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| Full Moon needed to be washed down prior to the race to get rid of the accumulations of ash. |
All the forest fires made for a very smoky final Duck
Dodge and, unfortunately, there wasn’t much wind, either. Full Moon crew Randy “Salty Nuts” Olsen, Michael “Spicy Nuts”
Medina, Erin “Gin” Osberg, Dave “Extremely Dry” Pulsifer, Kim “Tomato” Franz,
Daniel “The Bartender” Mengedoht, and skipper John “The Cackler” Mengedoht
celebrated the season in our usual Martini Night style and even managed to get
a great start, tacking onto port just before the horn.
 |
| Smoky air and next to no wind make for slow going. |
The extremely light northwest wind then waxed and waned,
setting up a nice match with our old rival Shogun. The wind then filled in a
bit toward the west side of the lake, giving a nice boost to the boats in the
right place at the right time. Full Moon
made it to the Freeway buoy and then enjoyed some breeze to extend nearly to
the Gasworks shore. Things looked good after tacking for a straight shot on the
layline to the Aurora buoy but then the breeze died.
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| The city lights burn through the haze. Boats were still racing well after dark. |
It came back in fits and starts and Full Moon rounded the Aurora buoy. The wind was so light that it
didn’t look sufficient to fill the Mighty Isis spinnaker so Full Moon drifted slowly south, heeled
with crew weight to fool the sails into a useful shape. As the smoky haze
changed to smoky darkness, it became apparent that finishing would take a very
long time and the iron sail was fired up. Many boats persevered to the end but
the Full Moon crew was content to
kick back and enjoy more cold beverages.
It has been an interesting season trying out third start.
Full Moon managed to score eight
top-three finishes, an average finish of fourth and a mean finish of third, but
certainly wasn’t dominant, placing first only once. J22s and Capri 25s are
certainly fair competition and bigger boats (including 40’ Thundorca) have an advantage if the wind is up. All in all, third
start seems a much better fit than second start with boats rating down into the
90s in PHRF.
Twenty-six different people rotated through the crew (with
six more scheduled who didn’t make it), continuing a long tradition of giving
people an opportunity to try sailing and racing. Best of all, we had a lot of
fun out there and a terrific summer. Next up: The Rum Run!
