Beat the Birds!

No simple white togas on Full Moon!
Passing the Thunderbirds.

Still ahead at the Challenger buoy.

Night falls too early these days!

Full Moon crew Debra “Nala” Ricard, Randy “Handbrake” Olsen, Michael “Low Pole” Medina, and skipper John “Early Onset” Mengedoht once again faced a skewed starting line and once again opted for a risky port tack start for the Toga Night Duck Dodge. This time, however, there were no gaps in the wall of starboard-tackers so Full Moon had to wait a bit to cross the line. Even so, this provided a good start with good speed and pointing the desired direction. Full Moon was ahead of all the old rivals and hanging in there with frequent winners Runner and Scat.

Bigger boats like 36-foot Mata Hari and the Buchan 37s Mara and Dreamscape enjoyed the relatively strong breeze and, rounding the Aurora buoy, Full Moon was eleventh. Deploying the mighty Equalizer spinnaker, a threatening blue Thunderbird fell behind but the game was on with a fast J80, Taj Mahal, which struggled to get by despite having an asymmetrical spinnaker perfect for the conditions.

After a clean spinnaker drop, Full Moon was right on Taj Mahal’s transom on a short reaching leg to the Challenger buoy. Returning upwind, however, Taj began to pull ahead while the blue T-bird slowly came up from behind. Full Moon’s line to the Aurora buoy was just a hair low in progressively lighter and shiftier wind and the T-bird got past as Full Moon did two quick tacks to get around.

The Equalizer was hoisted again and Full Moon paralleled the Westlake shore, not too close but not out to the middle of the lake. Amazingly, not only Taj Mahal and the blue T-bird but also the infamous red T-bird Barbaree were caught in dying wind just a little too close to the beach and Full Moon was able to walk on by a mere 20 yards further out. Somehow, the Equalizer remained full to the AGC buoy. Now Full Moon needed hold off the two quick Thunderbirds and the theoretical rocket Taj Mahal for two more legs to the finish.

While there are just plain faster boats in the Duck Dodge, T-birds have similar performance to Full Moon and are often a thorn in her side. If ever it was “game on,” this was the time! On the reaching leg to the Challenger buoy, Full Moon maintained the lead. The final leg was upwind. One by one the other boats tacked and Full Moon tacked to cover. Across the lake went all four. Then Barbaree tacked for the finish and Full Moon tacked to cover. The others could not gain. Game over! Full Moon finished a fabulous ninth ahead of ALL the Thunderbirds AND the J80 and ALL the J22s as well.

One Lump or Two?

Ahhrrrr, Mateys!
Pre-start maneuvering.

Mara is coming fast!

Holding 'em off!

The Duck Dodge Race Committee once again set a skewed starting line so Full Moon crew Michael “Facebook” Medina, Doug “Halyards” Schoemaker, Ian “No Skirt” Mengedoht, Daniel “Sound Effects” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Gusto” Mengedoht opted once again for a risky port tack start near the “pin” end. This paid off, barely, as Full Moon just escaped in front of a host of starboard tack boats. A few other boats timed things just a bit better but Full Moon was an easy sixth across the line for a great start.

Cruising upwind, Full Moon was caught by a faster J27 but picked off old rival Ignitor to maintain sixth. Rounding the Aurora buoy, the mighty Equalizer was quickly set and Full Moon pulled away from all boats behind except the big Buchan 37 Mara, which was held off for nearly the entire downwind leg until just getting by before the AGC buoy. The spinnaker came down cleanly and Full Moon held position on the short leg to the Challenger buoy, though another big Buchan, Distance, briefly threatened.

Turning upwind, Full Moon tacked to find better wind and got by Mara to reclaim sixth. At this point, the fleet was required to cross the start-finish line before starting a second lap. This was a wise choice as the wind soon began to die. Full Moon made it to the Aurora buoy but the downwind run under spinnaker was painful until, with nightfall rapidly approaching, the second lap was abandoned.

This was Full Moon’s best finish of the year, holding off all three Buchan 37s as well as all Thunderbirds and Dreams, the fast Olson 25.

Ménage-a-Donut

The Mengedoht boys enjoy another sunny evening on the lake.
Randy and Ian start in on the post-race cold ones.

Great crew+fun boat=big smile

Full Moon crew Randy “Sound Effects” Olsen, Michael “French Dip” Medina, Ian “Multiphonic” Mengedoht, Daniel “Butt-strap Bill” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Crab Cakes” Mengedoht had a good start for Duck Dodge No. 12, avoiding a pile-up of boats at the Committee Boat by crossing at the middle of the line. Unfortunately, boats that stayed to the right enjoyed better and more consistent wind and Full Moon rounded the “AGC” buoy in about tenth place.

On the short reaching leg to the Chandler’s Cove buoy Full Moon lost another place to always-speedy Scat but otherwise held position. On the next leg, the mighty Equalizer brought the expected gain, holding off a charging Thunderbird and bringing Full Moon ever closer to a cluster of boats in front. Just ahead was old rival Fortis, which had nailed the start. With a pass to windward being risky tactically, not to mention a lot of traffic on that side, Full Moon attempted to pass Fortis to leeward and almost got through but the wind shadow from Fortis was too much and Full Moon was stuck in a four-boat sandwich approaching the Freeway buoy.

Traffic at the buoy worked in Full Moon’s favor as several boats swung very wide, allowing Full Moon ample room on the inside. Fortis was inside Full Moon and overlapped but just far enough back to suffer in the backwash from Full Moon’s sails and Full Moon pulled out ahead. Fortis then tacked to get into clear air. This proved to be their salvation as the wind built on left side as well as the far right while Full Moon soldiered on toward the middle of the lake and an unexpected hole in a donut of wind.

In the end, Fortis finished 11th with Full Moon just behind in 12th out of some 40 boats. Good old Shogun was not too far back while Ignitor had suffered a poor start and wallowed near the back of the fleet.