Location, Location, Location!

Gaining on Surt with the big red spinnaker. Objects in the camera are closer than they appear...
Randy Olsen photo.

The wind completely died just before the start of Goosebump Race No. 2, leaving boats in a wide variety of positions and distances to the start line. Full Moon crew Art “Red Lobster” Teller, Randy “Sea Ray” Olsen, Chuck “Big Lips” Weldy, Daniel “Cryogenics” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Are We There Yet?” Mengedoht did their best with what tiny and unpredictable puffs of wind appeared, “tacking” several times before settling in with an all but imperceptible southerly to ooze across the line.

Quite a number of fast boats were behind Full Moon at this point but, unfortunately, quite a number of others had been a little closer to the starting line and had drifted a bit farther down the course. Finally, the wind began to fill in toward the Westlake Shore and all the bows pointed west. The first boats to catch the wind would have a huge advantage. The end result was Full Moon about mid-fleet and mixing it up with 41’ Surt, which was fun but short-lived.

After a quick reach to the “Cove” buoy, Full Moon launched the mighty Equalizer and nearly caught up to speedy Runner and, surprisingly, Surt, but could not manage to get by anyone. The nylon monster came down cleanly at the “Freeway” buoy but Surt had some issues and Full Moon swapped positions once again. At the “Aurora” buoy, Surt came roaring back and soon zipped by for good and the race was then on for Full Moon to hold off a big Columbia 40 and a Catalina 36, both determined not to lose to the little guy in front. Try as they might, though, Full Moon remained ahead at the line to finish 12th. Starts are always crucial, this one much more than most, but it was all a lot of fun and good racing once the wind appeared.

Thrice Around!

Yes, that is Shoot the Moon behind, though not for long! Michael Medina photo.

Full Moon crew Debra “Escape Artist” Ricard, Marcelle “Bleeder” Lynde, Michael “Hangman” Medina, and skipper John “Crazy Ivan” Mengedoht enjoyed a good start at the favored end of the line for Goosebump Race No. 1. Relative giant (40 foot) Shoot the Moon soon came roaring up from behind in very breezy conditions but Full Moon was still in an excellent fifth place midway through the first lap.

Flying the ancient standard spinnaker rather than the oversized Equalizer proved the smart choice as Full Moon fairly flew downwind. Rival Runner was a bit faster, though, and the well-sailed Tuesday faster yet, both boats getting by near the end of the spinnaker run. Upwind was another story. Full Moon easily kept pace with Runner and Tuesday, succumbing only to two much larger 36 to 45 foot boats, bigger nearly always being better in strong wind.

The second lap was similar to the first with Full Moon remaining within striking distance of Runner and Tuesday. On the long upwind leg, Full Moon actually got past Runner and closed to right on Tuesday’s transom but it wasn’t quite enough to get by. On the final downwind run (yes, there were three laps), Full Moon elected to forego the spinnaker with the wind rising into the low 20 knot range. Tuesday consolidated her lead and Runner surged ahead, though working hard to manage their spinnaker.

On the final leg to the finish, Full Moon stayed within 20-30 yards of Runner but couldn’t close the gap, finishing an excellent ninth out of some twenty boats. Amazingly, the threatened rain never appeared and the sun even broke out near the end.