Fun Finale

 

Daniel holds forth from the pit.

Way back in 1996, the Full Moon crew responded to a “politically incorrect” theme with Martinis and cigars. Ever since, the final Duck Dodge of summer has been Martini Night aboard Full Moon, though only the skipper actually enjoyed one this year, the rest of the crew opting for other assorted beverages.

Cap'n John BEFORE the Martini.

Choosing the less-crowded second start, Full Moon crew Randy “Where's The Carmel” Olsen, Michael “Wrong Hole” Medina, Marcelle “First Cut” Van Houten, Daniel “Gotta Sleep” Mengedoht, Logan “Muscles” Pulsifer, and skipper John “Big Martini” Mengedoht mostly avoided the tight pack at the Committee Boat with a decent spot a few boat-lengths down the line. This worked pretty well until the 40’ giant Thundorca passed to windward, briefly blocking out the wind. Once Thundorca moved on, Full Moon got up to speed and held off a larger Catalina to the Freeway buoy.

Michael and Randy kickin' back on the rail.

Full Moon continued north toward Gasworks, hoping to reduce the number of tacks necessary to make the Aurora buoy. This may have been a poor choice, though, as the wind may have been better a bit further south. All the same, Full Moon managed to pass both a J30 and a zippy Harbor 20 before rounding the buoy and hoisting the Equalizer.

Duck Dodge rookie Logan likes the Equalizer.

Up to that point, the wind had been pretty consistent but constant trimming of the spinnaker was necessary heading south with the wind shifting and fading. Getting closer to the AGC buoy, the wind shifted well aft. Full Moon stayed on the rhumb line, as did the J30 (now well behind) but the Harbor 20 gybed away, which was probably necessary with an asymmetric spinnaker. This worked well for them as they nearly caught Full Moon just before rounding.

Marcelle supervises the trimming of the spinnaker.

The final leg was a straight shot on port tack but the Harbor 20 tacked to stay closer to the central west side of the lake. This paid off as they caught up to Full Moon right at the finish line. After dropping the jib, it was time for beverages and munchies and celebrating yet another beautiful evening to cap off the series.

The wind gets lighter to the south.

The Seattle skyline is pretty spectacular from the lake.

Team Spirit

Full Moon crew Randy “Cheap Streaming” Olsen, Dave “Pink Drinks” Pulsifer, Judy “Sleepy” Tiffany, Anne “Short Day” Gustavson, Daniel “Tunes” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Copycat” Mengedoht attempted to emulate Scat’s successful strategy for first start but found that a bunch of boats had the same idea, crowding tightly together right next to the Committee Boat. One boat lightly contacted the dinghy hung from the Committee Boat and a few had gentle side-to-side collisions, but Full Moon emerged unscathed, though suffering from bad air from all the surrounding boats.

Once boats dispersed a bit, Full Moon had a nice line to the Freeway buoy, though Necessary Evil (Catalina 30) managed to slowly work ahead to windward. (Sometimes size does matter!) Full Moon then continued toward Gasworks until traffic dictated a tack, then went most of the way across the lake before tacking again to head toward the Aurora buoy.

Full Moon rounded the buoy a behind Necessary Evil and a J30 and began to gain significantly once the Equalizer was hoisted. While just ahead of the J30 for a while, the J30 pulled back ahead before rounding the AGC buoy in light air.

Nothing changed for the final upwind leg to the finish, Full Moon being somewhere in the top ten as best we can tell. Not bad with all the fast boats in second start.

Decade of Confusion

The Seattle skyline is always awesome from the lake.

Full Moon crew Randy “Low Side” Olsen, Michael “Bundle Up” Medina, Marcelle “Spider Legs” Van Houten, Ben “Sail Marketing” Spicer, Daniel “Just Visiting” Mengedoht, and skipper John “6.5 Decades” Mengedoht opted to try second start for the Decades Night Duck Dodge in hopes of reduced traffic. The plan was a port tack start near, but not at, the Committee Boat and this happened – but only by tacking late and not having full speed at the start. Still, Full Moon got moving pretty well after clearing a little traffic and ended up with nearly a rhumb line approach to the Freeway buoy.

