learning Experience” Fitzpatrick, and skipper John “Starboard!” Mengedoht set up on starboard tack. Relative giant Beneteau Lio Kai managed to get to windward and just slightly overlapped, limiting Full Moon’s ability to maneuver. Yells of “starboard!” yielded a slow reaction from port tack boats near the Committee Boat, a J22 tacking directly in front of Full Moon. A quick luff to starboard barely saved a rear-end collision but made for extremely close quarters with Lio Kai, Full Moon still a bit ahead but within inches to leeward. Fortunately, Full Moon was able to slowly claw ahead, and Lio Kai fell off to leeward, her bow nearly clipping Full Moon’s outboard!

Lucienne with Leo Kai just to windward during the start.

Shifty light wind near the Gasworks buoy led to some extra tacks and allowed some bigger boats to get by, dropping Full Moon from fourth to eighth place. Full Moon returned the favor with a few boats on the leg to the Aurora buoy but also fell behind a J22 with the final tack to the buoy, rounding in seventh place.

Robert focused on what's ahead.

As with last week, Full Moon was set up with a starboard spinnaker pole but the wind was out of the north instead of the more typical northwest. Consequently, Full Moon carried on a port gybe with the genoa for a while until able to gybe back and hoist the Equalizer. This allowed the J22 to gain a bit more and for the CF27 Gift Horse to remain ahead as well. However, Full Moon slowly gained downwind, eventually passing both the J22 and Gift Horse to move into fifth place. A conservative early drop allowed the two boats to catch up but not pass at the AGC buoy. Meanwhile, relatively large Solara was having spinnaker take-down issues, dropping them back.

John enjoys driving upwind.

Gift Horse tacked west for potentially stronger wind in the middle of the lake while Full Moon sailed straight for the finish line. Solara eventually got going and was faster but would need to tack to cross the finish line. In the end, Gift Horse crossed ahead by about 15 feet but Full Moon beat Solara to take fifth.

Daniel returns from the foredeck.

Cool Runnings

Full Moon crew Randy “Cleanup” Olsen, Michael “Strings” Medina, Anne “Layers” Gustavson, Daniel “Seven Words” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Strategery” Mengedoht took advantage of a fairly square starting line for the Band Night Duck Dodge, approaching the line on starboard tack. This paid off as the big Tartan 4300 to leeward intimidated the port tack boats into giving way, though not without drama as two boats collided while tacking a bit late… In any event, Full Moon continued on starboard for a bit, then tacked on the layline for the Freeway buoy, solidly in first place.

Daniel snags the prized gold duck sticker.

The big Tartan hung in there in the fairly strong breeze, along with Endeavor, a speedy Seascape 24, and a few others but Full Moon was still in first at the buoy and already catching up to second start stragglers. Heading for the Aurora buoy, Full Moon was not quite laying the mark and Endeavor was behind but a bit to windward with another boat not far behind. This called for a hard tack to duck Endeavor and cross in front of the second boat to make the buoy.

It was sunny but cold, especially after the race.

With the “turbo” pole preset to starboard in anticipation of the typical NW breeze and the wind having shifted to due north, Full Moon opted to travel a distance on port gybe with the jib rather than monkey around with everything on the foredeck. Then we gybed and hoisted the Equalizer with a good line to the AGC buoy. Meanwhile, Endeavor had traveled well to the east, sailing a “hotter” angle appropriate for their asymmetric spinnaker and bowsprit. When they gybed back, it set them up even with and to leeward of Full Moon, forcing Full Moon to change course a bit. However, this eventually brought them into Full Moon’s wind shadow, slowing them enough for Full Moon to swing across in front with a better angle to the buoy with our symmetrical spinnaker.

Three ducks in a row. We'll be pushed up to second start next week.

The drop went well but, unfortunately, the spinnaker pole snagged the jib sheet going around the AGC buoy, taking a while to clear. This allowed boats behind to gain a bit, but Full Moon still had a straight shot upwind to the finish line. Endeavor was off to leeward (not sure why) and would need to tack to cross the line. In the end, Full Moon crossed ahead by a few boatlengths for the gold duck with Endeavor second and an SYC J22 not far behind in third.