Fun Finale

Holding off Selchie!

Full Moon crew Randy “Sweet Bowline” Olsen, Art “Carnival” Teller, Michael “Half Cup” Medina, Marcelle “Traction Control” Lynde, Daniel “Boxman” Mengedoht, and skipper John “The Kraken” Mengedoht enjoyed an average start for the final Goosebump race in a light southwest breeze. Some of the big boats pulled ahead, along with speedy Cinc-o-sink and the well-sailed T-bird Selchie, but Full Moon matched the pace of two 40-footers, Bolero and Yankee III, rounding the AGC buoy ahead of both, though not by much.

The wind went very light for the second leg and Full Moon had some issues with hoisting the spinnaker pole. Still, Bolero and Yankee III could not pass, the three boats rounding the Cove buoy side by side with Full Moon on the inside. The long reach north saw the wind clock west and then northwest until finally Full Moon had to switch from spinnaker to jib but the Equalizer had taken care of business, allowing Full Moon to gain on Selchie in front and to pull away from Bolero and Yankee III.

After rounding the Freeway buoy, Bolero began to gain but could not sail as tight an angle as Full Moon. Getting closer to the Aurora buoy, Bolero tacked and then had to duck behind Full Moon, which had the right of way on starboard tack. Soon the roles were reversed, though, and Full Moon ended up following Bolero around the buoy.

Fortunately, Bolero did not hoist a spinnaker for the final downwind leg and the Equalizer once again helped Full Moon to pull ahead, though the wind was barely enough to fill the nylon monster. Meanwhile, Selchie had opted to head more toward the middle of the lake, presumably in hopes of finding stronger wind, while Full Moon headed straight for the finish line. As the boats slowly converged, though, it became evident that Full Moon had a (very) slight lead! The challenge would be to stay ahead without allowing Selchie to steal the wind from behind. In the end, Full Moon prevailed, finishing an excellent fifth with Selchie seconds behind in sixth.

Post-race relaxation. Fun times!

Full Moon Sits One Out

Cap'n John was beleaguered by a nasty cold so Full Moon stayed in her slip for Goosebump Race No. 5, which was a shame since the weather was so beautiful. Meanwhile, the official scoring for all races has been posted on the NW Riggers website (http://www.nwriggers.com/blog/2013-goosebump-races/), including a big change on scoring the third race. Initially, a large group of boats had been disqualified from that race for starting some five minutes early. Rather than alienate ten otherwise happy crews, the Race Committee agreed to count their finishes. This is mildly unfair to the boats that started on time, since they effectively raced with a five minute time penalty, but the feeling was that the finishing order would not likely have changed since it was  the ten fastest and/or biggest boats that were over early. All in all, that was a reasonable compromise, though it drops Full Moon from a rare third place finish to eleventh in that race. Oh, well - we still had a lot of fun!

Best Start Ever!

The boys in black, looking very relaxed on the final leg.

Full Moon crew Randy "Wet Spot" Olsen, Michael "Little Sumpin" Medina, and skipper John "Sneaky, Sneaky" Mengedoht went for a port tack start at the pin for Goosebump race no. 4 and absolutely nailed it, crossing the line with full speed a mere second or two after the gun. Crossing in front of the entire fleet would have been icing on the cake but giant Jedi and speedy Tipsy Gypsy were coming on a bit too fast on starboard tack and Full Moon had to duck behind them. Still, that had to rank as Full Moon's best start ever.

The wind was light and shifty up the first leg. Full Moon held off The Black Knight for awhile but both TBK and Surt (C&C 41) got by before the AGC buoy. Heading to the Cove buoy, the Thunderbird Selchie was giving chase but had some issues hoisting their spinnaker while Full Moon had deferred hoisting until the next leg and sailed fairly fast with the jib on a nice beam reach. After rounding the Cove buoy, though, the wind  went very light and shifted from the SW to the SE, necessitating a scramble to switch the pole before hoisting the Equalizer. Naturally, once the spinnaker was up and flying, the wind shifted back, requiring a quick jibe!

Selchie had made up a little ground during the scramble and jibe but then Full Moon pulled a bit farther ahead as things settled down. Approaching the Freeway buoy, it appeared the big boats ahead were carrying their spinnakers onto the next leg and Full Moon did the same, though the wind angle was very tight, especially for a symmetrical spinnaker. Surt gave up and switched to their genoa and Full Moon gained on them for a little while. Meanwhile, Tipsy Gypsy and The Black Knight were locked in a close battle further ahead providing a great show until TBK prevailed rounding the Aurora buoy.

The Equalizer was a little harder than normal to bring down on such a tight reach (especially as we were short-handed) but everything was straightened away as Full Moon went around the Aurora buoy to head upwind to the finish. Selchie was 100 yards or so behind but still a threat given the wind's light and shifty nature. In the end, though, Selchie stayed comfortably behind as Full Moon finished an excellent fifth place, amazingly not all that far behind Surt. Jedi was first, followed by Tipsy Gypsy and TBK.