Good Day Sunshine

Randy likes the wind!

A strong north wind and brilliant sunshine greeted the forty boats showing up for the final Goosebump race of 2015. Full Moon crew Randy “Dad” Olsen, Art “Zipper” Teller, Chuck “RV” Weldy, and skipper John “Mae West” Mengedoht hit the starting line a few seconds late but without the drama of Scat, which dropped in from above the line and then started without having yet hoisted their jib.

The first leg to the Freeway buoy was fast with Full Moon heeling quite a bit in the gusts. The second leg to the Aurora buoy proved to be a straight shot without tacks, though just barely as Scat came zooming across in front and then tacked to windward while a J24 tried and failed to “shoot” up and around, becoming hung up on the buoy!

Art enjoys his perch at the mast.

With the wind looking strong and possibly building, Full Moon elected not to fly the spinnaker on the downwind leg to the offset AGC buoy. With initial speeds up over 6 knots, this looked like a good decision but the wind faded a bit halfway down the lake and Zephyr caught up under spinnaker just before rounding the buoy. Zephyr took a relatively wide turn and Full Moon hugged the buoy to take a position to windward before slowly pulling ahead while pointing higher into the wind. Two tacks were still required to round the Freeway buoy but Zephyr was still behind and losing ground.

Once again, it was a straight shot to the Aurora buoy, though care was required to take advantage of every lift to get there without a tack. This time, the mighty Equalizer was hoisted and to good effect. Unfortunately, gybing it resulted in a dreaded “Mae West,” with the spinnaker partly wrapped around the forestay. It was cleared just before another gybe was needed – with another Mae West! This one was cleared just before the AGC buoy, which meant that the jib was hoisted after rounding.

Mae West!

Fortunately, it was a straight shot upwind to the finish where Full Moon managed to place ninth (tenth overall), not bad at all given the first-start competition. Zephyr ended up eleventh (thirteenth overall), which proved significant in the series standings: Full Moon managed to place fifth overall (despite not racing on Superbowl Sunday), squeaking ahead of Zephyr by a single point!

Congratulations to T-birds Selchie and Havoc, which consistently kicked butt, taking second and third place in the series, and to the 505 dinghy Quandary (replacement for Cinc-o-sink) for taking fourth among all those giant boats.

Time Limit Challenge

Erin, Cap'n John, and Marcelle in prestart maneuvers.

The wind was once again extremely light for the start of Goosebumps Race No. 5 and the call for two laps (for first start boats) seemed ambitious with a 2 hour time limit. Full Moon crew Michael “Busy” Medina, Marcelle “Wrong Wrap” van Houten, Erin “Muddy” Osberg, and skipper John “Wrong Place” Mengedoht had a decent start near the middle of the line and quickly popped up the spinnaker to gain some sail area for the reach to the AGC buoy. This paid off in the short term but delays in dropping the nylon monster caused Full Moon to overshoot the buoy, allowing a few boats ample room to cut a tighter turn inside.

Full Moon is dead center heading to the AGC buoy on the first lap.

Meanwhile, the nearly non-existent westerly wind had rotated to a northerly, turning the second leg into a very slow upwind crawl. The position of other boats and the desire to avoid momentum-killing tacks as much as possible conspired to keep Full Moon near the middle of the lake rather than toward the Eastlake shore as desired. As suspected, boats farther east found more wind, though you certainly couldn’t tell it by looking at the water!

Second start boats flying across the starting line.

A late tack to make it around the Freeway buoy allowed another boat or two to get past and then it was time to set the spinnaker to head west to the Aurora buoy (the wind had clocked further around into the NE). With a gybe at the buoy, it was possible to hold a tight reach under spinnaker, though boats under jib challenged any boats trying to get by to windward.

Second start boats attempting to crawl around the AGC buoy.

The gybe left Full Moon with the jib on the wrong side approaching the AGC buoy to start the second lap and efforts to switch it over and bring down the spinnaker took some time, again leaving Full Moon on the outside with the San Juan 28 Zephyr slipping inside. After extending eastward for a while on port tack, Full Moon tacked behind Zephyr to head north, hoping the wind would hold.

Marcelle, Michael, and John on the long, slow, second leg.

By this time, the wind began filling in but with the stronger portion again toward the east. Full Moon had pulled ahead of Zephyr but had to tack to make the Freeway buoy, allowing Zephyr to cross behind and then take the inside position at the buoy. The good news was that Full Moon was then to windward under the spinnaker broad reach to the Aurora buoy, a position that allowed Full Moon to again pull ahead before gybing at the buoy.

Stella Blue takes Zephyr up to windward as Full Moon elects to duck behind and to leeward on the last leg of the first lap.

The final leg was a test to see who could keep a spinnaker flying on a very tight reach. Full Moon held her lead over Zephyr to finish at the back of the first start group but very happy to finish the race with 15 minutes to spare.

Full Moon holds off Zephyr approaching the finish line.

Party Boys

The Full Moon crew elected to skip Goosebump Race No. 4 in favor of pre-Superbowl couch surfing. We'll be out there to enjoy the rain next week.