Fleece Togas

Distance will have to work hard to catch this bunch!

Cloudy skies and cooler temperatures returned for the first time since late June for the Toga Night Duck Dodge but there was decent wind. Full Moon crew Randy “Halyards” Olsen, Michael “Twisted” Medina, Marcelle “Layers” Lynde, Daniel “Packer” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Comeback” Mengedoht were well positioned for a good start until the Pearson 30 Tenacious tacked just in front. Full Moon suffered in the resulting wind shadow and then just couldn’t seem to get going, rounding the Freeway buoy in a dismal seventeenth place.

Tacking immediately at the buoy for a clear lane, Full Moon then began chipping away at the boats in front, passing quite a few. Distance (Buchan 37) rolled by to windward approaching the Aurora buoy but Full Moon returned the favor, slicing inside as Distance made a wide turn tacking at the mark.

The Equalizer, aka Mighty Isis, does it's thing.

The Equalizer was quickly launched to good effect as Full Moon passed more boats and stayed ahead of Distance. Approaching the AGC buoy, Distance poked inside (with no rights since overlap wasn’t established until nearly rounding the mark) but speedy Scat had strayed far to the right, allowing Full Moon to easily slide in front and into ninth place. Heading back upwind, Full Moon stayed hard on the wind while Distance and Scat cracked off a bit for more speed. This cost them both as they had to tack to cross the start-finish line to complete the first lap while Full Moon easily cleared the Committee Boat and pulled ahead.

And that wasn't the fastest - we saw over seven knots under spinnaker.

The wind went a bit light crossing the lake toward the Aurora buoy and Distance fell behind. Scat did better in the light stuff and rounded the Aurora buoy just behind Full Moon. The Equalizer bought a little cushion heading south but, unfortunately, the drop at the AGC buoy was problematic and Scat caught back up. Once again, Full Moon stayed hard on the wind while Scat eased the sheets a bit for more speed. Unfortunately, this time Full Moon could not quite lay the Committee Boat and Scat was able to tack in front to take seventh with Full Moon very close behind in a still-excellent eighth.

Insomniacs

J, Daniel, John, Tammie, and Kristen in the prestart maneuvers.

Pajama Night once again provided both sunny skies and a decent but very shifty breeze. Full Moon crew Art “I’m Ready” Teller, Tammy “Wrapped Up” Cross, J “Twinkle Toes” Irons, Kristen “Winch Wench” Bakken, Gary “Free Ride” Greene, Daniel “Multi-tasker” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Hemline” Mengedoht nailed the start on port tack at the “pin” end of the line in close company with several other boats, most of which were bigger, faster, or both. Big Mata Hari (Catalina 36) quickly pulled out ahead with speedy Dreams (Olson 25) not far behind.

The Thunderbird Valkyrie is dead ahead just after rounding the Freeway buoy - but Selchie is still behind!

What looked like a nice close reach to the Freeway buoy didn’t quite work out as the wind shifted about 150 yards out and Full Moon lost a couple of places with an extra tack. Once around, the wind went light and very shifty heading past Gasworks. The well-sailed Thunderbird Selchie made the best of this to get past before rounding the Aurora buoy (drat!).

After a brief delay to hoist the pole, the Equalizer was launched and Full Moon took off south, passing Selchie to leeward (hooray!) and gaining on the other boats ahead. The spinnaker came down cleanly at the AGC buoy and Full Moon headed north to complete the first lap.

Tammie gets into the spinnaker take-down.

The second lap had similar wind conditions as the first but Full Moon held her own, gaining and losing distance here and there but not passing or being passed. The spinnaker take-down got a bit messy but it stayed out of the water and Full Moon cruised to the line with an excellent 10^th place finish, still ahead of Selchie and more than 20 other boats. 

Island Jam

Full Moon crew heading out from the dock.

Full Moon crew Sara “Quick Tack” Schroeder, Marcelle “Quick Study” Lynde, Michael “Quick Fix” Medina, Daniel “Quick Pack” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Quick Start” Mengedoht had an awesome start for the Tropical Night Duck Dodge, bested only by one or two boats risking a port tack approach. The line to the Freeway buoy was a straight close reach and Full Moon rounded in close company with Dreams (Olson 25), Scat (custom 25), Mata Hari (Catalina 36), and Distance (Buchan 37).

What is that huge nylon cloud?

Dreams was out in front and stayed there for a while but Full Moon mixed it up well with the other three across Gasworks and to the Aurora buoy, along with the J27 Summer Babe. Troubles with the spinnaker pole delayed launching the mighty Equalizer, preventing any gains on the long beam reach to the AGC buoy. After rounding the buoy, the fleet headed for the floating “island” sponsored by the 48 Degrees North sailing magazine that was dispensing free beer. As all boats had to round the “island,” this made for some interesting maneuvers for those boats most determined to collect some beer!

A thirsty crew approaches the "island."

After the island, boats were required to go through the start/finish line to start the second lap, though apparently the skipper of the big Baba 40 Airloom forgot this detail. Ahem… Regardless, Full Moon had managed to pass Distance somewhere north of the island and rounded the Freeway buoy ahead of both Distance and Airloom. Full Moon continued to hold off Airloom on the beat toward the Aurora buoy but elected to duck behind Distance when crossing tacks approaching the buoy (Full Moon might have crossed in front but better safe than sorry).

Full Moon gains on the fleet on the second lap.

