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!