The Beer Grab

Island Boys preparing to serve hundreds of thirsty racers.

The plan was to attempt a port tack start somewhere between the pin and middle of the start line but traffic slowed things way down and Full Moon ended up with a relatively poor start for the Tropical Night Duck Dodge. Worse, our old rival Ignitor was ahead and, even loaded up with lots of people, perfectly positioned to provide “dirty” air for much of the first leg. Full Moon crew Michael “Grab ‘Em From The Top” Medina, Marcelle “Rose” Van Houten, Chad “Dry Drop” Harnish, Daniel “Basher” Mengedoht, Troy “Ouch!” Charlesworth, and skipper John “To The Beach” Mengedoht persevered, of course, passing Ignitor to leeward before rounding the Freeway buoy, and were able to lay the Aurora buoy with just one tack near Gasworks.

Full Moon (just right of the Space Needle) will be ahead of all these boats before reaching the AGC buoy.

With the pole up and ready to go, the Equalizer zipped right up and proved its worth as Full Moon picked off several boats on the long reach to the AGC buoy. A conservative drop made for a tidy rounding and Full Moon zoomed off toward the infamous Tropical Night “island,” snagging multiple cups of beer while passing at nearly five knots!

Michael, Chad, and Marcelle demonstrate their beer-grabbing technique.

Completing the first lap upwind, the fleet had spread out quite a bit, Full Moon enjoying relatively clear air to the Freeway buoy. The second lap was then very similar to the first, though the “island” was predictably out of beer the second time around (not that we didn’t have our own supply). In the end, Full Moon finished about eighth, which was awesome given the start. Meanwhile, it was yet another gorgeous evening on the lake, the nearly full moon putting on a nice show rising up over Capitol Hill.

Full Moon in post-race mode, enjoying the sunset.

Convergence Zone

Daniel and Randy enjoy the pre-start sunshine.

The wind was decent out of the northwest and the skies clear for the start of the Toga Night Duck Dodge. Full Moon crew Randy “Ice Ice Baby” Olsen, Katie “Early Riser” Freels, Adam “Liferaft Wipeout” Michalak, Daniel “1969” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Invisible Toga” Mengedoht went with a conservative starboard tack start but were prevented from tacking in a timely way by boats immediately behind and also on starboard.

Full Moon leads Scat to the start line (at the right) but was a bit too far to leeward to tack in front of Necessary Evil or Amarillo.

The first leg was a close reach to the Freeway buoy followed by an upwind course to Gasworks before tacking. A few boats were then able to just lay the Aurora buoy, though most boats needed a couple of tacks, including Full Moon.

Katie likes this upwind stuff!

The Equalizer went up smoothly after rounding and Full Moon gained on a few boats. The wind then went very light on approach to the AGC buoy. Full Moon dropped the Equalizer a bit too early in hopes that the genoa would be better than collapsing and filling the spinnaker.

Chasing Amarillo after the first rounding of the AGC buoy (once the wind filled in).

The yellow Moore 24 Amarillo squeezed just inside Full Moon at the buoy (we could have shut them out but it’s not worth it) and then began the struggle to keep moving and find more wind. Eventually enough wind filled in from the north, providing a tight reach to the Freeway buoy and a couple of tacks to reach the Aurora buoy.

The final leg to the finish. Hard to believe we kept moving!

Once again, the Equalizer was launched and Full Moon took off. Sure enough, though, the wind was very light again approaching the AGC buoy and Full Moon started lapping some of the third start fleet! Momentum was enough to get around the buoy and then the challenge was both to “find” the wind and pick our way through boats going very slowly in opposite directions. Eventually some wind filled in from the SE (odd direction) before returning to the NW. Though well out of contention for a top three finish, Full Moon managed to beat not only Amarillo but also the T-bird Barbaree (mostly through luck being in the right place at the right time).

Another gorgeous evening on Lake Union.