The Equalizer was quickly deployed again for the beam reach south to the AGC buoy and Full Moon reeled in a J24 and J22, which had gotten past at some point, while gaining a fair bit on Mata Hari and then also passing Distance. The J24 gained back some ground approaching the island but then opted not to try and round it, probably due to some slow-moving third start boats clogging the area. Full Moon rounded properly, though it did take a while to get clear as some of the boats were clearly far more interested in the beer than in actually making their boats move!

Approaching the finish line, Distance was gaining from behind but could not quite catch Full Moon, which placed an excellent fifth, discounting the J24, which “cheated” by not rounding the island. The sun set far too early but a great time was had by all!

Team Tropical

Full Moon crew Randy “Bose” Olsen, Debra “Raspberry” Ricard, Don “Supportive Seat” Caffrey, Daniel “Twisted” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Pineapple” Mengedoht suffered from theme confusion for the Team Spirit Duck Dodge (skipper error!) but managed a fairly good start near the middle of the line. The ensuing close reaching drag race saw a convergence of boats at the Freeway buoy but no collisions and Full Moon emerged with a clear lane toward the Aurora buoy. This track worked out fairly well with Full Moon crossing tacks with speedy Scat and 36’ Mata Hari approaching the Aurora buoy.

The pole was hoisted before the buoy and the mighty Equalizer was quickly launched for a thrilling very fast reach toward the AGC buoy. Full Moon could not quite catch Mata Hari but Scat’s move toward the middle of the lake did not pay off and they rounded the AGC buoy a bit behind.

Heading back upwind was another no-tacks drag race toward the Freeway buoy. Scat eventually got past to windward and the big Buchan 37 Distance worked past to leeward but Full Moon was holding her own in the leading group of boats.

Full Moon flies past Gas Works on the second lap. Jeremy Jones photo.

Full Moon headed a little closer to Gas Works on the second lap in hopes of finding an advantage but the wind was pretty even across the north end of the lake. Still, Full Moon crossed tacks with Scat approaching the Aurora buoy – a good indicator that Full Moon had good speed.

Chasing Mata Hari (blue spinnaker) and Distance on the second lap.

Unfortunately, the Equalizer had a twist going up, delaying the hoist slightly and getting the clew wet. Still, Full Moon had good speed, matching Scat’s pace, as well as Mata Hari and Distance ahead. Unfortunately, it was soon clear that the wind had died around the AGC buoy as a large and growing pack of boats were essentially parked. The fleet was soon compressed with Full Moon nearly catching Selchie while even Ignitor and Zephyr caught up from behind. In the densely packed drift-a-thon of bumper boats, Full Moon was forced to take whatever path was available, very slowly inching around the buoy.

At this point, several boats started rocking back and forth to induce some forward motion (not exactly legal…) and Shogun came roaring by under power tossing water balloons. Two balloons landed on Full Moon, Don nicely deflecting one to prevent dilution of the beverage cups, but the spiffy new hypodermic style squirt gun was ready to hand and Full Moon returned fire, getting at least two of the Shogun crew wet before they could escape.

The wind eventually began to fill in from the north, leading to a nice romp to the finish line. Our best guesstimate is that Full Moon finished around 12^th but it was hard to tell. Ignitor fared well rounding the AGC buoy and had maneuvered ahead, catching the wind first to defeat Full Moon for the first time all summer. Zephyr, however, took a very wide rounding to avoid the mess and this cost them in the end. 

Spinnaker Surprise

Prestart maneuvers. That is Full Moon in the middle, sailing directly away from the camera.

The wind was very light and out of the SW for the Prom Night start and Full Moon crew Michael “No Sheet” Medina, Dave “No Tail” Pulsifer, Judy “No Smile” Tiffany, Daniel “No Tunes” Mengedoht, and skipper John “No Wind” Mengedoht ended up crossing the starting line a few minutes late. A tack toward the Westlake shore paid off well for a while until the wind filled in a bit in the middle, allowing the Capri 25 Triple Time and rival Zephyr to pass by. Approaching the AGC buoy, traffic had stacked up and Full Moon rounded in a tight sandwich between Salsa (J29) and Penelope (C&C 99) from the first start.

Daniel likes his post by the mast upwind.

Full Moon delayed hoisting the spinnaker briefly to allow a bit more space between boats but then the giant Equalizer was put to use and Full Moon began to gain on the fleet ahead. Creeping up on Zephyr, Full Moon took a jog to windward, somehow maintained momentum in what looking like no wind at all, and approached the Freeway buoy having passed a number of boats. The big Buchan 37 Distance, however, was closing on the buoy on starboard with right of way so Full Moon swung wide. Distance lost a bunch of speed in their turn and gybe, though, and Full Moon nosed out ahead.

Full Moon is the second spinnaker from the right not long before passing Zephyr.

Unfortunately, while the spinnaker came down cleanly, the jib sheets were thoroughly tangled and, without power from the jib, Selchie, Triple Time, and Distance were able to get by from behind. Finding good wind close to Gasworks, Full Moon made up some of the losses, made a good tack to lay the Aurora buoy, and once again launched the Equalizer in a light NW breeze.

Heading for what turned out to be the finish, Full Moon was able to steal Triple Time’s wind and then roll to leeward to just barely eke out sixth place, an awesome finish given the poor start. Meanwhile, it was time to break out the Prom Night treats including a well-iced bottle of pink champagne! (Thanks, Dave!).