Summer is Here!

Laurel focuses on the competition.

Shogun swings by after the race. Skipper Rick Ranta works for Frank!

Laurel “Fast Learner” Swol and Frank “Rick’s Boss” Lockhart joined Full Moon crew Randy “Bushed” Olsen, Ian “Chip N' Dip” Mengedoht, Daniel “Coke Zero” Mengedoht and skipper John “30 Degrees” Mengedoht for Duck Dodge No. 6.  Sunny skies and a decent northerly on the first race of summer motivated the race committee to call for a long 2 ½ lap race. Unfortunately, pre-start maneuvers were a bit shocking as the J-109 Tantivy tangled with another fairly large boat, causing damage to both. Fortunately, there did not appear to be any injuries.

Full Moon was a bit tardy to the starting line but still managed to force Fortis into an unplanned tack that left them wallowing with no speed. Old rival Shogun was ahead, though, with a better start and the hunt was on. Full Moon gained a bit upwind, then a good bit more downwind under spinnaker, and then passed Shogun for good on the long upwind leg from the “Challenger” buoy to the “Freeway” buoy, completing the first lap.

With good wind and faster boats ahead, Full Moon did not have much hope of catching anybody else so the rest of the race mostly came down to holding off the speedy J-22 Rawhide and a well-sailed Santana 20, which was running light with a small crew and no outboard. Rawhide did eventually manage to get by but the Santana didn’t have the upwind chops and Full Moon finished a decent 12th out of roughly 30 boats. Shogun and Fortis finished well behind, as did all of the Thunderbirds, which is always nice!

Wet Pirates!

Pirates, Ho!

Visible close by are Runner, Katrinka Finkelsplat, and Scat

After missing three weeks due to skipper conflicts (supporting son Ian with the Roosevelt Jazz Band), Full Moon returned to racing for the Pirate Night Duck Dodge. Crew Michael “Aahhhrrr!” Medina, Doug “Wet Seaman” Schoemaker, Eileen “Undampened” McHugh, Don “Bootymonger” Caffrey, and skipper John “Spongepants” Mengedoht had a decent start in a mild northwesterly wind, striving to get onto port tack as soon as possible to head toward the “Freeway” buoy. Pinching off a pesky J24, Full Moon rounded the first mark in the good company of Scat and Perfectly Strange and within the top ten boats.

The “Aurora” buoy proved troublesome with extremely light wind – and that light wind was itself very shifty. Full Moon managed to keep up with the fast boats, including Dreams, Runner, and a J27, and then launched the Equalizer for what proved to be a very close reach to the AGC buoy.

Returning upwind for the second lap, Full Moon again held her own with supposedly faster boats and, somewhere near Gasworks, managed to pass Runner and move up into 8th place. Full Moon then briefly caught Dreams as Dreams stalled with no steerage right at the Aurora buoy. Unfortunately, Dreams moved back out ahead and Runner eventually worked back on by – but not before asking if Full Moon perhaps had new sails! (The sails are 10 years old…)

Meanwhile, it had started raining, catching a few of us unprepared as it had been sunny at the race start. Enduring light winds and constant rain, the crew was not excited about hoisting the spinnaker one last time for the reach to the finish line. This allowed a couple of boats to ooze by and Full Moon ended up a still-respectable 11th out of 25-30 boats and still a good margin ahead of Perfectly Strange. Shogun and Fortis were never a threat and finished well behind.