Daniel, Randy and Ben with different things on their minds.

After sailing nearly to the Gasworks shore, Full Moon ended up only needing a couple of tacks to make the Aurora buoy. Unfortunately, the Equalizer halyard and jib halyard got fouled, making for a slow hoist. With the Equalizer powered up, Full Moon then pulled ahead of all boats behind and made significant gains on the boats ahead, apart from a zippy Ultimate 20 that was nearly planing down the lake under asymmetric spinnaker.

Only a few of the many boats behind Full Moon during the final leg.

The Equalizer had to come down before the jib could go back up due to the halyard mess, which slowed Full Moon down a bit. Then the wind dropped to next to nothing approaching the AGC buoy, making for a painful slow rounding.

Michael is snug and warm in the sunset glow.

The final leg was a straight and fairly speedy shot to the finish line once the wind filled back in. Full Moon was nowhere near the second start leaders but stayed ahead of a number of fast boats all the same and was probably somewhere in the middle of the fleet. The sunset was gorgeous if way too early as the days get shorter. Only two more races, noooo!!!!

One more sunset picture...

Beads, Not Boobs

Full Moon crew Michael “Sweet” Medina, Marcelle “Screen Time” van Houten, Doug “Halyards” Schoemaker, Chad “Bike Builder” Harnish, and skipper John “Hard To Pass” Mengedoht got a better start for the Mardi Gras Duck Dodge but still wasn’t quite up with the leaders at the favored end of the line. I’d blame the wind angle (port tack has been necessary to cross the starting line for all three races thus far) but it’s really on the skipper not wanting to risk contact.

Marcelle, Doug, John, and Chad enjoying another awesome evening.

The wind was better toward the middle of the lake and Full Moon soon tacked out, leaving a beautiful big Tartan 3800 well behind (size is good, mass not so much). The next tack was right on the layline for the Freeway buoy. Full Moon then opted to keep going toward Gasworks before tacking west. A few more tacks were necessary to reach the Aurora buoy but a nice approach on starboard left ample time to set up the spinnaker, which then went up very smoothly.

Michael supervises as John stares at the Equalizer.

At that point, Full Moon should have been well ahead of the single-handed Ranger 22 Anakena but we were astounded to watch as the skipper abandoned the tiller to hoist a spinnaker! Way to go, dude! Fortunately, the Equalizer performed its usual magic and Full Moon quickly pulled ahead and proceeded to pass quite a few boats on the way to the AGC buoy, including a big Catalina 38 Tranquilitee (their spelling, not mine!).

Full Moon is on the left, the crew enjoying the post-race sunset.

The spinnaker drop went smoothly and it was on to the final upwind leg, hoping to keep ahead of Tranquilitee and maybe catch the relatively large Krystal. We achieved the first goal, not the second, but also had to contend with a hard-charging J22 coming up from behind. Full Moon doesn’t seem her normal self, upwind on port tack, but we still prevailed over the J-Boat. Whew!

Hot Christmas

Marcelle and John during the prestart. It was hot out there!

Full Moon crew Randy “Pointy End” Olsen, Michael “Buoys Are Optional” Medina, Marcelle “Chips N’ Dip” van Houten, Anne “Clockwise” Gustavson, and skipper John “Tequila” Mengedoht were lined up for a pretty good start for the Christmas in July Duck Dodge until the wind filled in during the final minute, causing some radical turns to try and stay behind the starting line. The result was being close to the unfavored Eastlake end of the line and not having full speed at the starting horn. Tacking to reach the Freeway buoy proved challenging with Full Moon pinned to leeward of another boat and unable to reach the buoy without having to bail out with a 360 degree turn. Given that we were far off the pace of the leaders, Full Moon settled for a DSQ and skipped the buoy.

