Pajamarama

Pinkie, Teddy, and Clothes Horse observe the competition.

Doug Schoemaker photo.

Depends scrutinizes the spinnaker shape with support from Cabin Boy. Nice to see all those boats behind us.

Doug Schoemaker photo.

Legs!

Doug Schoemaker photo.

Full Moon enjoyed a very full crew for the Pajama Night Duck Dodge on yet another spectacular evening. Art “Hot Legs” Teller, Debra “Teddy” Ricard, Doug “Sunset Shot” Schoemaker, Michael “Clothes Horse” Medina, Marcelle “Pinkie” Lynde, Daniel “Cabin Boy” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Depends” Mengedoht had a timely start but were blanketed by a cloud of sails crowding in at the Committee Boat, including the relative giant Buchan 37 Distance. Once into clear air, Full Moon got up to speed and made some good tacks to approach the “AGC” buoy. With a boat stalled right at the buoy, Full Moon was able to swing a bit wide and quickly launch the Equalizer spinnaker, picking off three surprised boats, including the speedy Olson 25 Dreams.

After a decent jibe at the “Challenger” buoy, Full Moon kept rocketing along on a nice beam reach, passing a Santana 20, a J24, and the J-22 Rawhide while holding off Dreams. With a smooth spinnaker drop at the Freeway buoy, it was back upwind to head into a second lap. Unfortunately, the Santana and Dreams managed to get by on this long leg and the two J boats were in close contention throughout the second lap. Full Moon almost caught Dreams on the second long reaching leg but had to contend with Rawhide trying to come up from behind and the three boats rounded the final buoy in close formation.

The wind got a bit light and shifty for the final leg to the finish and, unfortunately, both J boats got by to drop Full Moon to a still commendable 11th out of a very large fleet. It was great fun to mix it up with Dreams and the J boats while leaving old rivals Fortis and Shogun well behind.

Gotcha!

Full Moon crew Randy “Does It All” Olsen, Galina “Gripper” Gordeeva, Katie “Rusty Red Wagon” Freels, Sara “I Hear Nothing” Skinner, and skipper John “Slow” Mengedoht nailed the start for Duck Dodge No. 9 but inexplicably struggled upwind on the first leg and fell back to 12th to round the Aurora buoy. Launching the mighty Equalizer spinnaker helped considerably for the downwind leg and Full Moon began to gain on some Thunderbirds and a J24 while leaving the back half of the fleet well behind.

Returning upwind from the AGC buoy to the Freeway mark, Full Moon found the groove and made the most of the wind shifts, continuing to slowly gain on boats ahead. The often challenging leg past Gasworks Park saw no change but on the second downwind leg, Full Moon finally engaged two T-birds, Predator and Zoe, while holding off a pesky red Santana 20. Full Moon prevailed at the end of the run and rounded the AGC buoy with Predator a few boatlengths behind.

Charging ahead upwind, Full Moon held off the three challengers and, midway up the lake, passed a J24 as well to move into ninth. Closer to the Freeway buoy, Full Moon crossed paths with relative giant Mata Hari, forcing Mata Hari to duck behind. Not far ahead, the J22 Bullet was struggling a bit, too close to the Eastlake shore. The wind gods smiled and Full Moon enjoyed a favorable shift right to the buoy and moved up to 7th. One leg to go!

With the course to the finish a bit iffy for the spinnaker, Full Moon made the right call and stayed with the genoa, easily holding onto 7th for the best finish of the summer! With some cold beer and a nearly cloudless sky, it was a great evening on the water.

Summer At Last!

Michael, John, and Daniel

John catches flies while Eileen trims the jib.

Are those 80s vintage sunglasses?

Caroline basks in the sun.

Full Moon crew Art “Headband” Teller, Michael “Pole Dancer” Medina, Eileen “Cookies” McHugh, Caroline “Silver Jacket” Sneed, Daniel “Tab” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Meds” Mengedoht were lacking a good mullet but otherwise in fine shape for the 80s Night Duck Dodge. With sunny skies, warm temperatures (finally!), and a nice northerly, Full Moon enjoyed a rare good start and made good speed to the “Freeway” buoy, rounding ahead of Runner, Tenacious, and Perfectly Strange.


Heading for the “Aurora” buoy on a tight reach, Runner slowly crept past but Tenacious could not quite catch up. Full Moon did well under the mighty Equalizer spinnaker and continued to hold off Tenacious downwind. Perfectly Strange did better sailing tighter wind angles, though, and managed to get by. After rounding the AGC and Chandler’s buoys, Tenacious also finally made it by upwind, leaving Full Moon to battle for the second lap with a quick red Santana 20 and a blue T-bird, the rest of the fleet having fallen well behind.

Both boats challenged Full Moon at times but, in the end, Full Moon easily held off the Santana and beat the T-bird to the finish to place an excellent eleventh. Fortis and Shogun were never close, finishing well behind.

Trouble With T-Birds!

Beware the white T-Bird to starboard!

Despite the bank of clouds, there was a nice sunset through the Aurora Bridge.

It was Red Wine, White Wine and the Blues Night at the Duck Dodge this week and Full Moon crew Art “Silverback” Teller, Michael “Mike-ronesia” Medina, Tammy “The Onion” Cross, Don “iPhone” Caffrey, and skipper John “Boat Policy” Mengedoht did their best to dress for the theme. The wind was decent but the starting line was extremely crowded, slowing everybody down. Full Moon was in the middle of a tight group when a white T-bird came flying up from behind with no space to fit into (though they could easily have turned aside). All hands joined in fending off, barely averting the crunching of fiberglass and plywood.

As the fleet slowly spread out upwind, Full Moon was able to make a straight shot to the AGC buoy. Boats rounding the mark were returning on a reciprocal course, though being on port tack they had to yield to boats still approaching the buoy on starboard tack. A black T-bird heading for the buoy was caught in the traffic and without warning changed course directly in front of a J-22, resulting in a loud bang and both boats heading directly for Full Moon’s port side. Quick maneuvering prevented further catastrophe but Full Moon stayed well away from T-birds for the rest of the race!

The wind increased a bit on the legs to the “Freeway” and “Aurora” buoys and old rival Shogun managed to exploit the shifts and catch Full Moon. This resulted in a great battle under spinnaker with the usual banter between boats. Returning upwind to start the second lap, though, Full Moon took off and left Shogun behind for good.

The rest of the race was spent trading places with the J-22 Rawhide. In the end, Full Moon edged out Rawhide under spinnaker for the downwind finish to take 12th out of some 30 boats. As always, a good time was had by all.