The rest of the rotating crew were all either busy or fighting the crud so skipper John "Captain Solo" Mengedoht ventured out alone on
Full Moon for the first Goosebump race of 2018. With extremely light air and abundant sunshine, this wasn't such a bad thing, though tacking the genoa was not without challenges.
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| Full Moon is somewhere lost in the background at the start. |
Full Moon got a little momentum going for the start, cruising behind a bunch of stalled boats before turning to cross the line more than a bit late. With the wind behind and no way to launch a spinnaker,
Full Moon still kept moving along, though with speeds under 1 knot. Some traffic caught up before the AGC buoy and
Full Moon was on the outside of the pinwheel but soon was slowly pulling away. Then a tack went badly wrong and, though now on starboard,
Full Moon tacked back rather than worry about impending bumper cars with two boats closing slowly on port.
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| It was a painful first leg. |
Fortunately, the wind started to slowly fill in from the north and
Full Moon was fairly well positioned to make use of it. Speed came up to three knots and then four and
Full Moon was able to lay the Freeway buoy just behind the 505 dinghy
Itchy Butt and ahead of the Ranger 22
Anakena.
The genoa now began flapping a bit at the leech and could have used a bit more halyard tension with the building wind but there was no way to tension anything at all without abandoning the tiller.
Full Moon tacked near Gasworks and then again to clear the Aurora buoy, once more right on
Itchy Butt's tiny transom.
The final leg appeared to be a nice beam reach but then the wind began to clock around and fade. After finally making it around a boat out for a cruise,
Full Moon gybed only to have to harden up to close-hauled as the wind continued its fickle ways. Meanwhile,
Itchy Butt was also struggling to keep moving and, as fate would have it,
Full Moon pulled just ahead to cross the line within just a few feet of the Committee Boat. Amazingly, this was good for third place! Little Santana cousin (20 foot)
Slippery When Wet took first, courtesy of a great start and outstanding first leg, and always speedy
Selchie was second, though not all that far ahead. Fun times in the sunshine!
