Fabulous Finale

Enjoying a cold one at the dock before heading out on the lake.

The final Duck Dodge of summer is always Martini Night aboard Full Moon, with a bigger crew than usual (and three coolers of food, beverages and ice!) to celebrate the season. While struggling a bit with the extra weight, Full Moon crew Randy “8-Track” Olsen, Art “More Olives” Teller, Michael “Did Nothing” Medina, Marcelle “Did Something!” Van Houten, Dave “Big Pull” Pulsifer, Troy “Dirty Tini” Charlesworth, Daniel “Olives Away” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Gandalf” Mengedoht still nailed the start on port tack near the middle of the line and managed a fairly straight shot to the Freeway buoy. Converging boats at the buoy made things interesting, Full Moon holding off for a clear lane before tacking to the west.

Daniel demonstrates proper shaker technique to the crew.

On the second leg, Full Moon battled with relatively large Black Watch until they finally got by. Necessary Evil (Catalina 30) could not catch up, however, suffering in Full Moon’s bad air. Meanwhile, old rival Ignitor (Martin 29), which had been briefly ahead at the Freeway buoy, chose a path closer to Gasworks. This didn’t pay off for them and allowed Full Moon to get ahead approaching the Aurora buoy.

Full Moon is second from the right in this shot of the start.

The mighty Equalizer was launched to good effect after rounding the buoy but Ignitor continued to threaten from behind, Full Moon maneuvering several times to remain safely in front. At the AGC buoy, Full Moon held off the spinnaker drop until the very end and thankfully it came down smoothly. In the process, Full Moon was able to round inside the wide turn taken by Black Watch, though Black Watch pulled back ahead after a few minutes (sometimes size does matter!).

Ignitor trying to catch up.

On the final upwind leg, Full Moon continued covering Ignitor while also keeping an eye on Necessarily Evil while they sailed at a lower but faster angle. Approaching the finish line, all looked good to vanquish all of Full Moon’s traditional rivals when suddenly Zephyr (San Juan 28) came flying up from behind with incredible speed. After a few moments of incredulity, the telltale sound of their diesel was heard, resolving the mystery and giving us all a good laugh. In the end, it appeared Full Moon had made the top ten finishers, though a good distance behind the fastest boats.

Art and Daniel enjoy the final leg.

To recap the season, a whopping thirty people made up the Full Moon crew at different times, trading a little consistency for providing a lot of people with an opportunity to sail, race, and enjoy the infamous Duck Dodge. The variety of fast and large boats in the second start made any serious pursuit of a vinyl duck sticker (top three finish) highly improbable but Full Moon did reasonably well measured against boats of similar performance potential, coming out ahead overall vs. old rivals Ignitor and Zephyr as well as new rival Necessary Evil. Regardless, the weather was (mostly) great and a wonderful time was had by all.

Zephyr flies by.

Not Last

The amazing string of beautiful Tuesday evenings finally came to an end for the Sesame Street Duck Dodge with cloudy skies and even a few sprinkles of rain. It also brought decent wind out an unfamiliar direction – the southeast! Full Moon crew Michael “Murray” Medina, Debra “Cookie Monster” Ricard, Doug “Big Bird” Schoemaker, Katie “Kermit” Freels, Sophie “Zoe” Ricard, Daniel “Grover” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Bert” Mengedoht set up for a port tack start near the pin end, which worked well, though boats starting right at the buoy faired a bit better.

The Full Moon crew, sans Michael. More crew makes us faster, right?

After a nearly straight shot to the AGC buoy, the Equalizer was quickly launched and Full Moon began to reel in some boats in front while dodging third start boats coming the opposite direction. Approaching the Freeway buoy, it became apparent that boats were able to carry spinnakers onto the next leg. Unfortunately, the jibe near the buoy went badly wrong with the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay. The entire leg to the Aurora buoy was spent getting the nylon monster down on the deck and the jib could not be hoisted until after rounding. The net result was that Full Moon was dead last and even passed by a third start boat. Ouch!

What happened to our weather?

Continuing on, Full Moon played the shifts, tacking several times before rounding the AGC buoy and relaunching the Equalizer. As before, gains were made but this time the spinnaker was brought down before reaching the Freeway buoy. A fast reach to the Aurora buoy then just allowed Full Moon to catch a J24 and hold on to stay ahead to the finish line in the dark.