Michael holds forth from the pit.

However, Full Moon continued racing all the same. Rounding the Aurora buoy on the stern of Kari-J (San Juan 28, looks identical to Zephyr?) led to being stuck in “bad air” from a couple of boats as the spinnaker was hoisted. Eventually, Full Moon pulled clear and was able to pass four or five boats on the long downwind leg to the AGC buoy.

Anne is amused by the Captain trimming while driving as Randy focuses on the competition ahead.

The wind began to fade on the final leg until Full Moon was ultimately “parked” in hot, dead air. Rather than just sit in the heat (Seattle set a record for the day!), the jib was dropped, and the iron sail fired up to create some breeze. Some cold beverages took the edge off, too. While not much of a race for Full Moon, it was nice to get out on the lake and have some fun.

Full Moon under spinnaker.

Since Full Moon was in third start again this week (the crew doesn’t want to do two laps), there is risk of “the pot calling the kettle black” but we were surprised to see a Hobie 33, J92S and some very large boats in third start. A Hobie 33 and J92S should both have similar performance to first start perennial Typsy Gypsy (Soverel 33).

The obligatory sunset shot during the post-race libations.

Rusty Swords

After time off for college graduation (the “Cabin Boy” graduated summa cum laude from Cal State Northridge!) and some overdue boat projects, Full Moon finally returned to racing action for the Pirate Night Duck Dodge. With everyone aboard rusty at racing, the hope was to go in third start and the Race Committee appeared to assume that was appropriate. We may ask for second start in the future if only because there are fewer boats, though it is more work for the crew to do two laps. (The Cabin Boy used to repack the spinnaker and set it up for the second lap, but he can’t commute from LA…)

With decent wind out of the northwest and a relatively short starting line close to the Eastlake shore, port tack was necessary to cross the line. Rather than battle it out with the large cluster of boats going for the favored Committee Boat end (west end), Full Moon crew Randy, Dave, Judy, and skipper John approached the line on starboard before tacking near the “pin” end. The result was a pretty good start in relatively clear air with no yelling, screaming or… collisions. (It didn’t sound happy at the other end!)

Only two tacks were needed to reach the Freeway buoy, a minor miracle given all the drifting power boats and paddle boards. Full Moon then stayed on starboard tack nearly to the Westlake shore before tacking north to the Aurora buoy. This worked pretty well, though we were dismayed to see our old rival Ignitor (with new owner/skipper) ahead of us. Unfortunately, it took a while to get the spinnaker up for the long downwind leg (a well-oiled crew, we are not!) but, once it was up, Full Moon passed a couple of boats while holding off a Hobie 33.

Getting the spinnaker down to round the AGC buoy took a little longer than anticipated, though we managed to make the turn about 40’ past the buoy. Making this hilarious, though, was the Hobie 33 skipper yelling for Full Moon to give him “mark room!” Why hilarious? First, there was easily room for about three or four boats to round inside of Full Moon so “mark room” should not have been an issue at all. Second, the Racing Rules such as “mark room” do not apply in the Duck Dodge, just the basic “rules of the road,” though avoiding collision is always the highest priority. Third, even under the Racing Rules, you have to have an overlap to claim “mark room” and the Hobie never established an overlap before reaching the buoy.

The final leg north to the finish turned out to be a straight shot for Full Moon on port tack. Ignitor was still ahead but much farther east and would clearly need two tacks to cross the line. The J24 Cobalt was a little ahead but also farther east. In the end, Ignitor stayed ahead by just enough, but Cobalt’s tacks allowed Full Moon to cross the line ahead. However, the story doesn’t end there – it turns out that both Ignitor and Cobalt were in second start with an entire lap still to go! Full Moon had started a full five minutes behind both boats and did very well to catch them in a single lap.

It was a gorgeous sunny and warm evening on the lake, and it was fantastic to finally be racing again. We were too busy to take photos, sorry!