Shiver Me Timbers!

Goosebump Race No. 2 continued the trend of extremely light wind with the added bonus of rain and colder temperatures. Full Moon crew Sara “Energy Conservation” Skinner, Randy “Boy Toys” Olsen, Art “It Will Kill You!” Teller, and skipper John “Shivering” Mengedoht tried to anticipate the best wind for the start and at first were doing relatively well near the middle of the lake. Unfortunately, progress was painfully slow, moving maybe 100 yards in the first fifteen minutes. The “wind” then grew slightly stronger toward the Westlake shore and Full Moon fell back toward the middle of the fleet.

After rounding the “AGC” and “Cove” buoys, Full Moon found an advantage toward the middle of the lake and made up some ground but the racing remained painfully slow and it took seemly forever to round the “Freeway” buoy. After crawling past Gasworks Park, Full Moon finally rounded the “Aurora” buoy but it appeared hopeless to reach the finish line within the two hour time limit.

A few boats attempted to fly spinnakers on the final leg but they mostly hung limp and Full Moon did better with the genoa, passing several boats and nearly catching Runner. Finally, just before the time limit, the Committee Boat hoisted anchor and began motoring toward the remaining racers, scoring each “finish” with a toot of the horn as they passed. The Full Moon crew gratefully fired up the outboard and headed for the dock.

I’ve no idea how we finished, if we were even scored (several boats did make it to the line before the time limit), but Full Moon was once again ahead of old rival Fortis. Ignitor and Shogun have not appeared for the first two races.

Slow Boat to Gasworks

The first Goosebump Race of 2010 began with extremely light wind. Full Moon crew Randy “Nice Ripples” Olsen, Debra “Winch Wench” Ricard, Michael “Sticky Pants” Medina, Chuck “Rusty” Weldy, and skipper John “Patience” Mengedoht were positioned for the start in the only area with any wind but most other boats were in the same area and it took a while to get moving.

The first “Cove” buoy was nearly a parking lot but Full Moon got a little push of wind to get around inside a cluster of other boats. This move forced Full Moon toward the center of the lake, though, while the breeze remained strongest near the Eastlake shore. Old rival Fortis stayed in the weak breeze and steadily pulled ahead, though Full Moon stayed ahead of a Thunderbird by eventually tacking toward the beach.

Rounding the “Freeway” buoy, it was easy to see many of the lead boats becalmed near the “Aurora” buoy. Full Moon carefully worked every hint of wind and soon caught several boats, including Fortis and the big Buchan 37 Dreamscape, finally rounding the buoy ahead of them both.

The next long leg was anywhere from a beam reach to a run as the fickle wind came and went. The mighty Equalizer was hoisted in hopes that its generous sail area would help a little. After many minutes with limp nylon, a breeze filled in up high, not touching the water to disturb the glassy surface, and Full Moon surged ahead at a whopping two knots. This was enough to get past several boats, including Perfectly Strange, and bring Full Moon up even with speedy Runner!

At the final “AGC” buoy, Runner went wide and Full Moon easily turned inside but then Runner tightened their line and slowly oozed ahead. Full Moon then tacked for better wind to the east. This gamble nearly succeeded as Full Moon almost caught Runner, but Perfectly Strange almost got by in the process. In the end Full Moon was a decent 13th, barely ahead of Perfectly Strange and quite a number of places ahead of Fortis.